Patent Application
20120180189
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
The present invention relates to garments generally, and more particularly to lightweight utility garments which can accommodate various accessory elements.
Many active occupations require that practitioners have any number of specialized tools, supplies, and materials on their persons for ready use at any time. Soldiers and police officers, for example, must carry weapons, ammunition, lights, food and beverage, etc. Yet in most situations there is a desire to avoid the carriage of extraneous items which might unnecessarily reduce the speed, agility, and endurance of the carrier. Hence it is desirable that accessories be capable of speedy attachment and removal from the wearer's garment.
Various accessory systems are known for attaching pouches and other elements to belts, vests, or other garments. A standardized attachment system employed by US military services is the U.S. Army's PALS (Pouch Attachment Ladder System) arrangement. This system can be provided on a belt or a vest, and employs horizontal rows of 1″ Mil-W-43668 Type III nylon webbing spaced 1″ apart, and attached to a backing fabric panel at 1.5″ intervals. The PALS webbing defines an array of upwardly and downwardly opening loops. Pouches, pockets, holsters, and other accessories may be attached to the loops. Commonly, the PALS system is a component of a supporting vest such as those which are a part of the US Army's MOLLE (MOdular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) system.
Conventional MOLLE vests can interact with a wide variety of accessories and attachments which are configured for use with this standard arrangement of attachment points. Accessories attach to the loops with various hooks, straps or fasteners which engage with one or more loops. However, for the comfort and endurance of the wearer, it is desirable to reduce the weight of garments as much as possible.
The equipment carrying garment of the present invention offers a lightweight attachment structure which minimizes the material used by reducing the garment to a skeleton of horizontal bands connected by a few vertical bands. The garment may have a bearing frame assembly with horizontal and vertical bands. The horizontal bands may be comprised of woven webbing bands secured to each other at regularly spaced lines of attachment to form upwardly opening loops which can be accessed from both the interior and the exterior of the garment. The horizontal bands are connected with supportive vertical bands which serve to retain the shape of the garment, and which do not interfere with the regularly spaced loops of the horizontal webbing bands. A plastic substrate may be positioned between horizontal bands at the same level to provide additional stiffness. The garment permits attachment of conventional accessories and elements to both the interior and the exterior of the garment, while eliminating the weight and bulk of a continuous backing layer.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a load supporting garment which is compatible with the MOLLE system which is very lightweight.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a load supporting garment which is capable of supporting accessories on the interior and the exterior of the garment.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Referring more particularly to
Each bearing frame assembly 30, as shown in
At least one vertical band 46 is secured to all the horizontal bands 32. The vertical band 46 helps to retain the horizontal bands 32 at a spacing of one-inch apart. The vertical band 46 is comprised of an internal substrate 47, similar to the substrate 34, to which an interior layer and an exterior layer 48 of nylon webbing is sewn. One of the vertical stitched seams 44 on each horizontal band 32 extends through the centerline of the vertical band 46, as shown in
As shown in
Each bearing frame assembly 30 is thus a skeleton of horizontal bands with interior and exterior loops, the spacing therebetween being maintained at intervals by at least one vertical band and the end attachments of the bearing frame assembly. The bearing frame assembly presents all the attachment points of a PALS system, but eliminates much of the backing fabric typically found in a MOLLE system garment, hence offering reduced overall weight and improved air circulation. Moreover, because horizontal through openings 54 are defined between the horizontal bands, accessories 72 are readily mounted to the interior or the exterior of the bearing frame assembly 30. For example, a ballistic protective plate, not shown, could be mounted to the interior in a military application, while a pouch, holster, or other accessory could be mounted to the exterior directly over the ballistic protective plate. The accessory 72 may be similar to the one shown in my Publication No. US-2009-0084822-A1, entitled Accessory Attachment System, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. In a preferred embodiment, the horizontal bands are one inch tall, spaced vertically one inch from adjacent horizontal bands, and the loops are defined by the regions of connection such as seams spaced 1.5 inches apart, making the carriage system fully compatible with MOLLE components intended for attachment to PALS webbing. Thus the distance between the upper perimeter 33 of one horizontal band 32 to the upper perimeter of the next lower horizontal band is about 2 inches. It should be noted that the height of the bands, and the height of the space between bands may be varied, so long as the 2-inch spacing between the upper perimeters of the bands is preserved, thus maintaining compatibility with MOLLE components.
There are many accessories designed for attachment to prior art MOLLE-compatible garments, and using a variety of clips, straps and fasteners to engage the conventionally spaced PALS webbing. Often accessories will engage with more than one loop of the PALS webbing to stabilize, position, or support a larger item. Although the arrangement of this invention can be light in weight, and adaptable to receiving accessories on both the interior and the exterior of the garment, because it retains the pocket size and positioning of a conventional MOLLE-compatible garments, it retains the ability to receive those accessories which are designed for pre-existing garments. Some accessories use two or more side-by-side loops, some use multiple loops spaced vertically.
An alternative embodiment garment 74, a portion of which is shown in
In another alternative embodiment garment, similar in appearance to the one illustrated in
It should be noted that although the bearing frame assemblies have been disclosed as extending between the front and rear segments of a vest, a bearing frame assembly may be disposed elsewhere on a garment, for example on the front or rear thereof.
As an alternative to connecting two strips of webbing by sewing to define sewn seams, the webbing may also be formed in the weaving process to have two interwoven strips joined at defined intervals, for example, 1.5 inch spacing. Thus the regions of connection are formed integrally rather than by sewing.
It is understood that the invention is not limited to the particular construction and arrangement of parts herein illustrated and described, but embraces all such modified forms thereof as come within the scope of the following claims.
