GB2350058A

GB2350058A - Multiple clothes hanger assembly

Info

Publication number: GB2350058A
Application number: GB0011498A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Martin Mitchell
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1999-05-19
Filing date: 2000-05-15
Publication date: 2000-11-22
Also published as: GB9911516D0; DE10024712A1; GB0011498D0

Abstract

A multiple clothes hanger assembly which comprises an elongated spine means having a top end and a bottom end. The top end of the spine means is provided with an attaching means 6 for removably engaging a rail or a hook. The spine means is further provided with a plurality of upwardly facing attachment means spaced therealong. The multiple clothes hanger assembly is also provided with a plurality of hangers 4, each having complementary attachment means adapted to engage with one of the upwardly facing attachment means provided on the spine means.

Description

1 2350058 1 MULTIPLE CLOTHES HANGER ASSEMBLY 2 3 FIELD OF THE INVENTION 4

5 The present invention relates to a multiple clothes hanger 6 assembly for use in wardrobes and the like. 7 8 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 9 10 Space in many people's wardrobes is usually at a premium. 11 People often wish to hang many more clothes in a wardrobe 12 than would seem possible. One major problem of wardrobes 13 is that all clothes are hung from the same height, using 14 the general design of hanger with an integral or separate is hook. 16 17 Apparatus has also been designed from which a number of 18 hook-based hangers can be hung in a vertical arrangement. 19 The apparatus involves a vertical strip having a number of 20 holes. However, the hooks of the hangers still need to be 21 guided through the holes, requiring a certain amount of 2 1 manipulation of the hanger, including turning of the 2 hanger, and hence turning of the clothes on the hanger to 3 a non-vertical angle. This often leads to mis-hanging of 4 the clothes, which is directly contrary to what is 5 intended. 6

7 STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION

8 9 It is an object of the present invention to provide a multiple clothes hanger assembly having easier 11 interconnection, and thus avoiding potential mis-hanging 12 of clothes.

13 14 According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multiple clothes hanger assembly comprising an 16 elongate spine means having a top end and a bottom end.

17 The top end is provided with attaching means, like a hook, 18 for engaging or hanging from a rail or a hook. A 19 plurality of upwardly facing attachment means are spaced therealong the spine means. The assembly is further 21 provided with a plurality of hangers, each having 22 complementary attachment means adapted to engage with one 23 of the upwardly facing attachment means of the spine.

24 It is preferred that the hangers engage the upwardly 26 facing attachment means in a wholly or substantially 27 vertical manner. By having wholly or substantially 28 vertical engagement between the complementary attachment 29 means of the hangers and the spine means, clothes already 3 1 carefully arranged on the hanger should not become mis2 hung as the spine and hanger are connected. 3 4 The upwardly facing attachment means along the spine means 5 are preferably spaced regularly. The spacing between 6 these attachment means could be adapted to suit particular 7 types or forms of clothing in e.g. different hanging 8 situations. 9 10 The spine means may include one or more integral 11 attachment means at its bottom end for the hanging or 12 attachment of clothes or other items therefrom. Such 13 attachment means could include e.g. a tie-rail, scarf- rail 14 or the like. Advantageously the bottom end of the spine 15 means can include a handle or the attachment means can be 16 used as a handle in order to ease the grip of the bottom 17 end of the spine means and its uplift from a vertical 18 position to an horizontal one. 19 20 The spine means may also be flexible and/or foldable, to 21 provide compactness e.g. for travelling and carrying, for 22 example, in a suitcase. Also, the attaching means for 23 removably engaging a hook or a rail provided on the top 24 end of said spine means is advantageously pivotably 25 mounted thereto. 26 27 The hangers for use with the invention preferably have a 28 main body of general hanger-shape, i.e. outwardly 29 extending arms from a central part, which arms may be 30 arcuate in one or more dimensions. The central part has 4 1 complementary attachment means to engage the upwardly 2 facing attachment means of the spine means.

3 4 The hanger attachment means could be of any suitable shape, size or design. This includes for example a lip, a 6 flange, a tab, or the like which will generally be 7 downwardly extending, and also includes for example an 8 aperture adapted to fit with, over, around or through the 9 spine attachment means. Such an aperture may not have a complete surround, but may be partially opened.

11 12 In one embodiment of the present invention, each hanger 13 has a slot as its attachment means, which slot is 14 engagable over an upwardly extending tab on the spine means, so that the hanger hangs at the junction of the tab 16 means and main body of the spine means.

17 18 The upwardly facing attachment means on the spine means 19 may have any suitable shape, size or design. Such attachment means may include an aperture, shoulders, a 21 lip, a flange, a tab, etc. The attachment means on the 22 spine means may be co-planar therewith. Preferably, the 23 attachment means extends outwardly therefrom. Also, it is 24 further preferred that the attachment means could be wholly or substantially flat, or be angular.

26 The attachment means on the spine means may allow 27 engagement of the hangers either on one side only of the 28 spine means, or on both sides. Some forms of attachment 29 means may allow hangers to be engaged from either side of the spine means. Other forms of attachment means may only 1 allow engagement of hangers on one side of the spine 2 means. 3 4 According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the 5 plurality of upwardly facing attachment means is a series 6 of upwardly extending tabs. Each of these tabs is sized 7 and shaped so as to provide a first portion against which 8 the complementary attachment means of the coat hanger 9 rests when the spine means is in a substantially vertical 10 position, and a second portion against which the 11 complementary attachment means rests when the spine means 12 is a substantially horizontal position. The tab is 13 advantageously sized and shaped so that the complementary 14 attachment means of the hanger is moved from the first 15 portion to the second portion when the spine means is 16 moved from a substantially vertical position to a 17 substantially horizontal position. 18 19 Each of the tabs may have a generally curved, serpentine, 20 L- or U-shape. 21 22 It is further preferred that the spine means and the 23 associated hanger(s) be sized and shaped so as to be 24 packed together compactly, thus minimizing their 25 dimensions for storage purposes. 26 27 Embodiments of the present invention will now be described 28 byway of example only and with reference to the 29 accompanying drawings in which: 30 6 1 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 2 3 Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first form of a 4 multiple clothes hanger assembly according to the present 5 invention; 6 7 Figure 2 is a plan view of a second form of a multiple 8 clothes hanger assembly according to the present invention 9 which differs from the previous embodiment in that the 10 body of each hanger lacks the transverse element between 11 the two arcurate arms; 12 13 Figure 3 is a plan view of one of the hangers in the 14 assembly in Figure 1; 15 16 Figure 4 is the back view of the spine means (2) of the 17 assembly in Figure 1; 18 19 Figure 5 is the front view of the spine means (2) of 20 Figure 4; 21 22 Figure 6 is a side view of the spine means (2) in Figures 23 4 and 5; 24 25 Figure 7 is schematic representation of how a hanger of 26 the clothes hanger assembly shown in Figure 1 is attached 27 to the spine means (2); 28

7 1 Figure 8 shows the clothes hanger assembly of Figure 1 2 with the hangers detached f rom the spine means (2) and 3 arranged in a storage position; and 4 5 Figure 9 is a plan view of a third form of a multiple 6 clothes hanger assembly according to the present invention 7 which differs from the embodiments shown in Figures 1 and 8 2 in that the hook of the spine means is pivotally mounted 9 thereto. 10 11 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 12 13 Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 shows a first multiple 14 clothes hanger assembly comprising a spine means (2) and 15 three separable hangers (4). The spine means (2) has a 16 hook (6) at its top end, which hook (6) is engagable with 17 a wardrobe rail, a hook or similar. The hook (6) can be 18 firmly attached to the spine means (2) or may be pivotally 19 mounted thereto as shown in Figure 9. 20 21 Figure 2 shows a second hanger assembly according to the 22 present invention. Its spine means (20) has a generally 23 similar shape as in the first assembly described above, 24 with three attachment means (22) for supporting three 25 hangers (24) which differ from the hangers (4) of the 26 first clothes hanger assembly illustrated in Figure 1 27 since they each lack a transverse element (shown as 28 element (13) in Figure 3) 29

8 1 The spine means (2), shown in more detail in Figures 4, 5 2 and 6, has three upwardly extending attachment means (8) 3 spaced regularly therealong. Each spine attachment means 4 (8) is an outwardly extending tab. The tab has a 5 generally serpentine shape (best seen in Figure 6). At 6 the base of the spine means (2) is a triangular aperture 7 (3) which may be used for the hanging of ties, scarves and 8 the like. Also, the triangular aperture (3) may define a 9 handle (9) which can be use to move the spine means (2) 10 from a vertical position to a quasi - horizontal position 11 while the hook (6) of the clothes hanger assembly is 12 otherwise held or engaged with a rail, a hook or similar. 13 14 A hanger (4) is shown in more detail in Figure 3. It has 15 a general triangular shape having two arcuate arms (11) 16 extending from a central part (10), and a transverse 17 element (13) extending between the arcuate arms (11). The 18 transverse element (13) can be used to hold a folded pair 19 of trousers or similar. At the top part of the central 20 part (10) of the hanger (4), there are two converging 21 horns (12) creating an internal slot means (14). Each 22 arcuate arm (11) may include indentations or slots (17a 23 and 17b) designed to hold either skirt or trouser loops 24 (slot 17a) or dress straps (slot 17b). Where the 25 transverse element (13) is not present (for example in the 26 embodiment shown in Figure 2) each arcuate arm (11) may 27 terminate in a curved element (29) which forms a hook 28 adapted to receive skirt loops or the like. A variety of 29 different styles of hangers (4) may be used on a spine 30 means (2), as required.

9 1 In use, the spine means (2) can be hung f rom a wardrobe 2 rail, and clothes, e.g. a jacket or trousers, hung on a 3 hanger (4). The hanger (4) is then engaged with the spine 4 means (2) as shown by the dotted line and arrows (which schematically depict movement of the hanger onto the spine 6 means (2)) in Figure 7 by drawing the slot means (14) of 7 the hanger (4) over the attachment means or tab (8) of the 8 spine means (2), until the horns (12) of the hanger (4) 9 rest upon the interconnection (15) of the tab (8) and spine means (2). This position may be defined as a first 11 resting position. The horns (12) also fit on either side 12 of a reinforcing flange (16) between the tab (8) and the 13 main body of the spine means (2). To get easy access to 14 any of the hangers (4) and more particularly to the intermediate hanger, the user can grab the handle (9) and 16 uplift the spine means (2) from its normal vertical 17 position to a substantially horizontal position. This 18 movement will cause the hangers (4) to rotate within the 19 serpentine curve of tab (8) so that the clothes remain hanging in a substantially vertical position. This 21 position may be defined as a second resting position. The 22 distance between each hanger (4) is thus the distance 23 between each of the tabs (8) along the spine means (2) 24 In such a position, access to each of the hangers (4) is facilitated, and engagement or disengagement of the 26 hangers (4) from the tab (8) is rendered simple. it 27 should be noted that the serpentine shape of the tab (8) 28 is designed so that when each hanger (4) is hanging 29 perpendicularly from the spine means (2), the converging horns (12) of the hanger (4) are resting in the recess 1 (18) of the tab (8) Thus, the hangers (4) cannot 2 accidentally be disengaged from the tab (8) when the spine 3 means (2) is uplifted. In addition, two small 4 protuberances (19) are positioned on the internal face of tabs (8) and above the serpentine shape of tabs.

6 Protuberances (19) lie along the release pathway of hanger 7 (4) and restrict the converging horns (12) of the hanger 8 (4) inadvertently disengaging from the tab (8).

9 According to a variant of the invention shown in Figure 9, 11 the hook (36) may be attached to the spine means (32) by a 12 pivot (33). The pivot (33) connects the spine means (32) 13 with the hook (36) and can be of a nut-and-bolt type or be 14 a simple pin engaged in a hold provided in the spine means (32). In this case the pin is loosely engaged in the hole 16 and is terminated by a stopper/bung on which the edge of 17 the hole rests in order to prevent disengagement of the 18 pin. The presence of a pivot allows the spine means (32) 19 to be positioned perpendicularly to the hook (36) In some situations, for example, if the hook (36) is engaged 21 with a rail, the possibility of rotating the spine means 22 (32) allows to facilitate the uplift of the spine means 23 (32) from a vertical to a horizontal position while 24 avoiding possible disengagement of the hook (36) from the rail.

26 27 The present invention provides a simple and easy method of 28 engaging and disengaging a number of hangers onto one 29 hanging spine, the engagement of which can be carried out vertically, thus avoiding any turning or twisting of the 11 1 hanger which may mis-hang the garment on the hanger. The 2 spine can be arranged to hang any number of hangers, with 3 any suitable spacing therein between. 4 5 The present invention also provides a hanger assembly that 6 is more easily storable or transportable, e.g. in a 7 suitcase or other travelling bag, because the hangers may 8 not have integral hooks, which hooks are often the most 9 awkward part of previous hangers in this regard. Also, as 10 the hangers (4) are disengaged from the spine means (2) 11 and stacked together and/or disengaged from the spine 12 means (12), they can be stored independently from the 13 spine means (2)thus providing a compact and easy to store 14 clothes hanger assembly suitable to be easily transported. 15 It is also advantageous that the spine means (2) and the 16 hangers (4) be sized and shaped so they can adopt a 17 storage position which minimizes their storage space. 18 Thus as shown in Figure 8 the space delimited by the 19 arcuate arm (11) and the transverse element (13) of a pile 20 of stacked hangers (4) can receive the protruding hook (6) 21 of the spine means (2). This reduces the storage space 22 required for the assembly and is particularly useful for 23 transporting the clothes hanger (4) in luggage. Also, 24 storage position protects the hook (6), tabs (8) and the 25 spine means (2) from being crushed during transport in the 26 luggage as well as protecting fragile items contained in 27 the luggage f rom being damaged by the hook (6) or the tabs 28 (8).

12

Claims

1 Claims 2 3 1. A multiple clothes hanger assembly comprising an

4 elongated spine means having a top end and a bottom 5 end, said top end being provided with an attaching 6 means for removably engaging a rail or a hook, said 7 spine means being provided with a plurality of 8 upwardly facing attachment means spaced therealong, 9 said assembly being provided with a plurality of 10 hangers, each hanger having complementary attachment 11 means adapted to engage with one of the upwardly 12 facing attachment means. 13 14

2. An assembly as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said hangers are engaged with said upwardly facing 16 attachment means in a wholly or substantially 17 vertical manner.

18 19

3. An assembly as claimed in either one of Claims 1 and 2, wherein said plurality of upwardly facing 21 attachment means are spaced regularly along the spine 22 means.

23 24

4. An assembly as claimed in Claim 3, wherein the spacing between said attachment means is adapted to 26 suit particular types or forms of clothing.

27 28

5. An assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 4, 29 wherein the bottom end of said spine means includes 13 1 at least one integral attachment means for the 2 hanging or attachment of clothes.

3

6. An assembly as claimed in Claim 5, wherein said 4 integral attachment means is also a handle.

6

7. An assembly as claimed in either one of 5 and 6, 7 wherein said integral attachment means comprises a 8 triangularly shaped aperture.

9

8. An assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7, 11 wherein a handle is provided at the bottom end of 12 said spine means.

13 14

9. An assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 8, wherein said spine means is foldable.

16 17

10. An assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 9, 18 wherein said hangers have a central part and arms 19 extending outwardly therefrom, said central part being provided with said complementary attachment 21 means to engage said upwardly facing attachment means 22 of the spine means.

23 24

11. An assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 10, wherein said complementary attachment means comprises 26 a slot, said slot being engagable over one of the 27 upwardly facing attachment means on the spine means.

28 29

12. As assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 11, wherein said attaching means for removably engaging a 14 1 rail or a hook provided on the top end of said spine 2 means is pivotably mounted to said spine means.

3 4

13. An assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 12, wherein said plurality of upwardly facing attachment 6 means is a series of upwardly extending tabs, each 7 tab being sized and shaped to provide a first portion 8 against which the complementary attachment means of 9 the hanger rests when the spine means is in a 10 substantially vertical position, and a second portion 11 against which said complementary attachment means of 12 the hanger rests when the spine means is in a 13 substantially horizontal position. 14 is

14. An assembly as claimed in Claim 13, wherein said tab 16 is sized and shaped so that the complementary 17 attachment means of the hanger is moved from said 18 first portion to said second portion when said spine 19 means is moved from a substantially vertical position 20 to a substantially horizontal position. 21 22

15. An assembly as claimed in either one of Claims 13 and 23 14, wherein each of said tabs has a generally curved, 24 serpentine, L- or U-shape.