Patent Application
20100306975
The inventions described in this application relate to fasteners. The fasteners have particular application for fastening items to textiles and fabrics, e.g., for fastening a racing bib to an athlete's garment.
Competitive athletes usually attach racing bibs to their racing garments using safety pins. The racing bibs contain a large name or number (possibly along with other information) to identify the athletes during the competition (e.g., running, cycling, skiing, etc.). The names/numbers have other functions, for instance to identify the athletes in photographs that vendors then sell to the depicted individuals. The bibs are often of TYVEK (a flexible lightweight spunbond polymer manufactured by DuPont), often have perforated portions that can be detached to serve as gear check receipts or drink tickets, and usually come with four openings near the corners spaced to facilitate attachment to garments.
Race organizers typically provide four safety pins to each athlete inside a race packet. The athlete collects the packet (and the pins) before the race. Safety pins can be difficult to use during the racing bib fastening process. They create a risk of skin-puncture; they have a tension bias that requires precise squeezing between the fingers to open or close them (where slippage creates further puncture risk); they are hard to manipulate in the dark (such as the night before a race when many athletes fasten their bib); they are hard to manipulate quickly (such as the moments before a race when late athletes rush to fasten their bib); they are hard to use for fastening a bib to a garment the athlete is presently wearing; they are not biodegradable; and they are not ideal for making a racing bib even, level and centered on a shirt. The attachment of racing bibs using safety pins can be a frustrating process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,815 describes a specialized garment that comes with affixed prior art snap fasteners. The garment obviates the need for safety pins, since it permits easy fastening of information panels such as racing bibs.
The inventions described below obviate the need for (and one or more disadvantages of) safety pins for fastening items to textiles and fabrics. They have a distinct advantage over the inventions described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,815, in that an athlete may use them with garments the athlete already owns, and need not alter the garment. Of course, such fasteners have applications beyond competitive athletics, and embrace any application requiring easy fastening of one item to another.
A fastener assembly has a female portion containing a receptacle. The receptacle is a low profile shaft (e.g., a tube) that projects outwardly from a plane. The end of this shaft may be open (and thus ready to receive the knob of the male portion), or topped with a releasable cover shaped to allow passage through fabric (e.g., a conical top ending in a point). In the latter case, once the receptacle has been passed through the fabric, the cover may be released to expose the receptacle's opening. Since the opening has now passed through a fabric or textile, and since the female portion plane on the other side prevents total passage of the female portion through the fabric or textile, the male portion may now releasably engage the female portion. The male portion itself includes its own plane. In such a way, the plane of the female portion on one side of a garment may connect to the plane of the male portion on another side of the garment, thus fastening items securely to the garment.
The application will determine what material to use. For applications requiring durability and long wear, metallic compositions will be appropriate. For applications requiring light weight and that involve a single brief use (e.g., an athletic competition), polymer or decomposable food-based compositions will be appropriate.
The following detailed description of the inventions should not be viewed as limiting. Nor is any list of materials or alternatives intended to be limiting in any way. The reader should consult the appended claims to define the property rights that the inventor intends to claim.
The fastener 100 of Example 1 includes a male portion 110 and a female portion 120.
The female portion 120 includes a plane 130 and a receptacle 140 projecting outwardly from the plane 130. (The term plane is not used in the purest sense, but rather in the sense of a somewhat rigid member, having a substantially flat region, from which another member might project). The receptacle 140 is a hollow tube. The end of the tube opposite the plane 130 has an opening 150. The receptacle 140 extends only slightly past the plane 130—just enough to permit the opening 150 to appear flush or nearly so to the surface of a fabric or textile through which the receptacle might pass (preferably at least 2 mm, up to 10 mm). The opening may be a simple orifice, or alternatively may include a further assembly to create a spring bias against a mating knob (e.g., a metallic leaf spring, as in traditional prior art snap fasteners used in clothing, not shown).
The male portion 110 includes a plane 160 and a knob 170 projecting outwardly from the plane 160. The knob 170 is preferably sized to be slightly larger than the receptacle opening 150. It is well known in the art to size the knob of a fastener to create a snap fit when matably engaged with its corresponding female receptacle opening.
The two portions are mated with simple pressure. The two portions may then be released by pulling.
If the fastener is intended for attachment of a racing bib to an athlete's garment, it should preferably be made of lightweight material and material that does not chafe, e.g., plastic. In this regard, the plane intended for the skin side of the garment (whether male or female plane) should be shaped to minimize chafing, e.g., shaped as a wide-arc dome. And, the plane intended to sandwich the racing bib to the garment (whether male or female plane) should be sized to make sure the racing bib stays on, e.g., 1-2 cm2. If not plastic, the fastener (or portions of it) for this application may alternatively be made of food grade material (e.g., gelatin, corn starch, etc.) or other easily biodegradable compositions. Such materials would minimize the environmental impact of large-scale, single-site uses—e.g., the finish line of a large competition where thousands of people might release their fasteners all within a short time in a small area.
The fastener 200 of example 2 is identical to the fastener embodiments of example 1, except that the receptacle 140 of the female portion 120 now has a cover 151 over the opening 150. This cover 151 may be made of the same material or different material from the rest of the female portion 120. The cover 151 preferably is shaped to facilitate piercing of a fabric or textile. For instance, it may be a cone ending in a point.
The cover 151 is releasable. Two alternatives include complete removability, and hingeability that keeps the cover connected to the opening 150. In either case, releasability may be facilitated by including perforations in the material where the cover meets the opening, or by any other known means. In use, the user would peel away or otherwise release the cover 151, exposing the opening 150, prior to mating the male portion 110 to the female portion 120.
The fastener 300 of example 3 is identical to the fastener embodiments of either examples 1 or 2, except the portion that pierces the fabric or textile is a male, not a female, portion. Instead of a knob, the male portion includes a barb 310. The barb 310 functions to pass through a fabric or textile and allow engagement with a female portion. And now instead of a receptacle projecting from the female plane, the female portion includes an opening 320 that is flush (or nearly so) with a plane. The opening 320 is sized to permit releasable engagement between the barb and the opening.
Alternatively, a bent or curved hook may substitute for the barb. In this case, particularly if the hook is metallic, the bent or curved hook would permit easy passage through a fabric or textile, as well as secure engagement upon attachment, but would deform with sufficient pulling pressure to allow easy removal without damaging the fabric or textile through which it must then pass.
