US20180132567A1

US20180132567A1 - Shoestring tightening device

Info

Publication number: US20180132567A1
Application number: US15/576,683
Authority: US
Inventors: Ho Sub Lee
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2015-07-21
Filing date: 2016-03-04
Publication date: 2018-05-17
Also published as: EP3287032A1; KR101611137B1; WO2017014395A1; JP2018520728A; EP3287032A4

Abstract

The present invention provides a shoestring tightening device characterized by comprising: a lower body, which has at least one semi-circular shoestring passing hole formed on the periphery thereof, and which has a protrusion hole formed on the bottom surface thereof; a cylindrical rotation guide, which has a shaft protrusion that is fitted to the protrusion hole, which has a shoestring passing groove formed on the periphery thereof so as to communicate with the shoestring passing hole, and which has at least two fixing grooves formed on the inner peripheral surface thereof; a disk-shaped rotor, which has at least two fixing members that are fitted to the fixing grooves, which has a cylindrical spring containing protrusion protruding from one-side surface thereof, which has rotor teeth formed on the other-side surface thereof and arranged in a circular shape, and which has a shaft protruding from the center of the other-side surface thereof; an upper cover, which is assembled correspondingly so as to seal the upper surface of the lower body, which has a semi-circular shoestring passing hole formed on the periphery thereof so as to correspond to the shoestring passing hole, which as a through-hole formed on the ceiling surface thereof such that the shaft penetrates the same, and which has cover teeth formed on the periphery of the through-hole so as to mesh with the rotator teeth, thereby causing the same to rotate only in one direction; and a spring interposed between the rotation guide and the rotor such that the rotor teeth remain engaged with the cover teeth.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a shoestring tightening device, and more particularly, to an improved shoestring tightening device capable of being detachably attached according to preferences of a consumer and easily and conveniently tightening commonly used cotton shoestrings as well as nylon shoestrings.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, shoes such as sneakers are provided with shoestrings connected in a zigzag fashion such that the shoes closely contact the user's foot. By pulling and tightening the shoestrings, close contact between the shoe and the user's foot is enhanced to enable comfortable walking.
However, for children who are in the lower grades of elementary school, preschool children, and the elderly, loosening and tightening of shoestrings is not easy. In addition, for athletes or people who are performing exercise such as mountain climbing or bicycle racing, if both ends or a knot of an unfixed shoestring is caught and loosened by an external object due to rough movement, undesirable results such as performance degradation and accidents may be encountered. Therefore, loosening of the shoestring should be prevented.
In addition, when resting after exercise, the tightened shoestring needs to be easily loosened to allow sufficient rest. Most preferably, the shoestring can be tightened easily, and be maintained in the tightened state and be easily loosened when needed.
In order to smoothly tighten and loosen the shoestrings, many devices capable of easily tightening and loosening shoestrings have been developed. An example of these devices is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 953398, which is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional shoestring tightening device 10 is provided on the tongue T of a shoe. When the rotary cover 51 is rotated, the intermediate member 53 and the winding member 55 are engaged with each other and rotated together.
Then, the shoestring L is wound around the winding member and the coupling restriction portion 53 z of the intermediate member is restrained by a unidirectional ratchet gear 57 c of the housing 57 and is restricted so as not to rotate in the reverse direction.
Thereafter, when the rotary cover 51 is pulled upward, the engagement step portion 123 of a rotary shaft 61 elastically presses and opens an elastic means 59 and moves upward to cause the intermediate member 53 to move upward.
As a result, engagement between the intermediate member 53 and the winding member 55 is released and the winding member 55 rotates freely such that the shoestring L is pulled and loosened.
This operation requires the elastic means 59 to be separately fabricated in a U shape with thin metal and assembled into the shoestring tightening device 10 through a complicated assembly process.
In addition, with the shoestring tightening device 10, when the rotary cover 51 is pulled upward to loosen the shoestring, the elastic means 59 may be displaced from the original position, which causes the product to be broken. Thereby, product durability and reliability are lowered. In order to solve this problem, the lower structure of the housing 57 to which the elastic means 59 is coupled may be complicatedly deformed, but this produces a complex structure and increases the number of parts, thereby lowering productivity.
As a solution to this problem, the invention of Korean Patent No. 1438572 has been developed. However, the limitation of the conventional technology is that, as shown in FIG. 3, a shoestring L in the form of a thin string is fixed at two points of the pole (shaft) and is wound or unwound by rotating the pole 70, which requires the shoestring L to be produced in a fixed state.
Particularly, since the shoestring should be released in a fixed state, the shoestring tightening device is not allowed to be attached and detached, which inconveniences the user.
Moreover, since most conventional shoestring fasteners including the above-mentioned registered patent allow only use of thin strings formed of nylon, it is difficult to apply such conventional shoestring fasteners to a shoe string having a flat shape and formed of cotton, and thus a dedicated shoestring needs to be separately produced, which increases the cost.
Further, the conventional integrated shoestring fastener needs to be assembled in the shoe manufacturing stage. Accordingly, if the shoestring breaks, the conventional integrated shoestring fastener cannot be used, and thus new shoes should be purchased.

DISCLOSURE

Technical Problem

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is one object of the present invention to provide an improved shoestring tightening device capable of being detachably attached according to preferences of a consumer and easily and conveniently tightening commonly used cotton shoestrings as well as nylon shoestrings.

Technical Solution

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, provided is a shoestring tightening device including a lower body and an upper cover assembled to the lower body to cover the lower body, wherein a rotary knob, which is fitted onto the shaft of a rotor protruding upward from the upper cover, is provided on the upper surface of the upper cover to rotate the rotor by rotating the shaft.

Advantageous Effects

According to the present invention, a consumer can selectively attach and detach the device as needed. Thereby, user convenience can be enhanced.
In addition, various accessories can be mounted for aesthetics.
In addition, it is possible to exchange shoestrings. In other words, in conventional cases, a dedicated shoestring having a thin structure is needed, and the shoestring is required to be integrally manufactured with the tightening device. On the other hand, in the present invention, the shoestring and the tightening device are configured separately, and therefore the type of the shoestring need not be specified and thus any string can be used as a shoestring.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1 and 2 are a view of use and an exemplary view of a shoestring tightening device according to the conventional art.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary view illustrating a tightening method for a shoestring tightening device according to the conventional art.

FIG. 4 is an exemplary exploded perspective view of a shoestring tightening device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary view of a part of the elements of FIG. 4 in a disassembled state, taken from another angle.

BEST MODE

The present invention provides a shoestring tightening device including a lower body having at least one semicircular shoestring passing hole formed in a periphery thereof and a projection hole formed in a bottom surface thereof, a cylindrical rotation guide having an axial projection fitted into the projection hole, the cylindrical rotation guide being provided with a shoestring passing groove formed in a periphery thereof to communicate with the shoestring passing hole, and at least two fixing grooves formed in an inner surface thereof, a disc-shaped rotor having at least two fixtures fitted into the fixing grooves, the rotor being provided with a cylindrical spring accommodation protrusion protruding from one surface thereof and rotor teeth arranged in a circular shape on an opposite surface thereof with a shaft protruding from a center of the opposite surface, an upper cover coupled to seal an upper surface of the lower body, the upper cover having a semicircular shoestring passing hole formed in a periphery thereof to correspond to the shoestring passing hole, a through hole through formed in a ceiling surface thereof and allowing the shaft to pass therethrough, and cover teeth formed around the through hole so as to be engaged with the rotor teeth and rotated in one direction, and a spring interposed between the rotation guide and the rotor to keep the rotor teeth and the cover teeth mated with each other.

Mode for Invention

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The following specific structural or functional descriptions are provided merely for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present invention, and it is to be understood that the embodiments in accordance with the concept of the present invention may be embodied in various forms, and the invention is not limited to the embodiments described in this specification.
In addition, as the embodiments according to the concept of the present invention can be subject to various changes and have various forms, specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the embodiments according to the concept of the present invention to particular forms disclosed, but include all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a shoestring tightening device according to the present invention may include a lower body 100 and an upper cover 200 assembled to the lower body 100 to cover the lower body. The shoestring tightening device may further include a rotary knob (not shown) mounted on an upper surface of the upper cover 200 and fitted onto a shaft 450 of a rotor 400 protruding upward from the upper cover 200 to rotate the rotor 400 by rotating the shaft 450.
Although not shown, the rotary knob may have various shapes such as a circular cap or a rectangular member including a disk shape. In the present invention, the rotary knob is omitted since the shaft 450 can be held and rotated even if the rotary knob is not provided.
In addition, when the rotary knob is provided, the most preferable shape thereof is a circular cap shape. If a plurality of bumps and recesses is formed on the circumference of the rotary knob, the user can more easily rotate the rotary knob as slips rarely occur.
A projection hole 110 is formed in the center of the inner bottom surface of the lower body 100 in a penetrating manner, and a plurality of bosses 120 is formed at the four corners of the bottom surface of the lower body 100 for coupling with the upper cover 200.
While the lower body 100 and the upper cover 200 are illustrated as having a rectangular shape, this is merely a preferred embodiment. The lower body and the upper cover may have various shapes such as, for example, a triangle, a quadrangle, and a circle.
In addition, a pair of shoestring passing holes 130 is formed at corresponding positions of the lower body 100 and the upper cover 200. Since the lower body 100 and the upper cover 200 are connected together to form a rectangular parallelepiped, the shoestring passing holes 130 are formed in a semicircular shape in each of the lower body 100 and the upper cover 200 so as to form a hole.
A rotation guide 300 is seated on the inner bottom surface of the lower body 100.
The rotation guide 300 is formed in an approximately cylindrical shape having an open top, and is provided with at least two, preferably four, shoestring passing grooves 310 communicating with the shoestring passing holes 130.
Preferably, the four shoestring passing grooves 310 are formed at intervals of 90 degrees in the circumferential direction.
An axial projection 320 is formed at the center of the lower end surface of the rotation guide 300 and serves as a rotation center when fitted into the projection hole 110.
Additionally, tiny friction reducing projections 330 may be further formed around the lower end surface of the rotation guide 300 at intervals. They reduce the area of contact with the bottom surface of the lower body 100, thereby allowing the rotation guide 300 to rotate more smoothly.
That is, in the absence of the friction reducing projections 330, the lower surface of the rotation guide 300 makes surface contact with the inner bottom surface of the lower body 100 over the entire surface thereof. With the friction reducing projections 330, only the corresponding portions make surface contact, and accordingly frictional force can be reduced, allowing efficient rotation.
In addition, a pair of radially symmetrical fixing grooves 340 is formed on the wall surfaces of the rotation guide 300 between the shoestring passing grooves 310.
The fixing grooves 340 are not necessarily radially symmetric, but a symmetrical design is most preferable.
The fixing grooves 340 guide the rotor 400 to be fitted to form one body.
In addition, a spring accommodation groove 350 recessed to have a certain depth is further formed in the center of the inner bottom surface of the rotation guide 300.
The rotor 400 includes a disk-shaped body 410, a cylindrical spring accommodation protrusion 420 protruding from the center of the lower end surface of the body 410, a pair of fixtures 430 protruding from the lower end surface of the body 410 so as to be symmetrical in the radial direction with the spring accommodation protrusion 420 placed therebetween, rotor teeth 440 protruding from the upper end surface of the body 410 and arranged in a circular shape, and a shaft 450 protruding upward from the center of the rotor teeth 440.
A spring SP is interposed between the rotation guide 300 and the rotor 400. One end of the spring SP is hooked to the spring accommodation groove 350 and the other end is inserted into and hooked to the spring accommodation protrusion 420.
When the spring SP is disposed in this manner, it elastically presses the rotor 400 against the upper cover 200, and accordingly the rotor teeth 440 formed on the rotor 400 can be kept closely engaged with the cover teeth 230 formed on the upper cover 200.
At this time, the rotor teeth 440 and the cover teeth 230 are approximately formed in a right-angled triangle shape. Accordingly, movement along the oblique surfaces of the teeth is allowed, but movement in the opposite direction is restricted by the vertical surfaces. Thus, the teeth allow rotation in one direction. Preferably, the teeth allow clockwise rotation, but do not allow counterclockwise rotation.
In addition, the fixture 430 is inserted into the fixing groove 340 of the rotation guide 300 to form an integrated body.
Therefore, when the fixture 430 rotates, the rotation guide 300 also rotates.
A through hole 210 through which the shaft 450 can pass is formed in the center of the ceiling surface of the upper cover 200, and the cover teeth 230 engaged with the rotor teeth 440 are formed around the through hole 210 on the ceiling surface. The upper cover 210 has cover bosses 220 protruding from the four corners thereof to correspond to the bosses 120.
Thus, bolts arranged on the lower side of the lower body 100 to pass through the respective bosses 120 are fastened to the cover bosses 220. Thereby, the lower body 100 and the upper cover 200 are coupled and fixed to each other.
The present invention configured as above operates as follows.
Usually, a shoestring is folded at the lengthwise center thereof, and both ends of the shoestring are inserted into the shoestring insertion holes of the shoe. Thus, in tying the shoestring, the shoestring is inserted into the shoestring insertion holes to an extent and both ends of the shoestring are inserted into the shoestring passing holes 130, respectively. Then, subsequent operations are performed.
Thus, when the shoestring string is finally tied, the tightening device according to the present invention is held on a part of the length of the shoestring string.
Particularly, with the shoestring string slightly loosely fitted, the tightening device according to the present invention can tighten the shoestring according to the user's preference, thereby improving user convenience.
When the shaft 450 is rotated with the shoestring arranged through the holes, the rotor 400 rotates. At this time, the rotation guide 300 also rotates.
When the rotation guide 300 is rotated with the shoestring arranged in a penetrating manner as described above, the shoestring is caught by the rotation guide 300, and is thus pulled to be wound. Thereby, the loose shoestring is tightened.
At this time, since the rotor 400 is always urged upward by the spring SP, the rotor teeth 440 of the rotor 400 are always engaged with the cover teeth 230.
When the rotor is rotated in the clockwise direction (tightening direction), it rotates without suffering restriction to the principle described above, and thus the shoestring can be tightened. However, since reverse rotation is not performed in the opposite direction, the shoestring can remain in position after being tightened.
Then, when it is necessary to release the shoestring to remove the shoe, the shaft 450 is lightly pressed.
Then, the spring (SP) is compressed and the rotor teeth 440 are separated from the cover teeth 230.
Therefore, the wound shoestring is released. When the shoestring becomes loose to some extent, the shaft can be released from pressing.
Accordingly, the user can conveniently take off the shoes. If the user wants to wear the shoes again later, the shoestring can be tightened again in the manner described above.
As described above, the tightening device according to the present invention can be used by being detachably attached at any time because the shoestring is not integrally fixed. Further, since the tightening device is not limited by the type of the shoestring, it can be widely used.
In other words, the present invention has a wide range of use as any string can be used.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention provides a shoestring tightening device capable of relatively easily tightening without the user directly loosening or tightening the shoestring and is industrially applicable.

Claims

1. A shoestring tightening device comprising:

a lower body having at least one semicircular shoestring passing hole formed in a periphery thereof and a projection hole formed in a bottom surface thereof;

a cylindrical rotation guide having an axial projection fitted into the projection hole, the cylindrical rotation guide being provided with a shoestring passing groove formed in a periphery thereof to communicate with the shoestring passing hole, and at least two fixing grooves formed in an inner surface thereof;

a disc-shaped rotor having at least two fixtures fitted into the fixing grooves, the rotor being provided with a cylindrical spring accommodation protrusion protruding from one surface thereof and rotor teeth arranged in a circular shape on an opposite surface thereof with a shaft protruding from a center of the opposite surface;

an upper cover coupled to seal an upper surface of the lower body, the upper cover having a semicircular shoestring passing hole formed in a periphery thereof to correspond to the shoestring passing hole, a through hole through formed in a ceiling surface thereof and allowing the shaft to pass therethrough, and cover teeth formed around the through hole so as to be engaged with the rotor teeth and rotated in one direction; and

a spring interposed between the rotation guide and the rotor to keep the rotor teeth and the cover teeth mated with each other.