Abstract A breather assembly for a sealed container such as a bedside drainage bag comprising a breather element of woven fiberglass fabric material with a teflon coating adapted to permit free passage of gas therethrough and to resist passage of liquid therethrough. The breather element also acts to filter out bacteria in the air to thus prevent its entrance into the container. The breather element is mounted in a circular opening in a retaining ring member and permanently retained therein by a pair of outer housing members sealed by electronic welding to the retaining ring member. The assembly is then mounted in the wall of a container such as a bedside drainage bag with the breather element positioned in alignment with a flow opening in the wall of the container.
Inventors
👤 James L Clark
Bibliographic Details
Application Number—
JurisdictionUS
Data Sourcegoogle_patents
Last Synchronized2026-10-23 14:14
CPC Classifications
A; A61; A61F; A61F5/00; A61F5/44; A61F5/441
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 6
Claim 1
Independent Claim
117 words
A breather assembly for a sealed container comprising: a breather element adapted to permit free passage of gas therethrough and to resist passage of liquid therethrough, said breather element comprising a woven fiberglass fabric having a Teflon coating thereon; a breather element-retaining ring having a breather elementretaining opening therethrough adapted to receive said breather element therein, said ring being made from nonporous plastic material; and a pair of housing members positioned on opposite sides of said breather element and sealed to said retaining ring to thereby retain said breather element in said breather element-retaining opening, said housing members being made from nonporous plastic material and each having at least one opening therethrough positioned opposite said breather element.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
117 words
A breather assembly for a sealed container comprising: a breather element adapted to permit free passage of gas therethrough and to resist passage of liquid therethrough, said breather element comprising a woven fiberglass fabric having a Teflon coating thereon; a breather element-retaining ring having a breather elementretaining opening therethrough adapted to receive said breather element therein, said ring being made from nonporous plastic material; and a pair of housing members positioned on opposite sides of said breather element and sealed to said retaining ring to thereby retain said breather element in said breather element-retaining opening, said housing members being made from nonporous plastic material and each having at least one opening therethrough positioned opposite said breather element.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
38 words
A breather assembly according to claim 1 in which said breather element is circular in shape and said opening in said retaining ring is also circular in shape and has a diameter slightly greater than said breather element.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
32 words
A breather assembly according to claim 2 in which said housing members are sealed to said ring by a continuous circular weld positioned slightly beyond the outer periphery of said breather element.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
71 words
A breather assembly according to claim 3 in which said openings in said housing members are circular and are substantially concentric with said circular breather element and of smaller diameter than said element so that said housing members will overlie said breather element around said circular openings in said housing member, said breather element being adhered to said housing members in the areas where the housing members overlie said breather element.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
26 words
A breather element according to claim 1 in which the thickness of said breather element is slightly less than the thickness of said breather element-retaining ring.