Patent Application
20080017683
It is understood that the above-described figures are only illustrative of the present invention and are not contemplated to limit the scope thereof.
Any references to such relative terms as front and back, right and left, top and bottom, or the like, are intended for convenience of description and are not intended to limit the present invention or its components to any one positional or spatial orientation. All dimensions of the components in the attached figures may vary with a potential design and the intended use of an embodiment of the invention without departing from the scope of the invention.
Each of the features and methods disclosed herein may be utilized separately or in conjunction with other features either depicted or which are equivalent in the art and methods to provide improved devices of this invention and methods for making and using the same. This description is merely intended to teach a person of skill in the art exemplary details for practicing aspects of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Therefore, combinations of features and methods disclosed in the following detailed description may not be necessary to practice the invention in the broadest sense and are instead taught merely to particularly describe representative embodiments of the invention.
One embodiment of a tool holder of this invention is shown in
The pouch assembly 104 has respective first, second, and third pouches 128, 130, and 132. Each of the first, second, and third pouches 128, 130, and 132, in turn, include a front panel (partition) 134, 136, and 138, a back panel (partition) 140, 142, and 144, a left side panel (partition) 146, 148, and 150, a right side panel (partition) 152, 154, and 156, and a bottom panel (partition) 158, 160, and 162. The front, back, left side, right side, and bottom panels of each pouch cooperate to define a pouch cavity 163, wherein tools, fasteners, and the like may be stored for convenient use and retrieval when the tool holder 100 is being used. While each of the front, back, left side, right side, and bottom panels are depicted as being separate pieces joined together, two or more of these panels may, in fact, be fashioned from a single piece of material. Each of the bottom panels 158, 160, and 162, defines an aperture 164 (not shown) and a reinforcing structure, such as a ventilator 166 secured to each of the bottom panels 158, 160, and 162 about the aperture 164. As best seen in
Referring to
Respective
As can be seen, a pouch of this invention may include one or more apertures and reinforcing structures at a bottom thereof, or at another location suitable for training fluids therefrom and enabling fluid exchange between the pouch cavity and the environment therearound. Thus, when liquids, such as water from precipitation, paint, varnish, or spilled drinks, enters the pouch cavity, the liquid can drain out of the pouch cavity through the aperture and reinforcing structure of this invention. Additionally, the air, or fluid, exchange enabled by the apertures and reinforcing structures present in the pouches of this invention provide for drying the interior of the pouch cavity more quickly after the liquid has drained. By way of illustration, and not limitation, some embodiments of the apertures disposed as described herein may have a cross sectional dimension, e.g., diameter, between about 0.125 and 1.0 inch, between about 0.25 and 0.75 inch, about 0.5 inch, or any range subsumed therein. Additionally, some embodiments of the openings in the reinforcing structures of this invention, e.g., grommets, ventilators, and the like, may be, by way of illustration and not limitation, between about 0.0625 and 0.5 inch, between about 0.125 and 0.25 inch, between about 0.0625 and 0.25 inch, or any range subsumed therein.
Depending upon the specific requirements and desires of the user, the materials used to form the pouches may be either substantially permeable or impermeable to fluids and may be substantially flexible such as when formed from canvas, nylon, other substantially flexible synthetic resins, and some types of leather or may be substantially inflexible such as when formed from other types of leather and selected generally inflexible synthetic resins. Suitable materials for some embodiments of the pouches of this invention include leather, canvas, nylon, vinyl, polyethylene, and polypropylene. The reinforcing structures of this invention may be substantially flexible or substantially inflexible as well and materials from which the reinforcing structures of this invention may be formed include metals such as aluminum, steel alloys, and stainless steel, and synthetic resins such as polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, and polypropylene. Other synthetic resins may be suitable as material for forming the pouches and reinforcing structures of this invention as well and a person of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that suitable synthetic resins for other embodiments of the pouches and reinforcing structures may be found in the Handbook of Plastics, Elastomers, and Composites, Charles A. Harper, Editor in Chief, Third Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1996, hereby incorporated by reference.
In use, tools and other items are placed in pouches such as described herein, the pouches either being components of tool belts or being attachable to other structures not normally donned by a user. The tools and other items are utilized during such activities as construction, repair, and recreation. If fluids spill or precipitate (ingress) into the pouch cavity, the liquids then drain (egress) from the pouch cavity through the reinforcing structure present about one or more of the openings in the bottom of the pouch. Moreover, the openings further facilitate drying of the pouch cavity by providing for additional fluid (air) exchange beyond that normally present.
One exemplary method of manufacturing a pouch of this invention is to define one or more opening in the bottom of the pouch, e.g., by a die, then to install one of the reinforcing structures about the opening, e.g., by compressing the two ventilator or grommet components in a manner and with tools known to the art. Suitable ventilators, grommets, and tools for installing ventilators and grommets may be obtained from DUS Decorator and Upholstery Supply Inc., 501 McNeilly Road, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15226 and from DIY Upholstery Supply, Horn Lake, Miss. 38637. However, other sources of ventilators, grommets, and tools for installation thereof are readily available to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
Because numerous modifications of this invention may be made without departing from the spirit thereof, the scope of the invention is not to be limited to the embodiments illustrated and described. Rather, the scope of the invention is to be determined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
