Patent Application
20150122756
Loom bracelet makers that convert conventional rubber bands into fashionable loom bracelets have become popular children toys. The loom bracelet makers which allow for endless patterns and designs limited only by the imagination of the children creating the bracelets are widely sold by toy and craft stores. Users of these toys in the course of a few hours can create a dozen or more different loom bracelets and take great pride in showing their handiwork to friends and family members.
Creation of a relatively large numbers of loom bracelets presents particular handling challenges to the children creating them. More particularly, it has been difficult for children to organize, display, access and transport their creations when showing them off to their friends and family members.
Applicant has created an apparatus which solves the above described handling problems, and facilitates the organization, display, access and transport of loom bracelets. An exemplary non-limiting example of the apparatus involves two detachable elements a cylindrical shaped hollow rod and a base to which the rod attaches. The loom bracelets are stacked around the rod and are held in place by gravity and the base disposed at one end of the rod.
The assembled elements allow the loom bracelets to be organized and easily displayed, and facilitate their transport as well. The detachability of the elements allows easy access to loom bracelets that are placed towards the bottom of the rod near where it is detachably connected to the base. During display, if access is desired to a loom bracelet disposed near the base of the assembled elements, then the rod can be easily detached from the base and the loom bracelet of interest can be removed from the detached end of the rod without removing the stacked loom bracelets from the other end of the rod.
The base can be virtually any shape but preferably can be circular, square or oblong and of sufficient size to provide stability to the assembled elements. More particularly the base attaches to one end of the rod so that when the base sits horizontally on a flat surface such as a table, the rod extends upwardly and perpendicularly from the base.
The detachable rod 10 and base 20 are preferably formed by plastic or resin material but, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, can be formed by other material as well. If formed of plastic the components lend themselves to be made by injection molding techniques or the like.
Rod 10 is firmly held within base 20 by forces applied between the inner circumference 34 of rod 10 and outer circumference 32 of base 20 and the outer circumference 36 of rod 10 and the inner circumference 30 of base 20, as shown in
Alternatively, other means of firmly holding rod 10 within base 20 can be employed including, but not limited to, forming depressible ribs on the inner circumference 34 and/or outer circumference of rod 10 (not shown). In any event, the forces holding rod 10 firmly in base 20 can be easily overcome by applying one or more forces in an opposite direction from the joining direction of these components. For example, by simply grasping rod 10 with moderate hand pressure and pulling it away from base 20 the assembly can be detached.
While the foregoing written description of the exemplary embodiments described herein enables one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use what is considered presently to be the preferred implementation or best mode, those of ordinary skill will understand and appreciate the existence of variations, combinations, and equivalents of the specific apparatuses, and examples described herein. The invention should therefore not be limited by the above described implementations, including apparatuses, and examples, but by all such implementations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims.
