Patent Application
20230145584
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the reproduction of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Pat. and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
Not Applicable
Reference will now be made in detail to optional embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in accompanying drawings. Whenever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawing and in the description referring to the same or like parts.
While the making and using of various embodiments of the present invention are discussed in detail below, it should be appreciated that the present invention provides many applicable inventive concepts that can be embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specific embodiments discussed herein are merely illustrative of specific ways to make and use the invention and do not delimit the scope of the invention.
To facilitate the understanding of the embodiments described herein, a number of terms are defined below. The terms defined herein have meanings as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the areas relevant to the present invention. Terms such as “a,” “an,” and “the” are not intended to refer to only a singular entity, but rather include the general class of which a specific example may be used for illustration. The terminology herein is used to describe specific embodiments of the invention, but their usage does not delimit the invention, except as set forth in the claims.
As described herein, an upright position is considered to be the position of apparatus components while in proper operation or in a natural resting position as described herein. Vertical, horizontal, above, below, side, top, bottom and other orientation terms are described with respect to this upright position during operation unless otherwise specified. As used herein, the upright position of a ring is when worn on the finger of a user and the finger is generally horizontal such that the ring is annular about a horizontally extending longitudinal axis. The term “when” is used to specify orientation for relative positions of components, not as a temporal limitation of the claims or apparatus described and claimed herein unless otherwise specified. The terms “above”, “below”, “over”, and “under” mean “having an elevation or vertical height greater or lesser than” and are not intended to imply that one object or component is directly over or under another object or component.
The phrase “in one embodiment,” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, although it may. Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or states. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or states are in any way required for one or more embodiments.
Referring to
The outer annular body 102 may be formed via a number of different processes depending on the material of the outer annular body 102. In one embodiment, the outer annular body 102 is formed of a material from the group of materials consisting of gold, titanium, carbon fiber, and stainless steel. It is contemplated within the scope of the claims that the material of the outer annular body 102 may be other than these materials. In one embodiment, the outer annular body 102 is not formed via an injection molding process. In one embodiment, the outer annular body 102 is not flexible, and instead, the outer annular body 102 is rigid.
The inner annular body 104 is formed via an injection molding process. In one embodiment, the material of the inner annular body 104 is flexible. In one embodiment, the inner annular body 104 is formed from silicon. In another embodiment, the inner annular body includes at least one of polyvinyl chloride, thermoplastic polyurethane, or silicone.
In one embodiment, the outer annular body 102 is placed into the mold which forms the inner annular body 104 during the injection molding process in order to bind the inner annular body 104 to outer annular body 102 and such that the inner annular body 104 fills any recesses or strain relief areas in the outer annular body 102. In one embodiment, the inner annular body 104 is machined after the injection molding process forming the inner annular body 104 to remove material from the inner annular body 104 such that longitudinal ends 120 of the inner annular body 104 do not extend beyond corresponding longitudinal ends 122 of the outer annular body 102. In one embodiment, the machining further rounds the inner annular body 104 such that the interannual body 104 is rounded from the outer surface 106 of the inner annular body 104 to the inner surface 110 of the inner annular body 104. The machining may also remove material from the outer annular body 102 at the longitudinal ends 122 of the outer annular body 102 to better align the ends 120 of the inner annular body 104 with the longitudinal ends 122 of the outer annular body 102. In another embodiment, curvature of the inner annular body 104 from the outer surface 106 of the inner annular body to the inner surface 110 of the inner annular body 104 is accomplished during the injection molding process forming the inner annular body 104.
In one embodiment, the outer annular body 102 includes at least one strain relief recess 130 in the inner surface 108 of the outer annular body 102. The inner annular body 104 extends into the strain relief recess 130 in the outer annular body 102. In one embodiment, the strain relief recess 130 extends through the outer annular body 102 such that the outer annular body 102 is not continuous. In one embodiment, the inner annular body 104 includes a groove 132 corresponding to the strain relief recess 130 in the outer annular body 102. The groove 132 corresponding to the strain relief recess 130 may be angularly aligned with the strain relief recess 130, or may be slightly offset from the strain relief recess 130. That is, the groove 132 corresponding to the strain relief recess 130 may be angularly aligned at an edge 131 of the strain relief recess 130 or offset from the strain relief recess 130 by a small amount (e.g., less than 15°). In one embodiment, the outer annular body includes a plurality of strain relief recesses 130. The first strain relief recess 130 and a second strain relief recess 133 are opposite one another with respect to an angular location of each of the strain relief recesses such that the angle between the first strain relief recess 130 and the second strain relief recess 133 relative to a longitudinal axis through the center of the ring 100 is 180°. These strain relief recesses 130 and the corresponding grooves 132 are configured to create a weak point in the ring 100 such that if a user catches the ring on an object, the inner annular body 104 will tear through, removing the ring 100 from the user instead of injuring the user’s finger.
In one embodiment, the outer annular body 102 has a fastening channel 140 defined therein. The fastening channel 140 is recessed from the inner surface 108 of the outer annular body 102, and the inner annular body 104 extends into the fastening channel 140 (see e.g.,
In one embodiment, the inner annular body 104 includes a plurality of slots 150 defined in the inner surface 110 of the inner annular body 104. Each of the slots 150 extends longitudinally from a first side of the ring 102 a second side of the ring 100 (e.g., between the opposing longitudinal ends 120 of the inner annular body 104). In one embodiment, the slots 150 do not extend directly from one side of the ring 100 to the opposing side of the ring 100, but instead are curved and interlinked with one another.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.
It will be understood that the particular embodiments described herein are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the invention. The principal features of this invention may be employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize numerous equivalents to the specific procedures described herein. Such equivalents are considered to be within the scope of this invention and are covered by the claims.
All of the compositions and/or methods disclosed and claimed herein may be made and/or executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the compositions and methods of this invention have been described in terms of the embodiments included herein, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that variations may be applied to the compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the method described herein without departing from the concept, spirit, and scope of the invention. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit, scope, and concept of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Thus, although there have been described particular embodiments of the present invention of a new and useful HYBRID RING it is not intended that such references be construed as limitations upon the scope of this invention except as set forth in the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17161994 | Jan 2021 | US |
| Child | 18092381 | US | |
| Parent | 16866998 | May 2020 | US |
| Child | 17161994 | US |
