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-10948386-B2
Publication Date
2021-03-16
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 are provide which include an applicator, and sea-island bicomponent fibers attached to the applicator, wherein at least about 70% of the fibers comprise randomly splayed terminal ends of the islands of said bicomponent fibers along a length of about 45% or less from said ends, and wherein the bicomponent fibers comprise 10-3000 island parts per fiber.
Core Innovation
The invention provides a swab constructed to collect and release a biological sample comprising a liquid. The swab includes an applicator and sea-island bicomponent fibers attached to the applicator, and the sea-island bicomponent fibers have islands whose terminal ends are randomly splayed along a length near the ends.
A key feature is that at least about 70% of the fibers comprise randomly splayed terminal ends of the islands of the bicomponent fibers along a length of about 45% or less from said ends. In representative fiber architecture, the swab uses randomly arranged sea-island bicomponent fibers with randomly splayed terminal ends, and it includes quantitative architecture ranges for the fraction of fibers with randomly splayed terminal ends within end-proximal regions.
The disclosed fibers are described as sea-island bicomponent fibers having island parts per fiber, with sea and island polymer composition options such as polyester/polyester (PET/PET) and sea-island combinations including PET/polyamide. The material concept includes attachment of fibers to an applicator and producing randomly splayed island terminal ends, followed by sea-component extraction and force-induced splaying to increase exposed island fibrous surface area.
Claims Coverage
The independent claim covers a swab for collecting and releasing a biological sample comprising a liquid, defined by an applicator with sea-island bicomponent fibers and a quantitative fiber architecture requirement for randomly splayed terminal ends near the fiber ends. Dependent claims refine the independent claim by tightening the quantitative thresholds and specifying particular sea/island material pairings and a formation approach including sea removal and mechanical splaying.
Swab with sea-island bicomponent fibers having randomly splayed terminal ends
A swab constructed to collect and release a biological sample comprising a liquid, comprising an applicator and sea-island bicomponent fibers attached to the applicator, wherein at least about 70% of the fibers comprise randomly splayed terminal ends of the islands of said bicomponent fibers along a length of about 45% or less from said ends.
Randomly splayed terminal ends concentrated near the ends
The swab wherein at least about 80% of the fibers comprise randomly splayed terminal ends of the islands of said bicomponent fibers along a length of about 15% or less from said ends.
Randomly splayed terminal ends confined to a shorter end region
The swab wherein at least about 70% of the fibers comprise randomly splayed terminal ends of the islands of said bicomponent fibers along a length of about 10% or less from said ends.
Polyester sea and polyester island bicomponent fibers
The swab wherein the sea-island bicomponent fibers comprise a first polyester sea material and a second polyester island material.
PET sea and polyamide island bicomponent fibers
The swab wherein the sea-island bicomponent fibers comprise a polyethylene terephthalate sea material and a polyamide island material.
Swab formation with sea removal and mechanical splaying of ends
A swab formed by adhering sea-island bicomponent fibers to an applicator; removing the sea component of the bicomponent fibers using a heated alkaline solvent; and creating randomly splayed fibers by applying mechanical force to the fiber ends after the sea component is removed.
Across the independent claim and its dependents, the inventive coverage centers on a swab with sea-island bicomponent fibers attached to an applicator, where islands have randomly splayed terminal ends concentrated within a specified end-proximal length region. Additional coverage includes tighter quantitative concentration thresholds and specified polyester/polyester or PET/polyamide material pairings, together with a formation concept involving sea-component removal and mechanical force splaying of fiber ends.
Stated Advantages
Increases exposed island fibrous surface area.
Improves water pick-up of the swab compared with an unsplit flock swab.
Documented Applications
Collect and release a biological sample comprising a liquid using the swab.
Water pick-up performance evaluation of flock swabs with fabrication variations including bare, end-coated, unsplit flock, and split swabs.
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