Malleable nose bridge strip with a sleeve, and related combinations and methods

Abstract

An apparatus has: a malleable nose bridge strip that is structured to be bent by a user in use into a shape that conforms with a lateral nose profile that extends between opposed sides of a nose and crossing a bridge of the nose; an outer sleeve with an internal receptacle enclosing the malleable nose bridge strip; and a face mask connector on a user-contacting face of the outer sleeve. A method includes securing an outer sleeve across a nose-bridge-seating zone of an external surface of a face mask, the outer sleeve enclosing a malleable nose bridge strip, in which the outer sleeve is secured to the face mask via a face mask connector on the outer sleeve engaging the external surface of the face mask.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows: 
     
         1 . An apparatus comprising:
 a malleable nose bridge strip that is structured to be bent by a user in use into a shape that conforms with a lateral nose profile that extends between opposed sides of a nose and crossing a bridge of the nose;   an outer sleeve with an internal receptacle enclosing the malleable nose bridge strip; and   a face mask connector on a user-contacting face of the outer sleeve.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1  in which the nose bridge strip comprises metal. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 2  in which the nose bridge strip comprises aluminum. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1  in which the nose bridge strip has a conformation in which the nose bridge strip has a flat rectangular shape. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 4  in which the nose bridge strip has length, width, and thickness dimensions of between 5, 0.1, and 0.01 cm and 15, 1.5, and 0.15 cm, respectively. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 1  in which the outer sleeve comprises fabric. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 6  in which the outer sleeve comprises one or more of cotton, polyester, woven elastic, or braided elastic, material. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1  in which the face mask connector comprises hook connectors. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 8  in which the hook connectors comprise low profile hook connectors of 1.5 mm height or less. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 8  in which the hook connectors comprise low profile hook connectors each having at least a J-hook portion. 
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 1  in which the outer sleeve comprises fire retardant material. 
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 1  comprising a face mask. 
     
     
         13 . A kit comprising the malleable nose bridge strip and the outer sleeve of the apparatus of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         14 . A method comprising securing an outer sleeve across a nose-bridge-seating zone of an external surface of a face mask, the outer sleeve enclosing a malleable nose bridge strip, in which the outer sleeve is secured to the face mask via a face mask connector on the outer sleeve engaging the external surface of the face mask. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising mounting the face mask on a face of a user. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising bending the malleable nose bridge strip into a shape that conforms with a lateral nose profile that extends between opposed sides of a nose of the user and crossing a bridge of the nose. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  in which the malleable nose bridge strip seals the face mask against the user along the lateral nose profile. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising reversibly detaching the outer sleeve from the face mask. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  further comprising re-using the outer sleeve and malleable nose bridge strip to carry out the method again on the face mask or a different face mask. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14  in which the face mask connector comprises low profile hook connectors of 1.5 mm height or less.