Buckle

DESCRIPTION

This invention relates generally to fastener devices and, more particularly, it relates to a buckle consisting of a buckle body element and a buckle engagement element capable of interconnecting in a releasable manner and includes a pair of elements. Resilient arches that exit from the sides of a central portion of the body element to form a C-shaped section to facilitate rapid disconnection of the hook element from the body element.

The present invention has numerous applications and, as a specific example but without restrictive nature of the scope and teachings of the invention, the buckle of this invention can be used to connect the straps or belts of a life jacket, backpack and the like when You want to hold the ends of the belt or belts together in a detachable way. Prior to this invention, various types of this kind of buckles are already known.

For example, British Patent 1,146,568 describes a connection device that was constituted by a female element and a male element. The female element includes a pair of grooves that project in the longitudinal direction of its body and a pair of flexible arms that also project in the longitudinal direction of its body. The male element includes a pair of flexible tongues that project in the opposite direction to its body portion and longitudinal to it. The tongues expand into grooves to prevent the male element from receding until the flexible arms of the female element are pushed to force the tongues of the male element inwards.

In British Patent Application 2,138,879A, a buckle comprising detachable receptacle and cooperative elements is described, each having a pair of opposing resilient arms. The receptacle arms are movable inwardly relative to each other to produce movement of the arms inwardly in the locking element, thereby decoupling the locking element from the receptacle element.

In British Patent Application 2,140,895A, a buckle is described comprising a male element having a pair of flexible, resilient pins, and a female element having an insertion portion. The insertion portion has a pair of side walls that define between each other a slot to accommodate the covers. The insertion portion includes a pair of cantilever arms located inwardly of the side walls and resiliently flexible therebetween. The arms are resiliently flexible towards each other to disengage the pins and the side walls.

In addition, British Patent 2,156,423 describes a plug-in hitch device consisting of a male element, which has a hitch arm that projects longitudinally from its base and has a retention head, and a female element that has a disconnection element. of the hitch, resilient defectable mind, attached to both ends of its box. An intermediate part of the length of the disconnect element of the hitch is defectable to force the retaining head to lose contact with the retaining shoulder formed in the female element, thereby allowing the male element to be removed from the female element.

Finally, French Buckle 2,451,175 describes a buckle for joining two ends of the belt that includes a male part that has a pair of resilient tongues coming from opposite sides and a female part that has two holes corresponding to the faces of the tongues. of the male piece. The female part also includes a pair of tabs that partially cover each gap to result in the suppression of the corresponding tabs of the male part in order to separate the two pieces.

However, none of the prior art indicated describes a buckle having a buckle body element and a buckle engagement element such as those of the present invention that includes a pair of resilient arcuate elements projecting from the sides of the portion center of the body element of the buckle to form a C-shaped section in order to facilitate the rapid disconnection of the coupling element of the body element.

Therefore, a general object of the present invention is to provide an improved buckle of relatively simple construction and which uses a smaller amount of material in order to reduce manufacturing and assembly costs.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved buckle that is made of a resilient plastic material so that it is resistant to corrosion and has great reliability during use.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved buckle consisting of a buckle body element and a buckle engagement element, capable of interconnecting in a releasable manner, the body element having a pair of resilient arcuate elements projecting from the sides of a central portion thereof, to form a C-shaped section and facilitate the rapid disconnection of the coupling element of the body element.

According to these purposes and objectives, the present invention relates to the provision of a buckle that includes a buckle body element and a buckle engagement element capable of interconnecting in a releasable manner. The buckle body element was constituted by an extreme wall, a central body portion and a front section. The central body portion joins the extreme wall at one end and the front section at its other end. The central body portion was defined by upper and lower side walls. The front section has an opening located opposite the end wall to receive the buckle engagement element and has inner retaining surfaces. The lower side wall of the central body portion includes a pair of resilient arcuate elements that project from its

035 802 two opposites to form a C-shaped section. The pair of arched elements have lateral protective elements separated from the end wall and the front section by arcuate grooves. The protective elements have drive elements formed on their inner surfaces.

The buckle hitch element includes a base; a central element connected to the base element, and a pair of resilient arms projecting from the distant end of the central element and towards the base element. The resilient arms have fixing projections to engage, in a releasable manner, the inner retaining surfaces of the body element. The lateral protective elements are resiliently flexible towards each other with a curvature action to form the C configuration section with a smaller radius and cause the actuating elements to force the arms to flexively resilient towards each other to decouple the fixing projections of the interior retention surfaces.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention would be apparent from the detailed description that follows, taking as reference the attached drawings where the same reference numbers indicate corresponding parts in all the lists and in which:

Figure 1 is a front plan view of a buckle constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention, with the body and hook elements interconnected.

Figure 2 is a front plan view of the buckle of Figure 1, with the buckle body and hook elements disconnected.

Figure 3 is a front elevational view, partially cut away, of the buckle of Figure 1 and illustrates the way in which the body and hook elements of the buckle can be disconnected.

Figure 4 is a view taken along the cross-sectional lines 4-4 of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is a plan view of the buckle body element of Figure 2.

Figure 6 is a plan view, taken from the back of Figure 5.

Figure 7 is a plan view of the buckle engagement element of Figure 2; ^Y

Figure 8 is a plan view, taken from the back of Figure 7.

Referring now in detail to the various views of the drawings, a buckle 10 constructed according to the principles of the present invention is illustrated, to hold together, in a detachable manner, a pair of ends 12 and 14 of a belt, belt or middle Similary. The buckle 10 includes a buckle body receptacle or element 16 and a buckle engaging element 18, in cooperation, separable, and whose engagement element is intended to be housed in the body element 16. Both the body element and the coupling element are preferably made of resilient plastics material, for example nylon or the like, which can be formed using injection molding equipment. The body element 16 and the coupling element 18 include a means of cooperation or reciprocal coupling for releasingly interconnecting the coupling and body elements.

The buckle element 16 is constituted by a portion of body 20, central, rectangular in shape, defined by side walls 22, 24, upper and lower, opposite, which join at one of its ends to an end wall 26 and join to the front section 28 at its other end. The front section 28 has an opening 30 which is directed to the interior of the central body portion 20 to accommodate the hooking element of the buckle 18. Directing transversely backwards from opposite ends of the end wall 26 there are a pair of separate, parallel stems 32, 34, which are joined together at their distant ends by means of a connecting crossbar element 36. Between the crossbar element 36 and the rear surface of the end wall 26 a groove 38 is formed through which the end 12 of the belt can be drawn and secured to itself using known means, for example sewing.

On the opposite sides of the lower side wall 24 of the body portion 20 there are a pair of resilient arcuate elements 40, 42, forming an integral part of the aforementioned body portion and leaving it, which have lateral protective elements 44, 46 to form a C-shaped section. The resilient arcuate elements with the lateral protective elements are formed with a reduced thickness to facilitate their flexibility, as explained below. As can be seen in Figures 5 and 6, each of the lateral protective elements 44, 46 is separated from the respective end wall 26 and the respective front section 28 by a pair of arcuate grooves 48a and 48b. Each of the protective elements is formed, on the inside surface, an actuation index 50, directed inwards, located adjacent to the arcuate groove 48b. In the intermediate area of ​​the inner surface of the upper side wall 22 of the central body portion 20 there is a longitudinal projecting rib element 52 that serves as a guide element to facilitate alignment and insertion of the buckle engagement element 18. In addition, the nerve element 52 functions to prevent incorrect orientation of the engagement element 18 with the body element 16 during insertion.

The front section 28 also has relatively upper and lower walls 54, 56, relatively narrow, which are joined together by upper and lower side walls 58, 60, opposite, relatively narrow. The middle portion of the inner edges of the upper side wall 58 forms an integral part of the upper side wall 22 of the central body portion 20. The bottom side wall 60 is constructed in an arcuate shape that is used to help prevent incorrect orientation of the hitch element 18 and the body element 16. The reciprocal coupling device of the body element 16 of the buckle is defined by surfaces. retention interiors 62a, 62b of the upper and lower walls 54, 56, respectively.

The buckle hitch element 18 includes a central element 64, relatively

035 Rigid 802, which is connected to a base element 66. Projecting from the distant end of the central element 64, distant from the base element 66, there are a pair of opposing resilient arms 68, 70 folded in the opposite direction towards the base elements 66. As can be seen in Figures 7 and 8, the resilient arms 68, 70 are provided with fixing projections 72, 74 that define the reciprocal coupling means of the buckle engagement element 18. Each of the resilient arms has an inner surface 76 that is virtually perpendicular to the distant end of the central element 64 and projects between its distant end and the fixing projection. In addition, each of the resilient arms has an outer surface 78, inclined outwardly, that projects between the distant end of the central element 66 and the fixing projection so that the thickness of the arm gradually increases in the direction from its distant end to the projection or projection of fixation. The fixing projections are constituted by a pair of stop surfaces 80 and projections 82.

It will be noted that the abutment surfaces 80, as illustrated in Figure 2, are slightly inclined forming an angle of approximately 2^or from a vertical axis perpendicular to a line that projects longitudinally to the central element 64. Therefore, the distances between the outer edges of the abutment surfaces 80 and the base element 66 are slightly smaller than the distances between the projections 82 and the base element. In this way, the hooking element 18 cannot be decoupled from the buckle element 16 simply by pulling in opposite directions on the hooking and buckle elements after they have been coupled together. In particular, said traction exerted on the engagement and buckle elements causes the resilient arms 68, 70 to be slightly camped out because the abutment surfaces 80 are inclined, preventing the engagement and buckle elements from being released.

In the intermediate zone of the central element 64 there are constituted a pair of longitudinally directed vertical projecting elements, 84, 86, which are separated to define a channel 88 in between. The protruding elements 84, 86 serve as guide rails of the rib member 52 in the upper side wall 22 of the central body portion 20 in the buckle body element 16. Projecting transversely and backwards from opposite ends of the base element 66, there are a pair of separate rods 90, 92, joined at their distant ends by an end connecting rod element 94. The end connecting rod element 94 includes a plurality of grooves or parallel grooves 96, which give greater grip strength for engagement with a portion of the end 14 of the belt. An intermediate connecting rod element 98 also exists joining the stems 90, 92 in its virtually middle portion. As illustrated in Figure 8, the intermediate connection bar 98 includes a plurality of narrow grooves 100 that also give a greater grip strength to another portion of the end 14 of the belt. In practice, the end of the belt 14 is frictionally held against the end connection bar 94 by notches 96, at the same time forming a loop around the intermediate connection bar 98 in which the sub-grooves 100 are coupled to others portions of the end of the belt, as shown in Figure 1.

According to the above description, it can be seen that the buckle hitch element 18 can be easily inserted into the opening 30 in the front section 28 of the buckle body element 16, where the inclined outer surfaces 78 slide slidably with the inner surfaces of the upper and lower walls 54, 56. The resilient arms 68, 70 are forced to flex inwardly in one direction in the direction of the other, while the coupling element 18 moves in the direction of the arrows A (Figure 2) to enter the body element 16. As the resilient arms continue to advance, the projections or fixing projections 72, 74 move through the inner retaining surfaces 62a, 62b of the upper and lower walls 54, 56, thereby allowing the resilient arms to jump back to its original position illustrated in Figures 1 and 4. Accordingly, the abutment surfaces 80 and the projections 82 are brought into contact with the respective retaining surfaces 62a, 62b, to secure the body and engagement elements of the buckle 16 and 18 between sa. During said introduction, it will be seen that the nerve element 52 slides in the channel 88 between the projecting elements 84, 86 to maintain the correct alignment and orientation of the body and engagement elements.

In view of the above description and with particular reference to Figure 3 of the drawings, the method of releasing the fixing projections 72, 74 of the internal retention surfaces 62a, 62b will be evident to allow decoupling or removal of the element of buckle hitch 18 of buckle body element 16. They are indicated by the illustration of the fingers 102, 104, the C-shaped section constituted by the lower side 24 of the body portion 20 and the resilient arcuate elements 40, 42 with the lateral protective elements 42, 46, which are curve around the resilient arms 68, 70, moves with a curvature action to form a tighter C-shaped section, or a C-shaped section that has a smaller radius. Therefore, the upper and lower drive appendages 50 in the respective protective elements will move inward or be forced directly in the vertical direction indicated by the arrows B instead of being driven with a pivoting movement as in the devices of the previous technology, and the fixing projections 74, 76 will be pushed directly towards each other against the resilience of the arms 68, 70.

This curvature movement (in the direction of the arrows B) will cause the abutment surfaces 80 and the projections 82 to disengage from the retaining surfaces 62a, 62b, allowing the engagement element 18 to be easily removed from the body element 16 moving it in the direction of the arrows C. It will be remembered that the elements

035 802 resilient arches with the lateral protective elements have a reduced thickness less than the thickness of the central body portion 20, so that it is necessary to exert a lower pressure during decoupling, which also serves to facilitate a rapid disconnection of the coupling element 18 of the body element 16.

From the above detailed description it will be seen that the present invention provides an improved buckle for fastening, in a releasable manner, a pair of ends of a belt, belt or similar means. The buckle consists of a buckle body element and a buckle hitch element. The buckle body element includes a pair of resilient arcuate elements projecting on the sides of a central portion of the body element to form a C-shaped section in order to facilitate the rapid disconnection of the hook element from the element. of body.

While what is currently considered as a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been illustrated and described, those skilled in the art will understand that various changes and modifications can be made, and that their elements can be replaced by equivalents without departing from the true scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications can be made to adapt to a particular situation or material using the teachings of the invention without departing from its essential scope. Therefore, it is intended that this invention not be limited to the particular embodiment described as the best mode contemplated for bringing the invention into practice, but that the invention includes all embodiments that fall within the scope of the appended claims.

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