Claims
- 1. An adjustable width garment hanger, comprising:
- a suspension member;
- first and second elongate arms extending in opposite lateral directions from said suspension member thereby defining a garment supporting width;
- each of said first and second arms including a proximal portion having a proximal end located proximate to said suspension member and a remote end located remote from said suspension member, said proximal portions are supported relative to one another at an obtuse angle therebetween; and
- each of said first and second arms further including a distal portion having a proximal end located proximate to the corresponding remote end of said proximal portion and extends proximately along the axis of its respective proximal portion towards a distal end remote from said proximal portion; wherein
- each of said distal portions is configured to be readily physically distorted at multiple points along its axis for varying its lateral extension from its respective proximal portion to adjust said garment supporting width;
- the span between the remote ends of said proximal portions defines proximately the minimum shoulder width of garment to be supported and the maximum span between the remote ends of said distal portions defines proximately the maximum shoulder width of garment to be supported; and
- each said proximal portion is stronger relative than the corresponding distal portion of the garment hanger.
- 2. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 further including a brace carried between said proximal portions for strengthening thereof.
- 3. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions is a separated member carried by its respective proximal portion.
- 4. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 3 wherein each of said distal portions is removably carried by its respective proximal portion.
- 5. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 3 wherein each of said distal portions comprises of a material different from the respective proximal portion.
- 6. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 3 wherein each of said distal portions is selectable from a set of distal portions of different dimensions.
- 7. The garment hanger of claim 1 wherein said distal portions are configured to be continuously adjustable within an adjustment range specified to provide an exact shoulder supporting width.
- 8. The garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions is configured to be distorted and maintained in the distorted shape to secure said garment supporting width before a garment is put on.
- 9. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions is comprised of a resilient material.
- 10. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein the junction between each distal portion and its respective proximal portions is configured to provide an approximately homogeneous upper supporting surface suitable for supporting the shoulder portion of a garment.
- 11. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said arms has a cross sectional area that reduces as the arm transitions from its proximal portion to its distal portion to facilitate trimming of said distal portion to reduce its lateral extension.
- 12. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 11 wherein each of said distal portions have a transverse dimension of not more than 3 millimeters.
- 13. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions includes a plurality of selectively removable tabs, said tabs defined by laterally spaced indentations to facilitate their removal.
- 14. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 13 wherein each of said tabs includes an indicia indicative of its contribution to the lateral extent of its respective distal arm.
- 15. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 13 wherein each of said tabs includes a portion disposed to abut a garment carried by said first and second arms and wherein said portion extends laterally beyond any indentation associated with that tab to protect said garment therefrom.
- 16. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions includes a plurality of laterally spaced segments, a first one of said segments rotatably carried by the respective proximal portion and the remainder of said segments rotatably attached to an adjoining segment to facilitate bending of said distal portion to reduce its lateral extension.
- 17. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 16 wherein each of said segments defines a set of rotation means, the rotation means of one of said segments rotatably received by the mating rotation means of the adjoining segments; each pair of adjoining segments further defines adjustable detent means to provide a plurality of angular selections in between the two adjoining segments.
- 18. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said proximal portions and distal portions comprises a wire, said wire of each distal portion configured of a ductile material with a cross sectional area sufficiently small to facilitate bending of said wire by a hanger user to reduce its lateral extension.
- 19. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said proximal portions is comprised of plastic and each of said distal portions comprises a wire, said wire of each distal portion configured of a ductile material with a cross sectional area sufficiently small to facilitate bending of said wire by a hanger user to reduce its lateral extension.
- 20. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions comprises a wire, said wire further includes a resilient coating.
- 21. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 20 wherein said coating defines a plurality of laterally spaced slots, said slots thereby defining segments therebetween, said slots facilitating bending of said proximal portions until stopped by abutment of neighboring segments.
- 22. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 9 wherein each of said distal portions is configured to define a helix.
- 23. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions comprises a resilient strap and each of said proximal portions is configured to releasably retain said strap when it is bent back upon itself to reduce its lateral extension.
- 24. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 23 wherein each of said proximal portions and its respective distal portion are configured to be mutually and releasably engageable in a plurality of selectable lateral relationships therebetween.
- 25. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 23 wherein each of said proximal portions defines a guide structure to receive said strap when it is bent back to reduce its lateral extension.
- 26. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 24 further including: a plurality of holes defined by each of said straps; and a button defined by each of said proximal portions to receive a selected one of the holes of its associated strap to fix its lateral extension.
- 27. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 24 further including: a plurality of grooves defined by each of said straps; and a tab defined by each of said proximal portions to receive a selected one of the grooves of its associated strap to fix its lateral extension.
- 28. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions comprises a resilient strap bent back laterally to provide rigid downward support to the garment.
- 29. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein each of said distal portions comprises a resilient strap and bent back in a downward direction to provide elastic downward support to the garment.
- 30. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 further comprise a polygonal frame extending downward from said proximal portions.
- 31. The adjustable width garment hanger of claim 1 wherein any characteristic of the shape of said distal portion, including the extension direction and dimension is distorted to adjust said garment supporting width.
- 32. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 3 wherein each of said distal portion is selectable from a set of distal portions of different properties.
- 33. The adjustable garment hanger of claim 1 wherein said distal portion is configured of a ductile material.
- 34. The adjustable hanger of claim 33 wherein said hanger is a wire hanger.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation-in-part of pending parent application U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/247,318, now abandoned, filed 05/23/94 which are incorporated herein by reference.
US Referenced Citations (6)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
2120542 |
May 1983 |
GBX |
2270186 |
Aug 1992 |
GBX |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
247318 |
May 1994 |
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