WO2012038973A1

WO2012038973A1 - Bangles

Info

Publication number: WO2012038973A1
Application number: PCT/IN2011/000645
Authority: WO
Inventors: Varuna D. Jani
Original assignee: Jani Varuna D
Priority date: 2010-09-24
Filing date: 2011-09-20
Publication date: 2012-03-29

Abstract

The present invention relates to a modular bangle, comprising of: a plurality of bangle members, each bangle member capable of being interchangeable and engageable with one or more other bangle members, allowing a user to substantially change design, shape, size and configuration of the said modular bangle as per need. Thereby, the present invention also allows use of different material bangle members, for example one bangle member can be made of plastic and other can be made of gold. Thus the modular bangles of the present invention can be made to look completely different by combining with an additional bangle member with different design and/or material, allowing the user to update appearance of the bangle entirely at just 1/3rd of the value of the bangle bought earlier.

Description

TITLE BANGLES

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to bangles and particularly to modular bangles. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Bangles are ornaments worn by women to adorn their arms. Bangles are part of traditional Indian jewelry, and with time bangles have also become a part of a woman's attire globally.

Design of these bangles ranges from simple to intricate handmade designs, studded with precious, semi-precious stones such as diamonds, gems and pearls. Bangles are generally rigid and have a circular shape. Primary distinguishing factor for these bangles is the material that is used to make the bangles. This may vary anything from glass to metal to lac, rubber to plastic, silver to gold.

Cost of these bangles depends mainly on the type of material the bangle is made from. Bangles made from gold or platinum are the most expensive ones. Another factor that adds to the price of the bangles is the artifacts or the work done further on the metal. This includes embroidery or small glass pieces or paintings or embedded gem stones or even small hangings that are attached to the bangles. The rareness of a color and its unique value also increase the value. With the growing rate of precious metals, it is difficult to invest in newer designs regularly to keep up with changing fashion and styles. For e.g. Bangles cost increases with their broad size generally cylindrical length about more than 10mm, the minimum gold weight would be at least 35-40gms and the diamond weight would be at least 10-12cts for a medium sized bangle. Further, once a bangle is l made it comprises a single design and/or shape which limits use of said bangle to for particular attire and/or accessories. Bangles made of semi-precious and non- precious material though available at a cheaper rate, is limited to be used for particular attire and/or accessories and does not allow change of design and/or shape of the bangle.

Hence, when a user generally wants to use different design bangles or most likely does not want to repeat same design bangles, it leaves no option for a user but to invest time and money for new designs and/or shape.

Hence, there is a need in the art for cost effective bangles which allow the user to change/exchange of the external appearance of bangles as per his/her requirement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:

Accordingly, the present invention provides a modular bangle, comprising of a plurality of bangle members, each bangle member capable of being interchangeable and engageable with one or more other bangle members, allowing a user to substantially change design, shape, size and configuration of the said modular bangle as per need.

In one embodiment, each bangle member has at-least two substantially curved protruding segments extending from one side of the bangle member, each protruding segment spaced apart from each-other so as to engage with each-other in a male-female snap fitting arrangement.

In another embodiment, the modular bangle comprises of at-least two bangle members, each member having a cylindrical shape with a tapering cross-section, and has a mating means configured along both peripheral edges of each cylindrical member, allowing the said bangle members to couple at both the edges. According to the present invention, the bangle members are made of same and/or different materials.

According to the present invention, bangles can be made material is selected from a group of shell, copper, bronze, agate, chalcedony, plastic, steel, glass, gold, silver, platinum and in combination thereof.

According to the present invention, the bangle comprises of an aesthetic design element applied to at-least a portion of the bangle.

According to the present invention, the bangle comprises of one or more gemstones structurally mounted to at-least a portion of the bangle as a part of the aesthetic design.

Accordingly, the present invention in one aspect provides a modular bangle comprising of bangle members, each bangle member having at-least one substantially curved protruding segments extending from one side of the bangle member, and a latching means to engage and latch the bangle members with each- other in a male-female arrangement.

DEFINITIONS

Design: Design includes various color combinations, structurally mounted gemstones, etched design element, aesthetic look and various patterns formed on bangle. Modular: A unit composed of a plurality of members for flexibility in arrangement of members by combining or interchanging the members without affecting the remainder of the unit.

Bangle Shape: Shape includes concave, convex and cylindrical shape formed by mating at-least one bangle member. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will be made to embodiments of the invention, examples of which may be illustrated in the accompanying figures. These figures are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Although the invention is generally described in the context of these embodiments, it should be understood that it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to these particular embodiments.

Figure 1 shows a modular bangle as per one embodiment of the present invention, where

Figure 1A a modular bangle,

Figure 1 B shows snap-fit arrangement of the modular bangle,

Figure 1 C & 1 D shows bangle members of the modular bangle;

Figure 2 shows latching means of the modular bangle; Figure 3 shows a modular bangle as per another embodiment ' of the present invention, where

Figure 3A shows modular bangle comprising of bangle members, Figure 3B shows modular bangle arranged to form a convex bangle, Figure 3C shows modular bangle arranged to form a concave bangle, Figure 3D shows latching means of the modular bangle. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, the preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Reference now should be made to the drawings, in which the same reference numerals are used throughout the different drawings to designate the same or similar components.

The embodiments of the present invention provide a modular bangle, comprising of a plurality of bangle members. Each bangle member is capable of interchangeable and engageable with other bangle member(s), to provide a modular bangle of substantially different shape, design and/or configuration.

Figure 1A shows a modular bangle (100) according to one embodiment of the present invention through Figure 1A to 1D. The modular bangle comprises of bangle members (110, 120) as shown in Figure 1B to 1 D. As shown in Figure 1 B, both bangle members comprise of curved segments (111 , 121) adapted on the a ring (112, 122) in such a way that the said segments (111 , 121) appears like protruding from one of the sides of the bangle member.

As illustrated in Figure 1C & 1D, the bangle members (110, 120) comprises of four segments (111 , 121), adapted to each bangle member (110, 120). Alternately, the bangle members may also have at-least one substantially curved protruding segments extending from one side of the bangle member. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the number of segments may be altered as per need, and the present invention is not limited to four segments. The protruding segments (111, 121) of the present invention as illustrated have a square configuration. Though it is preferable that the bangle member has a square configuration, the bangle member can have any other geometric shape such as triangular, circular, trapezoid, and the like configurations.

Further, as shown in Figure 1 B to 1 D, the segments are arranged or adapted on the bangle members in a way that they will act as a male-female snap fitting arrangement, allowing the bangle members to engage to form a modular bangle (100) as illustrated in Figure 1A. The snap fitting arrangement can be between the segments of the bangle members. Advantageously, the segments overlap over the ring of the other/opposite bangle member and can have snap fitting means arranged below of the segments to snap fittingly engage with the ring. Further, these bangle members (110, 120) are latched together via a latching means (150) shown in Figure 2 on inner side of the segments. Alternatively the latching means can be adapted on the outer side of the bangle for improving the design and aesthetic look of the bangle.

Figure 2 shows an exemplary embodiment of the latching means. The latching means (150) comprises of a pinhead (151) on one bangle member and a latch (152) on another bangle member. The latching means (150) latches the segment (111) of one bangle member to the segment (121) of another bangle member, interconnecting the bangle members (1 0, 120) from the inside, giving a neat external appearance to the modular bangle. The latching means may be unlocked to separate the two combined bangle members, and similarly one of the bangle members can further be combined or interchanged with another bangle having same the mating means as per requirement. This provides flexibility of combining the bangle members with different bangle members, to achieve a plurality of design and/or shape without investing in a new bangle. Figure 3 shows a modular bangle (300) according to another embodiment of the present invention through Figure 3A to 3C. The modular bangle as per another embodiment comprises of bangle members (310, 320), each bangle member(310, 320) having a cylindrical shape with a tapering cross-section, and has a mating means (311 , 321) at both peripheral edges of the members to engage said bangle members(310, 320) to each other to form the modular bangle (300) as shown in Figure 3A. The mating means (311 , 321) on the both edges as illustrated are substantially triangular shaped configuration, however the present invention is not limited to the use of said configuration and the mating means can be in square, circular and the like configurations with or without snap fittings. Further, the tapering cross-section of the bangle members allows the modular bangle to attain different shapes and/or design, when they are engaged to each other as shown in Figure 3B and 3C.

Figure 3B shows a convex bangle (300A) formed when higher diameter peripheral edges of bangle members (310, 320) are engaged and Figure 3C shows a concave bangle (300B) formed when smaller diameter of peripheral edges of bangle members (310, 320) are engaged.

Figure 3D shows a top view of one of the cylindrical portions comprising an inner latching means (350) to lock with other cylindrical portion. The user requires buying only one another type of cylindrical portion having similar mating means to change the design of his/her bangle.

According to the present invention, the modular bangle of the present invention has an aesthetic design element applied to at-least a portion of the bangle and/or throughout the bangle. The design element can be an etched design and/or combined with structurally mounted gem-stones. The bangle members can have a same and/or different design depending on user's choice, and can be used in different combinations as per user's requirement. Further, the modular bangles of the present invention can be made from shell, copper, bronze, agate, chalcedony, plastic, steel, precious known metals such as gold, silver, platinum etc. The present invention also allows use of different material bangle members, for example one bangle member can be made of plastic and other can be made of gold. Thus the modular bangles of the present invention can be made to look completely different by combining with an additional bangle member with different design and/or material, allowing the user to update appearance of the bangle entirely at just 1/3rd of the value of the bangle bought earlier. Advantageously, the present invention provides a modular bangle, wherein bangle members with same and/or different design can be attached, detached, re-attached in different combinations with different bangle members exhibiting a different design and aesthetic appearance to the bangle.

The present invention lies in providing a modular bangle formed by atleast two bangle members that met fixedly and removabley/exchangebly each other by various known ways including snap fitting, locking, latching etc. thereby forming the bangle with different design, shape, size, configuration as per user needs. The Figures are for the reference and not for limiting the invention to the shown configuration. The bangle members of the present invention in one embodiment are connected to each other by snap fitting. The snap fitting arrangement is very well known and a person skilled in the art can easily understand how the bangle members snap fitting fit with each other and can develop various snap fitting arrangements and hence not required to describe in details. The present invention uses a term "curve" for the segments. The "curve" term is used only because the bangles are generally circular and to understand the invention. However, the "curved" term also includes the "flat" means the segments can be "flat."

While the present invention has been described with respect to certain preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modification such as changing locking mechanism, snap fitting arrangements, various designs, aesthetic looks etc may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims:

Claims

1. A modular bangle, comprising of:

a plurality of bangle members, each bangle member capable of being interchangeable and engageable with one or more other bangle members, allowing a user to substantially change design, shape, size and configuration of the said modular bangle as per need.

2. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the bangle members engage with each other snap fittingly.

3. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each bangle member has at- least two substantially curved protruding segments extending from one side of the bangle member from a ring, each protruding segment spaced apart from each-other so as to engage with each-other in a male-female snap fitting arrangement.

4. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 3, wherein the snap fitting arrangement can be between the segments of the bangle members and/or below the segment to snap fit with the ring of the opposite bangle member by overlapping the segment over the ring.

5. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 1 or 3, wherein at-least one latching means is used to latch the one bangle member with other bangle member.

6. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 5, wherein latching means preferably comprises of a pinhead on one bangle member and a latch on another bangle member to engage with the said pinhead.

7. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 5 or 6, wherein the latching means is preferably provided on inner side of the bangle members.

8. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 3, wherein the protruding segments can have any geometrical shape configuration selected from a group of square, rectangular, circular, triangular and the like.

9. A module bangle as claimed in claim 1, wherein each bangle member has a cylindrical shape with a tapering cross-section, and has a mating means configured along both peripheral edges of each bangle member, allowing the said bangle members to engage at both the edges to form the modular bangle having different shapes along with the designs.

10. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 9, wherein the mating means has a square, circular, triangular configuration.

11. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 8 further comprises of a latching means to latch the bangle members to each-other.

2. A modular bangle as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the bangle members are made of same and/or different material.

13. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 13, wherein the material is selected from a group of shell, copper, bronze, agate, chalcedony, plastic, steel, glass, gold, silver, platinum and in combination thereof.

14. A modular bangle as claimed in any of the preceding claims comprises of an aesthetic design element applied to at-least a portion of the bangle.

15. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 14, wherein one or more gemstones are structurally mounted to at-least a portion of the bangle.

16. A modular bangle as claimed in claim 14, wherein a design is etched on at-least a portion of the bangle.

17. A modular bangle as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the modular bangle can be circular, square, triangular, wave shaped.

18. A modular bangle, comprises of:

a first bangle member and a second bangle member, each bangle member having at-least one substantially curved protruding segments extending from one side of the bangle member, and a latching means to engage and latch the bangle members with each-other in a male-female arrangement.

19. A modular bangle, comprising: a first bangle member and a second bangle member, each bangle member having mating ends at both edges capable of being interchangeable and engageable with one or more other bangle members from both side allowing a user to substantially change design, shape, size and configuration of the said modular bangle as per need.

20. A bangle member to form the modular bangle as claimed in one of the preceding claims, said bangle member comprised of mating means similar to that of the another bangle member to allow engaging and exchanging the design, shape, size and configuration of the said modular bangle.