US20120260397A1

US20120260397A1 - Tear away light emulating light reflecting safety vest/poncho

Info

Publication number: US20120260397A1
Application number: US13/066,524
Authority: US
Inventors: Ronald Reda; Peter Haak; Tao Xu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2011-04-18
Filing date: 2011-04-18
Publication date: 2012-10-18

Abstract

A tear away light emulating—light reflective safety vest/poncho with self contained battery pack. Vest/Poncho utilizes electrical carrying magnets/snaps/catches or any separatable device that has the ability to transfer and conduct electricity to other panels of a vest/poncho to energize the light emulating articles/devices such as LED lights, Fiber Optics and glowing materials to allow for tear away sections without the destruction of the vest/poncho. Front and back of vest has indicia that differentiates one from the other.

Description

This application claims priority to provisional patent application No. 61/342,285 filed Apr. 9, 2010

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to the field of safety vests/ponchos for the construction, police, fire rescue, sport and any endeavor that would require the ability to garner attention either at night or even during the day for safety purposes. This invention relates to a tear away vest/poncho that can be ripped away from the person's body without dragging them should they get caught on a moving vehicle or any equipment that could catch the vest/poncho and pull the wearer into a harmful situation. This invention relates to a tear away vest/poncho with LED lights. This invention relates to the ability to transfer electricity for the LED lights across this tear away section and to other panels of the vest/poncho without the use of hard wiring.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Currently there are many high visibility safety vest/poncho's in the marketplace. The majority of these vests are made of a nylon material with some reflective cloth sewn into the vest. The object of these vests is to catch the light from a vehicle's headlights and become much more visible due to the reaction of the reflective cloth. The problem is they are only more highly visible when the headlights hit them. There are situations when the angle of the headlights or if it is a motorcycle that the beams are not in the optimum position to reflect the cloth. When this happens the driver of these vehicles may not have enough time to respond or maneuver his vehicle out of the way. With the advent of LED & fiber optic lighting it is now possible to wear light emulating articles/devices upon the vest/poncho and have a much longer viewing range than that of just reflector cloth. By having light emulating articles/devices you now need wiring and electricity to energize them, this causes a problem for the tear away vest/poncho because you would need wiring to go around the vest/poncho to multiple panels to light the light emulating articles/devices.
The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not provided by prior safety vest/poncho's of this type. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention solves all the problems of the prior method by combining light sensitive reflective material and light emulating articles/devices.

In an embodiment the vest/poncho has hook and loop tear away areas.
In an embodiment the vest/poncho has a pocket for signage of person using it.
In an embodiment the vest/poncho has magnets/snaps or other catches that are capable of transferring electricity through it to power light emulating articles/devices.
In an embodiment the vest/poncho has a battery power supply.
In an embodiment the vest/poncho has a high visibility mesh material for part of its material.
In an embodiment the vest/poncho has light emulating articles/devices that either blink or have a constant glow.
In an embodiment the vest/poncho has indicia on both the front and back, this indicia is distinctively different from each other so one could easily tell them apart and determine if a person wearing this vest/poncho was facing them or their back was to them.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following specification taken in conjunction with the following drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To understand the present invention, it will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which;

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the invention showing a front view. This view shows the hook and loop straps at various tear away sections and light emulating articles/devices going from top to bottom. This view shows a pocket in the center of the vest to slide in a name say like POLICE. This front area could also have indicia on it that could be glowing or blinking.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the invention showing a back view with the light emulating articles/devices going from top to bottom. This view shows tear away area's at the top. This view shows a pocket in the center of the vest to slide in a name plate in say like “POLICE”. This back area could also have indicia on it that could be glowing or blinking.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the invention showing the tear away area at the top with the electrical magnets exposed. This view shows a battery pack on the inside at the front of the vest/poncho.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a close up of the electrical conducting tear away magnets.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While this invention is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail preferred embodiments of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the broad aspect of the invention to the embodiments illustrated.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, in one embodiment of the present invention shows a front view of the tear away sections 101, 102,103,104 of a safety vest/poncho. The purpose of a tear away vest/poncho is to allow this article to be tore away if it were accidently caught onto a moving vehicle or machinery without dragging the person with it. These tear away sections 101,102,103,104 utilizes a hook and loop method of attachment. In the front center 130 is a clear pocket for slipping in a nameplate to identify the user, for example “POLICE”. Light emulating articles/devices such as LED lights or fiber optics or glowing material 110 are embedded in a light reflector cloth 120 and placed about the exterior of the vest/poncho for a light emulating high visibility indicator. Light emulating articles/devices such as LED lights, fiber optics or glowing material 110 are embedded in strips of reflective cloth 120 for even higher visibility and in case the battery pack 320 runs out of energy one would still have a reflective ability. The body 140 of the vest/poncho is a high visibility mesh material to be seen and remain cool in the warmer weather. A horizontal reflective cloth strip 150 wraps around the waist area of the vest/poncho. In the middle of the front of the vest/poncho 160 is where the indicia would be placed for example a circle, this circle could be glowing or blinking with the light emulating articles/devices.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, shows the backside of the vest/poncho. Indicia 260 in the middle center is placed in clear view, in this example a X is used. This indicia on the back is distinctively different from the front indicia 160 showing an O. These indicia can be glowing or blinking from the light emulating articles/devices to be easily distinguished between the front and back of the vest.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, shows tear away sections 101, 102 exposing the electrical conducting magnets 310. These electrical conducting magnets/snaps/catches 310 are located on both shoulders under the tear away sections 101, 102. When tore apart the magnets/snaps/catches 310 release from each other and therefore do not ruin the vest/poncho when being tore away. These electrically conducting magnets/snaps/catches 310 allow for tear away sections 101, 102, with a light emulating vest/poncho FIG. 1 where the electricity needs to continue and travel to the next section or panels 140, 210 of the vest/poncho. With a conventional light emulating vest/poncho that is continuously wired without interruption this could not be achieved because of the wiring passing through the tear away sections, the continuation of the wiring through these sections would negate the ability to be tear away. These electrically conducting magnets/snaps/catches 310 allow for the front panel 140 of the vest/poncho to be torn away and separated from the back panel 210 with no resistance. In a modified design a vest/poncho could have more than one tear away panel. A battery pack/control module 320 is located on the inside front part of the vest/poncho.
As illustrated in FIG. 4, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, shows a close up of the tear away section 101 exposing the electrically conducting magnets 310.
While the specific embodiments have been illustrated and described, numerous modifications come to mind without significantly departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of protection is only limited by the scope of the accompanying Claims.

Claims

1. A safety vest comprising:

a front panel;

a rear panel attached to the front panel at a tear away section provided by a shoulder strap & hip strap;

light emulating devices embedded in the front and rear panels;

strips of reflective cloth disposed on the front and rear panels in association with the light emulating devices;

a power source attached to the vest and powering the light emulating devices

a first indicia provided by the front panel and a second indicia provided on the back panel being distinctively different from the front panel indicia; and

a tear away section exposing an electrical conducting magnet located on a shoulder strap under the tear away section.