GB2257110A - Badge and fixing means therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

A badge is provided with fixing means other than the customary pin so as not to present a hazard to young children. The badge comprises an elongate member (45) extending from a back part (40) so that an end part (50) thereof is resiliently urged towards the back part (40), so that an article of clothing, for example, placed between the elongate member (45) and the back part (40) will be trapped thereby providing a safe and secure fixing for the badge. The elongate member (45) may be of T-shaped cross-section and formed of plastics material integrally with the back part (40). The end part (50) of the elongate member (45) extends beyond the plane of the surface of the back part (40) into a slot or recess (44) in the back part. Alternatively, the elongate member may be of wire, both ends of the wire being held between the back part and the display part of the badge with the intermediate part of the wire forming a resilient tongue. <IMAGE>

Description

Title: An Improved Badge and Fixing Means Therefor Description of the invention The present invention relates to badges and is primarily concerned with the means for securing a badge to the clothing of the person wearing the badge or to some other article.

Even though badges are worn by people of all ages it is primarily young children who are likely to purchase and/or wear badges.

Traditionally badges have been provided with an elongate pin which is secured at one end to the badge and which is passed through an article of clothing worn by the person intending to wear the badge. The pointed end of the pin is then located in a recess or formation provided on the rear of the badge. It is quite common for such pins to extend diametrically across the badge and depending on the size of the badge the pin can constitute an article which can cause quite severe damage particularly to a young child.

It has therefore been proposed, to provide badges with safety pins which ensure, at least when the safety pin is closed, that the badge is relatively safe. However this does not overcome the problem that when it is required for the user to open the safety pin to secure the badge onto an article of clothing the exposed pin is almost as dangerous as the conventional badge pin and can be quite dangerous in the hands of a young child who may cause him or herself a severe injury.

It is an objection of the present invention to provide a new or improved fixing for a badge that overcomes or minimises the problems aforementioned.

According to one aspect of the present invention we provide a badge comprising a display part and a back part said display part being secured to said back part and said badge further comprising an elongate fixing member extending from said back part in a manner so that an end part thereof is urged in a direction towards said back part but is capable of being moved away from said back part to permit of the positioning of an article or part thereof between said elongate member and said back part.

Due to the urging of said elongate member towards said back part any article placed therebetween may be gripped between the elongate member and the back part thus securing the badge to the article.

Because it is no longer necessary for the elongate member to pass through an article it is no longer necessary for the elongate member to have a sharp point and it may be of any desired shape thus removing the considerable danger existing with the fixing means of heretofore known badges.

The elongate member may be made from any suitable material and may comprise a plastics moulding formed integrally with the back part or extending therefrom which itself may be a plastics moulding.

Where the elongate member is made from a plastics material, and may be formed integrally with the back part it may, for example, be formed as an injection moulding and be shaped such that an inner surface part of the elongate member is below a planar surface in which lies the uppermost part of the back part so that in order to clip the badge onto an article of clothing, for example, the elongate member has to be resiliently deformed so that the article of clothing may be placed between the inner surface part of the elongate member and the plane formed by the uppermost part of the back part.

Preferably, said elongate member is of a form whereby the inherent resilience will be maintained and may be of T-section, the central limb of the T extending substantially normally to the outer surface of the back part of the badge and hence not only maintaining the resilience but also adding considerably to the stiffness of the elongate member thereby ensuring satisfactory fixing.

Alternatively said elongate member may be of metallic material having some inherent resilience and may for example comprise an elongate piece of wire in which the end thereof is either formed into a rounded or otherwise curved shape so as not to present any sharp end.

As a further alternative said elongate piece of wire may have both its ends situate between said display part and said back part so that no end of said piece of wire extends outwardly from said badge.

When both ends of the elongate piece of wire are positioned between the back part and the display part the wire may be bent into a shape such that an elongate tongue is formed intermediate the ends and the wire formed in such a way such that said elongate tongue may be positioned to lie alongside the back face of said back part to provide said fixing means. The wire may be bent in a manner such that it passes through an aperture in the back part the end parts being positioned between the display part and the back part.

As a further alternative said fixing means may comprise a U-shaped member made from a resilient material one limb of the U being positioned between said back part and said display part said U passing through an aperture in said back part and the other limb of the U providing said fixing means and being urged resiliently towards the back face of said back part.

As a still further alternative said fixing means may be secured to said back part in any suitable manner for example by rivets or other fasteners or where said back part comprises an injection moulding the fixing means may be moulded into said back part thereby obviating the need for further location of the fixing means relative to the back part.

The invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: FIGURE 1 is a sectional view through the constituent parts of badge in accordance with the present invention, FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the badge shown in Figure 1 in assembled relationship, FIGURE 3 is a view of the fixing member shown in Figures 1 and 2, FIGURE 4 is a sectional view of the assembled badge, FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment, FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of another embodiment, FIGURE 7 is a cross-sectional view of the embodiment shown in Figure 6 along the line 7-7, FIGURE 8 is a cross-section of the embodiment shown in Figure 6 along the line 8-8.

Referring first to Figure 1 a badge comprises a display part 10 which may comprise a cup like member of plastics or metallic material having a display face 11 and upstanding walls 12. The display part 10 may be circular, oval or any desired shape and the display surface 11 will have secured thereto some decorative design, inscription or combination thereof as desired.

The badge comprises further a back part 13 having a peripheral ridge 14 and an aperture 15, the back part 13 may be made from any suitable material and may conveniently comprise an injection moulding from plastics material.

A fixing member 16 passes through the aperture 15 and the back part 13 the fixing member 16 being shown in its entirety in Figure 3. The fixing member comprises a central part 17 having an upturned end part 18 further end parts 19 and 20 are joined to the central part 17 by deformed regions 21 and 22.

The fixing member is preferably made from a material having some inherent resilience and may comprise a spring steel.

In order to manufacture the badge illustrated the badge 16 is positioned so that it extends through the aperture 15 and the back part 13, the back part 13 and the fixing member 16 is then positioned within the display part and the assembly is subjected to a pressing operation which causes the side walls 12 to be compressed around the peripheral ridge part 14 to form a badge as shown in Figures 2 and 4.

It will be seen in Figure 4 that the side walls 12 are firmly wrapped around part of the ridge part 14 of the back part 13 and hence the display part is firmly clamped thereto. The clamping effect ensures that the end part 19 and 20 of the fixing members 16 are fairly tightly located between the back part 13 and the display part 11 which because of the nature of the fixing part 16 causes the central part 17 to be urged towards the face 23 of the back part 13.

The fixing means 16 may be moved away from face 23 by application of force to the end region 18 however because of the resilience of the fixing part 16 any article placed between the face 23 and the fixing means 16 will be clamped therebetween, thereby providing the badge with means whereby it may be firmly secured to an article, such as an article of clothing and at the same time overcoming the dangers inherent with elongate pins.

Referring now in addition to Figure 5 an alternative arrangement is shown and the badge comprises a display part generally indicated at 30 which may be the same as or similar to the display part 10 as aforedescribed and a back part 31. The back part 31 is provided with fixing means in the form of a resilient tongue 32 having a slightly upturned end part 33.

When the back part 31 comprises an injection moulding from plastics material the fixing means 32 may be formed integrally therewith as shown in Figure 5. However as an alternative a tongue may be subsequently secured thereto or may be in the form of a U-shape, one limb of the U being trapped beneath the back part 31 and the display part 30 so as to form a resilient type clip and as a further alternative a fixing means in the form of a tongue similar to that shown at 32 may have a part which is secured by rivets or other means to the back part 31.

Referring now to Figures 6, 7 and 8 a still further embodiment which according to the present invention is shown, the back part 40 has a peripheral rim 41 around which the upstanding walls 12 of the badge face is secured.

The back part 40 has a recessed back face 43 which is provided with an elongate slot 44 and moulded integrally as an injection moulding with the back part is an elongate member generally indicated at 45.

The elongate member 45, as can best be seen in Figure 8, is of inverted T-section having an upper central limb 46 which is continued from the elongate member 45 to join with the peripheral rim part 41 at the area indicated at 47.

The provision of the central limb 46 considerably stiffens the elongate member 45 thus maintaining its resilience and stiffness to ensure that when, for example, an article of clothing is placed between the elongate member 45 and the back part 40, the badge is firmly secured in position.

To assist in the security of the fixing provided by the elongate part 45, it may be moulded with a downwardly depending part 50 that has a normal position but lies below the surface of the recessed surface part 43 and obviously well below a plane defined by the upper surface of the peripheral part 41. The moulding of the elongate part 45 in such a manner ensures that when the badge is clipped into position the elongate member has to be resiliently deformed from its "at rest" position and hence an article, for example an article of clothing, to which the badge is secured is trapped by the resilience of the elongate member 45 tending to push a part of the article of clothing into the elongate slot 44. Thus the co-operation between the elongate member and the slot 44 ensures very firm securement of the badge.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the following claims, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, as appropriate, may, separately or in any combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

Claims (14)

CLAIMS:

1 A badge comprising a display part and a back part, said display part secured to said back part and said badge further comprising an elongate fixing member extending from said back part in a manner so that an end part thereof is urged in a direction towards said back part but is capable of being moved away from said back part to permit of the positioning of an article or part thereof between said elongate member and said back part.

2. A badge according to Claim 1 wherein said back part and said elongate member are formed integrally with each other.

3. A badge according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein said elongate member and said back part are formed from a plastics material.

4. A badge according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said elongate member is formed integrally with said back part and is of T-section.

5. A badge according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said back part is formed with a slot or recess, said slot or recess being positioned on said back part so that said elongate member overlies said recess.

6. A badge according to Claim 5 wherein the width of said slot or recess exceeds the width of said elongate member.

7. A badge according to Claim 5 or Claim 6 wherein the length of said slot or recess exceeds the length of the elongate member.

8. A badge according to any one of the preceding claims wherein said elongate member is provided with a downwardly depending part near its outer end thereof, which downwardly depending part extends into said slot or recess.

9. A badge according to Claim 1 wherein said elongate member is made from a metallic material having some inherent resilience.

10. A badge according to Claim 9 wherein said elongate member comprises an elongate piece of wire, both ends of the wire being positioned between the back part and the display part, said wire being bent into a shape such that an elongate tongue is formed intermediate the ends to provide said elongate member.

11. A badge substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.

12. A badge substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings.

13. A badge substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 6, 7 and 8 of the accompanying drawings.

14. A badge including any novel feature or novel combination of features disclosed herein and/of illustrated in the accompanying drawings.