Prior art bundling straps of the type exemplified, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,739,429 and 6,332,248 include one or two bundling straps having a pair of fastening heads joined at one end of the strap to form a unitary strap and fastener arrangement. These devices are designed to form two loops of the strap to fasten two separate articles or bundles together. For the purposes of economy and functionality, these prior art straps are either sold as groups having a plurality of strap lengths for different bundling requirements or else with very long strap lengths which provide for the excess strap portion being cut to eliminate long tails. These practices of providing standard or pre-selected strap sizing results in considerable waste of strap material. Therefore it can be seen that there is a need for a fastening device which utilizes the zip tie functionality without incurring the substantial waste of prior zip tie designs.
It is an object of the invention to provide a zip tie fastening device for connecting together the ends of a strap.
Another object of the invention is to provide bundling device formed of separate strap and fastening elements.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a fastening kit having a strap and a separate fastening element.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method of using a separate strap and fastening element.
It must be understood that no one embodiment of the present invention need include all of the aforementioned objects of the present invention. Rather, a given embodiment may include one or none of the aforementioned objects. Accordingly, these objects are not to be used to limit the scope of the claims of the present invention.
In summary, the invention overcomes deficiencies of prior devices by providing a fastener for a bundling strap which connects the free ends of a strap to form a loop. The invention eliminates a substantial amount of strap waste. The invention also includes a fastening kit having straps and fasteners as separate combinable components and a method of using a separate strap and fastening element.
Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent in view of the following description and claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
Alternatively, the fastener body 18 may be constructed so that strap ends 12 and 14 can be inserted at either openings 22 and 24 respectively or at outlets 36 and 38, respectively. The openings 22 and 24 could also be in a stacked arrangement rather than side by side as shown.
It should be understood by those skilled in the art, that a fastener F may be used with any conventional zip tie strap S having a strap width narrow enough to fit into openings 22 and 24. It is conceivable that the fasteners F may be used with strap portions which would have had to have been discarded from straps formed with fastening heads, thus allowing the use of strap material which would otherwise be trash.
Furthermore, fasteners F may be use with a bulk quantity of strap material and portions cut from the bulk material as needed. In this way the fasteners F and strap S could be combined as a kit and zip tie strap S and fastener F combinations could be created in any size of strap length desired and without waste.
In order to use the strap S and fastener F combination, a first end 12 of strap S is inserted into opening 22 of fastener body 18 and through channel 36 until teeth 30 of pawl 26 are engaged. Next, the strap S is formed into a loop 10 and strap end 14 is inserted into opening 24 of fastener body 18 and through channel 38 until teeth 32 of pawl 28 are engaged. Either end 12 or 14 may extend through a respective channel 36 or 38 as necessary to tighten loop 10.
While this invention has been described as having a preferred design, it is understood that the preferred design can be further modified or adapted following in general the principles of the invention and including but not limited to such departures from the present invention as come within the known or customary practice in the art to which the invention pertains. The claims are not limited to the preferred embodiment and have been written to preclude such a narrow construction using the principles of claim differentiation.