Collection device and material
Inventors
Young, Terry • TEMPLET, Timothy • Dube, Paul • DIXON, Todd • Lewis, Armand F. • Kim, Yong K.
Assignees
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Publication Number
US-10094745-B2
Publication Date
2018-10-09
Expiration Date
Abstract
Swabs, materials and methods of making the same include randomly arranged sea-island bicomponent fibers which have randomly splayed terminal ends. According to certain embodiments, swabs and methods of using such swabs are provided so as to collect and release a biological sample comprising a liquid, wherein the swab includes an applicator and sea-island bicomponent fibers, and wherein at least about 50% of the fibers possess randomly splayed terminal ends of the islands of the bicomponent fibers along a length of about 10% or less from such ends.
Core Innovation
The invention relates to a swab constructed to collect and release a biological sample comprising a liquid. The swab includes an applicator and sea-island bicomponent fibers in which at least about 50% of the fibers comprise randomly splayed terminal ends of the islands of the bicomponent fibers along a length of about 10% or less from the ends.
The sea-island bicomponent fiber architecture is based on a sea component that is more soluble than island parts, enabling a split processing in which the islands form randomly splayed terminal ends. The document describes islands-in-sea type composite fiber structures where the sea and island components can include representative polymer pairings such as polyester sea with polyamide islands, or polyamide sea with polyester/polyamide islands.
The document further describes forming the swab by adhering sea-island bicomponent fibers to an applicator and then removing a portion of the sea component using a heated alkaline solvent, including sodium hydroxide (NaOH). After the sea component removal, mechanical force is applied to create randomly splayed terminal ends of the fibers.
Claims Coverage
The independent claim coverage is focused on constructing a swab for collecting and releasing a biological sample, with the main inventive features centered on sea-island bicomponent fibers having randomly splayed terminal ends located near the island ends, with quantitative constraints on the proportion of such fibers and the allowed near-end length window.
Swab with randomly splayed sea-island fiber terminals near the ends
A swab configured to collect and release a biological sample comprising a liquid, the swab comprising an applicator and sea-island bicomponent fibers wherein at least about 50% of the fibers comprise randomly splayed terminal ends of the islands of the bicomponent fibers along a length of about 10% or less from said ends.
Swab with a higher fiber fraction and near-end splay constraint
The swab wherein at least about 80% of the fibers include randomly splayed terminal ends within about 10% or less from the fiber ends along their length.
Swab with a near-end splay constraint within a different length window
The swab wherein at least about 50% of the fibers have randomly splayed terminal ends located within about 40% or less of the length from the ends of the islands of the bicomponent fibers.
Swab using polyester sea and polyester island materials
The swab where the bicomponent fibers comprise a first polyester sea material and a second polyester island material.
Swab using PET sea and polyamide island materials
The swab where the bicomponent fibers comprise a polyethylene terephthalate sea material and a polyamide island material.
Method forming randomly splayed sea-island terminal ends via sea removal and mechanical forcing
A method forming the swab by adhering bicomponent fibers to an applicator, removing a portion of the sea component in a heated alkaline solvent, and mechanically forcing the fiber ends to form randomly splayed fibers.
Across the independently framed claim coverage, the swab’s core inventive structure is sea-island bicomponent fibers with randomly splayed terminal ends positioned near the island ends within specified length windows and fiber fractions, optionally specified to particular sea/island material combinations. A further inventive aspect is a forming method that includes heated alkaline removal of the sea component and mechanical forcing to create the randomly splayed fiber ends.
Stated Advantages
Improved water pick-up capacity for split swabs versus unsplit swabs, as reported in an Example.
Documented Applications
Collecting and releasing biological samples comprising a liquid using a swab.
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