Patent Application
20090007854
1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of toys for pets and, more specifically, to techniques for fabricating play toys for animals using braided webbing materials.
2. Background Information
It is desirable to provide pets and, in particular, dogs, with play toys that will entertain the pet and occupy the pet's attention for extended periods of time. Generally, play toys for dogs include chew, fetch, and tug types or combinations thereof. Since such toys are treated roughly and typically carried in the animal's mouth, it is important to provide a play toy that is safe and non-hazardous to play with, bite or chew. It is especially important that the toy does not break apart or disintegrate in the dog's mouth, thus potentially injuring the dog or causing it to gag or choke.
Presently, many play toys for dogs are constructed using conventional ropes, which may have a tendency for fraying, or include filler-containing members having sewn seams. The seams are typically the weakest points of the toys and, when broken by a dog, expose embedded filler materials to the dog's teeth. Both the fraying ropes and filler materials may be hazardous to dogs. For example, fraying portions of the ropes and filler materials accumulate dirt and bacteria, which become digested by the dogs.
There is therefore a need in the art for improved techniques for fabricating toys for animals.
Techniques for fabricating play toys for animals using braided webbing materials are described herein. In a preferred embodiment, strands of webbing material are braided together to form one or more bodies having pre-selected cross-sectional shapes, for example, substantially round or square shapes. Such bodies are arranged in a pre-selected structural configuration that may also include various biting objects, such as tennis or rubber balls, pre-formed rubber or plastic figures, and the like.
In one aspect, a play toy for animals comprises a plurality of strands of a webbing material braided together to form at least one body having a pre-selected cross-sectional shape and arranged in a pre-selected structural configuration. The cross-sectional shape of the body may be generally square, rectangular, circular, triangular, or octagonal. The webbing material comprises, for example, nylon webbing, polypropylene webbing, polyester webbing, cotton webbing, canvas webbing, or a combination thereof.
In one embodiment, the plurality of strands comprises strands of substantially flat webbing material. The strands may be four in number, for example. Each of the strands has a width in the range of from 1 to 10 mm, for example. At least a portion of the strands may have a pre-selected color pattern or a pre-selected insignia.
In another embodiment, the at least one body is provided with a filler material disposed in a space encompassed by the strands. For example, the filler material may be a fiber filler, a plastic tubing, a pre-molded structure, or a combination thereof.
In another aspect, a play toy for an animal comprises four strands of nylon webbing braided together to form at least one body having a generally square, rectangular, circular, triangular, or octagonal and arranged in a structural configuration of a chew, fetch, or tug type of the play toy, or a combination thereof. At least a portion of ends of the strands of the webbing material are braided in a manner providing fray-free terminations. The at least one body is a seamless structural unit and comprises at least one end terminated by a knot formed using a portion of the body.
In yet another aspect, a method of manufacturing a play toy for an animal comprises the steps of fabricating at least one body having a pre-selected cross-sectional shape by braiding together a plurality of strands of a webbing material, and arranging the at least one body in a pre-selected structural configuration.
In exemplary designs, the inventive techniques are used for fabricating chew, fetch, and tug types of dog toys or combinations thereof. Various aspects and embodiments of the disclosure are described in further detail below.
The foregoing summary is neither intended nor should it be construed as being representative of the full extent and scope of the present disclosure, which these and additional aspects will become more readily apparent from the detailed description, particularly when taken together with the appended drawings.
The images in the drawings are simplified for illustrative purposes and are not depicted to scale. To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures, except that suffixes may be added, when appropriate, to differentiate such elements.
The appended drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and, as such, should not be considered as limiting the scope of the disclosure that may admit to other equally effective embodiments. It is contemplated that features or steps of one embodiment may be beneficially incorporated in other embodiments without further recitation.
The term “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment or design described herein as “exemplary” or “alternative” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs.
Referring to the figures,
The nylon webbing is generally produced in a form of narrow bands (for example, 1 to 10 mm width bands) of woven fabric and known for its strength, resilience to stress, and resistance to fraying. Nylon webbing is commercially available in rolls, e.g., rolls containing 50-500 meters of the respective strand. In popular applications, nylon webbing is commonly used in wide bands, such as found in car/plane seat belts and cargo straps. In the body 100, widths of the strands 110, 120, 130, and 140, as well as cross-sectional geometry of the body generally are selectively chosen to accommodate biting patterns of dogs of different size and age.
In alternative embodiments, a number of braided strands that form the rope 100 may be either greater or smaller than four, as well as at least a portion of the strands may be fabricated from polypropylene, polyester or cotton webbing, canvas strapping, or a combination thereof. In further embodiments, one or more strands of the webbing material may have pre-selected color patterns or insignia. Coloring of the respective bands may be obtained by using pre-colored component threads or by a means of printing techniques.
The body 100 may be braided to have a pre-selected cross-sectional shape (for example, generally square, rectangular, circular, triangular, or octagonal cross-sectional shape, and the like) and arranged in a pre-selected structural configuration, as discussed below in reference to
In the depicted embodiment, using the strands 110, 120, 130, and 140, the body 100 is fabricated in a sequence of steps schematically illustrated in
Exemplary alternative embodiment of the present disclosure are shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
In an alternative embodiments shown in
Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that braided ropes of the present disclosure may also be used to fabricate other types of play toys for dogs. For example, one or more braided ropes may be used to fabricate bone-shaped objects used as chew toys or disc-shaped flying objects used as fetch toys. Such play toys may also be scaled to accommodate the dogs of different age or size. In addition, the braided ropes may also be used in combination with rubber or plastic balls or other pre-formed members, as well as components made using plush, ballistic nylon, canvas, vinyl, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and the like materials.
The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
