Buckles – buttons – clasps – etc. – Buckles – Sliding part of wedge
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-29
2001-07-10
Sakran, Victor N. (Department: 3626)
Buckles, buttons, clasps, etc.
Buckles
Sliding part of wedge
C024S171000, C024S181000, C024S195000, C024S585110
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256842
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a hooking device used with trousers and skirts, etc., for the purpose of automatically adjusting the waist size within a certain range.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, in order to facilitate the putting on or taking off of garments such as trousers and skirts (hereinafter “garments”), the opening of the waist thereof is provided with a pair of hooks comprising a male hook having a hooked end and a female hook that is shaped in such a way as to hang on said male hook. In order to allow adjustment in accordance with the waist size of the wearer, a hooking means has been used in which several female hooks are arranged on one side of the opening, and a male hook that is attached to the other side of the opening hooks onto the most appropriate of the several female hooks. The opening of the garment can be closed or opened by hooking or unhooking the male and female hooks, and the waist size can be adjusted within a certain range by choosing the appropriate female hook.
There are also garments that employ an elastic material such as a rubber belt in some parts of the waist, in which said rubber belt shrinks or expands to facilitate the putting on or taking off of the garment and to adjust to the waist size.
The above means employing several female hooks and a male hook that hooks onto the most appropriate of them is accompanied by a problem, that is, it is difficult to sew and arrange the female hooks at pitches smaller than a certain pitch. If many female hooks are arranged close to one another, the wearer needs to be very careful when attempting to hook the male hook to the appropriate female hook. Otherwise the wearer can end up hooking the male hook to the wrong female hook, resulting in the wrong waist size. For this reason, the female hooks cannot be arranged at pitches smaller than a certain pitch, and as such, the waist size of the garments cannot be finely adjusted.
After a meal or when the wearer applies a strain on the abdomen, the abdominal pressure strengthens and pushes out the garment around the waist line, causing a pain in the abdomen. Conventionally, this problem has been dealt with by loosening the hooks or unhooking them. This kind of operation is not only troublesome but can also make the wearer look untidy and cause unpleasant feelings among other people.
Garments employing an elastic material such as a rubber belt in some parts of the waist, in which said rubber belt shrinks or expands to facilitate putting on or taking off the garments and to adjust the waist size, tend to generate many wrinkles in the fabric around the elastic material, thereby spoiling the appearance of the garments. As such, this kind of garment can be used only for a limited range of applications and not for suits or formal wear.
When many female hooks are sewn onto a garment, these female hooks are individually sewn along the waist line at a certain pitch. When an elastic material is used in some parts of a garment, the elastic material needs to be sewn over a wide range of its length. Either way, the sewing efficiency is low, and this pushes up the sewing cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a hooking device that is equipped with a means for automatically adjusting the positions of the opposing sides of the opening of the garment in accordance with the wearer's abdominal pressure, that does not generate wrinkles in the fabric when the hooking device is sewn onto the garment or when the garment is worn, and that reduces the sewing cost by reducing the number of steps required to sew the hooking device onto the garment.
The present invention has been conceived in order to solve the above problems, and is in its basic form a hooking device comprising a male hook attached to one side of the opening of a garment and a female hook attached to the other side of the opening in such a way that it can be hooked to and unhooked from said male hook; said male hook comprising: a male hook base on which a groove housing a later-described elastic body is longitudinally formed; a male hook main body which secures a space for housing the later-described elastic body between itself and the male hook base and is provided with a means for hooking to said female hook, wherein said male hook base also functions as a guide member; and the elastic body housed in said male hook base in such a way that it elastically controls the sliding movement of the male hook main body with respect to the male hook base by means of compression or tension.
In another embodiment of the present invention, sliding rails are provided on both ends of the male hook base, both ends of the male hook main body are folded back to one surface so as to form holding arms that hold the sliding rails in such a way that rails can slide freely within them, the male hook base and the male hook main body are attached to each other in such a way that they can slide by each other with the holding arms holding the sliding rails, and a stopper means is provided for preventing these parts from becoming separated from each other.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the male hook base and the male hook main body are equipped with, respectively, a stopper protrusion and a pusher protrusion, both of which protrude into the housing space, wherein both ends of the elastic body housed in the groove are compressed by said stopper protrusion and pusher protrusion in order to elastically control the sliding movement of the male hook main body with respect to the male hook base.
In still another embodiment, the elastic body is formed by bending a metal band material in the form of bellows having a width that allows it to be housed in the groove.
In still another embodiment, the male hook and the female hook are curved along the waist line. In this embodiment, one end of the elastic body makes contact with protruding pieces formed on the back surface of the end that is opposite the end of the mail hook main body where the hooking piece is formed, and the other end of which is caught and fastened by the bend of a stopping piece erected from the male hook base, and the hooking space of the hooking piece continues to the gap between the tip of the hooking piece and the male hook main body while being narrowed along the way by an inclined step provided between the fold and the tip of the hooking piece.
According to the hooking device of the present invention, the male hook comprises a male hook base on which a groove housing a later-described elastic body is longitudinally formed, a male hook main body which secures a space for housing the later-described elastic body between itself and the male hook base and is provided with a means for hooking onto said female hook, wherein said male hook base also functions as a guide member, and the elastic body housed in said male hook base in such a way that it elastically controls the sliding movement of the male hook main body with respect to the male hook base by means of compression or tension. Because of such configuration, the present invention features a size-adjusting function that acts in accordance with the abdominal pressure, wherein an elastic power always acts in the direction that tightens the opening of the garment and the waist size is automatically and steplessly adjusted so that it is just right for the wearer.
After a meal or when the wearer applies a strain on the abdomen, the elastic body shrinks or expands in accordance with the changes of the waist size, and accordingly the garment fits the waist size, causing no unpleasantness around the abdominal area. Therefore, it is not necessary to loosen or unhook the hooks, and the wearer need have no concern about looking untidy or causing unpleasant feelings among other people.
Because the hooking device itself is stretchable, and the garment is not provided with a stretchable design, no wrinkles are generated in the fabric of the garment and the appearance of the garment is not spoilt either. The application of the hook
Merchant & Gould P.C.
Morito Co., Ltd.
Sakran Victor N.
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