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US 5,452,477 AGranted
Item of swimming wear
OwnerHo-Keung Manninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An item of swimming wear (10) arranged to be worn closely to the body of a user to provide or enhance buoyancy, which item (10) comprises a piece of flexible closed-cell foam material (12) combined with a piece of textile or plastics material (11).
Claims20
A swimsuit arranged to be worn closely to the body of a user to enhance buoyancy, comprising:
- a piece of flexible, elastic closed-cell foam buoyancy material;
- and,
- a piece of textile material forming a main body of the swimsuit, the piece of buoyancy material connected to the main body by first and second sets of elongated, substantially parallel, spaced apart sew lines passing through the buoyancy material and the textile material at regular intervals wherein each set is oriented substantially transverse to each other and to both longitudinal and lateral axes defined by the body of the user so that the buoyancy material remains substantially in contact with the user's body as the user swims.
A swimsuit arranged to be worn closely to the body of a user to enhance buoyancy, comprising:
- a piece of textile material forming a main body of the swimsuit;
- and,
- a piece of flexible, elastic closed-cell foam buoyancy material interposed between two pieces of the textile material forming the main body and connected to the main body by first and second sets of spaced apart sew lines having stitches passing through only one of the two pieces wherein each set is in a skewed orientation with respect to each other and to a longitudinal axis defined by the user's body so that the buoyancy material remains substantially in contact with the user's body as the user swims.
A method for making an enhanced buoyancy swimsuit, comprising the steps of:
- providing a piece of elastic textile fabric forming a main body of the swimsuit;
- providing a piece of flexible, elastic closed-cell foam buoyancy material to add buoyancy to the swimsuit;
- and,
- sewing the buoyancy material to the main body in a pattern which is symmetrical about a longitudinal axis defined by the body of the user with a plurality of substantially parallel, spaced apart sew lines passing through the buoyancy material and the textile fabric at regular intervals and oriented substantially transverse to and skewed with respect to longitudinal and lateral axes defined by the body of the user so that the buoyancy material remains substantially in contact with the user's body as the user swims.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.