Buckles – buttons – clasps – etc. – Bale and package ties – hose clamps – Plastic band
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-29
2001-11-20
Brittain, James R. (Department: 3626)
Buckles, buttons, clasps, etc.
Bale and package ties, hose clamps
Plastic band
Reexamination Certificate
active
06317934
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to improvements in annular linking means for attaching and sealing price tags, quality tags etc. onto clothing or others.
Conventional means for attaching price tags, quality tags etc. onto clothing for shopwindow display is provided by, as shown in
FIG. 7
, passing a thread
91
through the hole
9
a
of a tag
9
to form a thread loop
92
, subsequently passing the loop
92
through the buttonhole
8
a
of an article
8
, and finally fastening the tag
9
by passing it through the loop
92
.
This means of fastening the tag
9
with a thread
91
, however, has drawbacks that the thread
91
when got twisted often requires painstaking for unfastening work of the tag
9
from the thread
91
and also that, visually, the loosely hanging tag has no ornamental appeal.
Another proposal for means of attaching part of merging piece (attaching gun) to clothing or others includes a method, wherein, as illustrated in
FIG. 8
, a solidly molded plastic merging piece (tag fastener)
95
consisting of a head part
96
, a filament part (line-like part)
97
, and a lateral bar part
98
fixed in a T-shape at the end of the filament is driven at one touch into the cloth
8
of a clothing by using a tag fastener driver (or driving gun).
This tag fastener
95
method, however, has an intrinsic problem of requiring a driving gun having a hollow needle at its tip, when tag
95
is attached onto the clothing
8
or others. Further it has a drawback that is relatively harmless with thicker cloths, but presents a significant problem with a thin and delicate cloth made by fine filaments such as high quality clothing and ladies'underwear by causing following damages.
Firstly, as the attaching process inevitably accompanies piercing the clothing with a hollow needle, it gives a damage to the cloth
8
. Secondly, pulling the tag
9
causes the lateral bar part
98
at the end of tag fastener
95
to damage the cloth
8
of the clothing. Thirdly, a gap in the mesh of the cloth
8
will develop to a damage of the cloth during display.
While the above-described problems are caused when attaching the tag, there also are problems when detaching the tag
9
from this tag fastener
95
.
Namely, when the filament part
97
is cut apart to detach the tag
95
, a T-shaped part including the lateral bar part
98
may be left within the article, causing a damage to its cloth. Finding out to remove this tiny part for disposal is another trouble.
Still another widely used tag attaching means is made of plastics, wherein a male and a female engagement parts are connected by a drawn filament part.
For this production, however, plastics need to be drawn to form a filament part, which requires a drawing process to be added to the production process, bringing up the problem of a production cost increase. Further problem is that while the process is only applicable for drawable plastics such as nylon and polyester which are opaque, such attractively transparent plasitcs as methacrylics and polystyrene are not available for it although they are strong enough.
Moreover, when the male and female parts are engaged, the filament part having a similar rigidity with a drawn fishing line forms a protruding curve on the surface of the tagged article. This curved filament looks ugly, and also prevents stowing an article above another. Due to the above-mentioned problems, the drawn filament attaching means is not suited for relatively thin high quality clothing such as silk goods.
Besides, because the filament part is as rigid as a fishing line, it keeps tags apart from the article cloth, without making any apparent distinctions between high quality and low quality articles. As a result there has been a problem from a display aspect that an image lacking in high quality has little appeal to consumers. From this aspect it is needed that an annular linking means that has an attractive appearance similar to quality-impression of a necklace, a nice touch, and an easy-workablity.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide an annular linking means which uses a chain-like member and is able to form a loop simply by utilizing the flexibility of the chain-like member.
It is another object of this invention to provide an annular linking means which, when used for attaching tags, etc. to clothing, is able to present a high quality impression of the clothing by utilizing the ornamental effect of a chain-like member.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a highly flexible annular linking means which is able to use even undrawable plastic materials as long as they are moldable.
The highly flexible annular linking means is constituted by a first ring part having a male engagement part, a second ring part having a female engagement part to be engaged with the male engagement part, and a linking member jointly linking the first ring part and the second ring part, wherein the linking member is formed from a chain-like member.
By this constitution, an improved operational efficiency, an improved ornamental effect, increased availability of materials, and simplified and cost-reduced production are achieved.
Namely, the highly flexible annular linking means of this invention, enables to easily form a highly flexible loop made by an attractive chain-like member by passing the male engaging part through the hole of a tag, etc. and subsequently inserting the male part at the tip into the fitting part.
Thus, with the help of this chain-like member loop, tags can be easily and securely attached to clothing.
This attractive chain-like member that forms a loop, when flatly laid upon the cloth of a displayed article, gives a comfortable fitting impression as it appears to stick to the cloth without protruding therefrom. Namely its necklace-like fitness to the article gives users a soft and gentle impression of it. Further, an ornamental effect may be generated by simply putting the chain-like member curvedly.
Therefore, aquality image of the displayed article attained by using this highly flexible annular linking means helps to enhance sales effect by stimulating consumers'purchasing mind.
Further, in the above described highly annular linking means, the first and second ring parts, and the chain-like member may be arranged to be formed of plastics, or alternatively, the chain-like member may be arranged to be formed of metal, while the first and second ring parts being formed of plastics. By those arrangements, diversified availability and enhanced ornamentality of the annular linking means can be attained.
The elimination of drawn filament part, in particular, enables use of a much wider selection of plastic materials including not only those extendable plastics as polyamide (nylon, etc., PA) and polypropylene (PP), but also such plastics as methacryls (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) that have attractive appearance in transparency, luster, colorability, etc. with excellent strength and durability.
Further, as the elimination of drawn filament part also eliminates the drawing process, leaving only the molding process, total production process becomes very simple and thus the production cost can reduced.
Still further, a higher workability is accomplished by changing the sizes of the first and second rings to sizes that allow insertion thereof into the hole of a tag to be fastened by the annular linking means.
A detailed description on the male and female engagement parts follows next.
In the above described highly flexible annular linking means, the male engagement part is comprised to have a head part which is supported by a cylindrical base part via a neck part and has an expandable and contractible merging part at its rear, and the female engagement part is comprised to have a fitting hole which is formed within a tubular frame for fitting the male engagement part and has at its approximately middle point an annular protrusion which allows forward passing the merging part, but prevents its backward movement.
Further, in the above described highly fl
Hiroki Toyohisa
Suzuki Tadashi
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn
Brittain James R.
Toska Co., Ltd.
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