CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable.
FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
Not Applicable.
SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM
Not Applicable.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to Buttons Attachment to Garment Cloths.
PRIOR ART
Traditionally buttons are attached to garments by threads. However, sewing buttons is quite slow and laborious. Furthermore, threaded buttons tend to detach after intensive use. Hence, a faster and more robust button attachment method could yield a notable improvement. In our search we have found several inventions of button assemblies that were configured for fast button attachment but all of them are dissimilar to our invention both in their structures and in their principles of operation. Most, if not all of these attachment assemblies rely on some sort of metallic pedestal crimping in order to attach the button to the garment cloth. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,012 (Jul. 5, 1977) to Kramer et al. teaches a metallic button held by a metallic pedestal that is stapled to the garment cloth by a four legged metallic staple that is crimped to hold the pedestal. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,522,404 (Sep. 3, 2013) Matei teaches a button which can be tilted because it is attached to an elongated metallic shaft with ball attached at one end. The ball is housed in a ball bearing cavity included in the mounting base attached to the garment. In US 2005/0188510 (Sep. 1, 2005) Retamal teaches a button attached to an elongated serrated metal shaft which fits into a serrated metal nut attached to the garment. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,780 (Feb. 25, 1986) Fukuroi teaches a metal button which is attached to a mounting base by a crimped metal nail. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,063 (Apr. 23, 1985) Fukuroi teaches a metal button attachment to a base by a metal rivet. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,043 (Nov. 19, 1996) Candotti also teaches a metal button attachment to a base by a metal rivet. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,362 (May 29, 1990) Collas proposes to mount a metallic button on a metallic shank which is connected to a disk beneath the garment cloth. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,940 (Aug. 24, 1999) Tanikoshi teaches a button mounting by crimping a metal tubular rivet. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,398 (Nov. 2, 1999) Evans proposed attaching buttons to clothing by H shaped plastic studs which are inserted through the button holes into the clothing. In U.S. Pat. No. 9,820,520 (Nov. 21, 2017) Bolen teaches an attachment system with two parts one part attaches to the clothing side and the other part attaches to the button side and both parts are then coupled by a magnetic twist-lock mechanism. In U.S. Ser. No. 10/004,299 (Jun. 26, 2018) Maussen Teaches a tapered trapezoidal shape buttons which are connected to fabrics using sewing. IN U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,013 (Jul. 1, 1975) Gould teaches a button attachment using a rivet with long serrated shaft that protrudes from the clothing and is attached to a button with fitting aperture. In U.S. Pat. No. 8,938,861 (Jan. 27, 2015) McLendon teaches a removably attachable button using a pair of U-shaped flexible pins with small hooks at their ends, which are inserted through the clothing and through the button holes.
All the above inventions are entirely dissimilar to our invention.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
I have several goals in inventing and developing the Button Assembly of which some feasible embodiments are illustrated in FIGS. 1-9. The goals are:
- 1. To develop a Button Assembly which facilitates fast attachment of the buttoning structure to a garment cloth without any need for sewing, threads or metal crimping.
- 2. To design button assembly components which facilitate fast manual attachment without needing additional tools or machines.
- 3. To configure a buttoning structure which can be attached swiftly, firmly and permanently to garment cloths.
- 4. To design a retaining structure (i.e. an attachment structure to the garment cloth) for the button which can withstand strong pulling forces applied to the button without detachment.
- 5. To design a button assembly which could be manufactured inexpensively in mass production from common elastic materials such as plastics.
- 6. To develop a button assembly approach which facilitates creation of a large variety of colors and shapes of button appearances.
- 7. To configure a retaining structure that includes a trapping mechanism which exploits the resiliency of gates made of materials such as plastics to trap a terminal element which is attached to the buttoning structure. Thereby, robustly tying the button to the garment cloth.
- 8. To configure a button with replaceable ornamental caps.
- 9. To facilitate buttoning by integrating into the buttoning structure a spacer that introduces a gap between the button and the clothing.
- 10. To configure a cone that is temporarily attached to the bottom face of the terminal element and facilitates piercing of the garment cloth during manual attachment of the buttoning structure to the garment cloth.
- 11. To consider the option of drilling guiding apertures in the garment cloth to facilitate piercing of the garment cloth by the terminal element during manual attachment of the buttoning structure to the garment cloth.
In order to achieve some of the objectives listed above, our mechanism for button attachment to the garment cloth adopts the operational principle of mechanical trapping where the action of trapping is initiated by a forceful intrusion of a terminal element which bends a multiplicity of resilient flaps (i.e. a multiplicity of resilient gates—as in the Claims) which reside at the entrance of the retaining structure. Next, the bent resilient gating flaps are configured to be released when the terminal element is pushed further into the retaining structure, below the tips of the bended flaps. Next, the released flaps unbend due to their elasticity and end up resting on the pole above the terminal element, thus trapping the terminal element inside the aperture in the retaining structure.
The resilient gating flaps are initially bent by a forceful intrusion of a terminal element (i.e. a hemisphere or a cylinder which are attached to the end of a pole connected to the button). Initially, the downwards intrusion of the terminal element into the retaining structure's aperture pushes and bends downwards the resilient multiplicity of flaps that are attached at the upper opening of the retaining structure. Next, the trapping mechanism is triggered shut when the terminal element is pushed further downwards into the retaining structure, beyond the tips of the multiplicity of flaps. At that point, the multiplicity of flaps are released and unbend upwards due to their resiliency and end up resting diagonally on the pole above the terminal element. At this situation, the pole prevents further upwards unbending motion of the released multiplicity of flaps since the flaps ends are leaning diagonally on the pole. At this point, the multiplicity of flaps trap the terminal element inside the aperture in the retaining structure because they prevent the terminal element from retracting upwards. The button is also trapped since it is attached to the spacer which is attached to the pole which is attached to the trapped terminal element. While the multiplicity of flaps are diagonally resting on the pole above the terminal element's upper side, the flaps are prevented from turning upwards since their ends are diagonally resting on the pole. Hence, the multiplicity of resilient flaps are configured to prevent the terminal element from moving upwards thereby trapping the terminal element inside the retaining structure.
The manual attachment of the button to the garment cloth is performed as follows:
The button assembly is configured to be used for fast attachment of the button to the garment cloth by placing the retaining structure below the garment cloth such that the retaining structure's upper opening is facing a lower side of the garment cloth while placing the buttoning structure at an upper side of the garment cloth such that the terminal element is opposite the retaining structure's upper opening. Next, pushing downwards the buttoning structure from the upper side of the garment cloth is configured to pierce the garment cloth by the terminal element's lower side. Further pushing inserts the terminal element via the retaining structure's upper opening into the retaining part aperture which is situated at the lower side of the garment cloth beneath the retaining structure's upper opening. Inserting the terminal element downwards through the retaining part upper opening is configured to bend the multiplicity of flaps and to trap the terminal element inside the retaining part when the flaps unbend. At the completion of the terminal element insertion, it is trapped inside the retaining structure since it is situated beneath the multiplicity of flaps which are diagonally resting on the pole above the terminal element. At that point, the trapped terminal element which is attached to the buttoning structure, is configured to prevent detachment and separation of the buttoning structure from the retaining structure and also from the garment cloth. Thereby, completing the attachment of the button to the garment cloth by permanently attaching the buttoning structure to the garment cloth.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 displays a bottom view of an embodiment of the retaining structure in 3D isometric drawing.
FIG. 2 Depicts in 3D isometric drawing a bottom view of an embodiment of the buttoning structure which includes the hemisphere connected to the pole at the pole's bottom end, the spacer attached to the top end of the pole and the button which is attached to the upper face of the spacer.
FIG. 3 Illustrates in 3D isometric drawing a bottom view of an embodiment of the buttoning structure which includes the hemisphere connected to the pole at the pole's bottom end, the spacer attached to the top end of the pole and the button which is attached to the upper face of the spacer. A piercing cone is temporarily attached to the bottom side of the hemispherical dome.
FIG. 4 illustrates in 3D isometric bottom view a collection of components required for a buttoning demonstration. The collection includes the buttoning structure, the retaining structure, the internal garment cloth and the external garment cloth which includes a buttoning slot.
FIG. 5 illustrates in 3D isometric bottom view a cross section of the collection of components required for the buttoning demonstration. The collection includes the buttoning structure, the retaining structure, the internal garment cloth and the external garment cloth which includes a buttoning slot.
FIG. 6 illustrates in 3D isometric bottom view a cross section of the collection of components required for buttoning demonstration. The collection includes the buttoning structure, the retaining structure, the internal garment cloth and the external garment cloth which includes a buttoning slot. In FIG. 6 the terminal element (in this case, the hemisphere) has already pierced the garment cloth.
FIG. 7 Depicts in 3D isometric bottom view a cross section of the collection of components required for buttoning demonstration. The collection includes the buttoning structure, the retaining structure, the internal garment cloth and the external garment cloth which includes a buttoning slot. In FIG. 7 all the collection components are already assembled in their final buttoning positions in which the hemisphere already has been inserted into the retaining structure.
FIG. 8 Shows in an inverted upside-down view of 3D isometric drawing of three embodiments of the buttoning structure which include the hemisphere connected to the pole at the pole's bottom end, the spacer attached to the top end of the pole and the button which is attached to the upper face of the spacer. The drawing also depicts the ornamental cap in 3 positions. At the left-hand side, the buttoning structure and the cap are shown separately. At the center, the cap is installed on the button and in the right-hand side the buttoning structure and the installed cap are shown in a cross sectional view.
FIG. 9 Illustrates in an upside-down view of 3D isometric drawing a top view of an embodiment of the buttoning structure which includes a cylinder (cylindrical plate) which serves here as the terminal element. The cylinder is connected to the pole at the pole's bottom end, the spacer attached to the top end of the pole and the button which is attached to the upper face of the spacer.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a bottom view of an embodiment of the retaining structure 1 in 3D isometric drawing. The retaining structure 1 is structured from a retaining part 3 with retaining part's upper circular opening and a lower circular opening 4. The retaining part's upper circular opening is covered entirely by an attached planar disk (planar plate in the claims) 2 which is divided by four radial slits centered at the center 5 of the planar disk. The planar disk 2 is made of a resilient material. The four slits divide the planar disk into four resilient gating flaps 2 (which correspond to the multiplicity of resilient flaps in the Claims). The slits are centered at the circular opening 5 drilled at the center of the planar disk. The inner space of the retaining part 3 is denoted by 4.
FIG. 2 Depicts in 3D isometric drawing a bottom view of an embodiment of the buttoning structure which includes the button 10. The buttoning structure comprises the terminal element 7 that is connected at the terminal element's upper side to the pole 8 at the pole's bottom end, the spacer's lower side 18 is attached to the top end of the pole 8 and the button 10 which is attached to the upper side of the spacer 18. The terminal element in FIG. 2 is shaped as a hemisphere in which the terminal element's upper face is shaped as a circular upper plane of the hemisphere and the terminal element's lower face is shaped as a hemispherical dome.
FIG. 3 Illustrates in 3D isometric drawing a bottom view of an embodiment of the buttoning structure 10-18-8-7 which includes the hemisphere 7 (the hemisphere 7 is the terminal element's shape in FIG. 3) that is attached to the pole 8 at the pole's bottom end, the spacer lower side 18 is attached to the top end of the pole 8 and the button 10 which is attached to the upper side of the spacer 18. A piercing cone 9 is attached to the bottom side of the hemispherical dome 7. The piercing cone 9 is configured to initialize piercing of garment to facilitate the piercing of the garment cloth by the attached hemisphere 7. The retaining structure 1 (not shown in FIG. 3) which is placed at the lower side of the garment's cloth 6 is configured to attach the buttoning structure 10-18-8-7 to the upper side of the garment cloth 6.
FIG. 4 illustrates in 3D isometric bottom view a collection of components necessary for a buttoning demonstration. The collection includes the buttoning structure 7-8-18-10, the retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5, the internal garment cloth 6 and the external garment cloth 20 which includes a buttoning slot 21. The internal garment cloth 6 includes a guiding aperture 22 which is drilled in the internal garment cloth 6. The guiding aperture 22 is configured to facilitate piercing of the garment cloth by the terminal element's lower side.
The retaining structure 1 is structured from a retaining part 3 with retaining part's upper and lower circular openings. The retaining part's upper circular opening is entirely covered by an attached planar disk (equivalent to the planar plate in the claims) 2 which is divided by four radial slits into four resilient flaps 2. The four radial slits are centered at the circular opening 5 drilled at the center of the planar disk 2. The retaining part lower circular opening 4 is also shown.
FIG. 5 illustrates a cross section of collection of parts depicted in FIG. 4. FIG. 5 illustrates the buttoning structure: 7-8-9-10 before the process of piercing the garment cloth 6. The hemisphere 7 (which is equivalent to the terminal element in claim 1) is pointing downwards and is situated at the position where the hemisphere 7 is preparing to pierce a cross sectional depiction of a piece of garment cloth 6. A cross section of the retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5 is illustrated underneath the garment cloth 6 and opposite to the hemisphere 7 which is generalized as the terminal element in the Claims. FIG. 5 actually illustrates the situation of the buttoning structure when the hemisphere 7 has already pierced the garment cloth 6 before entering into the retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5. A cross sectional view of the retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5 is also shown beneath the garment cloth 6. The retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5 is structured from a retaining part 3 with retaining part's upper and lower circular openings. The retaining part's upper circular opening is covered by an attached planar disk which is divided by four radial slits into four flaps 2 (which correspond to the multiplicity of resilient flaps mentioned in the Claims). The four radial slits are centered at the circular opening 5 drilled at the planar disk's center 5. The retaining part's lower circular opening 4 of the retaining part is also shown.
FIG. 6 illustrates a cross sectional view of the collection of parts depicted in FIG. 4. FIG. 6 illustrates the buttoning structure: 7-8-9-10 while in the process of piercing the garment cloth 6. The hemisphere is 7 pointing downwards and situated at the position where the hemisphere 7 already pierced a cross sectional depiction of a piece of garment cloth 6. A cross section of the retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5 is illustrated underneath the garment cloth 6 and opposite to the hemisphere 7. The hemisphere 7 is also named as the terminal element in the Claims. FIG. 6 actually illustrates the situation of the buttoning structure after the hemisphere 7 has already pierced the garment cloth 6 before entering into the retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5. A cross sectional view of the retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5 is also shown beneath the garment cloth 6. The retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5 is structured from a retaining part 3 with retaining part's upper and lower circular openings. The retaining part's upper circular opening is covered by an attached planar disk which is divided by four radial slits into four flaps 2 (which correspond to the multiplicity of resilient flaps mentioned in the Claims). The four radial slits are centered at the circular opening 5 drilled at the planar disk's center 5. The retaining part lower circular opening 4 of the retaining part is also shown
FIG. 7 illustrates a cross section of the same collection of parts depicted in FIG. 4. FIG. 7 illustrates the buttoning structure: 7-8-9-10 which already completed the process of piercing the garment cloth 6. The hemisphere is 7 pointing downwards and is situated at the position where the hemisphere 7 has already pierced the garment cloth 6, which is depicted as a cross section of a piece of the garment cloth 6. The hemisphere in FIG. 7 also has already entered the retaining structure 1-2-3-4-5 which is illustrated underneath the garment cloth 6. The resilient flaps 2 in FIG. 6 were bent already by the intrusion of the hemisphere 7. The flaps 2 in FIG. 7 are already unbent and resting diagonally on the pole 8 above the hemisphere 7 since the hemisphere 7 has already moved downwards below the flaps 2. The flaps 2 are trapping the hemisphere 7 since they are already unbent and resting diagonally on the pole 8 above the hemisphere 7 and preventing it from retracting upwards. The hemisphere 7 is generalized as the terminal element in the Claims.
FIG. 8 Shows in 3D isometric drawing three top views of embodiments of the buttoning structure 7-8-18-10 which includes the hemisphere 7 which is connected to the pole 8 at the pole's bottom end. The spacer 18 is attached to the top end of the pole 8. Finally, the button 10 is attached to the upper face of the spacer 18. The drawing also depicts the ornamental cap 23 in 3 positions. At the left-hand side of FIG. 7, the buttoning structure 7-8-18-10 and the cap 23 are shown separately. At the center, the cap 23 is installed on the button 10 and at the right-hand side the buttoning structure 7-8-18-10 and the installed cap 23 are shown in a cross-sectional view. The ornamental face 24 of the cap 23 is also shown in FIG. 7.
FIG. 9 Illustrates in 3D isometric drawing a top view of an embodiment of the buttoning structure 25-8-18-10 which includes a cylinder 25 (which is generalized as the terminal element in the Claims and named as a cylindrical plate) which is connected to the pole 8 at the pole's bottom end, the spacer 18 is attached to the top end of the pole 8 and the button 10 which is attached to the upper face of the spacer 18.
Patent Grant
11622605
