Patent Issued for Antimicrobial Fabric Application System (USPTO 10,774,460)

2020 SEP 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Hospital & Nursing Home Daily -- Applied Silver Inc. (Hayward, California, United States) has been issued patent number 10,774,460, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Morham, Sean D. (San Francisco, CA); Morris, William M. (San Francisco, CA); Brown, David E. (Danville, CA); Copenhagen, Keith S. (Oakland, CA); Brezoczky, Thomas B. (Los Gatos, CA).

This patent was filed on September 10, 2018 and was published online on September 28, 2020.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Field

“The present invention is in the technical field of antimicrobial treatment of fabrics and textile materials. More particularly, the present invention provides a system providing metallic ion generation and dilution, in desired concentrations, for batch storage and entrainment in a flow for use in antimicrobial treatment of fabrics and a method for controlled introduction of the antimicrobial agent into the textile.

“Related Art

“Shortcomings of existing antimicrobial treatments can lead to stain and odor causing bacteria build-up, mold and mildew as well as the spread of infection through direct contact, airborne disease and waterborne disease. These diseases can be acquired by their victims from contacting contaminated surfaces, breathing air containing pathogens, or drinking pathogen containing water. Contamination of fabrics or textiles in uniforms, surgical scrubs, sheets, blankets, napkins, table cloths and similar materials by microbial pathogens can contribute to spread of disease.

“Prior art antimicrobial treatments do not provide effective lasting antimicrobial benefit after the treatment has been administered. Existing antimicrobial treatments can also lead to immunization of evolved pathogens to the respective treatment. Such immunization of evolved pathogens can result in infections which cannot be treated with the conventional treatments that caused the pathogens to become immune.

“Enterprises which specifically have problems with microbial issues ranging from bacterial odor through the spread of infectious diseases include, but are not limited to: the cruise line industry, hotel and gaming, professional sports teams, health and fitness clubs, nursing homes, and hospitals. Healthcare facilities currently have a growing problem with immunized pathogens being virtually untreatable with conventional methods. With such hospital infections, the harmful microbes are often carried in the linens and clothing provided by the hospital. Once hospital textiles have been laundered and treated, they are susceptible to recontamination by microbes and pathogens. Pathogens carried by these textiles can infect hospital patients and even cause death. Since almost every patient spends the majority of his or her time in bed, in a gown, between the sheets, this linen environment is the core of the overall hospital environment for the patient, and a primary site in the battle against infection. In the Cruise Ship industry, textiles are ubiquitous on cruise ships, including napkins, tablecloths, aprons, uniforms, towels, and robes.

“In the healthcare field antimicrobial fabrics have been employed in which an antimicrobial ingredient is imparted into the threads or fibers during fiber or textile manufacturing. The fibers are embedded, dipped, soaked, or coated with antimicrobial agent during the manufacturing process. However, efficacy declines over time as the antimicrobial agent in the fabric is washed away and never restored.

“These methods are not satisfactory for the market. In addition to the efficacy/performance issues listed above and because the textiles are manufactured to already include the beneficial antimicrobial agent such as silver, these products require linen providers to make a large upfront capital investment to purchase new, impregnated linen inventory. Inventory replacement can cost millions of dollars for large industrial laundering businesses. Additionally, the linen’s antimicrobial efficacy steadily degrades over time. After each use and wash, the antimicrobial feature is diminished, causing effectiveness to decrease over time. Further, the products are aesthetically unpleasing and uncomfortable to the touch. Linen providers have reported that silver-embedded fabrics can often exhibit an off-white discoloration and are difficult to press.

“It is therefore desirable to provide an antimicrobial treatment system which may be employed directly in water supply systems to provide efficacious antimicrobial action in order to transform ordinary textile materials/products into lasting active antimicrobial entities.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiment disclosed herein provides an antimicrobial textile treatment system which employs a process water supply. A metallic ion supply provides a high ion concentrate to an output. A dilution reservoir is connected to the metallic ion supply output and has an input from the process water supply. A dosing pump connected to an output of the reservoir. A manifold is connected to the pump providing a dilute concentrate to at least one washing system. An electronics control module is connected to a first flow controller between the process water supply and the dilution reservoir and a second flow controller between the metallic ion supply output and the reservoir.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A concentrate supply system comprising: a leak-proof container configured to contain a solution, wherein the solution comprises a metallic ion, wherein the leak-proof container comprises: a first connection interface configured to output the solution from the leak-proof container; a second connection interface configured to provide for communication through a wall of the leak-proof container; a receiver configured to couple to the leak-proof container, wherein the receiver comprises: a first mating connector configured to couple with the first connection interface of the leak-proof container, and a second mating connector configured to couple with the second connection interface of the leak-proof container; and a supply outlet fluidly operably coupled, via a feed line, to the receiver and configured to supply a dose of the metallic ion to a washing system.

“2. The concentrate supply system of claim 1, wherein a vent through the wall of the leak-proof container is formed when the second connection interface is coupled to the second mating connector.

“3. The concentrate supply system of claim 1, wherein the first connection interface comprises a first quick connect, and wherein the second connection interface comprises a second quick connect.

“4. The concentrate supply system of claim 3, wherein the first connection interface further comprises a pierceable nipple.

“5. The concentrate supply system of claim 1, further comprising a low-level sensor configured to sense a level of the solution in the leak-proof container.

“6. The concentrate supply system of claim 1, wherein the receiver comprises a support structure configured to receive and support the leak-proof container in the receiver.

“7. The concentrate supply system of claim 6, wherein the support structure comprises one or more spring elements configured to support and restrain the leak-proof container in the receiver.

“8. The concentrate supply system of claim 6, wherein the leak-proof container is removably replaceable in the receiver.

“9. The concentrate supply system of claim 1, wherein the leak-proof container further comprises a mixer configured to mix the solution in the leak-proof container.

“10. The concentrate supply system of claim 9, wherein the receiver comprises a driver configured to activate the mixer of the leak-proof container.

“11. The concentrate supply system of claim 1, further comprising: an electronics control module; and a pump in communication with the electronics control module, wherein the electronics control module is configured to control operation of the pump to control a concentration of the metallic ion provided by the dose of the metallic ion.

“12. The concentrate supply system of claim 1, further comprising: an identification element on the leak-proof container; and an electronics control module configured to: receive identification information indicated by the identification element on the leak-proof container, and make a determination, based on the identification information indicated by the identification element, whether to enable operation of the concentrate supply system or lock-out operation of the concentrate supply system, responsive to the determination being to enable operation of the concentrate supply system, enable the operation of the concentrate supply system, and responsive to the determination being to lock-out operation of the concentrate supply system, lock-out operation of the concentrate supply system.

“13. The concentrate supply system of claim 1, wherein the metallic ion comprises a silver ion.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Morham, Sean D.; Morris, William M.; Brown, David E.; Copenhagen, Keith S.; Brezoczky, Thomas B. Antimicrobial Fabric Application System. U.S. Patent Number 10,774,460, filed September 10, 2018, and published online on September 28, 2020. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,774,460.PN.&OS=PN/10,774,460RS=PN/10,774,460

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