Patent Application
20050178806
The present invention relates to a garment hanger.
Conventionally, a garment hanger includes an upper garment support for a jacket or other upper body garment, a lower garment support for trousers or other lower body garment such as a skirt, and a hook for suspending the garment hanger on a transverse clothes rail.
When a garment or suit positioned on a conventional garment hanger has to be placed or removed from the clothes rail this often becomes difficult since access to a crowded clothes rails is typically hindered. It will be even more difficult for a person of normal height to position the hanger on a high clothes rail, or for a person of short stature or with a disability to position the hanger even on a conventional height rail, without tilting of the hanger, which may cause the trousers on the hanger to slide sideways and crumple, or to slip off the hanger.
Moreover, some garment hangers are made from thin, wire like frames or far-too-flexible plastic. As a result, the weight of the clothes is distributed over a small surface of the hand, causing a lot of pressure on the very small area of the hand, often at an uncomfortable angle.
The same inconvenience arises in other numerous quite different operations involving conventional garment hangers, such as transporting clothes on such a garment hanger, even for a short distance, demonstrating a suit to a customer in a shop, removing or placing a garment when several garments positioned on individual hangers are packed closely on the clothes rail, etc.
In other words, conventional garment hangers are simply not ergonomically suited to the structural and functional characteristics of human hand and arm, nor to the manner in which the hangers are used.
The present invention aims to address one or more of these deficiencies by providing a new, ergonomically improved garment hanger.
The present invention provides a garment hanger adapted for hooking over a clothes rail, including: a hanger frame for supporting a garment, said frame being generally perpendicular to a notional vertical plane containing said clothes rail; a hanger support hook adjacent an apex of the frame; and a handle portion depending downwards from an end of said frame, said end being offset downwardly from said apex and laterally of said notional vertical plane, said handle portion including a handle positioned for use by the user for handling the hanger.
Preferably said hanger frame includes a support arm extending from the apex of the frame to said end of the frame, and the handle portion depends downwards from a distal end of the support arm.
Preferably said handle portion depends downwards from a right-hand end of said frame.
Preferably said garment hanger further including orientation means for orientation of said clothes hanger relative to said clothes rail.
Preferably an opening of said hanger support hook faces away from the end of the frame having said handle.
Preferably said support arm is downwardly angled from the apex of the frame to the frame end.
In one embodiment, the hanger frame includes a generally horizontal garment rail adapted to support a lower body garment, and said handle is readily accessible by a user when the lower body garment is supported on the garment rail.
Preferably the hanger frame includes a generally horizontal garment rail adapted to support a lower body garment, the garment rail being supported by the support arm, and extending from a junction of the support arm and the handle portion.
In another embodiment the hanger frame includes a further support arm extending downwardly from the apex of the frame to an opposite end of the frame, and the support arms together are adapted to support an upper body garment.
In a further embodiment, the garment hanger includes a generally horizontal garment rail adapted to support a lower body garment, and the garment rail is supported by at least one of the support arms, and extends from a junction of said at least one support arm and the handle portion.
In one embodiment, the support arms include means for retention of straps of the upper body garment.
Preferably, said handle portion is sized and shaped to be received within the top of a sleeve of an upper body garment, such as a jacket, supported on the hanger frame.
Preferably, said handle portion, when received within said sleeve, does not cause substantial deformation of the sleeve.
Preferably said handle is readily accessible through the material of said sleeve.
In one embodiment, said garment hanger further includes a garment clip hinged relative to the hanger frame, being movable from a first position in which said garment clip cooperates with said generally horizontal garment rail to secure a lower body garment on said garment rail, and a second position in which said garment clip is moved away from said garment rail to permit the lower body garment to be placed or removed from said garment rail.
Preferably said garment clip includes resilient compression means for imposing a clamping force on said lower body garment, and adapted to compensate for variations in the thickness of lower body garments positioned on the garment rail.
Preferably said garment hanger further includes a retainer clip for holding said garment clip member in said second position.
In one embodiment said garment clip extends between a support arm of the frame and said generally horizontal garment rail.
In a preferred embodiment said garment clip includes first and second hinge members, said first hinge member being fixed to said support arm, said second hinge member being pivotally connected to said first hinge member for hinged movement between said first and second positions.
In one embodiment said support arms and said garment rail lie in substantially the same vertical plane.
In one form the hanger frame is a substantially triangular frame, optionally a closed triangular frame.
Further preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, in which:
a is a perspective side view of the suit hanger of
b is a perspective detail view of the suit hanger of
The garment hangers 10 in
Referring now to the embodiment of the invention shown in
The frame 11 includes a jacket hanger portion 12 having a pair of shoulder-shaped, downwardly angled garment support arms 16 over which a jacket 17 shown in
As shown clearly in
As shown in
Alternatively, the rail 20 may be connected to both support arms 16 to form a strong, closed triangular frame (not shown).
In
The handle 22 extends down from the junction of the support arm 16 and the rail 20 at the end of the hanger frame opposite that faced by the hook opening 25, providing a far more convenient means for the user to position the hanger onto, or remove the hanger from, the clothes rail 15b without undue tilting of the hanger.
As best seen in
In a preferred embodiment the handle 22 is straight and longitudinally oriented along a substantially vertical axis 23 (refer to
In a preferred embodiment the handle has a length L of about 10 cm and a width W of about 2.5 cm. The width of the web 22a is about 0.5 cm measured perpendicular to plane 23a. Preferably, the end flanges 22b have arcuate shaped external surfaces thereby allowing a user to hold the garment hanger by hand with ease and comfort.
The handle 22 may be moulded into either the left or the right bottom end corner of rail 20, allowing ready access to and operation of the handle when both upper and lower garments are on the hanger. Preferably, however, the handle is in the right hand corner of the hanger frame to suit the 90% of the population which is right-handed. In this way, the position of the handle may be predicted even when obscured by the jacket sleeve. Furthermore, this will help consistent orientation of the hangers on the rail so as to take up less room.
As best seen in
Referring to
The garment hanger further includes a retainer clip 32 located on the support arm 16 for holding the flap 28 in the second position. Alternatively, a compound hinge including two spaced pivotally supported hinge elements may be used for the purpose of holding the clip 30 in the open position.
In a preferred embodiment the hinge construction 24 is resiliently compressible to apply a clamping force, via the clip 30, to the trousers on the garment rail 20. Such resilient compression means helps compensate for variations in the thickness of the lower body garment positioned on the garment rail 20, thereby enabling the hanger 10 to be used for a wide range of lower body garments.
Any suitable resilient compression means may be employed for this purpose. In particular, the hinge members 26 and 28, or the clip 30, or both, may be formed of a resilient material. Also, the hinge construction 24 may include any suitable shape configurations which are capable of being deformed and compressed to a limited extent. In the embodiment shown in
The trouser support portion 18 and the hinge construction 24 are preferably integrally moulded with the jacket support portion 12 from a plastics material such as polypropylene. Alternatively, the trouser support portion 18 and/or the hinge construction 24 may be manufactured separately from the jacket support portion 12 and then subsequently connected to the jacket support portion during a succeeding manufacturing step.
It should be noted that the trouser hanger with handle is a useful and inventive item in its own right, separately of the jacket hanger, and forms a separate embodiment of the present invention.
There is illustrated in
In one embodiment, the trouser hanger 10 further includes the integral hinge 24 already discussed above in relation to
As shown in
The handle located at the bottom end corner of the hanger allows convenient positioning of the hanger onto a high clothes rail without having to unduly tilt the hanger, and importantly will be of significant benefit to the disabled or those of short stature, who otherwise may have trouble reaching a clothes rail of standard height. It is believed that the handle configuration described and illustrated herein will provide an additional reach of up to approximately 250 mm, which means that a clothes rail will be able to set about that distance higher and that in many instances a second clothes rail may be able to be provided underneath. This will be of particular benefit to clothing retailers and residential and hotel wardrobe designers, who can therefore make effective use of the extra available storage space.
The handles, being positioned at the front of the wardrobe, make it easier to have access to the garments in the wardrobe, as users will generally approach the wardrobe from the end of the hangers.
While particular embodiments of this invention have been described, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments and examples are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all modifications which would be obvious to those skilled in the art are therefore intended to be embraced therein. For example, the jacket and trouser hangers described herein are each useful items in their own right and each of these, as separate articles, is intended to be covered by the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will further be understood that any reference herein to known prior art does not, unless the contrary indication appears, constitute an admission that such prior art is commonly known by those skilled in the art to which the invention relates.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PR9951 | Jan 2002 | AU | national |
| 2002950244 | Jul 2002 | AU | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/AU03/00020 | 1/9/2003 | WO |
