Device to apply elastic gloves

A device to facilitate holding, expanding, and detecting pinhole voids in an elastic glove within a chamber comprising, in combination, a holding means integrated with said chamber to hold said elastic glove over an opening in said chamber, an air control means for evacuating air from said chamber when a displacing means is inserted into said chamber, and a display means to display a change in vacuum within said chamber,

• said elastic glove having a mounting portion of such dimensions as to exert a compression force on the entire outside dimension of said holding means of said chamber wherein an air tight seal is maintained during expansion and inflation of said elastic glove,
• said chamber including an essentially cylindrical, thin walled, elongated, rigid tube with a closure means on one end and the opposite end of the tube defining the opening to the rigid tube, and said holding means comprising a groove formed on an exterior circumference of the tube, within approximately four centimeters of said opening, to hold said elastic material firmly in place over said opening in such a manner that when a vacuum is created in the tube, said elastic material is pulled into the tube and inflated,
• said closure means comprising a rigid planner member having an air tight seal with one end of the tube and extending radially beyond the outside dimensions of the tube an amount sufficient to use said rigid planner member as a mounting means so that said chamber can be wall mounted,
• said air control means comprising, a one way air check valve including an essentially circular elastomeric diaphragm valve, center mounted to a ported, rigid valve seat mounted to interpose between said chamber and the ambient atmosphere, having the intake port in communication with the interior of said chamber and the exit port in first communication with the ambient atmosphere, wherein the valve's one way action allows air within said chamber to be forced out of said chamber to ambient surroundings while denying air entry into said chamber,
• said displacing means comprising, in combination, said elastic glove stretched over said opening to said chamber to form an air tight seal and an object, similar but smaller in outside dimension than the inside dimension of said opening, pushed into the elastic glove covered chamber wherein air in said chamber is displaced and forced through said one way air check valve to ambient surroundings,
• said display means comprising, a transparent, elongated display tube having approximately three millimeters inside diameter and a liquid reservior, having one end of the display tube in communication with the interior of said chamber and the opposite end in first communication with said liquid reservoir, wherein a vacuum developed within said chamber sucks liquid from the reservoir into the display tube to display, in analog fashion, both static vacuum and minute changes in said vacuum.

A method to inflate, hold and detect leaks in an unpackaged elastic glove comprising the steps of, stretching the wrist portion of the glove over an end of a cylinder having inside dimensions large enough to allow easy entry of a human hand, the opposite end of said cylinder having an air tight closure, and

• then releasing the wrist portion of the glove into a groove formed on an exterior circumference of said cylinder approximately four centimeters from the open end of said cylinder, so that the elastic contracts and seats into the groove to improve holding friction and air tightness between the glove and said cylinder, and
• then inserting said human hand, held as a loose fist to act as a piston, into the glove covered cylinder thereby stretching the glove and displacing air within said cylinder by forcing the displaced air to exit said cylinder through a passively operated air check valve interposed between the interior of said cylinder and the ambient surroundings, and
• whereby the air attempting to enter said cylinder through said passively operated air check valve causes the valve to close, denying air entry to said cylinder, creating a partial vacuum within said cylinder which sucks the glove into said cylinder where it is held inflated by atmospheric pressure on one side of the glove and a partial vacuum on the opposite side, to allow easy entry of the hand, and then retracting said human hand from cylinder;
• then observing the change, in the level of liquid sucked into a transparent vacuum display tube having one end of the display tube in first communication with the vacuum created within said cylinder and the opposite end of the display tube in first communication with a liquid reservoir, the vacuum generated in said cylinder pulling liquid from the reservoir into the transparent tube to display, in analog fashion by a changing liquid level, a change in vacuum as would occur if the glove contained a pinhole size void.