AU2006100340A4 - Vehicle clothes hanger - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT Applicant(s): Jane Frances Sullivan Invention Title: VEHICLE CLOTHES HANGER The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: 2 VEHICLE CLOTHES HANGER The present invention relates to a clothes hanger for carrying clothes in a vehicle where the hanger is specifically to be mounted to a vehicle head rest.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Hooks for hanging coat hangers are commonplace in vehicles, and in domestic vehicles are usually located near the vehicle ceiling one above each back seat side window. This hook allows users to hang various objects including coat hangers, garments and bags. The problem with hanging garments off these vehicle hooks, whether or not on coat hangers, is that the garment obscures the rear side window thereby affecting the driver's visibility and effectively increasing the driver's blind spot on that side of the vehicle. Furthermore, garments on hangers hung from these hooks tend to slide to one side of the hangers, and sometimes slide right off the hanger, as a consequence of the inertia from an accelerating or braking vehicle.

Apparatus are known to have been developed for hanging garments behind front seats of vehicles. While these apparatus usefully place the garment in a position where it will not effect driver visibility, these apparatus are often complex to install, require modification of the vehicle seats or interfere with the driver's comfort.

The present vehicle clothes hanger is useful for hanging garments, simple to install and has no impact on driver comfort.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with an aspect of the present invention H:\annetteg\keep\speci\P58940 vehicle Clothes Hanger.doc 21/04/06 3 there is provided a vehicle clothes hanger comprising a frame having two support arms with sockets for attaching the clothes hanger to support rods of a vehicle head rest; a coat hanging portion connected to the support arms and a horizontal rail to support further clothing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment, incorporating all aspects of the invention, will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates a coat supported by a vehicle clothes hanger in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 illustrates trousers folded over the vehicle clothes hanger; Figure 3 is a rear perspective view of a vehicle clothes hanger according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 4 is a front perspective view of the vehicle clothes hanger; Figure 5 is a rear view of the vehicle clothes hanger; Figure 6 is a front view of the vehicle clothes hanger; Figure 7 is a side view of the vehicle clothes hanger; Figure 8 is a plan view of the vehicle clothes hanger; Figure 9 illustrates in perspective view the vehicle clothes hanger being mounted behind a vehicle head rest; H\annetteg\keep\speci\P58940 Vehicle Clothes Hanger.doc 21/04/06 4 Figure 10 illustrates in perspective view the vehicle clothes hanger mounted behind a vehicle head rest in perspective; Figure 11 is a side view of the mounted vehicle clothes hanger; and Figure 12 is a plan view of the mounted vehicle clothes hanger.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A vehicle clothes hanger 10 is illustrated in the drawings and Figures 1 and 2, in particular, illustrate the clothes hanger 10 mounted behind a head rest 30 of a front seat 32 of a vehicle. Specifically, clothes hanger 10 is mounted on two support rods 31 of the head rest Figure 1 illustrates a coat 34 supported by the clothes hanger 10, while Figure 2 illustrates a pair of trousers 36 supported by the clothes hanger 10. Figures 3 to 8 illustrate vehicle clothes hanger 10 from various angles.

The clothes hanger comprises a frame 11 having two support arms 12 for mounting the clothes hanger to support rods 31 of the head rest 30 by way of sockets 14 located at the end of support arms 12. Sockets 14 are cylindrical and contain a bore 16 through which support rods 31 extend.

Connected to the mounting arms 12 on frame 11 is a coat hanging portion 18 and a horizontal rail 20. Coat hanging portion 18 is adapted to support garments to be worn on the upper body such as coats, shirts, t-shirts, and the like. Horizontal rail 20 is adapted to support further clothing such as trousers, skirts, and the like by folding the clothing over rail 20 or hanging clothing off rail using pegs, clips or other attachment means.

H:\annetteg\keep\speci\P58940 Vehicle Clothes Hanger.doc 21/04/06 5 The coat hanging portion 18 is triangular in nature. The triangle of coat hanging portion 18 begins at an apex 26 and diverges downwards towards the support arms 12 and into side bends 27. At side bends 27, the frame 11 of clothes hanger 10 converges downwards in the same plane as the coat hanging portion 18 to form upright segments 13 of support arms 12. Upright segments 13 and coat hanging portion 18 lie in substantially the same plane. Support arms 12 then bend from upright segments 13 at approximately 90* to extend parallel to each other and to terminate in sockets 14. In side profile the support arms 12 are shaped and extend towards a front direction of the hanger to meet sockets 14.

Horizontal rail 20 extends in the opposite direction to support arms 12 and extends rearwardly of the clothes hanger 10 to provide a rail that is spaced from the plane in which the coat hanging portion 18 and upright segment 13 lie. Horizontal rail 20 is shaped to include a long bar 24 and perpendicular side spacers 25 at the ends of long bar 24. In side profile, horizontal rail 20 extends substantially perpendicular to the plane of the coat hanging portion 18. The spacing of rail 20 allows a garment to clear the coat hanging portion and fold over bar 24.

The vehicle clothes hanger 10 is constructed as such to allow a garment to be folded over horizontal rail 20 and to also allow an upper body garment to be hung on coat hanger portion 18. Although an upper body garment, such as a coat, would be hung on the clothes hanger 10 by approaching the hanger from the rear, the garment will clear the rearwardly extending horizontal rail 20 because, as illustrated in Figures 10 to 12, when the vehicle clothes hanger 10 is mounted onto a seat 32 it will not be oriented upright, but rather will be oriented at a H:\annetteg\keep\speci\P58940 Vehicle Clothes Hanger.doc 21/04/06 6 rearwardly leaning angle. Even if the seat is placed in an almost upright position rail 20 does not protrude sufficiently rearwardly to impinge on the hanging of a garment 20 on coat hanger portion 18.

The vertical orientation of the vehicle clothes hanger can, however, be adjusted as desired and to suit the vehicle seats by bending the frame of the hanger, which contains some flexibility.

The clothes hanger frame 11 is formed by bending and joining lengths of solid extruded high tensile wire. The wire is bent to shape and then the horizontal rail 20 is welded to the frame 11 at or just below side bends 27.

Sockets 14 are also spot welded to the ends of support arms 12. The wire is then coated with plastics.

Support arms 12 and coat hanging portion 18 may be bent and formed from a single length of material or, for convenience of manufacture, may include more than one length of material.

The high tensile wire is preferably about 3 mm in diameter although a thicker wire may also be suitable.

The vehicle clothes hanger 10 is mounted onto support rods 31 of head rest 30 as illustrated in Figure 9.

Specifically, head rest 30 is removed by conventional means from seat 32, which usually involves pulling head rest 30 upwards and out of mounting holes 33 located at seats 32. Once support rods 31 are free from mounting holes 33 vehicle clothes hanger 10 is aligned so that sockets 14 slide onto support rods 31 and the whole head rest is then reinserted back into mounting holes 33 such that clothes hanger 10 is clamped between seat 32 and head rest 30 as illustrated in Figure 10. Figures 11 and 12 illustrated the mounted clothes hanger from different H:\annetteg\keep\speci\P58940 Vehicle Clothes Hanger.doc 21/04/06 7 angles.

The distance between support rods 31 of a head rest is usually a same standard distance on all late model vehicles. Small adjustments of distance between hanger sockets 14 is possible owing to the flexible nature of frame 11, but the hanger may be manufactured in varying models, necessary, where the distance between sockets 14 varies.

The present vehicle clothes hanger 10 reflects a useful hanger design whereby at least two garments can be held on the hanger 10 at any time. Accordingly a suit jacket and trousers can be carried in a vehicle without creasing.

More than one garment may be folded over horizontal rail for example the rail may accommodate ties.

Additionally, upper body garments could obviously also be hung over rail 20 as well as over the coat hanging portion 18.

In removing clothes from the vehicles, the entire hanger may be lifted out of position with garment(s) still supported such that the garment(s) can be carried away from the vehicle without creasing or damage.

The clothes hanger 10 is very simple to install, requiring only to lift the head rest of a vehicle seat and does not require any modifications to the vehicle or seats. The clothes hanger 10 is intended to be economical at a retail level as it does not require any complicated components or assembly.

The hanger provides a useful means for securely hanging and transporting garments in a vehicle without detriment to the driver for instance, by way of obscuring the driver's view or interfering with driver comfort.

H:\annetteg\keep\speci\P58940 Vehicle Clothes Hanger.doc 21/04/06 8 It is to be understood that, if any prior art publication is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.

H:\annetteg\keep\speci\P58940 Vehicle Clothes Hanger.doc 21/04/06

Claims (4)

1. A vehicle clothes hanger comprising a frame having two support arms with sockets for attaching the clothes hanger to support rods of a vehicle head rest; wherein the frame includes a coat hanging portion connected to the support arms and a horizontal rail to support further clothing.

2. The vehicle clothes hanger claimed in claim 1 wherein the support arms extend in a first direction and the horizontal rail extends in an opposite second direction.

3. The vehicle clothes hanger claimed in claim 2 wherein the coat hanging portion lies in a plane substantially perpendicular to the horizontal rail and a part of the support arms.

4. The vehicle clothes hanger claimed in claim 3 wherein the coat hanging portion is triangular and from an apex extends down toward side bends to then converge in the same plane to form the support arms which then bend perpendicularly to extend parallel towards the mounting sockets. The vehicle clothes hanger claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the frame is made of lengths of high tensile wire. Dated this 26th day of April 2006 JANE FRANCES SULLIVAN By their Patent Attorneys GRIFFITH HACK Fellows Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia H:\annetteg\keep\speci\P58940 Vehicle Clothes Hanger.doc 26/04/06