Footwear, having electrically conductive properties, is desirable for use in environments where the user does not want to build up a static charge on his body which might create spontaneously a spark or discharge in a hazardous-type environment, such as an operating room filled with combustible gases, or an environment containing volatile solvents vapors, sensitive instrumentation and the like. Typically in an operating room, the doctors and operating personnel employ relatively cheap and inexpensive slippers or shoe covers which contain on the floor-contacting or lower surface thereof a strip of conductive material to enable the personnel to be connected electrically to a ground potential, and in most cases the floor itself. Operating-room slippers or shoe covers have been employed with a nonwoven polyester strip having an electrical coating of carbon black on both sides, with the nonwoven carbon-black-coated strip either sewn or adhesively bonded or secured otherwise to the bottom of the slippers or shoe covers to make the operating slippers or shoe covers have electrically conductive properties. The nonwoven carbon-black-coated strip is quite thin, and inhibits or prevents, by being electrically conductive, the buildup of static charge on the user of the slippers or shoe covers to which the strip is secured.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide footwear having electrically conductive properties, and particularly to provide an improved, economical, easily manufactured, disposable slipper or shoe cover for use by operating-room personnel.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds