Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-18
2002-11-26
Bryant, David P. (Department: 3726)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
C029S403100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06484390
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention is directed to the field of garment hangers and is more particularly directed to a method apparatus and system for reusing hangers with size indicia mounted thereon.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
An article of clothing typically includes one or more labels located somewhere inside of the clothing article. The label usually includes size, fiber content and manufacturer details as well as information relating to country of origin and care instructions. In addition, a tag is attached to the article of clothing identifying the price of the garment as well as size. The tag often includes additional information relating to the store name, manufacturer and possibly a bar code which when scanned provides such information.
In some cases a particular retailer or garment manufacturer has attached a further tag to the garment which bears a design that is in part colored to permit sorting according to some attribute of the garment such as style, color or size. For instance, the portion of the design that is colored may be blue to indicate a women's size 6 or green to indicate a women's size 8 or blue to indicate a men's size 44 or green to indicate a men's size 48. When such information is included on the tag attached to a garment, the consumer or retailer need not review the label of each item of clothing but merely locate the appropriately colored tag.
However, tags are often attached to either the front, back or sleeve of the garment and thus, are not readily visible to either the retailer or the consumer. The retailer or consumer must rifle through the garments on the rack to locate the tags with the pertinent information. If the garment is not hung on a rack but folded in stacks (as is typical with sweaters and jeans) the tags are often tucked inside the garment for purposes of a neater display, thus, it is necessary to unfold the garment to find the appropriate information.
Furthermore, there is virtually no uniformity between manufacturers and/or retailers as to the designation of the desired attribute of the clothing. For instance, the color blue may mean size 6 for one manufacturer or retailer but size 12 for another. Thus, the consumer is not aided by the color designation when visiting different areas of the store. Further, blue may refer to large in a men's jacket size but medium for men's slacks.
For purposes of displaying garments suspended on hangers in an orderly and attractive manner to the retail customer, it is often desired to affix an indicating means on the hanger in a position visible to the retail customer while the hanger is suspended on a rack. The indicating means identifies some attribute of the garment suspended from the hanger, such as size, quality, color, manufacturing data, or pattern.
The provision of a readily visible size indicator on a garment hanger is now accepted by retailers as a desirable addition to a garment hanger. To accommodate the various types of hangers available in the industry numerous indicating means have been developed in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials. Similarly, hangers have been developed to accommodate a variety of different indicating means.
In Australian Patent No. 638436 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,354, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, a low-profile molded plastic indicator for a garment hanger which requires limited modification to the hook of the hanger to enable the indicator to be securely attached to the top of the hook where it is most visible is described. The indicator is also designed to enable sorting into a predetermined orientation to enable automated handling and fitting of the indicators to hangers as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,272,806 and 5,285,566 which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Such hangers and indicia are typically used only a single time and then shipped to either a landfill as waste or a recycling center where the plastic hangers are granulated into pellets which are then resold.
However, landfills are taking up more and more space and recycling is often an expensive venture which renders such an option cost inefficient despite the need to conserve our environment's resources. Furthermore, many companies do not want to purchase recycled-content plastic products for either safety (i.e., food containers) or aesthetic purposes.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for reusing hangers having size indicia removably mounted thereon wherein plastic hangers used to display garments in a retail store are re-used several times before being shipped as waste or recycled.
More particularly, the apparatus and method of the present invention comprises:
(a) molding a first plurality of hangers with reuse enhanced properties, and then shipping the hangers to a plurality of clothing manufacturers at scattered geographic locals;
(b) shipping a plurality of removable size indicia to the plurality of clothing manufacturers at the scattered geographic locals, the removable size indicia adapted to be removably secured to the first plurality of hangers;
(c) assembling one hanger from said plurality of hangers with a garment and one of the removable size indicia, wherein the size indicia represents the size of the garment and the size indicia is preferably attached to the hanger automatically;
(d) batching a plurality of the hangers with garments suspended therefrom and size indicia mounted thereon and then shipping the batch to a retail outlet for display and sale of the garments;
(e) removing a definable percentage of the hangers with the size indicia mounted thereon from the garments as said garments are sold, and returning the defined percentage of hangers with size indicia to a reuse center;
(f) removing the size indicia from the hangers at the reuse center and inspecting the hangers to obtain a plurality of selected hangers for reuse, wherein the removal of the size indicia from the hanger is preferably performed by automated removal; and
(g) cleaning the plurality of hangers selected for reuse to recondition the same for reuse; and
(h) augmenting the selected hangers with newly molded hangers to provide the first plurality of hangers and repeating step (a) to form a loop for reused hangers.
The method of the present invention particularly addresses environmental concerns to reduce plastic waste by reducing the overall number of plastic garment hangers being manufactured.
The first plurality of hangers is molded and shipped to numerous clothing manufacturers in a variety of geographic locals throughout the world. In a preferred embodiment batches of the removable size indicia, which correspond to the hangers in the first plurality of hangers, are molded from plastic and then shipped to the various clothing manufacturers. The batches are typically molded by size and color to form batches of color coded size indicia in a plurality of different colors. In a preferred embodiment the batches of color coded size indicia are bundled into stacks and automatically attached to the hangers. To ensure color uniformity the color coded size indicia can be molded at a single location. Each size indicia is mounted on a hanger from which a garment is also suspended such that the size of the garment corresponds to the size indicia.
Groups of hangers with size indicia mounted thereon and garments suspended therefrom are organized according to a retail store's order and then the batch of hangers with size indicia and garments are shipped to a retail store or retail distribution center for display and sale of the garments. Such garments are floor ready meaning that the garment can literally go from the packing box to the rack for display. Much of the back room sorting, sizing and pricing is eliminated. Because the garments arrive at the store already hung on hangers, the number of hangers the store is required to store is also vastly reduced. It will be noted that when the hangers with garments and size indicia may be shipped to a re
Gouldson Stanley F.
Zimmerman Glenn
Bryant David P.
Scully Scott Murphy & Presser
Spotless Plastics Pty. Ltd.
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