Patent Application
20240389697
The present disclosure relates to the fields of headgears, in particular cap visors or hat brims that can be shaped from flat to different degrees of curves and caps or hats having the shape-adjustable visors or brims.
People wear hats or caps for different reasons or purposes, or different hats or caps to suit different occasions. For example, many wear them to participate in sports, such as baseball, softball, tennis, cross-country running, hiking, cycling, and so on; many may wear them simply for shielding sun light or protection from other weather conditions; and some may simply wear them for esthetic purpose or for style and fashion. As such, a hat or cap wearer may wish the hat brim or cap visor to take different shapes to suit different purposes. Although existing caps or hats on the market may have visors or brims in somewhat different shapes, e.g., flat, curved, or otherwise stylized, or some may even be adjustable to some extent, they are in general fixed in shape and cannot be adjusted to the degree as desired by the wearer.
Some wearers may attempt to shape the brim of a hat or the visor of a cap to achieve the desired curve or style, but such attempt is not always successful or satisfactory. It could be cumbersome and time consuming, yet causing permanent damages to the hat or cap, or they cannot be reshaped back to the original style.
Although some solutions have been proposed to solve the issue in the existing art, the success is limited. For example, Tai Kuang Wang proposed to install a flexible metal or rubber tube sheathed along the rim of the hat brim or cap visor (US 2004/0000004 A1) or make the brim or visor plate out of metal meshwork materials including aluminum, iron, copper, titanium, nickel, stainless steel, etc., which are coated with various plastic materials (US 2004/0123376 A1). Other proposals also include those disclosed in US 2004/0194192 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 11,178,928 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 11,445,776 B2, KR101843357 B1, or the like.
However, all the cap visors disclosed in the existing art above have various drawbacks, such as relying on use of a metal material to achieve elasticity, which is not easy, or is cumbersome, to shape and reshape, and may be permanently damaged after a limited number of iterations. In addition, manufacture process of the caps with such visors could be tedious and costly.
Therefore, there exists a need to develop new materials and processes to manufacture cap visors or hat brims that are shape-adjustable to readily take the desired shapes according to wearer's preference.
The present disclosure provides a solution to meet the foregoing need with the novel plastic composite material that can be used to make the shape-adjustable visors or brims of headgears.
In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a headgear having an adjustable visor or brim that allows a wearer to bend the visor or brim portion from a flat plate to a curved shape according to a wearer's preference.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a headgear having an adjustable visor or brim that can be readily changed in shape by hands and remain to be in the changed shape.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a headgear having an adjustable visor or brim that can be readily changed in shape by hands and changed back to the original shape by hand.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a shape-adjustable brim or visor of a headgear, comprising an elastic flat plate that can be manually adjusted into a desired curved shape and changed back to the original flat shape, wherein the elastic flat plate constituting the core of the brim or visor is made from a shape-memory plastic composite material. In a preferred embodiment, the shape-adjustable brim or visor of the headgear is made from a shape-memory plastic composite material comprising a low-density high-pressure polyethylene and a high-density low-pressure polyethylene.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a headgear comprising a brim or visor according to any embodiment disclosed and a crown portion covering head of a wearer, wherein the brim or visor is sewed onto the crown alongside bottom edge of the crown and projects outward from the crown portion to block sunlight or protect from weather conditions.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of preparing a shape-memory plastic composite suitable for making a brim or visor plate for a headgear.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of preparing a brim or visor plate of a headgear from a shape-memory plastic composite.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of preparing a headgear comprising a shape-memory brim or visor, for example, a hat or cap.
The headgears of present disclosure can help wearers adopt a customized curve of visor or brim according to their preferences and return it to the original flat shape for convenience of wearing or storage as desired. The manufacture of such headgears using the inventive visors or brims is straightforward according to any known manufacture processes without complex processes.
Other aspects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent in view of the following detailed description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The following nonlimiting drawings illustrate certain aspects of the present disclosure:
The present disclosure provides an inventive shape-memory plastic composite material to achieve the object of shape-adjustable visors or brims for headgears. The plastic composite material has a shape-memory property so that the visor or brim of the headgear manufactured originally in a flat shape can be manually adjusted to a curved shape, and the extent of curve can be adjusted manually as the wearer chooses before wearing. After use, the wearer can readily adjust the visor or brim back to the original flat shape.
Thus, in one aspect, the present disclosure provides a shape-adjustable brim or visor of a headgear, comprising an elastic flat plate that can be manually adjusted into a desired curved shape and readjusted back to the original flat shape, wherein the elastic flat plate is made from a shape-memory plastic composite material.
In one embodiment, the shape-adjustable brim or visor of a headgear is made from a shape-memory plastic composite material comprising a low-density high-pressure polyethylene and a high-density low-pressure polyethylene.
In one embodiment, the shape-memory plastic composite material further comprises one or more components independently selected from Nano powder, active calcium, plastic lubricant, polyethylene (PE) compound modifier, pigment, titanium dioxide, antioxidant, AC foaming powder, zinc stearate, stearic acid, and diffusion powder.
In one embodiment, the headgear is a hat or cap.
In one embodiment, the hat or cap comprises a crown with a size and shape substantially matches a person's head for comfortable wearing, wherein the brim or visor is deposited along bottom edge of the crown extending outward from the crown.
In one embodiment, the brim or visor plate is covered by an outer cover.
In one embodiment, the outer cover comprises an upper cover on the upper side of the brim or visor and a lower cover on the lower side of the brim or visor.
In one embodiment, the upper cover and the lower cover are sewed together with the brim or visor plate to become one integral brim or visor.
In one embodiment, there is a liner inserted between the upper cover and brim or visor plate and/or between the lower cover and the brim or visor plate.
In one embodiment, the upper cover, the lower cover, and the liner, if any, are of the same or substantially same size as that of the brim or visor plate.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a headgear comprising a brim or visor according to any embodiment disclosed and a crown portion covering head of a wearer, wherein the brim or visor is sewed onto the crown alongside bottom edge of the crown and projects outward from the crown portion to block sunlight or protect from weather conditions.
In one embodiment, in the cap comprising the visor and the crown, the visor comprises a substantially flat shape-memory plate so that the visor can be manually bent by a wearer to form a curved shape as desired and subsequently reverted back to the original flat shape as desired.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method of preparing a shape-memory plastic composite brim or visor plate, comprising:
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides method of preparing a headgear comprising a shape-memory brim or visor, the method comprising:
In one embodiment, the headgear is a hat comprising a shape-memory brim.
In one embodiment, the headgear is a cap comprising a shape-memory visor.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a plastic composite material that is elastic and possess a shape-memory property.
In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method for producing the plastic composite material that is elastic and possess a shape-memory property.
The plastic composite material can be produced as a flat plate in a thickness suitable for making a visor or brim of headgear as desired. The flat plate is cut into the shape of a visor or brim according to the design and size of headgear. The visor or brim can be made according to the any conventional method known in the art by incorporating the cut-out plate as an integral member to enable the visor or brim to possess the shape-memory property after it is deposited along the bottom edge of the crown of headgear.
As illustrated in the priority provisional application through the snapshots obtained from a video clip demonstrating a cap having the inventive visor, in operation, the shape of the visor can be adjusted by hands from the flat shape to a curved shape (see, e.g.,
When the cap visor is in a curved position, it forms a concave arc from the left-side edge to the right-side edge of the visor (assuming a wearer wears it in the normal way, pointing the visor towards the front of the wearer). While not intending to be limited, the concave arc can typically have an arc angle in the range from about 1° (slightly curved) to about 180° (nearly half a circle, highly curved), sometimes preferably in the range of about 3° to about 120°, sometimes preferably in the range of about 5° to about 90°, sometimes preferably in the range of about 5° to about 75°, sometimes preferably in the range of about 10° to about 50°, sometimes preferably in the range of about 5° to about 15°, and sometimes preferably in the range of about 15° to about 25°, and sometimes preferably in the range of about 25° to about 50°. For example, in some embodiments, the arc angle is in the range of 1° to 5°, 5° to 10°, 10° to 15°, 15° to 20°, 20° to 25°, 25° to 30°, 30° to 35°, 35° to 40°, 45° to 50°, 50° to 55°, 55° to 60°, 60° to 65°, 65° to 70°, 70° to 75°, 75° to 80°, 80° to 85°, or the like.
Specifically, distinguished from regular cap visors that are usually made of low-density high-pressure polyethylene, the inventive visor or brim of the present disclosure is made of a special ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) with specific mixing ratios that make the visor or brim to possess the shape-memory property.
The present disclosure encompasses any feasible combinations of any embodiments disclosed herein, as would be understood by those of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural reference, and vice versa, any plural forms include singular reference, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
The term “about” or “approximately”, unless otherwise defined, generally includes up to plus or minus 10% of the indicated number. For example, “about 10%” may indicate a range of 9% to 11%, and “about 20” may mean from 18 to 22. Sometimes preferably, “about” includes up to plus or minus 5% of the indicated value. Alternatively, “about” includes up to plus or minus 5% of the indicated value. When “about” is used before a range, it is applicable to both the lower end and the upper end of a range.
The term “substantially” as herein used means “for the most part” or “essentially,” as would be understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art, and if measurable quantitatively, refers to at least 90%, preferably at least 95%, more preferably at least 98%.
The terms “comprising”, “having”, “including”, and “containing”, or the like, are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, but not limited to”) unless otherwise noted.
The following non-limiting examples further illustrate certain aspects of the present disclosure.
The shape-memory plastic composite material was prepared using a process described in the following illustrative process: Adding material (high density polyethylene (HDPE), linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), and nano-modified material)->High-speed mixing for 30 minutes->Add proportional excipients->Heating to 80°, then regular stirring for 2 hours->dried the material completely and allowed to stand at 50° for release->Automatic loading machine with strong magnetic+filter->Transfer to extruder hopper->Screw heated to 185°, then low speed extrusion->Die head initial shaping, accurate to 0.1 mm thickness->Natural air cooling and shaping 5 minutes->Heating the oven to 195°, then plasticized for the second time->Standard width for punching and cutting, accurate to 0.5 cm->when the temp reached 100°, shaped into the U-channel bending plate->Strong air in U-tank+natural air cooling for 25 minutes->After the U-plate is cooled, ejected and framed the material, stand for more than 48 hours->Fully automatic punching machine punching standard cap visor->QC+packaging.
To prepare 120 Kg of the composite material, the following raw materials were used: 75 kg of high density low pressure polyethylene, 25 kg of low density high pressure polyethylene, 11.6 kg of (nano powder+active calcium), 4 kg of plastic lubricant, 5 kg of polyethylene (PE) composite modifier, 0.6 kg of (Pigment+Titanium dioxide), 0.2 kg of antioxidant, 0.45 kg of AC foaming powder, 0.45 kg of zinc stearate, 0.3 kg of stearic acid, and 0.05 kg of diffusion powder.
The U-plate obtained from the process described above can be made into different shapes as desired for use in a visor of cap or a brim of hat using any method known to those of skill in the art, for example, as described in any of the aforementioned patent references. Although the present disclosure has described a cap as an example, the disclosure is not limited to caps, but may include, without limitation, hats, sun-visors, or other kinds of headgears having a visor or brim portion.
The foregoing embodiments and examples are provided for illustrative purpose only, and they are not intended to be limiting on the exact construction and operation shown and described. Numerous modifications and variations may be readily envisioned by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, which are encompassed by the present disclosure. All patent references cited herein are incorporated by reference in their entireties for all purposes.
This is a U.S. non-provisional patent application claiming the benefit and priority of U.S. provisional patent application No. 63/504,019, filed on May 24, 2023, under 35 U.S.C. § 119 (e), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63504019 | May 2023 | US |
