Patent Application
20200205594
The present invention relates to racks for coat hangers, and more particularly to a rack for efficiently storing empty coat hangers when they are not in use, such that they do not take up space on a clothing rail and do not become entangled.
Coat hangers have a hooking element that is centered on a pair of downwardly divergent arms, and typically a spanning horizontal rod. Coat hangers that are empty are more likely to become entangled than when they are holding clothing, in large part because the clothing functions as a spacer, separating hooking elements of adjacent coat hangers. Empty coat hangers have no spacer, and are more easily entangled via the hooking elements. Entanglement has been observed to be mitigated by adding spacer disks between the hooking elements. Another mitigating device is embodied in security hangers, which have a strong chrome pin which connects to a security ring, which is permanently attached to a secured clothing rail. These security hangers are slightly less likely to entangle as they have no hook, but they have several disadvantages, the most egregious are that it is very difficult to align the pin with the security ring, and you can't add more security hangers without removing the clothing rail.
There is now a wide assortment of coat hangers, and all can be accommodated by the clothing rail. Wire hangers are probably the most common, but they are also the most likely to entangle. The higher cost coat hangers are made of wood, and they are also usually the thickest, with the exception of coat hangers covered with a paper tube. Plastic coat hangers are the most diverse in color, shape, and size.
Another type of hanger is a clamp-hanger, which typically also has a hooking element, but it is centered on a plastic horizontal rod with a pair of distal clamps, which in some variations are slidable to accommodate a range of waist sizes.
Gary Keith Carter in U.S. Pat. No. 8,763,312 teaches in FIG. 4 and FIG. 3 a set of interlocking panels that have an elongated channel 112 in FIG. 1, wherein a bottom portion 304 of an upper panel can intersect/lap an indent 120 of a lower panel forming the elongated channel. Carter's invention has many fasteners, and looks like it would be suitable for heavy objects, wherein the fasteners are for a plurality of cantilevered posts that can support relatively heavy items, like a plurality of coats on coat hangers.
Trevor Simon teaches in U.S. Pat. No. 9,366,275 an apparatus mounted to a more conventional slat wall. As illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the slat wall has an upper undercut and lower undercut elongated channel.
Michael A. Honermann in D738,146 teaches an ornamental design for a vertical slat wall with vertical slots forming a vertical recessed elongated channel. The slat wall, as shown in
Broadly, the present invention is a rack for efficiently storing empty coat hangers when they are not in use, such that they do not take up space on a clothing rail and do not become entangled.
A first object of the invention is that the rack can receive a wide assortment of coat hangers that have a spanning horizontal rod. For example many wire coat hangers have a paper core horizontal rod that spans between a pair of divergent wire arms, and many wire coat hangers have a wire spanning horizontal rod. Wood hangers often have a wood spanning horizontal rod and a parallel anti-slip wire to secure pants. Plastic coat hangers frequently have downwardly divergent arms with a pair of strap indents or a pair of strap stops. In short, the rack can accommodate coat hangers having a range of materials, dimensions and shape.
A second object of the invention is that the rack for storing empty coat hangers should be very easy to mount on a wall, wherein the rack and the wall are substantially perpendicular to a level floor. An illustrative example of “very easy to mount” is a mount that requires only a few screws or nails.
A third object of the invention is that the invention substantially minimizes entanglement of hooking elements on adjacent coat hangers. Some overlap is tolerable but there enough spacing to minimize entanglement.
A fourth object of the invention is that the rack for storing empty coat hangers is optimized to use a minimal amount of material, therein keeping the cost down.
A fifth object of the invention is that it should be relatively easy to remove any specific individual coat hanger without rearranging the other coat hangers on the rack.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciable from the following description of preferred embodiments of the invention and from the accompanying drawings and claims.
The foregoing invention will become readily apparent by referring to the following descriptions and the appended drawings in which:
Illustrative embodiments and exemplary applications will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings to disclose the advantageous teachings of the present invention.
Various embodiments of the invention are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all of the embodiments of the invention are shown in the figures. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the teachings provided herein will recognize addition.
The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers is a rack having a rectangular shape that includes an upper horizontal beam with an upper left end and an upper right end, a coplanar lower horizontal beam with a lower left end and a lower right end, a left vertical bar, and parallel, a right vertical bar.
The left vertical bar extends from the upper left end to the lower left end and the right vertical bar extends from the upper right end to the lower right end.
The left vertical bar and the right vertical bar are about identical in shape, in that both the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar each have a set of upwardly slanted frontal teeth separated by upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses.
In one embodiment the empty coat hanger has a center hooked element, a left arm and a right arm, and a horizontal rod will hang almost upside down by the horizontal rod when the horizontal rod is seated in a parallel pair of upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses on the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar. There is a mounting element centered on the upper horizontal beam therein enabling the rack to be mounted on a wall, substantially perpendicular to a level floor, with a fastening element selected from the group consisting of a sheet rock screw, a nail, a picture hanger, a set of French cleats or a combination thereof.
The invention, as illustrated in
As shown an embodiment depicted in
In the rack 10′, illustrated in
An empty pair of horizontally grooved recesses 24l,24r that is overlapped can be filled by lifting the center hooked element in the rack above the empty pair of horizontally grooved recesses, and while lifted, filling the rack, as indicated by the horizontal two headed arced arrow.
In the illustrated rack 10″ in
The choice of materials used to form the rack has an impact on the maximum number of coat hangers it can hold. In
No-limiting examples of material useful for forming the rack are selected from the group consisting of a rigid plastic including polycarbonate, ABS, filled polypropylene, polymethacrylate, rigid polyesters, PLA (polylactic acid), polyamide (nylon), glass filled polyamide, epoxies, fiberglass, as well as wood, metal and composites thereof.
While the foregoing written description of the invention enables one of ordinary skill to make and use what is considered presently to be the best mode thereof, those of ordinary skill will understand and appreciate the existence of variations, combinations, and equivalents of the specific embodiment, method, and examples herein. The invention should therefore not be limited by the above described embodiment, method, and examples, but by all embodiments and methods within the scope and spirit of the invention.
Finally, any numerical parameters set forth in the specification and attached claims are approximations (for example, by using the term “about”) that may vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by the present invention. At the very least, and not as an attempt to limit the application of the doctrine of equivalents to the scope of the claims, each numerical parameter should at least be construed in light of the number of significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding.
The present patent application/patent claims the benefit of priority of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/612,811, filed on Jan. 2, 2018, and entitled “EMPTY COAT HANGER RACK”, the contents of which are incorporated in full by reference herein.
