CA1048746A - Attachment and mounting construction - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT

An attachment of the filament and socket type which is provided with (1) an expansive socket providing a passage through which a filament is passable and a laterally oriented bar at the end of the filament opposite to the socket, the passage extending to an unexpanded opening which has a maximum dimension less than the maximum lateral dimension of the combination of the fialment and the bar folded against the filament, and adapted to be connected to bars of similar attachments to form an assembly of attachments utilized with an attaching gun and (2) a slotted anchor that extends laterally out from the expansive socket and having barbs to enable the attachment to be mounted on an apertured support member.

Description

1~4~746 The present invention relates to attachments of a type designed to be inserted through an object, usually with a view to securing two objects together, and widely used to secure tags or labels to garments or the like as well as to hold a number of objects together. It also relates to an assembly of such attachments which greatly facilitates the application of such attach-ments to the objects with which they are to be associated.
In many different types of merchandising operations it is necessary that a tag or label be secured to an article to be sold. This is particularly the case in retail merchandising, where articles are exposed for display and selection by the customer, and where various information relating to the article, particularly including the price, must be attached thereto. In many instances, and particularly with large or bulky articles, or articles con-structed of materials which cannot be penetrated, tags or labels are attached to those articles by means of wire or string. The manipulation involved in passing the wire or string through a hole in the tag or label and then attach-ing the combination to the article by tying or otherwise connecting the ends of the wire or string is very time-consuming and consequently represents a significant cost factor. In addition, particularly in self-service merchandis-ing operations where products of different types are manually picked up by the customer and then brought to some central location where they are paid for, the problem of tag switching is a very serious one. An unscrupulous customer will take a tag from a low-priced article and attach it to a higher-priced article and then present the thus mistagged article to the cashier, so that only the incorrect low price will be paid.
There is therefore a great need in the merchandising industry for an arrangement or system which will not only facilitate the attachment of the proper tag to the various items to be sold but which will also make it difficult, and preferably impossible, for an unscrupulous customer to change the tags. Arrangements and structures to these ends have been suggested. One such device is shown in Merser United States Patent 3,402,435, issued September 24, 1968, entitled "Tag Attaching or Bundle Fastening Device," now reissued as Reissue Patent No. 27,357, issued May 9, 1972, owned by the assignee of 1~48746 this application. There a plastic attachment is disclosed which is adapted to be secured to a tag to form a tag-attaching device combination, the attach-ment comprising a filament and a socket adapted to receive the filament, the filament being adapted by means of an enlarged end section, to be passed thro-ugh an appropriate portion of the article to be tagged and then pushed down into the socket of the attaching device, there to be reliably and permanently held in position. The specific nature of the filament and socket may take various forms, one other form of which is shown in Merser United States Patent 3,462,802, issued August 26, 1969, entitled "Connector For Holding Articles Together," now reissued as Reissue Patent No. 27,391, issued June 20, 1972, also owned by the assignee of this application, Other forms and structures of attachments are also known.
A feature of the attachments of the two cited patents is that when the head of the filament has been inserted into the socket it cannot, as a practical matter, be removed therefrom. Consequently the only way that the tag-attaching device combination can be removed from the article to which it is attached is by actually breaking the filament portion of the attaching device, and that, of course, would prevent the tag attached thereto from being used in conjunction with some other and improper article of merchandise.
However, the attachments shown in those patents suffer from several drawbacks. Thus, the attachments can only be secured to objects that exhibit pre-existing holes, such as eyelets, button holes, and the like. Penetration through whole garments, fabrics and the like is difficult and undesirable due, in large measure, to the size of the hole that would result from the insertion of the enlarged end which facilitates insertion of the filament through the socket. Such a prerequisite seriously restricts the area of use of such attachments by preventing their use with numerous articles, garments and the like which do not exhibit such openings. A more significant disadvantage, is the fact that these attachments must be manually inserted, i.e. the filament must be manually inserted through the article and the socket. Thus, while the attachments are a vast improvement over wire or string connections, the cost and time factors involved in their manual insertion still represent a signi-1¢~48746 ficant reduction in efficiency. As a related disadvantage, the construction of these prior art attachments does not permit their being assembled in a clip of a plurality of attachments which can be used with an attaching gun such as is disclosed in Bone United States Patent No. 3,103,666, issued September 17, 1963, to rapidly and efficiently insert the attachments through a substantial variety of objects. Furthermore, the prior art attachments do not exhibit anchoring means which enable the attachment to be engaged on an apertured panel for support purposes, a useful feature when the attachments are utilized as bundling devices for wire and the like.
It is the prime object of this invention to modify the construc-tion of filament and socket type attachments so as to permit their insertion through objects by mechanical means.
It is a further object to modify the construction in such a manner that the individual attachments can be combined in a clip or assembly of attachments which can be readily used with an automated attaching device.
It is still a further object to provide a filament and socket attach-ment whose use is not dependent on the presence of a pre-formed opening in the object to be secured.
It is another object to provide the attachment with anchoring means in order to permit its engagement with apertured panels and other support members.
It is still another object to provide an attachment which can be manufactured and assembled by means of simple, inexpensive machinery opera-tions.
To these ends, the attachment is provided, as in the prior art con-structions, with a socketed body from which the filament extends, the filament having a plurality of heads distributed along the length thereof, which heads are adapted to be received in or to pass through the socket on the body, that socket engaging with the head along the length of the filament so as to reliably retain the filament in the socket once it has been placed therein, the entire attachment preferably being formed of some appropriate plastic material which can be manufactured, as by molding, at relatively low cost in substantial numbers.
The instant attachment is distinguished from the prior art con-structions primarily on the basis of a normally laterally oriented bar which is secured to the end of the filament opposite to said socket body. The pre-sence of this cross bar enables the attachment to function in areas where it previously could not, namely, to be formed into an assembly which can be utilized with mechanical attaching devices and thereby be inserted into objects which do not contain pre-existing openings. Thus, the presence of the laterally oriented bar enables the individual attachments to be integrally connected to and strung along a mounting rod by means of frangible necks which connect the respective cross bars to the rod. The attachments in the result-ing assembly or clip may then be effectively and rapidly attached to an object by means of an automatic attaching device which is effective to sever the attachment from the assembly, pass the cross bar and filament through the socket body, and insert the cross bar through the desired object so as to re-tain the object on the filament.
As previously indicated, such an attaching apparatus is disclosed in the Bone United States Patent No. 3,103,666. As there disclosed, the apparatus provides means for feeding an assembly of attachments such that the cross bars of adjacent attachments are brought successively into register with the base of a hollow needle. The thus positioned attachment is then severed from the assembly at its neck portion and a plunger is effective to drive its cross bar through the needle with the filament projecting laterally through the slot. If the needle has been previously inserted through an object, the cross bar likewise is inserted therethrough, the thin filament being bent over onto the trailing portion of the cross bar as it passes through the object. The needle is removed and the cross bar is thereafter effective to maintain the object threaded on the filament.
In addition, the instant attachment is an improvement over the prior art constructions by virtue of the anchoring means present thereon. Thus, anchoring means in the form of a slotted finger having barbs projecting there-from extends laterally out from said socket body and is adapted to pass through ~487~6 and engage an aperture in a panel or other support member. In this manner, the attachment as a whole may be anchored on the support member, thereby pro-viding the mounting and support which is particularly useful when the attach-ments are utilized for bundling purposes.
To the accomplishment of the above, and to such other objects as may hereinafter appear, the present invention relates to an attachment and an assembly of attachments as defined in the appended claims and as described in this specification taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a view, in perspective, of the attachment assembly of this invention showing the component parts of the individual attachments thereof;
Figure 2 is a side elevational view of an attachment of this in-vention showing the filament inserted through the socket and secured to an object;
Figure 3 is a top plan view showing the anchoring means engaged with an apertured panel; and, Figure 4 is a side elevational view of an attachment of this inven-tion showing its use for the bundling of wire.
The preferred attachment embodiment of the instant invention is illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. As there shown, the attachment 10 comprises an elongated filament 12, a normally laterally oriented bar 14 at one end thereof, a body member 16 at the other end thereof, and a series of heads 18 spaced along the length of filament 12. Cross bar 14 is illustrated as a relatively thin cylinder connected at its mid-point to filament 12 and extend-ing generally at right angles to said filament 12 to form with the filament 12 a generally T configuration. The cross bar 14 is shown in Figure 1 as having a circular cross section but various other shapes may be suitable. In one manner of operation, as will be described in more detail hereinafter, the cross bar 14 is inserted through an object along its axial direction, the object being threaded onto the filament 12 adjacent the cross bar 14, the cross bar 14 thereafter serving to retain the object on the filament 12. Accordingly, cross bar 14 must have a sufficient maximum length-to-width ratio to effective-1~4~3746 ly prevent the object from slipping off the filament 12. In addition, cross bar 14 must have a sufficiently small effective cross section to allow it to be threaded through the object without proclucing a sizable or noticeable hole therein as well as to allow it to pass through the socket.
Body member 16, which is situated at the end of filament 12 oppo-site to said cross bar 14, has a passage 20 therethrough defining socket 22.
Preferably the socket 22 is circular in cross-section and the heads 18 are conical. The heads 18 are slightly larger than the passage 20 through socket 22 so that they seat upon the mouth of the socket 22 as shown in Figure 2 and must be forced through socket 22, the heads 18 contracting slightly and socket 22 expanding due to their resilience. If desired, the sides of socket 22 may be slotted, as indicated at 23, to facilitate the spreading of socket 22 when heads 18 are forced therethrough. Hence, once the desired number of heads 18 have been passed through socket 22, thereby producing a loop of filament 12 of the desired circumferential length, the filament 12 will not be able to be pulled back out from socket 22 because of the conical shape of heads 18 and the engagement of the trailing surface of one of those heads 18 with the tip of socket 22.
As shown in Figure 1, a plurality of attachments 10 are integrally molded together in an assembly strung along mounting rod 24 by means of necks 26. Thus, the laterally oriented bar 14 on each attachment 10 is secured to the rod 24 by means of a frangible neck 26 which can be readily severed during insertion of the attachment. This construction is particularly well suited for use with attaching devices of the Bone '666 variety inasmuch as a single actuation of the device can rapidly sever the attachment, insert the filament and desired number of heads through the socket, and insert the cross bar and filament through an object.
The attachments are preferably integrally molded of a thermoplastic material such as nylon in a manner described in considerable detail in Bone United States Patent 3,444,597, issued May 20, 1969 and assigned to the assignee of the instant application. In a typical embodiment, the filament 12 extends approximately four inches in length and the bar 14 is approximately 1~4879~6 13/32 in. in length and 0.045 inch in diameter. It should be noted, however, that these dimensions may be varied considerably depending upon the particular attachment and its specific end use application.
The manner of use and functioning of the attachments described here-in will now be apparent. The assembly of Figure 1 is inserted into an auto-matic tag attachment mechanism of the type described in the aforementioned Bone patent and the cross bars 14 are successively aligned with the hollow needle at its base. The needle pierces the object 0 to be secured and is then inserted through the socket 22. If a tag T is also to be attached, the needle will generally be passed through the tag subsequent to its insertion through socket 22. As the attaching device is actuated, the thus positioned attach-ment 10 is severed from the assembly at its neck portion 26 and the cross bar 14 is forced through the needle and consequently through object 0 and socket 22 by a plunger, the filament 12 projecting laterally outwardly through the axially extending slot in the needle. As the cross bar 14 moves past the object 0 and socket 22, the filament is pulled inwardly toward the needle and is bent substantially 90 onto the trailing portion of the cross bar 14. It will be apparent that the size of the hole produced in the fabric depends not only on the size of the needle but also on the effective cross-sectional area of the filament 12 and its flexibility. As the cross bar 14 leaves the needle it springs back to the T configuration with relation to filament 12. The needle is removed from the object 0 and socket 22 resulting in object 0 being effectively attached to filament 12. The loop which is formed by the inser-tion of filament 12 through socket 22 may be of any circumferential length depending upon the number of heads 18 passed through socket 22. The loop thus functions to hold an article or tag thereon, or may be used as a connector for holding articles together.
As an optional feature, attachment 10 may be provided with anchor-ing means 28 to facilitate mounting attachment 10 on any conventional apertured support member. Anchoring means 28 is an integrally formed part of body mem-ber 16 and generally comprises finger 30 extending laterally out from socket 22, finger 30 having slotted section 32 and projections or barbs 34, 36 extending 1~487~6 therefrom in the plane of said finger 30. As shown in Figure 3, finger 30 engages an apertured panel 38 or other apertured support member by passing through the aperture and having barbs 34, 36 contact the edges of the aperture so as to prevent withdrawal of finger 30. The width of the aperture in panel 38 will be smaller than the distance between the outer extremities of projec-tions 34 and 36. In this manner, the resiliency of finger 30 and the inward flexibility provided by slot 32 permit the projections 34, 36 to be compress-ed for insertion through the smaller aperture and then to expand to their normal dimensions upon emerging from the aperture. Attachment 10 is thus securely mounted onto panel 38 with projections 34, 36 functioning as stops when they engage the far side of panel 38, thereby preventing the withdrawal of attachment 10 therefrom. Likewise, socket 22 limits the movement of finger 30 through the aperture by functioning as a stop when it engages the near side of panel 38.
Figure 4 depicts the use of the attachment of this invention for tying and supporting wire bundles. In operation, filament 12 is passed around wire strands W and inserted through socket 22 by means of the procedure described hereinabove. Filament 12 is then pulled securely about the wire strands W and through socket 22 until no additional heads 18 can be passed through socket 22. The loop thus formed binds the wires W together as a unit, the inability of filament 12 to be pulled back out from socket 22 due to the conical shape of heads 18 and the engagement of the tip of socket 22 with the trailing surface of the last of heads 18 to be pulled therethrough preventing any loosening of the tightly bound bundle. The length of filament 12 which has been pulled through socket 22 may, thereafter, be severed from the assem-bly. As previously discussed, anchoring means 28 facilitates the mounting and support of the tied bundle, said anchoring means 28 engaging apertured support panel 38 in the manner described to secure the bundle in a fixed position on the panel 38. Depending upon the specific nature of the bundling system, the attachment may be mounted on panel 38 either prior or subsequent to the tying operation.
By means of the construction of the present invention, attachments l~J~1~746 may be formed with the same facility and relative inexpensiveness as is the case with comparable attachments now on the market. The instant attachments will have the significant advantage, however, of containing a laterally orien-ted bar thereon which permits it to be inserted through objects which do not exhibit preformed openings and to be formed into assemblies or clips of a plu-rality of attachments, thus permitting their rapid and effective insertion by mechanical devices. The construction also contains anchoring means which facilitates the mounting of such attachments on apertured support members.
As previously indicated, the attachments may be utilized to secure tags or labels to articles, to combine two or more articles, and to bundle a number of articles, as well as to perform a combination of these functions simultaneously.
~ hile the invention has been described in terms of the specific embodiments herein, it should be apparent that variations may be developed without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.

','' ' :

Claims (10)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY
OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:-

1. An attachment device comprising a filement having a body member at one end and a bar at the other end, said body member having a passage therethrough defining an expansive socket through which said filament is passable, said bar having a length which exceeds that of the passage through said body member and being normally disposed in an orthogonal position relative to said filament, said device being fabricated of a material which permits said bar to be folded against said filament and has sufficient resiliency that the bar springs back spontaneously into its orthogonal position after being passed through said passage, and said passage extending to an unexpanded opening which has a maximum dimension less than the maximum lateral dimension of the combination of said filament and said bar folded thereagainst.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein said filament includes at least one head positioned thereon larger than the outlet aperture of the passage through said socket.

3. The device of Claim 1, wherein said body member is provided with anchoring means extending laterally out from said socket, said anchoring means being slotted and having projections externally present thereon thereby being effective to engage and cooperate with an apertured support means.

4. The device of Claim 1 which is constituted by a one piece assembly of molded plastic material

5. The device of Claim 1, wherein said socket is slotted.

6 The device of Claim 1 wherein said socket is formed by a plurality of individual fingers.

7. The device of claim 2 wherein said head is proportioned to sit upon the mouth at the outlet aperture of said socket.

8. The device of claim 1 wherein said bar comprises a cylindrical member connected at its midpoint to said filament.

9. An assemblage of a plurality of attachments, each attachment comprising a filament having a body member at one end and a bar at the other end said body member having a passage therethrough defining an expansive socket through which said filament is passable, said bar having a length which exceeds that of the passage through said body member and being normally disposed in an orthogonal position relative to said filament, said device being fabricated of a material which permits said bar to be folded against said filament and has sufficient resiliency that the bar springs back spontaneously into its orthogonal position after being passed through said passage, and said passage extending to an unexpanded opening which has a maximum dimension less than maximum lateral dimension of the combination of said filament and said bar folded thereagainst, and said assemblage including a mounting element to which the bars of said attachments are secured.

10. Assemblage of claim 9 wherein each socket is slotted.