Patent Grant
11339512
This application is the U.S. National Phase under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application PCT/JP2019/014414, filed Apr. 1, 2019, which claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. JP2018-209808, filed Nov. 7, 2018. The International Application was published under PCT Article 21(2) in a language other than English.
The present invention relates to an elastically deformable string that does not require knots.
Elastically deformable strings that do not require knots have long been well known. To be specific, an elastically deformable string comprises knob parts that can deform elastically in the direction of axis when a pulling force is applied to the string from the direction of axis, and link parts that link these knob parts together, where the three mainstream constructions are illustrated in Patent Literatures 1 to 3 below.
The traditional strings with knob parts illustrated in Patent Literatures 1 to 3 all have pros and cons and are unable to fully satisfy the requirements of the user.
On the other hand, with the strings described in Patent Literatures 2 and 3, the elastic force of the knob parts (0701, 1201) can be strengthened by using, for the tubular main string body (0703), a fiber containing high amount of rubber, etc.; however, doing so makes the knob parts (0701, 1201) themselves hardened, which creates a problem when these strings are passed through a string hole, which is the case with the string described in Patent Literature 1.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent No. 3493002
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent No. 5079926
Patent Literature 3: Japanese Patent No. 5392519
An object of the invention under the present application is to solve the problems presented by the prior art as mentioned above and provide a string that uses an elastically deformable core material to achieve the same levels of recovering force after passing through a string hole, and of retention force against a string hole, as the string described in Patent Literature 1, while ensuring that the string can be passed as easily through a string hole with a small force as the strings described in Patent Literatures 2 and 3.
Another object of the invention under the present application is, by applying the string described in Patent Literature 1 also to various types of elastically deformable strings that do not require knots, improved by the present applicant, to provide various types of more advanced elastically deformable string that do not require knots.
To achieve the aforementioned objects, a first invention under the present application is a string that has multiple knob parts placed in the direction of axis and is elastically deformable in the direction of axis, characterized in that: the string comprises an outer layer that defines the outer shape of the string, and a core material continuously placed inside, and over the entire length of, the outer layer; the outer layer comprises the knob parts that are constituted by outer layer yarns woven loosely, and link parts that are constituted by the outer layer yarns woven densely and also having a smaller diameter than the knob parts, wherein the knob parts formed in the outer layer are elastically deformable; and the core material is constituted by a stretchable string and placed inside the knob parts in a slackened and/or meandering state.
Also, to achieve the aforementioned objects, a second invention under the present application is a string that has knob parts and a long elastic part placed in the direction of axis and is elastically deformable in the direction of axis, characterized in that: the string comprises an outer layer that defines the outer shape of the string, and a core material continuously placed inside, and over the entire length of, the outer layer; the outer layer comprises the knob parts and long elastic part that are constituted by outer layer yarns woven loosely, and link parts that are constituted by the outer layer yarns woven densely and also having a smaller diameter than the knob parts and long elastic part, wherein the knob parts and long elastic part of the outer layer are elastically deformable; and the core material is constituted by a stretchable string and placed inside the knob parts and long elastic part in a slackened and/or meandering state.
Furthermore, to achieve the aforementioned objects, a third invention under the present application is a string that is elastically deformable in the direction of axis, whose intermediate area excluding the left and right end areas is divided into multiple areas exerting different elastic forces and whose cross-section has roughly the same circular shape over the entire length in the direction of axis, characterized in that: the string comprises an outer layer that defines the outer shape of the string, and a core material continuously placed inside, and over the entire length of, the outer layer; the intermediate area of the outer layer has multiple areas formed in it which are woven differently from outer layer yarns to exert different elastic forces; the left and right end areas of the outer layer are formed by outer layer yarns woven densely; and the core material is constituted by a stretchable string and placed inside the intermediate area in a slackened and/or meandering state.
According to the first invention under the present application having the aforementioned constitution, the knob parts formed in the outer layer exert an elastic force similar to what is intended by the prior art (Patent Literatures 2 and 3), which means that, when the string is passed through a string hole at a normal speed, the knob parts deform to reduce the frictional forces between the string hole and the knob parts, and because the core material is still in a slackened and/or meandering state in this condition, it has generated little elastic force and thus injury to the user's fingers or damage to the string hole itself can be prevented when the string is set in the string hole, and once the string has been set, the elastic force of the core material placed inside the knob parts in a slackened and/or meandering state is additionally exerted, thereby enabling the knob parts to hardly slip through the string hole even in situations of vigorous exercise.
Also, according to the second invention under the present application having the aforementioned constitution, the long elastic part exerting a frictional resistance force against the string hole can stop the string at an arbitrary position relative to the string hole and thus make setting easy, and when the string is used as a shoe lace, a good part of the string showing on the shoe has no knob parts and thus the string looks clean and neat and no different from how a standard shoe lace looks when set. Furthermore, the elastic force of the core material placed inside the long elastic part in a slackened and/or meandering state is additionally exerted, thereby enabling the long elastic part to hardly shift from the string hole even in situations of vigorous exercise.
Also, according to the third invention under the present application having the aforementioned constitution, the multiple areas exerting different elastic forces formed in the intermediate area in the direction of axis allow the necessary tension to be applied to the necessary location when the string is set on a shoe or clothing, while the absence of knob parts like those under the first and second inventions eliminates the need for cumbersome passing operations when setting the string or correcting its tension and it furthermore makes the string look the same as any standard string and also clean and neat. Furthermore, the elastic force of the core material placed inside the intermediate area in a slackened and/or meandering state is additionally exerted, thereby keeping the set string from shifting in position even in situations of vigorous exercise.
As mentioned above, all of the first, second, and third inventions under the present application represent a string that, by using an elastically deformable core material, allows the core material to be placed in a slackened and/or meandering state inside the knob parts or long elastic part or in the intermediate area of the outer layer, and this not only eliminates the stress concentration that would otherwise generate in a rubber material placed in a straight line, as is the case with the string described in Patent Literature 1 (if a rubber material is used by itself, it can be placed in a straight line only), to prevent breakage of or damage to the core material, but it also increases the elastic force of the entire string, compared to the strings described in Patent Literatures 2 and 3 that demonstrate an elastic force solely with the outer layer, to effectively enable the string to be prevented from slipping through the string hole or shifting in position.
The respective embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail below using the drawings. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments in any way, and may be implemented in various modes to the extent that doing so does not deviate from the key points of the present invention. It should be noted that, under the present invention, the “slackened and/or meandering state” of the core material means the core material exerting an elastic force is shaped not in a manner in which it extends straight, but in a manner in which it slackens and/or meanders.
The core material 5 is a thin, elastically deformable woven string placed in the outer layer 4, and as shown in
The core material 5 is formed as a woven string (such as a braided string or spool-knit string) which has been woven using, at an appropriate quantity ratio, stretchable yarns made of natural rubber, synthetic rubber or other elastic material and non-stretchable yarns made of nylon, polyester, or other non-elastic material, and which therefore has stretchability. The elastic force of the core material 5 can be changed according to the quantity ratio of stretchable yarns and non-stretchable yarns. For example, stretchable yarns and non-stretchable yarns can be woven at a quantity ratio of 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6 or any other appropriate quantity ratio. The elastic force of the core material 5 can be adjusted by determining this quantity ratio as deemed appropriate.
Also, the woven string used for the core material 5 may be a woven string that has been woven solely from known, so-called stretchable composite fiber yarns integrating stretchable fibers and non-stretchable fibers. When these stretchable composite fiber yarns are used, fine stretchable fibers and fine non-stretchable fibers can be blended at an appropriate ratio and therefore the elastic force of the core material 5 can be adjusted finely compared to when the aforementioned stretchable yarns and non-stretchable yarns are used. In consideration of the function of the core material 5, preferably for the invention under the present application the blending percentage of stretchable fibers is 15 to 50 percent relative to non-stretchable fibers.
The core material 5 is in contact (under pressure) with the outer layer 4 inside the firm, thin link parts 3, but not in contact with the outer layer 4 and remains virtually in a free, meandering state inside the soft, bulging knob parts 2.
The string 1 manufactured using the above apparatus and method is such that its knob parts 2 that have been formed as soft bulges by loose weaving are easy to deform elastically under an external force applied from the direction of axis, while its link parts 3 that have been formed firm and thin by dense weaving hardly deform.
The knob part 2 resists an external force based on two forces—the elastic force of the outer layer 4 and the elastic force of the core material 5—while also exerting a recovery force; however, when the knob part 2 is passed through a string hole at a normal speed, the frictional force between the string hole and the knob part 2 is proportional to the elastic force of the knob part of the outer layer 4, and therefore the knob part can be passed with a small force. This is because the core material 5 is still in a slackened and/or meandering state in this condition and has generated little elastic force, which means that the elastic force of the knob part 2 is the only resistance that must be overcome as it passes through the string hole. In a situation of vigorous exercise, on the other hand, a large external force is applied rapidly to the string 1 as a whole (or locally), in which case the elastic force of the outer layer 4 exerted by the knob part 2 is combined with the elastic force exerted by the core material 5 to increase the resistance force, thus eliminating the chances of the knob part 2 slipping easily through the string hole.
Table 1 shows the results of testing Samples 1 to 7 prepared based on this embodiment, as well as Comparative Examples 1 and 2, for overall elastic force of the string 1, impact of the knob part on the string hole, etc. Comparative Example 1 represents a string based on the invention described in Patent Literature 2, while Comparative Example 2 represents a string based on the invention described in Patent Literature 1, and all of Samples 1 to 7 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 were produced with an overall length of 50 cm, knob part diameter of 7 mm, and 30 knob parts.
The pulling forces are forces in grams needed to elongate the respective strings by 5 cm and 10 cm, respectively, and indicate the forces (elastic forces) of the entire strings to resist an external force. As shown in Table 1, Samples 1 to 7 each exhibited large elastic forces of two to five times the elastic forces of Comparative Example 1, and could also exhibit greater elastic forces than Comparative Example 2 when the quantity of elastic material was increased.
In the string hole passing test, the knob parts of the respective strings were passed a total of 100 times through a 4-mm circular string hole formed in cardboard to measure the degree of deformation/enlargement of the string hole, thereby measuring the forces (elastic forces) of the knob parts to resist an external force. As a result of the test, Samples 1 to 7 made the string hole larger by a maximum of 20 percent or so; however, these results were not much different from the results of Comparative Example 1, while Comparative Example 2 caused significant damage to the string hole.
As is evident from the test results above, since each knob part 2 of the string 1 pertaining to this embodiment passes through the string hole by using almost solely the elastic force thereof, no significant force is required, and damage to the string hole can also be prevented. It should be noted that, if the string hole is constituted as a string hole with a metal ring crimped around it, any damage to the string hole is minimized even when the knob parts 2 are firm, which means that the knob parts can have a slightly larger elastic force; in Comparative Example 2 where the knob parts do not deform elastically, however, passing them through such string hole is difficult.
The right-most column in Table 1 shows the tensile test results of only the samples with 10-cm core materials, indicating the maximum elongation of each core material (its length when maximally stretched), where clearly the core materials 5 of Samples 1 to 7 have a greater elongation property than the core material of Comparative Example 1. It is also clear that some samples undergo a greater elastic deformation than does Comparative Example 2 that uses only a rubber material. This is because the core material 5 according to the invention under the present application is formed by weaving a rubber or other stretchable material in such a way that this stretchable material is woven in a spiraling or meandering state, in a state longer than its natural length, into the core material 5 of a prescribed length, thus effecting a greater elastic deformation than can Comparative Example 2 which only uses a rubber material. With these samples, therefore, the elastic force can be changed in a more flexible manner than with Comparative Example 2 which uses one thick rubber yarn.
It should be noted that, while the samples prepared for the aforementioned tests were prepared from stretchable yarns and non-stretchable yarns combined at several representative quantity ratios, the invention under the present application is not limited to these quantity ratios.
It should be noted that, while the core material 5 is in a meandering state inside the knob parts 2 in the first embodiment and variation example thereof, it only needs to be in a state not extending straight, or in a so-called “slackened” state.
Next, the second embodiment of the present invention is explained.
The core material 5 is placed in a meandering (and/or slackened) state inside the long elastic part 6, and the string 1 can stretch due to two elastic forces: the elastic force of the long elastic part 6 and the elastic force of the core material 5.
It should be noted that stopper knobs 10 placed on both the left and right sides of the string 1 are string-end knobs that have been formed to maintain the string 1 in a set state once it has been set on a shoe, etc., and in the sense that they are provided to function as so-called “end stoppers,” the purpose and function of these knobs are different from those of the knob parts 2 placed over the entire length of the string 1 in the first embodiment.
Also, the diameter of the long elastic part 6 in its natural state may be the same as, or smaller or greater than, the diameter of the stopper knobs 10 placed on both the left and right sides of the string 1. Furthermore, the link parts 3 explained in the first embodiment may be used between the long elastic part 6 and the stopper knobs 10.
According to the string 1 in the second embodiment, it can be argued that, when the long elastic part 6 is passed through a string hole at a normal speed, for example, the frictional force between the string hole and the long elastic part 6 is proportional to the elastic force of the outer layer 4, and therefore the long elastic part can be passed with a small force. This is because the core material is still in a slackened and/or meandering state in this condition and has generated little elastic force, which means that the elastic force of the long elastic part 6 is the only resistance that must be overcome as it passes through the string hole. In a situation of vigorous exercise, on the other hand, a large external force is applied rapidly to the string 1 as a whole (or locally), in which case the elastic force of the outer layer 4 exerted by the long elastic part 6 is combined with the elastic force exerted by the core material 5 to increase the resistance force against such external force, thus eliminating the chances of the long elastic part 6 slipping easily through the string hole.
Next, the third embodiment of the present invention is explained.
The core material 5 is placed in a slackened (or meandering) state inside the outer layer 4 in the intermediate area 9, and the string 1 can stretch due to two elastic forces: the elastic force of the outer layer 4 in the intermediate area 9 and the elastic force of the core material 5.
The string 1 pertaining to the third embodiment is different from the first and second embodiments where the knob parts 2 and long elastic part 6 are locked in place based on their position relationship with a string hole, in that, while it is set in the same manner as any normal string would be with respect to a string hole, its outer layer 4 in the intermediate area 9 comprises multiple areas exerting different elastic forces as formed in the direction of axis, and therefore the necessary tension can be applied to the necessary location when the string is set on a shoe or clothing, while the absence of knob parts 2 and long elastic part 6 like those under the first and second inventions eliminates the need for cumbersome passing operations when setting the string or correcting its tension and it furthermore makes the string look the same as any standard braided string and also clean and neat.
Furthermore, the core material 5 placed inside the outer layer 4 in the intermediate area 9 in a meandering (and/or slackened) state exerts its elastic force, in addition to the elastic force of the outer layer 4, to prevent the set string 1 from shifting in position even in situations of vigorous exercise.
It should be noted that, just like in the second embodiment, the stopper knobs 10 placed on both the left and right sides of the string 1 are knobs to maintain the string 1 in a set state once it has been set on a shoe, etc., and in the sense that they are provided to function as so-called “end stoppers,” the purpose and function of these knobs are different from those of the knob parts 2 placed over the entire length of the string 1 in the first embodiment.
Also, in each of the aforementioned embodiments, the core material 5 was explained as a braided string or spool-knit string; besides these, however, it may be any of various types of woven strings, or even a twisted string. Whatever the case may be, any string whose core material 5 combines stretchable fibers and non-stretchable fibers and is therefore stretchable (elastic composite fiber string), suffices.
The method for manufacturing the string 1 pertaining to the second embodiment or third embodiment mentioned above is basically the same as that in the first embodiment, and thus not explained in detail.
The foregoing can be summarized that, according to the string 1 pertaining to each invention under the present application, not only there are deformable knob parts in the outer layer 4, but the core material 5 placed inside the outer layer is also elastically deformable, which means that the user can pass the string through a string hole only with a small force that resists the elastic force of the knob part in the outer layer 4, thus preventing the user from injuring his/her fingers or damaging the string hole, and once the string has been set, any external force can be resisted by the elastic force of the outer layer 4 and the elastic force of the core material 5, thus enabling the knob part to be prevented from slipping through the string hole or shifting easily from the prescribed position.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP2018-209808 | Nov 2018 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2019/014414 | 4/1/2019 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2020/095465 | 5/14/2020 | WO | A |
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| S4899444 | Dec 1973 | JP |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 20210123172 A1 | Apr 2021 | US |
