Patent Application
20150257961
This invention relates generally to caskets, and more particularly to ornaments for caskets.
There is a trend in the death care industry towards personalizing to the deceased the funeral products and the funeral or other memorial service to provide a more meaningful memorial experience for the family and friends of the deceased. The casket in which the deceased is displayed can be customized to fit the needs and preferences of the deceased and the family. For instance, a wide variety of materials, finishes, colors, and decorative ornamentation can be chosen for the casket.
Some casket designs incorporate decorative or ornamental corner pieces or ornaments secured to the casket during fabrication thereof. In many, if not most, prior designs, these ornamental corner pieces are rigidly affixed to the casket shell. Consequently, if a customer purchasing the casket is not pleased with the particular pre-installed ornamental corner pieces, and wishes to customize the casket exterior to his or her taste, the funeral director must go through a lengthy and complicated process to first remove the original ornamental corner pieces and then reinstall the ornamental corner pieces chosen by the customer. This process typically requires manual manipulation and access to the interior of the casket which may require the removal of bedding, lining, and the like. Such a process is time consuming and can damage the otherwise new casket and is thus frowned upon and generally avoided by the funeral director.
To more effectively market caskets, the funeral director desires to offer a wide variety of ornamental corner pieces from which a customer can select according to the customer's taste. However, to offer such a wide selection, and to avoid the undesirable practice mentioned above, the funeral director would have to maintain a large inventory of many different casket material/finish and corner piece combinations, which is also undesirable. To minimize the required inventory of finished caskets, the funeral director could simply have one casket of each material/finish provided that the funeral director had some means providing for the quick and efficient changing of the ornamental corner pieces on each casket. As such, the customer could quickly view numerous corner pieces on a single casket, and the funeral director would need only stock a single casket of each material/finish. Prior casket designs, which rigidly affix the ornamental corner pieces, do not permit such quick and efficient changing of the ornamental corner pieces as discussed above.
In response to this need, the assignee devised attachment mechanisms to permit the quick and efficient installation and removal of ornamental corner pieces onto and from caskets. Examples of such mechanisms are disclosed in the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 7,591,052 for Quick Change Casket Ornament Attachment Mechanism, U.S. Pat. No. 7,340,810 for Quick Change Casket Corner Attachment Mechanism, U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,706 for Quick Change Casket Corner Attachment Mechanism, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,466 for Quick Change Casket Corner Attachment Mechanism, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in their entirety.
The above noted attachment mechanisms thus allow ready interchangeability amongst casket ornaments, thereby providing a casket purchaser with a degree of personalization. Notwithstanding the assignee's innovations in this area, further advancements are desired.
In one aspect, a casket comprises a casket shell adapted to receive a deceased, a casket lid closeable on the shell, a casket ornament, and an attachment mechanism. The attachment mechanism has a first portion mounted to a corner of the shell and a second portion mounted to the casket ornament. The first and second portions resiliently cooperate to operably removably attach the casket ornament to the casket shell corner.
The attachment mechanism first portion can comprise a pair of legs oriented at about a 90 degree angle relative to one another, each of the pair of legs attached to a respective one of a side wall and an end wall of the casket shell, and a pair of generally vertically oriented side walls each of which is associated with a respective one of the legs, each side wall and respective one of the legs oriented at about a 135 degree angle relative to one another, and each side wall including a generally vertically oriented rib thereon. The attachment mechanism second portion can comprise a pair of generally vertically oriented side walls each of which includes a generally vertically oriented slot therein. The pair of attachment mechanism second portion side walls can resiliently cooperate with the pair of attachment mechanism first portion side walls such that the ribs are received in the slots.
The attachment mechanism first portion can include a pair of vertically spaced apart vertical locators preventing vertical movement of the attachment mechanism second portion beyond a predetermined amount. The attachment mechanism first portion can also include a horizontal locator horizontally spaced apart from one of the side walls of attachment mechanism first portion, the horizontal locator and the one side wall preventing horizontal movement of the attachment mechanism second portion beyond a predetermined amount. In a preferred embodiment, each side wall of the attachment mechanism first portion includes a pair of the vertically spaced apart vertical locators, and each side wall of the attachment mechanism first portion includes a pair of vertically spaced apart horizontal locators. Each upper edge and lower edge of each side wall of the attachment mechanism second portion can include a notch therein receiving a respective one of the vertically spaced apart vertical locators.
The side walls of the attachment mechanism first portion can be connected with a front wall. The side walls of the attachment mechanism second portion can be cantilevered from a front wall of the casket ornament, and each of the side walls of the attachment mechanism second portion can further be connected to the front wall of the casket ornament with a pair of vertically spaced apart gussets. In a preferred embodiment, the upper gusset of each pair of gussets can be positioned above an upper end of a respective one of the generally vertically oriented slots and a lower gusset of each pair of gussets can be positioned below a lower end of a respective one of the generally vertically oriented slots.
The first and second portions of the attachment mechanism can be preferably molded from plastic. Further, the casket ornament and attachment mechanism second portion can be integrally molded from plastic. The legs of the attachment mechanism first portion can be fastened to the casket shell side and end walls with plastic Christmas tree fasteners. The casket can be fabricated from either wood or metal.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the summary of the invention given above, and the detailed description of the drawings given below, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.
Referring first to
Referring now to
The second attachment mechanism portion 34 can take the form of a pair of generally vertically oriented side walls 60 each of which includes a generally vertically oriented slot 62 therein. The pair of attachment mechanism second portion 34 side walls 60 resiliently cooperate with the pair of attachment mechanism first portion 32 side walls 42 such that the ribs 50 are resiliently received in the slots 62. Each of an upper edge and a lower edge of each side wall 60 of the attachment mechanism second portion 34 includes a notch 64 therein receiving a respective one of the vertical locators 52 of the attachment mechanism first portion 32. The forward upper and lower portions of each side wall 60 of the attachment mechanism second portion are received between the horizontal locators 54 and their respective side wall 42 of the attachment mechanism first portion 32. The side walls 60 of attachment mechanism second portion 34 are cantilevered from a front wall 66 of the casket ornament 26, and are further connected to the front wall 66 of the casket ornament 26 with a pair of vertically spaced apart gussets 68. An upper gusset 68 of each pair of gussets 68 is positioned above an upper end of a respective one of the generally vertically oriented slots 62 and a lower gusset 68 of each pair of gussets 68 is positioned below a lower end of a respective one of the generally vertically oriented slots 62.
To enable resilient connection between the first 32 and second 34 portions of the attachment mechanism 30, the first 32 and second 34 portions of the attachment mechanism 30 can be fabricated of plastic, for example molded from plastic. Other resilient materials having a degree of flexibility could also be used. To simplify the manufacturing process, the casket ornament 26 and the attachment mechanism 30 could each be integrally molded from plastic. The ornament 26 and attachment mechanism 30 could be used on either wood caskets or sheet metal caskets.
To attach the ornament 26 to the casket shell 12, the first 32 and second 34 portions of the attachment mechanism 32 are aligned and the ornament 26 and first portion 32 are pressed forwardly onto second portion 34 causing ribs 50 to snap into slots 62. To remove the ornament 26 from the casket shell 12, the side walls 60 of second portion 34 are deflected slightly outwardly, which may require a tool, for example screw driver, causing ribs 50 to withdraw from slots 62.
The various embodiments of the invention shown and described are merely for illustrative purposes only, as the drawings and the description are not intended to restrict or limit in any way the scope of the claims. Those skilled in the art will appreciate various changes, modifications, and improvements which can be made to the invention without departing from the spirit or scope thereof. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details and representative apparatus and methods shown and described. The invention resides in each individual feature described herein, alone, and in all combinations of any and all of those features. Departures may therefore be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept. Accordingly, the scope of the invention shall be limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.
This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/952,607 filed Mar. 13, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61952607 | Mar 2014 | US |
