A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to any reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates to waist belt, and more particularly to a metal-less waist belt which is an integral belt configured to be worn by the wearer during security test with metal detector and/or X-ray scanner and adapted to be under-worn by the wearer.
Waist belts that do hold up clothing such as pants and skirts work by friction or buckles and often take advantages of the narrow circumference and the compressibility of the torso above the hips. Belts often are used as fashion accessories, with many colors, styles, and finishes. There are various kinds of waist belt such as bullet belt, studded belt, buckle belt, woven belt, fabric belt, statement belt, dress belt, tactical belt, and etc.
A conventional waist belt comprises an elongated belt strap and a buckle affixed to one end of the belt strap. The belt strap is generally made of leather, synthetic leather and the like, and the buckle, such as frame buckle, box frame buckle, ring buckle, plate buckle, snap buckle, or the like, is made of metal and assembled to one end of the belt strap by stitching, screwing, clamping, pressing stud, or other fastening means.
The industry of producing leather or synthetic leather is the third-largest contaminated industry after papermaking and brewery industry, wherein tanning sewage is not only measured greatly and the organic waste water is a kind of complicated component with high density that contains hazardous and noxious substances such as lime, dyestuff, protein, salt, grease, ammonia nitrogen, sulfide, chromic salts, hairs, skin slag, slit particles, and other suspended substance. For example, a tanned pigskin leather process needs one ton of water and includes at least four procedures having pollution problems, including the hair removal procedure that the removing hair or feathers from raw pig skin with lime that causes alkaline pollution, the grease removal procedure that the pigskin after depilation is placed in a rotary drum with grease-removing agent added and tons of sewage will be produced, the limbering procedure where chrome tanning acid and softening additive is added after degreasing the pigskin but such additive is a poison that just 0.01 g is enough to carcinogenic, and the dyeing procedure thereafter also cause great pollution.
Also, no matter the synthetic leather is produced by the wet method and the dry method, pollutants such as DMF (dimethylformamide), TOL (toluene), butanone, MEK (methylethylketone) organic exhaust gases, waste water and waste residue are produced during the coating, impregnation, and oven drying processes, that causes comparatively serious exhaust emission problems. For examples, DMR can invade human body through respiratory tract, skin and digestive tube causing toxic reaction. Toluene has big pungency to skin mucosa and can invade human body through respiratory tract and skin, influencing hematopoietic function and neural system. Butanone has to stimulate and anesthetic action, and long-term contact with butanone of skin can suppress sensation and produce dermatitis, hand and numbness of the fingers.
On the other hand, a normal individual has no problem to take off the waist belt for security test in the airport or at the entrance of a federal facility. However, for handicaps, disable people or seniors, especially to who is using walking cane, walker or wheelchair, it is inconvenience and not safe for him or her to take off and rewear the waist belt for passing the security test without assistance. For obese people, the waist belt is a tool for wearing his or her pants that once the waist belt is taken off, his or her pants will fall off and it is embarrassing to the obese person to keep using hands to hold the pants throughout the security test.
In addition, most of the waist belts in the market are designed for external use that is not suitable for under-wearing as an underwear belt which can be worn by the user for internal use such as wearing underwear for obese people, carrying internal pouch or pocket under external clothing, and etc.
The invention is advantageous in that it provides a metal-less waist belt configured to be able to wear without taking off during the security test, wherein no metal made component is configured while an integral locking and alignment mechanism is configured for fastening the waist belt in desire position.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a molded waist belt which comprises only one elongated belt member with built-in locking alignment mechanism that not only is simple in configuration and minimizes manufacturing cost, but also allows the wearer to take off and to wear and fasten with one hand operation.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a configuration of a waist belt that allows the waist belt to be made of stretching resistance and anti-deformation artificial material, such as TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), EVA (ethyle acetate), PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and the like, by molding to have an elongated belt strap and a fastening arrangement having at least two locking holes equally spacedly and intervally formed along a first end portion of the belt strap and a locking and alignment mechanism integrally formed at a second end portion of the belt strap and configured to lock with the at least two locking holes such that the first end portion is locked and aligned with the second end portion to form a fastening loop with desired circumferential length.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide a locking and alignment mechanism integrally formed in a belt strap to form a waist belt, which not only allows the user to fasten with an end portion of the belt strap with one hand, but also aligns a locking portion of the belt strap with a fastening portion of the belt strap parallelly and overlappedly to form a fastening loop and avoids any unintentional displacement or detachment therebetween without any extra component.
Another advantage of the invention is to provide an integral waist belt which comprises only one elongated belt member that minimizes its cost and simplifies its manufacturing process to one single step.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and other objects and advantages are attained by a waist belt comprising a belt member integrally made to have:
In one embodiment, the first end portion and the belt body portion has a predetermined thickness, and the second end portion is configured to have a thickness thicker than the predetermined thickness of the first end portion and the belt body portion to form a belt head, wherein the locking and alignment mechanism comprises at least two locking pins integrally protruded from an inner side of the belt head and arranged spacedly and longitudinally, wherein each of the locking pins has a locking shaft perpendicularly and integrally extended from the inner side of the belt head and an enlarged engaging head formed at a distal end of the locking shaft. Further, a locking distance defined between the at least two locking pins is equal to a distance between the at least two locking holes such that the two engaging heads are capable of penetrating through the at least two locking holes respectively until the two locking shafts are retained in the at least two locking holes respectively so as to lock the belt head of the second end portion with the first end portion of the belt member to form the fastening loop.
In one embodiment, the second end portion and the belt body portion has a predetermined width, and the first end portion is configured to have a width wider than the predetermined width of the second end portion and the belt body portion to form a belt head, wherein the at least two locking holes are parallelly and transversally formed in the belt head and each of the at least two locking holes has a length equal to or slightly longer than the predetermined width of the belt body portion and the second end portion, wherein the locking and alignment mechanism comprises a plurality of parallel locking teeth formed on the inner side of the first end portion spacedly and transversally. To fasten the belt head with the second end portion, the second end portion is first penetrating through one of the two locking holes from an inner side of the belt head to an outer side of the belt head and then penetrates through the other one of the two locking holes from the outer side of the belt head to the inner side of the belt head to form the fastening loop while one of the locking teeth is able to be engaged with the belt head.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the present invention provides a metal-less waist belt with integral locking and alignment mechanism, wherein the entire waist belt is made from a step of molding an artificial material selected from the group consisting of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), ethyle acetate (EVA), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the like by injection mould or compression mould.
Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.
These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.
The drawings, described above, are provided for purposes of illustration, and not of limitation, of the aspects and features of various examples of embodiments of the invention described herein. The drawings are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention in any aspect. For simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale and the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity.
The following description is disclosed to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the present invention. Preferred embodiments are provided in the following description only as examples and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The general principles defined in the following description would be applied to other embodiments, alternatives, modifications, equivalents, and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It will be appreciated that numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the exemplary embodiments described herein. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments described herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures and components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments described herein. Further, this description is not to be considered as limiting the scope of the embodiments described herein in any way, but rather as merely describing implementation of the one or more embodiments described herein.
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The belt strap 10 has a first end portion 11, a second end portion 12 and a belt body portion 13 integrally extended between the first end portion 11 and the second end portion 12.
The fastening arrangement 20 has a plurality of locking holes 21 spacedly and intervally formed at the first end portion 11 of the belt strap 10 and a locking and alignment mechanism 22 is integrally formed at the second end portion 12 of the belt strap 10 and configured to selectively lock with two of the plurality of locking holes 21, such that the first end portion 11 is locked and aligned with the second end portion 12 to form a fastening loop 100 with a predetermined circumferential length matching with a waist length of a wearer of the belt member 1 of the waist belt of the present invention.
According to the preferred embodiment, the first end portion 11 and the belt body portion 13 has a predetermined thickness T1 and the second end portion 12 is configured to have a thickness T2 thicker than the predetermined thickness T1 of the first end portion 11 and the belt body portion 13 to form a rigid reinforced belt head 30 adapted for bearing force and strength and for ease of operation. The predetermined thickness T1 and the material used to mold the belt member 1 are adapted for allowing the second portion 12 and the belt body portion 13 to be flexibly bent around a waist portion of the wearer.
The locking and alignment mechanism 22 comprises at least two locking pins 31, 32 integrally protruded from an inner side 301 of the belt head 30 and arranged spacedly and longitudinally with a locking distance D defined therebetween, wherein Each two adjacent locking holes 21 has the same distance D therebetween. Each of the locking pins 31, 32 has a circular locking shaft 311, 321 perpendicularly and integrally extended from the inner side 301 of the belt head 30 and an enlarged engaging head 312, 322 such that the two engaging heads 312, 322 of the at least two locking pins 31, 32 are capable of penetrating through two adjacent locking holes 21 of the plurality of locking holes 21 respectively until the two locking shafts 311, 312 are retained in the two locking holes 21 respectively so as to lock the belt head 30 of the second end portion 12 with the first end portion 11 of the belt member 10 to form the fastening loop 100.
According to the preferred embodiment, each of the locking pins 31, 32 has a mushroom shape, wherein each of the locking shafts 311, 321 has a diameter and height respectively equal to or slightly smaller than a diameter and a depth of each of the plurality of locking holes 21 and each of the engaging heads 312, 322 has a ball shape or a semi-circular shape having a size slightly larger than the diameter of the locking shaft 311, 321 thereof and the diameter of each of the plurality of locking holes 21.
Referring to
In view of above, no metal made component is configured while belt head 3 and the integral locking and alignment mechanism 22 is integrally formed. The whole piece of belt member 1 is preferred to be made of artificial material, such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), ethyle acetate (EVA), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the like, by means of injection mould or compression mould through one single molding step. According to the preferred embodiment, the entire belt member 1 can be made in transparent color or any desire color with flat and smooth surface or any other desire surface pattern formed simply through the molding process.
The rigidity and flexibility of the belt strap 10 can be controlled by the formula of the molding material and the thickness thereof. The thicker the second end portion 12 to form the belt head 30, the more rigid is the belt head 30 to ensure the engagement of locking pins 31, 32 with the locking holes 21 in the first end portion 11. The wearer may control the circumferential length of the fastening loop 100 (as shown in
It is appreciated that the dual interlocking configuration of the fastening arrangement 20 of the present invention is simple, secure and effective and is easy to be operated by the wearer with one hand, wherein the at least two locking pins 31, 32 of the locking and alignment mechanism 30, protruded on the inner side 301 of the belt head 30, are aligned longitudinally with respect to the linear alignment of the locking holes 21, the first end portion 11 can be aligned and interlocked with the second end portion 12 securely that not only avoids unintentional displacement with each other, but also prevents unintentional detachment of the belt head 30 from the first end portion 11 of the belt strap 10. In other word, as shown in
The waist belt of the present invention is worn on the wearer's waist portion in such a manner that the remaining first end is extended behind the belt body portion 13, so that the entire belt strap 10 form an endless round strap around the waist portion of the wearer that significantly provides a more secure binding ability and prevents any accidental detachment of the belt member 1. It works perfectly to pants or skirt even without waist loops. When the entire belt member 1 is made transparent, the waist belt of the present invention is an invisible belt that fits to most fashion without undermining the original fashion design. For example, when a lady wearing a fashion dress and like to hang her pouch around the waist portion, she may use the transparent belt member 1 to carry the pouch with her without anxious of whether a belt is match with her dress, as shown in
In addition, thanks to the configuration of the waist belt of the present invention as described above, the molded integral waist belt is perfect to be used internally, that is utilizing as an underwearing belt, so that the user may use the waist belt, preferably being made of softer material and having a thinner thickness, with the underwear below the outside clothing. It is especially useful for individuals like travelers to carry personal and important items (such as cash, passport or ID) with an internal pouch or pocket that can be carried by wearing the waist belt of the present invention. As shown in
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The belt strap 10A has a first end portion 11A, a second end portion 12A and a belt body portion 13A integrally extended between the first end portion 11A and the second end portion 12A.
The fastening arrangement 20A has a pair of locking holes 21A spacedly and intervally formed at the first end portion 11A of the belt strap 10A and a locking and alignment mechanism 22A integrally formed at the second end portion 12A of the belt strap 10A and configured to selectively lock with the pair of locking holes 21A, such that the first end portion 11A is locked and aligned with the second end portion 12A to form a fastening loop with a predetermined circumferential length matching with a waist length of a wearer of the belt member 1 of the waist belt of the present invention.
The second end portion 12A and the belt body portion 13A has a predetermined width, and the first end portion 11A is configured to have a width wider than the predetermined width of the second end portion 12A and the belt body portion 13A to form a belt head 30A, wherein the pair of locking holes are parallelly and transversally formed in the belt head and each of the pair of locking holes 21A is an elongated slot having a length equal to or slightly longer than the predetermined width of the belt body portion 13A and the second end portion 12A, wherein the locking and alignment mechanism 22A comprises a plurality of parallel locking teeth 221A formed on an inner side 120A of the first end portion 12A spacedly and transversally. To fasten the belt head 30A with the second end portion 12A, the second end portion 12A is first penetrating through an outer locking hole 21A of the pair locking holes 21A from an inner side 301A of the belt head 30A to an outer side 302A of the belt head 30A and then penetrates through an inner locking hole 21A of the pair of locking holes 21A from the outer side 302A of the belt head 30A to the inner side 301A of the belt head 30A to form the fastening loop while one of the locking teeth 221A is able to be engaged with an edge side of a locking bar 211A between the pair of locking holes 21A of the first end portion 11A, i.e. the belt head 30A, when opposing forces F1, F2 are applied to belt head 30A and the second end portion 12A respectively in opposite directions, such that the first end portion 11A is locked and aligned with the second end portion 12A to form the fastening loop to be worn on the waist portion of the wearer.
Referring to
According to the above embodiment and alternative modes thereof as illustrated in
The innovative configuration of the metal-less waist belt with locking and alignment mechanism of the present invention allows the fashion designer to design and configure a clothing article Cl, such as a pant or a skirt, to have a flat and neat waistband C10 while providing fitting capability of a waist belt to the wearer without exposing the waist belt outside. Referring to
One skilled in the art will understand that the embodiment of the present invention as shown in the drawings and described above is exemplary only and not intended to be limiting.
It will thus be seen that the objects of the present invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. The embodiments have been shown and described for the purposes of illustrating the functional and structural principles of the present invention and is subject to change without departure from such principles. Therefore, this invention includes all modifications encompassed within the spirit and scope of the following claims.
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