EP1862085B1

EP1862085B1 - High-visibility jacket

Info

Publication number: EP1862085B1
Application number: EP07010598A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Nicola Cinelli
Original assignee: Cinellistudio Srl
Current assignee: Cinellistudio Srl
Priority date: 2006-05-31
Filing date: 2007-05-29
Publication date: 2010-05-19
Anticipated expiration: 2027-05-29
Also published as: EP1862085A3; EP1862085A2; DE602007006586D1; ITFI20060134A1; ATE468036T1

Abstract

A high-visibility jacket comprises at least a sleeve-cover element (5) associated with a respective sleeve (2) of the jacket (1) and provided with high-visibility properties. Each sleeve-cover element (5) can take up a folded-back position in which it is folded over itself, and an extended position in which it wraps up substantially in full at least a portion corresponding to the forearm of the respective sleeve (2).

Description

The object of the present invention is a high-visibility jacket.
Specifically, the invention takes its place in the clothing sector, and in particular in the sector of those garments with outfits of high visibility.
As well known, owing to laws in force and to subjective expedients devised for protecting the personal safety within or outside the work environment, the components and accessories industry in the field of high visibility items include a wide range of solutions able to improve the visibility under unfavourable conditions. In particular, devices and accessories are known which are used in case of poor visibility, especially at night time, in locations not provided with lighting and, moreover, upon risky situations in which it is suitable to improve one's own visibility.
Among such oufits and accessories, it is known to make jackets and bodies from high-visibility materials, for example coated with fluorescent dyes or reflecting components, which are put on when a poor visibility condition arises.
Also known arc garments having portions with the above said characteristics and able to be applied or removed according to different visibility requirements, as for example described in document US 3837007 .
It is a disadvantage that such accessories do not make part of a specific garment or cloth of normal characteristics and require, instead, to be assembled and put on when necessary, so that they have to be available substantially the moment the need arises. It is therefore possible a case when they are not immediately available.
Garments of ordinary characteristics are also known, for example, jackets and overalls, fitted with foldable elements, such as cuffs or neckbands, which have fluorescent colours, or reflecting or anyway highly visible strips.
Disadvantageously, such foldable elements offer a limited useful surface, so that they do not in substance perform the function of improving the visibility under unfavourable conditions.
Finally, it is known to make garments, for use in situations of unfavourable visibility, which exhibit one or more high-visibility portions fitted in a permanent and visible fashion, and which disadvantageously require to be taken off when not strictly necessary, for example due to their fluorescent properties.
The technical task of the present invention is therefore to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks.
Within such technical task, it is the main object of the invention to provide a high-visibility jacket able to improve its own conditions of visibility in environments that are unfavourably or insufficiently illuminated.
A further object of the invention is to provide a high-visibility jacket that will not require the application of separate components and, therefore, will reduce the risk of possible unavailability of such components.
Still another object of the invention is to propose a high-visibility jacket that will not exhibit fluorescent or similar components fixed permanently and visibly thereto, so as to use it also in ordinary situations and not only in situations of emergency requiring an improvement of visibility conditions.
These and further objects that will appear more clearly by the detailed description that follows, are substantially achieved by a high-visibility jacket having the characteristics set forth in one or more appended claims.
Described herinbelow, by way of non limitative example, is a preferred but non exclusive embodiment of a high-visibility jacket according to the invention and illustrated in the attached figures, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a jacket according to the invention;
Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a sleeve of the jacket of Fig. 1, in inoperative condition;
Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a detail of the sleeve of Fig. 1, in inoperative condition;
Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the detail of Fig. 3, in a different embodiment;
Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a further detail of the jacket of Fig. 1, in operative condition;
Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a detail of the sleeve of Fig. 1 showing the sleeve ready for an operative configuration; and
Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the detail of Fig. 6, in an operative configuration.

With reference to the attached figures, a high-visibility jacket, according to the invention, is indicated by 1 in its whole. The jacket 1 has a structure of known type and comprises two long sleeves 2, each of which extends along a prevalent direction of its development, in particular from a respective shoulder 3 of the jacket 1 to a respective cuff 4.
The jacket 1 also comprises at least a sleeve-cover element 5 which is associated with one of said sleeves 2, has a substantially tubular shape and is able to envelope, at least partially, the said sleeve 2.
Preferably, according to an illustrated preferred embodiment, the jacket 1 comprises two sleeve-cover elements 5, each being associated with a respective sleeve 2.
Discussed herebelow are the structure and characteristics of only one of the two sleeve-cover elements 5, no limitation being considered as they are substantially identical and, thus, indistinguishable.
According to the main object of the invention, the sleeve-cover element 5 exhibits at least one portion coated with a high-visible dye, providing preferably a fluorescent or, alternatively, reflecting or retroreflector colouring. Advantageously, the sleeve-cover element 5 has an outer surface 6 internally coated with the said high-visibility colouring.
The sleeve-cover element 5 can take up a plurality of positions included between a curled up position, in which it is folded back to reduce its overall dimensions and leave the respective sleeve 2 of jacket 1 uncovered, and an extended position, in which it envelops at least partially the said sleeve 2.
Preferably, in correspondence of the said extended position, the sleeve-cover element 5 envelops completely at least a portion which corresponds to the forearm of the respective sleeve 2 or, alternatively, it envelops substantially in full the respective sleeve 2.
The sleeve-cover element 5 exhibits a pocket 7 intended to contain at least partially, and preferably in full, the sleeve-cover element 5 as the latter is in curled up position. The pocket 7 is internally defined by a sac (not shown) for holding the relevant sleeve-cover element 5, The sac communicates with the outside via an opening 7a of said pocket 7, said opening being necessary to withdraw the sleeve-cover element 5 from the respective sac and to insert it thereinto again. The pocket 7 may include a band 7b of substantially rectangular shape and attached to the sleeve 2, which band has aesthetical functions and provides a cover for the opening 7a. The band 7b has to be at least partially removable to allow access to the sac, preferably through a free edge 7c of said band 7b, which free edge 7c is detached from the sleeve 2 or, alternatively, is steadily and reversibly attachable to the sleeve 2, for example by a Velcro fastener.
The pocket 7 is preferably produced in proximity of the respective shoulder 3 of jacket 1, so as to allow the sleeve-cover element 5 to envelope the respective sleeve 2 as much as possible. Preferably, in fact, the sleeve-cover element 5 extends from the pocket 7 in the direction of the respective cuff 4.
Illustrated in detail in Fig. 5 is the sleeve-cover element 5. It is to be stressed that, for the sake of clarity, the element 5 is shown individually, but in use, it remains anchored, by some length, inside the pocket.
The sleeve-cover element 5, in its extended configuration, can be folded around the respective sleeve 2 or a portion thereof. Besides, the sleeve-cover element 5 exhibits a prevalent direction of development which coincides substantially with the prevalent direction of development of the sleeve 2 when the sleeve-cover element wraps up the sleeve 2.
In particular, the sleeve-cover element 5 has a first end 8 steadily fixed to the sleeve 2, and a second end 9, opposite to the first, able to associated with the cuff 4 of such sleeve 2. In particular, the first end 8 of the sleeve-cover element 5 is fixed to an inner portion of the pocket 7 of sleeve 2 by sewing, the seam being not shown as not visible. Alternatively, the first end 8 of the sleeve-cover element 5 is attached to the said inner portion of pocket 7 of sleeve 2 in a reversible manner, for example, by means of a zip fastener, to allow the sleeve-cover to be removed temporarily or be replaced.
Preferably, the pocket 7 has a limited extension with respect to a whole peripheral development of the sleeve 2. In other words, the pocket 7 runs only in part around the said sleeve's prevalent direction of development. As a consequence, in order for the sleeve-cover element 5 to be withdrawn out of the respective pocket 7 and to envelope the sleeve 2, the same element is provided with a side opening 10 which extends preferably along the prevalent direction of development of the sleeve-cover element 5 and allows the latter to be unreeled over the respective sleeve 2 starting from the curled up position.
As can be seen in Fig. 5, the side opening 10 is delimited by two side edges 11 of the sleeve-cover element 5, which side edges 11, by overlapping steadily, give rise to a tubular conformation of the sleeve-cover element 5 which is thus able to steadily envelope the respective sleeve 2. Such side edges 11 extend preferably throughout a length of the sleeve-cover element 5 along the respective prevalent direction of development.
To this end, the sleeve-cover element 5 exhibits closing means 12, preferably of reversible type, which act on said side edges 11 in order to associate them steadily and reversibly with each other. This allows, therefore, a subsequent separation of the two side edges 11 for restoring a curled up configuration of the sleeve-cover element 5 inside the respective pocket 7 at the end of use. Preferably, such closing means 12 comprise a zip fastener 13, associated with said side edges 11. Such zip fastener 13 is preferably located in opposite position with respect to the pocket 7 when the sleeve-cover element 5 is in extended configuration. In consideration of the fact that the pocket 7 is preferably formed on the sleeve 2 close to the relevant shoulder 3 and, thus, in an easily accessible position, it is possible to make the zip fastener 13 less visible, since the latter results in a far inner position, close to the user's bust, thereby improving the aesthetical characteristics of the jacket 1.
Alternatively, the closing means may comprise one or more Velcro couplings, one or more snap fasteners, or closures of button-buttonhole type.
Each of the two side edges 11, in one portion closer to the pocket 7, exhibits reference means 14 for associating such side edge 11 with the sleeve 2, the function of said means being substantially that of defining steadily the position of each side edge 11 relative to the sleeve 2, thereby preventing unwanted slipping of the sleeve-cover element 5 over the same sleeve 2. In the preferred embodiment illustrated in Fig. 5, the reference means 14 comprise a Velcro coupling. Such coupling is achieved by first plates 14a, each being fixed to one of said side edges 11. The first plates 14a of each sleeve-cover element 5 are steadily engaged with one or more second plates 14b fixed to the respective sleeve 2 by sewing, for example. In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 6, two first plates 14a engage by a coupling of Velcro type with an individual second plate 14b attached to the respective sleeve 2.
The cooperation between the zip fastener 13 and the reference means 14 defines steadily the tubular conformation of the sleeve-cover element 5 and the position of the latter relative to the sleeve 2, thereby reducing the risk of unwanted slipping of the sleeve-cover element 5 over the sleeve 2.
In order to define a steady positioning of the sleeve-cover element 5 when in curled up configuration, the sleeve-cover element 5 comprises fastening means 15, able to be coupled to a portion of the sleeve 2 and thus useful for preventing unwanted slippings of the sleeve-cover element 5 over the sleeve 2.
In the preferred embodiment illustrated in Fig. 3, the fastening means 15 comprise a tab 16 of either flexible or semirigid type, fixed close to the second end 9 of the sleeve-cover element 5. The tab 16 is reversibly engageable to the sleeve 2 and, in particular, to the pocket 7, by a snap-closing means 17 or alternatively, by a Velcro coupling as shown in Fig. 4, or by a button-buttonhole coupling, not shown.
In use, the tab 16 is fixed steadily in a position protruding from the pocket 7. By lifting the tab 16 to disengage it from the pocket 7, it is possible to quickly take out the sleeve-cover element 5 by simply pulling the tab 16.
The sleeve-cover element 5 can thus be unreeled from the respective sleeve 2, and the side edges 11 be engaged to each other by the zip fastener 13, thereby defining the tubular conformation of the sleeve-cover element 5 in the respective extended configuration.
The present invention obtains the proposed objects.
The presence of full sleeves provided with high-visibility colouring allows, first of all, a high visibility also under particularly unfavourable conditions such as, for example, in environment with no lighting or at night.
Moreover, the solution according to the invention allows not to carry along separate, high-visibility outfits to be put on when the need arises and be taken off afterwards.
Finally, it is to be pointed out that the ability of the sleeve-cover elements to be folded back, allows the high-visibility colouring, of phosphorescent type for example, to be suppressed when its use is no longer necessary.
The present invention obtains also further advantages.
In fact, the provision of the tab fixed to the sleeve-cover element has the advantage of simplifying and improving the fastening of the same sleeve-cover element in a curled up configuration. Such fastening, in relation to its simple construction, results stable, reliable and of practical in use as well.
Moreover, the presence of the zip fastener acting on the edges of the sleeve-cover element, facilitates the closing operation thereof once extracted from the respective pocket, and allows also the dimensions of the pocket to be reduced inasmuch as, by providing the side opening, the sleeve-cover element is foldable in a compact and versatile manner.

Claims

High-visibility jacket, comprising at least a sleeve-cover element (5) associated with a respective sleeve (2) of the jacket (1) and provide with high-visibility properties, said jacket (1) bering characterized in that it comprises a pocket (7) intended to hold a respective sleeve-cover element (5) when in a curled up position to reduce its overall dimensions and leave the respective sleeve (2) of jacket (1) uncovered, each sleeve-cover element (5) being able to take up an extended position in which it envelops substantially in full at least a portion correspondinq to the forearm of the respective sleeve (2).
Jacket according to claim 1, characterized in that each sleeve-cover element (5), in correspondence of said extended position, envelops substantially in full the respective sleeve (2) of the jacket (1).
Jacket according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the pocket (7) is formed on the respective sleeve (2) in proximity of a shoulder (3) of said jacket (1).
Jacket according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that each sleeve-cover element (b) exhibits a side opening (10) delimited by two side edges (11) of said sleeve-cover element (5) in order to facilitate the unreeling of the sleeve-cover element (5) over the respective sleeve (2).
Jacket according to claim 4, characterized in that the side opening (10) of each sleeve-cover element (5) extends along a prevalent direction of development of the sleeve-cover element (5).
Jacket according to claim 5, characterized in that said side edges (11) extend throughout a length of the sleeve-cover element (5) along said prevalent direction of development of the sleeve-cover element (5).
Jacket according to any of claims 4 to 6, characterized in that the sleeve-cover element (5) is associated with a reversible closing means (12) which are able to associate with each other said side edges (11) of the sleeve-cover element (5) in correspondence of the side opening (10) so as to give the sleeve-cover element (5) a substantially tubular shape when in extended configuration.
Jacket according to claim 7, characterized in that said reversible closing means (12) comprise a zip fastener (13).
Jacket according to claim 8, characterized in that said reversible closing means (12) comprise at least a hook and loop fastener.
Jacket according to claim 8, characterized in that said reversible closing means (12) comprise at least a snap-closing means.
Jacket according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that each sleeve-cover element (5) is steadily associated with the respective sleeve (2).
Jacket according to claims 2 and 11, characterized in that the sleeve-cover element (5) has a first end (8) fixed by sewing to an inner portion of the respective pocket (7).
Jacket according to claims 2 and 11, characterized in that the sleeve-cover element (5) has a first end (8) reversibly fixed to an inner portion of the respective pocket (7), to allow the sleeve-cover element (5) to be either removed temporarily from the sleeve (2) or replaced.
Jacket according to any of claims 4 to 10, characterized in that each side edge (11) of the sleeve-cover element (5) exhibits reference means (14) for associating said side edge (11) with the sleeve (2) in order to define a stable position of said side edge (11) relative to the sleeve (2) and prevent unwanted slipping of said side edge (11) over the sleeve (2).
Jacket according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said reference means (14) are located in a portion, of each side edge (11), closer to the respective pocket (7).
Jacket according to claims 15, characterized in that the reference means (14) comprise a hook and loop fastener, said fastener comprising a first plate (14a) fixed to each side edge (11) and able to engage with a respective second plate (14b) fixed to the sleeve (2).
Jacket according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the sleeve-cover element (5) comprises fastening means (15) able to be coupled with a portion of the sleeve (2) when the sleeve-cover element (5) is in its curled up configuration to prevent unwanted unreelings of the sleeve-cover element (5) over Lhe sleeve (2).
Jacket according to any of claims 1 to 17, characterized in that it comprises a tab (16) fixed to an end (9) of the sleeve-cover element (5), able Lo be associated with a cuff (4) of the respective sleeve (2), said tab (16) being able to be steadily and reversibly associated with the respective sleeve (2) when the sleeve-cover element (5) is in curled up position, in order to maintain steadily the sleeve-cover element in the respective curled up configuration.