The present invention relates generally to an attachment system for removably attaching a holder or holders or other accessories to a carrier, such as a vest or other garment, or other device, and can optionally be configured to be compatible with other known attachments systems.
The disclosures of co-pending division U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/164,227, filed on Feb. 1, 2021, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/985,215, filed on May 21, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,905,226, division U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/431,377, filed Feb. 13, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,974,379, issued on May 22, 2018, division patent application Ser. No. 14/237,468, filed Feb. 6, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,565,922, issued Feb. 14, 2017, PCT application Serial No. PCT/US2012/50001, filed Aug. 8, 2012, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/521,309, filed Aug. 8, 2011, are hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
Modular pouch attachment systems and methods for carriers, hereinafter sometimes referred to by the term carrier or carriers, such as, but not limited to, vests, cummerbunds, belts, and the like, for carrying holders such as, but not limited to, pouches for holding items and accessories on a person's body, are well known. Advantages include an ability to attach pouches and accessories to a platform and easily remove them; rearrange or configure them; and exchange for other pouches or accessories.
Reference, Kirk et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,707, issued on Mar. 10, 1998; and Johnson, U.S. Pat. No. 7,047,570, issued on May 23, 2006, which show representative commercially available pouch attachment systems and methods. Typically, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B of the U.S. Pat. No. 7,047,570, reproduced here as FIGS. 1 and 2, such known systems utilize one or more elongate woven webs or straps, sewn or otherwise affixed to at longitudinally spaced locations to a panel comprising fabric layers, forming a side by side pattern of loops. If multiple webs or straps are used, they are laterally spaced apart, e.g., vertically, so as to extend horizontally across a surface of the garment or other device, at vertically spaced intervals, such that the loops of the webs will be vertically aligned. A pouch or other accessory will include one or more elongate straps configured to be inserted through the aligned loops. The straps will typically each be attached at one end to the pouch or accessory, and have an opposite free end. The backside of the pouch or other accessory will typically include additional loops positioned to be disposed in alternating relation to the loops on the panel, such that the straps can be alternatingly woven through the loops on the panel and the back of the pouch or accessory, for attaching the pouch or accessory to the panel. The free end of the attachment straps can then be secured, using a snap, hook and loop fastener, or the like, to the back of the pouch or accessory.
Stated advantages in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,707 of the known pouch attachment systems such as just discussed, include that they are light weight, quiet to use, and stronger than earlier known systems, including known systems using hook and loop type fasteners. Shortcomings of hook and loop fasteners mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,707 include heavy weight, noisiness, low strength, and failure under dirty and dusty conditions. Although past known carriers utilizing hook and loop fasteners have suffered from these disadvantages, inherent advantages of hook and loop fasteners such as ease and familiarity of use, and non-metallic construction, still make them attractive. The non-metallic attribute is particularly desirable for military applications wherein the carrier is subject to explosions which can cause metallic objects to fragment and possibly injure wearers. As a result, it is still sought to find a manner of use hook and loop type fasteners for attachment of holders and the like, particularly for military carrier applications.
Therefore, what is sought is an attachment system that is an improvement over known attachment systems set forth above.
What is disclosed is an attachment system and method for carriers, such as, but not limited to, vests, cummerbunds, belts, shirts, jackets, pants, and the like, that constitutes an improvement over the known attachment systems set forth above.
According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the attachment system utilizes a platform having a front side, an opposite back side, and a plurality of slits through the platform arranged in a predetermined pattern of vertically aligned and spaced apart rows, configured for receiving elements for attaching at least one holder to the platform. As a non-limiting example, adjacent ones of the slits can be spaced vertically apart to correspond to the vertical spacing of loops of currently used MOLLE systems. The platform is supported by and comprises an element of, an attachment or accessory to, a carrier, for example that can be configured to be worn on a user's body, for carrying at least one holder at a desired location on the user's body, e.g., front, back, or side. The platform can be permanently affixed, e.g., by stitching, or incorporated into the carrier, or removably attached, e.g., via hook and loop fasteners, belts, snaps, zippers, or the like, in covering relation to an outwardly facing surface of the carrier or a backing element such as, but not limited to, a fabric layer or sheet.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a back side of the platform faces and covers the outer surface of the carrier or backing element and includes a first fastening component of a hook and loop fastening system thereon adjacent to, e.g., around or beside, the slits, and disposed in opposing relation to the carrier or backing element surface. This forms a generally flat pocket or cavity between the opposing surface and the back side, into which a user can insert his or her fingers for attaching and detaching objects to/from the fastening component, and/or weaving straps through the slits. This is advantageous as the carrier surface or backing element protects the component of the hook and loop fastener, and with the fastener component located on the back side and in the pocket or cavity, noise generated when detaching from the fastener is contained and muted or muffled to be suitable for applications where silence when configuring the system, e.g., adding, removing, moving holders, is required. Also preferably, the platform and the carrier or backing element have generally coextensive peripheral edge portions bounding and at least substantially or effectively enclosing the flat pocket or cavity behind the platform, providing a cover or barrier to entry of particulates such as dirt and dust into the cavity. Operationally, at least one of the coextensive edge portions is open or openable, e.g., via a hook and loop fastening system, buttons, overlapping flaps, etc., to allow the insertion of at least fingers of a hand into the cavity for attaching, detaching, weaving, etc. In this latter regard, the platform can have any required extent, e.g., the height and width of a person's midsection or chest, and the opening or openings should be sufficiently large and/or positioned to enable a person to reach a desired location within the cavity for attaching and detaching straps or tabs extending through any of the slits.
Each of the slits through the platform is defined and bound by opposing edges, respectively, that can optionally be disposed sufficiently close together when in a free state, to provide an effective barrier to prevent or substantially reduce passage of particulates such as dust and dirt to the fastening system component on the back side of the platform. As a result of this and the enclosing of the pocket or cavity behind the platform, degradation of operation of the fastening system component from accumulated particulate contaminants, e.g., dirt and dust, is sufficiently limited to allow usage of the carrier for intended uses and durations of use, such as military missions.
According to another preferred aspect of the invention, the first fastening component located on the back side of the platform comprises a loop pile fabric layer, which can be of commercially available composition and construction such as available under the trademark “Velcro”. The front side can comprise a woven fabric such as a nylon or the like, which is preferably non-stretch, and the fabric layers are joined together by lamination using adhesives, gluing, or fusion. As another preferred aspect, the fabric layers comprising the edges bounding the slits are fused together, e.g., using a laser cutting process for forming the slits, to be hardened but at least semi-flexible to allow insertion of flat straps and tabs through the slits, and such that the edges will not fray or wear significantly under expected use. Also preferably, the edges will have sufficient resilient flexibility to be capable of conforming at least generally about anticipated items to extend through the slits such as straps or flat tabs that may be attached to the fastening system component within the pocket.
According to another preferred aspect of the invention, the system includes at least one holder including at least one tab having a second component of the hook and loop fastening system thereon, e.g., hooks for use with the pile loop fabric, such as commercially available under the trade name “Velcro”. The tabs are substantially flat, so as to be easily insertable through the slits, and a user can position and attach the tabs to the back side of the platform using fingers inserted into the pocket or cavity behind the platform. Similarly, the user can insert the fingers into the pocket to detach the tabs to allow removal or repositioning of the holder.
The tabs attached to the holders can be straight and sized for passage through the slits, or can be V shape, in which case they can be folded or bent as required to pass through the slits and attach to the back side. In this regard, as another advantage of one embodiment of the tabs, they are relatively short, for instance, but not limited to, not exceeding the vertical distance between two adjacent slits of the pattern, even for holders that have a length equal to the distance between 4, 6, or more slits. The tabs can be constructed of a thin nylon film, and with the short length, this provides substantially reduced weight compared to the much longer conventional heavy nylon fabric MOLLE straps. For strength, when inserted through the slits, the tabs are bent over for attachment to the back side, so that the hook and loop fasteners are loaded in shear, and are not subject to direct pulling away from the back side of the platform. The V shape tabs are advantageous in this regard as they provide up to double the attachment capability in a still relatively short, lightweight tab.
As another advantage, the tabs of the present system can be merely inserted through the slits and attached to the back side of the platform, whereas a MOLLE strap would be woven through interlocking loops on both the platform and back of the holder. For longer holders, the short tabs can be provided at spaced locations along the length of the holder, and are insertable and attachable through correspondingly located slits of the platform. The slits are also configured and sized to accommodate multiple tabs, so that a holder can be attached to the platform both above and below a particular slit. This results in an attachment capability that requires less time and is easier to do in the dark and when relying on feel or gloves are used, compared to conventional MOLLE systems. Also, because loops on the back of holders are eliminated, additional weight advantage is achieved.
As an alternative, the tabs can be provided in a length comparable to that of a conventional MOLLE strap, and the back side of a holder can include slits also, to allow weaving and interlocking the holder to the platform using the longer tabs, which will have the second component of the hook and loop fastening system only at an appropriate location on the ends of the tabs. Alternatively, an enlarged tuck tab can be provided on the end of the longer tab, and the tuck tab inserted into an adjacent slit on either the platform or the holder, to secure the holder. In this embodiment, another advantage achieved is that this attachment system can be backwards compatible with existing MOLLE platforms, enabling using the holders with both the platform of the invention and MOLLE platforms.
As another preferred aspect of the invention, the edges bounding the slits of the platform are sufficiently resiliently flexible to allow passage of the tabs therethrough, respectively, for fastening to the loop pile fabric while biasing against the tabs forming at least a partial barrier to passage of particulates thereabout, to further prevent degradation of the hook and loop fastening system. In this regard, the lack of stretch and manner of attachment of the platform allows it to support a relatively large number of holders without pulling away from the supporting carrier, while being sufficiently flexible to accommodate normal body movements such as twisting and bending of the wearer.
As another advantage of the attachment system of the invention, the tightness of attachment of a holder to the platform is a function of the location of attachment of the tabs to the back side. The tabs can be attached to the back side of the platform tightly with little slack, in a manner to limit or prevent relative movements of the holder relative to the platform, which may be desirable for some applications wherein low noise is desired or required, or, if desired, with slack to loosely hold the holder to the front side.
As another preferred aspect of the invention, representative holders contemplated for use with the invention include pouches for carrying batteries for electronic equipment, magazines for ammunition and weapons, radio, medical, clothing, food, and the like and the pouch portion of the holder can be of conventional fabric construction. Because weaving of straps through loops on the platform is not necessary, loops on the back of the holder can be eliminated, resulting in significant weight saving without loss of carrying capability or other performance. If desired, the back side of the holders can include a mating pattern of slits to allow interweaving of the tabs between the platform and holder, or the use of separate MOLLE style straps for attachment, if desired.
As a hybrid embodiment of the system of the invention for use with conventional MOLLE straps, the slits are provided on a backing element which includes the second component of the hook and loop fastening system. The backing element is attached to the back side of the platform using the hook and loop fastening system, and the MOLLE straps are inserted through the slits and either pass over the front side of the platform or the back of the backing element, for securing the attached holder to the platform. This embodiment is particularly useful for vertically narrower applications such as belts, and allows carrying longer MOLLE holders such as magazine pouches, on a narrow belt, without relative shifting and movement.
Referring to the drawings, in
Referring to
Referring to
Essentially, according to steps of a method of the invention, straps 26 of a MOLLE style holder would be interlocked and woven through the slits 36 of the platform 34 of present system 32, by being inserted through selected upper slits 36 of the platform 34 to the back side of the platform, then inserted through selected lower slits 36 of the platform to the front side thereof, then through webbing straps 22 or loops on the back side of the pouch or accessory. The straps 26 can then be inserted through still lower slits 36 of the platform to the back side, then through still lower slits 36 to the front side, and through webbing loops on the back side of the pouch or accessory, for further attachment, one or more additional times, depending on the length of the straps and platform, and available number of slits. The free end of the straps 26 can them be attached to the back side of the pouch or accessory, using snaps, hook and loop fasteners, or other means provided.
As a preferred aspect of the system of the invention of
The slits 36 can be formed in any manner suitable for the anticipated application, as a non-limiting example, by knife or die cutting, using a button hole machine, or more preferably, by laser cutting. In regard to laser cutting, an advantage achieved is that the edges 38 and 40 (
Additional advantages of the attachment system of the invention include a need for less material, and thus less weight, a reduced side profile, ability to provide a smoother face on the profile of platform 34, and the illustrated ability to use prior art holders such as MOLLE style pouches.
Referring more particularly to
As another aspect of the invention, the system 32 of the invention can include holders 52, in the form of pouches, appliances and the like, which are also of a light weight construction, to further reduce the weight of the attachment system compared to known MOLLE systems. This will preferably include another component of the fastening system used, here, one or more tabs 54 having hooks 56 of a hook and loop fastening system, releasably attachable to the loop pile fabric 48 on the back side 46 of platform 34. The tabs 54 are configured to be inserted through the slits 36 of the platform and can have any of a variety of shapes, such as, but not limited to, an elongate strap shape (
In use, the tabs 54 are inserted into selected slits 36, and the hooks 56 thereof attached to loop pile fabric 48 on the back side 46 of the platform. For strength, when inserted through slits 36, the tabs 54 are bent over for attachment to the back side 46, so that the hook and loop fasteners are loaded in shear, and are not subject to direct pulling away from the back side of the platform. The V shape tabs provide increased holding strength with a shorter overall length and can be folded or bent for insertion through the slits. Tabs 56 can be located at the top, bottom, middle, and/or sides of a holder 52 such as the pouch, appliance or other article to be attached to the platform. As examples,
As another advantage of the attachment system of the invention, the tightness of attachment of a holder or holders 52 to platform 34 is a function of the location of attachment of tabs 54 to back side 46. As illustrated in
Referring also to
As noted above, an advantage of the system of the invention is backward compatibility with existing MOLLE and similar systems to enable use of MOLLE style holders 28 having long straps 26, and also holders 52 of the present system having longer tabs 54 with hooks 56 at the ends such as shown in
Referring also to
Referring also to
Here, it can be observed that relatively long pouches can be provided with shorter tabs of the invention, for easy attachment and removal, without requiring complex weaving of long straps through loops on both the platform and the pouch itself. The tabs are merely inserted through the selected slots, folded or bent over from the side or another direction, and attached to the back side of the platform, which is made easy due to the relatively short length of tabs that can be used with good holding strength. The system of the invention also requires less material, is of less weight, and has a reduced profile when viewed from the side. This allows the face of the platform to be smoother.
In light of all the foregoing, it should thus be apparent to those skilled in the art that there has been shown and described a novel attachment system for carriers such as vests, belts, and the like. However, it should also be apparent that, within the principles and scope of the invention, many changes are possible and contemplated, including in the details, materials, and arrangements of parts which have been described and illustrated to explain the nature of the invention. Thus, while the foregoing description and discussion addresses certain preferred embodiments or elements of the invention, it should further be understood that concepts of the invention, as based upon the foregoing description and discussion, may be readily incorporated into or employed in other embodiments and constructions without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the following claims are intended to protect the invention broadly as well as in the specific form shown, and all changes, modifications, variations, and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention are deemed to be covered by the invention, which is limited only by the claims which follow.
This application is a division of co-pending division U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/164,227, filed on Feb. 1, 2021, which is a division U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/985,215, filed on May 21, 2018, which issued on Feb. 2, 2021 as U.S. Pat. No. 10,905,226, which is a division U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/431,377, filed Feb. 13, 2017, which issued on May 22, 2018, as U.S. Pat. No. 9,974,379, which application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/237,468, filed Feb. 6, 2014, which issued on Feb. 14, 2017 as U.S. Pat. No. 9,565,922, which was submitted under 35 U.S.C. 371 claiming priority to PCT/US2012/50001, filed Aug. 8, 2012, claiming the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/521,309, filed Aug. 8, 2011.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61521309 | Aug 2011 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17164227 | Feb 2021 | US |
Child | 18206420 | US | |
Parent | 15985215 | May 2018 | US |
Child | 17164227 | US | |
Parent | 15431377 | Feb 2017 | US |
Child | 15985215 | US | |
Parent | 14237468 | Feb 2014 | US |
Child | 15431377 | US |