Magnetic door seal infant incubator

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention provides a front access door for an infant incubator that is readily opened by an attendant from the outside and yet which is difficult to open by a force exerted against the inside surface.
The door features a magnetic strip positioned at least substantially across the top of the door and which cooperates with a magnetic material affixed to the corresponding surface of the incubator hood to create a magnetic force holding the door in its closed position.
It should be noted that the magnetic strip may, of course, be positioned on the door with a magnetic material on the hood or in the alternative, the magnetic strip may be affixed to the hood and the magnetic material affixed to the door.
In either case, the concept of a magnetic strip has been known for the sealing, for example, of refrigerator doors, however it has a unique and unexpected benefit when used on an access door of an infant incubator.
Specifically, the use of a magnetic strip on an incubator door makes the door quite difficult to open through a force exerted on the inside of the door.
Accordingly, the magnetic strip closure can be used to meet the standards since a force in excess of 20 newtons can readily be required to open the door from the inside.
The door is, therefore, protected against an infant opening the door of the incubator from the inside.
In addition, the door having a magnetic seal across at least the top thereof is readily opened by attending personnel without difficulty and without the manual unlatching of multiple latches.
Since the plastic door has an inherent amount of flexibility, it may be opened by the attendant pulling the door outwardly from one of the upper corners, thus the door can be peeled away with respect to the magnetic seal and very little force is required to thus open the door from the outside.
The magnetic seal covers substantially the linear width of the top of the incubator door, that is, at least about seventy percent (70%) of the width of the door