IL31175A - Automatic button fastening device - Google Patents

Description

AUTOMATIC BUTTON FASTENING ; DEVICE MARSILIO CATORESE and ALBERTO LEVI 31175/2 The present invention relates to an automatic button fastening device. The buttons provided with this device may be employed, in several industrial fields. In fact, they may re< place not only the conventional buttons sewn on articles of cloth*-ing of any kind, such as ready-made clothes, shirts, shoes, handbags, and so forth, but also buttons and like fastening members used in many other fields, e.g. for fastening covering panels inside a motor vehicle, wall panels to upstanding support frames, and so forth.

One clear instance of the drawbacks of the conventional buttons is given by the Industry of ready-made clothes, wherein there is a continuous demand and experimentation of improvements for increasing output, without requiring further equipment and/or labor and without affecting quality and features of the products.

In the industry of ready-made clothes it has been observed that an operation involving many drawbacks and time consump-tlon is that of sewing buttons on the articles of clothing.

In fact, the articles of clothing, already made up and ironed, have to be taken up from the rack where the stock of articles is hung, conveyed to a special machinery, usually a sewing machine requiring a skilled operator who has to exactly locate the article under the sewing head for applying buttons, so that, at the end of the various handling operations required for sewing all the buttons on one article, said article has to be wholly, or at least partially, again ironed, and then brought back and again hung on the rack. This sequence of movements and operations is a considerable increase in the manufacture time of one article, ith waste of personnel and increase of the production cost.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an auto 31175/2 According to the present invention there is provided an automatic button fastening device comprising a male snap connector including a lock stud and a prforating pointed needle Integral with the lock stud, as well as a female receptacle consisting of a hole located on the rear face of the button, characterized by the fact that the receptacle has the same shape of the point of the perforating needle on a enlarged scale and a restricted orifice with at least one radial slot, so that the point of the perforating needle can be easily inserted in the receptacle and detached from it only by means of a voluntary lateral displacement of the needle in the direction of one of the radial slots.

Buttons provided with the automatic fastening device according to the present invention may be applied by hand at an extremely high rate on articles of clothing even by non-skilled workers, and without moving the manufactured articles from their storage position on the racks. Moreover, thanks to this device, the manufacturer ma also deliver the articles of clothing without buttons, whioh may be applied and chosen at the moment of selling the article according to the clients* desires. In this latter case the manufacturer is also saving time and labor for applying the buttons.

The instant automatic fastening device guarantees a high stability and long life to the buttons as well as an easy and quick removability, so that its employ is of great advantage also to the user, more particularly at the moment of washing, dry cleaning, ironing, and like operations which may be effected now and then or periodically on the articles of clothing.

The device of the present invention also removes the With the removal of the conventional method of sewing buttons, it is now possible to make the buttons in a number of different materials and of any desired shape and siae, without altering the above said novel features, so as to give said button any desired u er aes e c orm, w c s no more ou o e as en ng an pplication method used.

The automatic botton fastening device according to the present nvention is comprised of a male snap connector, including a lock tud, to be applied inside the article to be fastened, and a erforating needle integral with said lock stud, as well as of a emale receptacle, consisting of a dead hole located on the rear ac9j of the button and having at least one suitably shaped radial nsertion slot the point of said perforating needle, protruding rom the outer surface of the article to be fastened, being inserted nto said dead hole.

This female receptacle may also be a detached part which is being ressure inserted into a corresponding recess or projecting seat on he rear side of the button, so that button manufacturers may still mploy the same machinery and equipment as for making conventional uttons.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other features, objects and advantages of the invention, being the esult of long and accurate study of the problem, will- be more readi nderstood from the following detailed description of some preferred mbodiments, given by way of non limiting example only, and illustra d in the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is an elevational view, partly sectioned and with the part's etached of a button provided with the automatic fastening device of he present invention, applied on an article of clothing; Fig. 2 is a similar elevational view, partly sectioned, but with he parts in engagement in the fastening position; Fig. 3 is an elevational and artl sectional view of the automati as radial slots 9, an inner cavity or hole 6 into which point < he perforating needle 3 is inserted, said hole 6 ending downwardly ith a neck 9A and a terminal flared opening 9B.

In order to make easier pressure insertion of piece 13 into the ecess 14 of the button 8, said piece 13 has slots 16, being prefe-ably four in a cross-like arrangement, so as to give a certain lasticity during assembling operation.

Disengagement of piece 13 from recess 14 is completely hindered by| aking both piece 13 and recess 14 of a frustum-conical shape with pwardly directed flaring, as shown at 15 in. Fig. 4, or by providing! shoulder or undercut 1 A, as shown in Fig. 5.

In order to draw the perforating needle from hole 6, the operation s the same as that described for the embodiment of Figs. 1 and.2, hat is to displace either to the left or to the right the lock stud 0 that the base of the point 5 leans against one shoulder of the ole and the point 5 itself, urging against the opposite shoulder, xpands the slot 9 and the neck 9A so as to come out from hole 6.

Only as an example, an outer shape Of the button in the form of alse sewing thread is shown with the reference numeral 17 in Fig. 4 or imitating the appearance of the conventional buttons, if. desired In the event of manufacture of the button with a material having a ood elasticity, the radial slot could also be removed and detachmen f the perforating needle may take place by simple expansion; or in ther cases it is possible to provide a slot extending only up to bout the half of the passage for the perforating needle.

The embodiment of Fig. 6 is very similar to that of Figs. 3-5, xcepting that the female receptacle for the perforating needle 3 reviously described and is inserted into and drawn from cavity 2θ( nding downwardly, in view of the elasticity of the material, with aj orizontal shoulder 21 against which the base of the point 5 of eedle 3 abuts.

In Fig. 7 a button is shown, having on its outer front face an rnamental disc 22 which may be of any shape and material, even of aluable nature, such as nacre, silver, gold and so forth, and is ressure applied in the corresponding seat 23 . This embodiment articularly points out the way in which the automatic fastening evice of the present invention has freed the button from the con-entional shapes bpund to the necessity of sewing it.

With reference now to Fig. 8 , an automatic button fastening devicel s shown, for fastening covering panels to a bearing frame,, more articularly inside the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle.

In this embodiment of Fig. 8 , the female receptacle 25 is snapped y means of fins 26 provided with' suitable recesses 26A , into a bore ade in a support panel 24 , e.g. a metal plate of the body of a otor vehicle. The female connector 25 has a central cavity 27 givin t the elasticity required for the application under pressure. For he rest the automatic fastening device is the same as in the reviously described embodiments, and the perforating needle 3 in his case, instead of passing through a fabric or like articles, is assing through a bore 30 made in a covering panel 28 (such as the eathery panels provided for internally covering the passenger ompartment of a motor vehicle) as well as in its supporting frame 9 , so that an easy and quick fastening of said panels, not subject o wear, is obtained by means of the fastening device of this 31175/2

Claims (8)

1. An automatic button fastening device comprising a male snap connector Including a lock stud and a perforating pointed needle integral with the lock stud, as well as a female receptacle consisting of a hole located on the rear face of the button, characterized by the fact that the reoeptacle has the same shape of the point of the perforating needle on an enlarged scale and a restricted orifice with at least one radial slot, so that the point of the perforating needle can be easily inserted in the receptacle and detached from it only by means of a voluntary lateral displacement of the needle in the direction of one of the radial slots.

2. An automatic button fastening device according to claim 1, in which the female receptacle is made in the back portion of the button.

3. An automatic button fastening device according to claim 1, in which the female receptacle together with the dead hole and the radial slots are contained in a detached element which is pressure snap inserted into a corresponding cavity made in the rear side of the button.

4. # An automatic button fastening device according to Claim 1, in which the restricted orifice holds the needle stem clamped, and has an underlying outlet passage of frustum-conical shape* 5· An automatic button fastening device according to claim 1, in which both of the point of the perforating needle and the female receptacle have a conical shape.

5. 6· An automatic button fastening device according to claim 1, in which the female receptacle together with the dead hole

6. and the radial slots are contained in a detached element which is pressure snapped on a projecting seat provided outside the

7. · An automatic button fastening device according to claim 1, in which the female element is pressure applied on a support panel for fastening on it a covering panel fixed to the perforat ing needle.

8. An automatic button fastening device according to claim 7, in which the female element is provided with fins having recesses for their pressure snap insertion into a bore of the support panel. 9· An automatic button fastening device substantially as hereinbefore described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings* For the Applicants PARTNERS • 11-