Ventilated body support

Abstract

Disclosed is a ventilated support for living bodies comprising an inflatable alternating pressure pad which is either enclosed by or forms a part of an air permeable plenum chamber through which air is pumped at low pressure to provide a source of ventilating air to a body resting on the support. The alternating pressure pad which is inflated by a high pressure pump has two sets of interdigitated cells which are alternately inflatable and deflatable and carry the weight of a body, alternately, on each of the two sets of cells. The plenum chamber is provided with a separate low pressure air pump which passes through the air permeable upper element of the plenum chamber to reduce moisture build-up and otherwise cool the body resting on the support. In the embodiment in which the alternating pressure pad forms the upper element of the plenum chamber, it is provided with a plurality of apertures which are sealed from the alternating pressure cells to prevent the loss of pressure therein.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.