US2228326A

US2228326A - Snap seal

Info

Publication number: US2228326A
Application number: US306641A
Authority: US
Inventors: Ralph E Rau
Original assignee: STIMPSON EDWIN B CO
Current assignee: EDWIN B STIMPSON Co; STIMPSON EDWIN B CO
Priority date: 1939-11-29
Filing date: 1939-11-29
Publication date: 1941-01-14
Anticipated expiration: 1958-01-14

Description

R. E. RAU

SNAP SEAL Jan. 14, 1941.

Filed Nov. 29, 1959 INVE NTOR 51% 1?. [Fall Patented Jan. 14, 1941 UNITED STATES SNAP SEAL Ralph E. Ran, Amityville, N. Y., assignor to Edwin B. Stimpson Company, Brooklyn, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 29, 1939, Serial No. 306,641

1 \Claim.

The present invention relates to seals adapted to lock the two members together in such manner that the members are incapable of separation without destructive effort.

The invention is adapted more especially for use in connection with looking two portions of a flexible member together, for example, a paper tag which may be attached to garments that are sold on approval or are otherwise identified in such manner that the identification tag cannot be removed without the removal being easily detected. The seal of the present invention may also be useful in any use to which such seals are ordinarily adaptable:

Fig. 1 is a perpective view illustrating the inner seal member before it is attached to a suitable carrier.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the outer seal member before it is attached to a suitable carrier.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view through the inner member and the outer member telescoped in locked relation and attached to a suitable carrier, for example, portions of a paper strip.

Fig. 4 illustrates the seal in locked relation as being carried by a strip of paper which may comprise a suitable designating tag.

Fig. 5 is a side view of the seal members mounted on the paper tag illustrated in Fig. 4.

The seal comprising the present invention is formed of two telescoping members A and B which preferably are mounted on a strip of material which may comprise a suitable paper tag. The seal members A and B are permanently anchored on the carrier member C in such manner that the carrier member may be looped to bring the sealing members A and B into juxtaposition whereby the members may be telescoped by pressure between the thumb and the finger and when the members are telescoped, they are interlocked so securely as to be incapable of separation without destructive effort which immediately becomes apparent and shows that the lock seal has been broken. One of the principal features of the present invention is its extreme simplicity and economy of manufacture. The members A and B are preferably formed of sheet brass, or other suitable metal, by machine tools from suitable dies. Each member A and B is preferably an integral unit adapted to be attached to the carrier which may comprise the paper strip C by means of mechanism commonly utilized .to expand and clinch hollow rivets so that both the manufacture and the application of the device is one being capable of being carried out by machine tools to provide a final construction which is a unit capable of rough usage without the parts separating or the seal members dropping away from the carrier member.

The member A comprises a hollow cup having a top I and a continuous cylindrical side wall 2. 5 The side wall is continued and bent back upon itself to form serrated spring fingers 4, the outer ends 5 of which spring outwardly a short distance from the side wall 2. These spring fingers 4 extend around the continuous cylindrical side wall 10 2 for distances of less than 15 in order that the resilience of said fingers may not be unduly restricted by the curvature of the construction. The top I carries a hollow stem 6 which preferably is integral with the other portions of the 15 member A so that preferably the entire member is formed of one single piece of metal, however, a hollow rivet may be substituted for the stem 6 where desired. The outer member B likewise comprises a hollow cup having a bottom wall "I 20 which carries a cylindrical side wall 8 that has its upper edge inturned to form a locking edge 9 adapted to engage the spring fingers 4 on the member A when the members A and B are telescoped and thus lock the two members A and B 25 together. Preferably, and more especially for ease of manufacture, the inturned edge 9 of the member B likewise is a serrated edge, it being less difiicult to inturn a serrated edge than to inturn a solid rim. The bottom wall 1 of the member 30 B is also provided with hollow stem II] which, like the hollow stem 6, may operate as a hollow rivet when the members are attached to the carrier C.

The member A may be attached to the carrier C by expanding the end of the hollow stem 6 into 35 an outwardly extending flange II that tightly clamps and anchors the carrier C between the flange l l and the top I of the member A. In like manner, the member B may be attached to the carrier C by expanding the hollow stem 10 into 40 a fiange [2 which tightly clamps the carrier C between the back wall I of the member B and the fiange l2.

Preferably, the device is sold as an article of manufacture with the members A and B riveted 5 to the carrier C, so that the user merely needs to fold over the carrier C in order to bring the members A and B into telescoped relation and when pressure is applied to complete the telescoping operation, the member A is securely 5o looked within the member B and the relation of the spring fingers 4 on the member A tothe serrated edge 9 on the member B is such that the carrier C contacts with the edge of the member B making it impossible to insert a tool 55 between the side wall 2 of the member A and the side wall of the member B so as to separate the parts without breaking or distorting the structures. The device, therefore, comprises a securely locked seal which cannot be opened without destructive effort.

What I claim is:

In a snap seal construction, the combination of an elongated fiat flexible carrier member, an inner cup shaped member with a substantially fiat top portion having spring fingers forminga part of the edge of the cup with the spring fingers extending along the continuous cylindrical side wall of the inner cup toward the flat top portion, an outer cup shaped member with a substantially flat bottom portion and having an inturned edge extending toward said bottom portion, the side wall of the outer cup being a continuous cylindrical wall and of such height as to permit the fingers of the inner cup to extend beneath the inturned edge on the outer cup when the parts are fully telescoped in such manner as to securely lock the parts together, the said fingers and the side wall of the outer cup forming the sole guiding means when said cups are telescoped, a flange integral with the flat top' portion of said inner cup extending through said flat flexible member and tightly clamping said flat flexible member against the flat top of the inner cup to anchor the same to said inner cup, and a second flange extending through said fiat flexible member and integral with the bottom portion of the outer cup and tightly clamping said flexible member against the flat bottom portion of the outer cup, the construction and arrangement of parts being such that when the cups are telescoped the continuous cylindrical side wall of the inner cup comprises a barrier to prevent any object inserted within the inner cup from reaching said spring fingers, the flat flexible member forming a loop and coveringtthe end portions of the telescoped parts in such manner that the parts cannot be reached without destroying the attachments of the flexible member to the said telescoped parts, and with the edge of the outer cup being substantially in contact with the flat flexible member adjacent the anchorage thereof with said inner cup.