Sunday 29 March 2015

How air “bubble” mattresses work



How air “bubble” mattresses work
There are essentially 2 types of air mattresses available with 2 variants in each type. The first type of mattress has a bubble cell design and the second type has a ridge design. Within these two types of mattresses the variation can be that one variant may lose air through the surface of the material enabling better ventilation and the other many not. The loss of air from the surface through vents or a pours material allows heat and moisture to dissipate from under the patient providing better ventilation and reducing chances of bacterial buildup. These air mattresses come with a pump to inflate and maintain pressure. The technology is fairly simple and does not require high-tech manufacturing techniques. 

Air bubble cell mattress with porous material
The mattress I am using to treat and manage bedsores of my bedridden mother is manufactured by Kosmochem. The pump comes with a pressure adjusting knob. It has 5 bubbles along the width and 26 rows along the length. So it has 130 bubble cells. The rows of cells are interconnected with tubes so when air is pumped into the first cell using the pump, all connected cells inflate. The cells are divided into 2 sets of 65 cells each. Counting from top to the bottom the odd number rows make one interconnected set and the even number rows form the second set. Each “network” of cells has a separate inlet for connecting to the pump. The pump has 2 outlets and air is pumped through one vent at a time alternating every 10 minutes. 

The pump is a low energy consuming device with a 5 watt motor. It has two outlets which can be connected via tubes to the mattress. The vents pump low pressure airflow working one at a time. When the first vent works it pumps air into half the bubbles of the mattress the other set remains depressed. After 10 minutes the airflow in this set stops and the other set of bubbles are slowly inflated while the first set deflates losing air through the surface of the mattress. Pressure is relieved from the skin of the patient directly above the deflated bubbles and weight is transferred to the inflated bubbles. This allows space to form between the deflated bubbles and the skin allowing moisture and heat buildup to dissipate. The loss of air from the surface of the mattress creates a mild air current allowing stale air to be removed from under the patient and allowing the skin to remain dry.  The mattress is available at Amazon and but is cheaper on Snapdeals. Both links are given below with a product image.



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