Patent Application
20220304277
This invention generally relates to pet accessories, and more particularly, to nail covers for domesticated animals for purposes of preventing scratches, avoiding injuries, and providing traction on hard-surface flooring for improving pet's overall mobility.
As evident by numerous commercial products currently available in the art of pets' nail covers, a need exists for preventing damages caused by pets to household goods and surfaces, and for avoiding injuries caused by pets to themselves, their owners, and others. However, because of the material of construction and designs employed, the prior art reduces the coefficient of friction between pets' nails and contact surfaces such as hard-surface flooring (e.g., hardwood or tiled flooring). This often leads to a pet slipping and sliding and may result in a fall and cause injuries. Animals, in particular dogs, when slipping and sliding, flex their paws and engage their nails to maintain their balance and prevent a fall. Reducing the coefficient of friction between pets' nails and flooring would negate their efforts in maintaining balance. In addition, older pets, and pets with neurological or musculoskeletal abnormalities often have difficulties with walking on hard-surface flooring due to its slippery nature. Providing these pets with the means to increase the coefficient of friction between their nails and flooring would increase traction and improve pets' overall mobility. Another pitfall exhibited by the prior art is the method of attaching nail covers to pets' nails. The prior art mainly employs a sliding or pulling/pushing technique to attach them to pets' nails. Often, this causes pets discomfort and even pain. Hence, a need exists for pet nail covers that would address the aforementioned problems with the prior art and would provide the means to cover pets' nails while not compromising pet's mobility but rather improving it, as well as provide a method for attaching and removing nail covers without causing pets discomfort and/or pain.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that read directly on the claims of the instant invention; however, the following references were considered related: U.S. Pat. No. 10,306,869 issued in the name of McHenry, U.S. Pat. No. 10,143,183 issued in the name of Snyder, U.S. Pat. No. 9,956,065 issued in the name of Flickinger, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,703,419 issued in the name of Wexler, U.S. Pat. No. 7,069,879 issued in the name of Wexler, U.S. Pat. No. 6,786,029 issued in the name of Kuzuu, U.S. Pat. No. 6,659,047 issued in the name of Gat, U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,731 issued in the name of Wexler.
The claimed invention—the pet nail cap—comprises a tubular element having an upper end with an opening, a closed lower end with one or more treads on the exterior edge, and a hollow interior with one or more spirals on the interior surface. The treads on the cap's lower end (i.e., the tip) increase the coefficient of friction between the cap (hence, an individual pet's nail) and the hard-surface flooring improving traction and overall pet mobility. The spirals on the internal surface of the cap allow it to be twisted onto the pet' s nail and stay securely attached. A rubber-like material of construction such as thermoplastic elastomers provides for the cap's flexibility and durability.
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The pet nail cap is constructed as a single body of a rubber-like material that provides for the pet nail cap's flexibility and durability. A preferred manufacturing method is 3D printing using flexible filaments such as thermoplastic elastomers or thermoplastic polyurethane. This manufacturing method delivers the precision needed to produce a quality product given the detailed design of the pet nail caps. Also, this manufacturing method allows to produce different sizes of the pet nail caps that range, for example, from a 3 mm to 11.5 mm internal diameter. The size could be gradually increased by 0.5 mm. These sizes correspond to most pets' nail sizes and allow for the pet nail caps to be customized for each individual pet.
A series of tests performed on different configurations of the pet nail caps with the help of a household pet—the 13-year-old basset hound—confirmed the following: When the treads were not present, the coefficient of friction was reduced between the pet nail caps and hard-surface flooring causing the pet to slip and slide. Conversely, when the treads were present and the coefficient of friction was increased, there was a visible improvement in the pet's ability to balance and gain additional traction on the hard-surface flooring. Further, the addition of the spirals to the interior surface of the pet nail caps streamlined the process of attaching and removing the pet nail caps from the pet's nails.
