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AssigneeMinnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
InventorsDaniel A. Japuntich, Vaughn B. Grannis, Harold J. Seppala, Anthony B. Ferguson
Estimating the term…
An exhalation valve 14 for a filtering face mask 10 has a flexible flap 24 that makes contact with a curved seal ridge 30 of a valve seat 26 when the valve 14 is in the closed position. The curvature of the seal ridge 30 corresponds to a deformation curve exhibited by the flexible flap 24 when secured as a cantilever at one end and exposed at its free portion to a uniform force and/or a force of at least the weight of the free portion of the flexible flap. A seal ridge curvature corresponding to a flexible flap exposed to uniform force allows the flexible flap 24 to exert a generally uniform pressure on the seal ridge to provide a good seal. A seal ridge curvature corresponding to a flexible flap exposed to a force of at least the weight of the flap's free portion allows the flexible flap 24 to be held in an abutting relationship to the seal ridge 30 under any static orientation by a minimum amount of force, thereby providing a face mask 10 with an extraordinary low pressure drop during an exhalation.
A method of making a unidirectional fluid valve, which method comprises:
The method of claim 38, wherein the orifice is 3 to 4 cm.sup.2 in size.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.