US2931086A - Synthetic resin clothes pin - Google Patents

Description

April 5, 1960 M ROSE 5mm RESIN CLOTHES PIN Filed March 12, 1956 United States Patent SYNTHETIC RESIN CLOTHES PIN Martin Rose, Sjaelland, Denmark Application March 12, 1956, Serial No. 570,864 Claims priority, application Denmark November 3, 1955 Claims. (Cl. 24-137)- It is known to manufacture clothes pins or similar clamps consisting of two beams of synthetic resin con nected at their central sections. Clothes pins have for example been manufactured consisting of two cast beams connected with each other by means of a coil spring the ends of which clasp the outer surface of the beams similarly as is known from ordinary clothes pins of wood.

However, it is a drawback of such pins that the beams are liable to be wrung off the coil spring, whereby the pin is spoiled. Furthermore, these pins are comparatively complicated to assemble and very apt to rust so that they leave stains on the washing which are difiicult to remove.

Therefore clothes pins have been manufactured with a connecting bridge of a resinous material. Such pins have been moulded all in one piece. However the connecting bridge is curved with its central part nearer to the jaws of the pin than its ends which meet each of the beams under a sharp angle, and this shape of the bridge causes a danger of cracks.

An important object of my invention is to provide a clothes pin of such shape that the said danger does not exist.

A further object of my invention is to provide a clothes pin in which the resinous material is able to ensure the desired clamping efiect of a clothes pin in general.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this application,

Figure 1 is a pin with two resilient members which are prestressed in the operative position, and

Figures 2, 3 and 4 show various pins each having one resilient member which is prestressed in the operative position. I

The clothes pin disclosed in Figure 1 consists of two beams 21 and 22 of cast synthetic resin, for example polyethylene, cast integral with a connecting bridge 23 which connects the beams. Directly below the said connecting bridge 23 the inner side of each beam is provided with fingers 24 and 25, respectively. The said fingers are mounted opposite each other and are of such length that they, after being bent up into the positions 27 and 28 shown with dotted lines, will prevent one another from returning to their original positions. In the positions 27 and 28 they will remain in a stressed condition and therefore very effectively support the connecting piece 23 in closing'the jaws 26 of the pin.

The clothes pin disclosed in Figure 2 is provided with a cast downwardly extending loose finger 29 which, before the pin is put into operation, is bent up into the position indicated by a dotted line 30 in Figure 2 and retained there by being prestressed against the beam 22. Owing to the fact that the finger is moulded in the opposite curved shape 30 it will be prestressed to a very high degree and it will therefore, when the pin is opened, constitute a very etiicient support for the connecting piece 23 in closing the pin.

Figure 3 discloses a clothes pin with asimilar finger 'ice the said finger it will in its prestressed position exert a considerable pressure on the opposite beam 22, the said pressure increasing the more the jaws 26 of the pin are opened.

All of the aforesaid extra connecting pieces and fingers are made integral with the other components of the clothes pin, and they are shown as being of substantially the same thickness as the other components of the pin.

The last mentioned feature, however, is not necessary, since the said extra members and fingers may be of varying thickness to suit requirements. Furthermore, a pin may be provided with several prestressed fingers, for example crossing each other, and the fingers may be given many forms other than those disclosed to achieve the purpose aimed at and in order to support the connecting piece 23 in closing the jaws of the pin when these are opened.

The clothes pin may on the whole be designed in many ways other than that described, depending on the purpose which it is to serve. The pin may, for example, be punched out of a sheet of synthetic resin.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A synthetic resin clothes pin comprising, in combination, two beams, an integral bridge resiliently interconnecting said beams at a point between the ends of said beams to define a first recess for reception of the article to be grasped and an opposite recess to permit relative movement of the ends of said beams about said bridge as a pivot, and at least one resilient member integral with at least one of said beams and disposed in said opposite recess, said member being adapted to be bent to a pre-stressed position in which it presses against the beam opposite the beam with which it is integral, and means integral with said opposite beam adapted to engage said member to retain it in said pre-stressed position thereby supplementing the action of the bridge tending to close said first recess and to urge the portions of the beams adjacent said first recess to apply pressure to said article.

2. A clothes pin as defined in claim 1, wherein the resilient member extends substantially obliquely away from the beam with which it is integral.

3. A clothes pin as defined in claim 1, wherein the resilient member extends substantially obliquely away from the beam with which it is integral and is curved with its concave side toward said beam.

4. A clothes pin as defined in claim 1 comprising two resilient members, one extending from one of said beams and the other extending from the other of said beams.

5. A clothes pin as defined in claim 1, wherein the resilient member consists of at least one finger and said finger extends from one of said beams adjacent said bridge and extends away from the latter, said other recess being formed with an auxiliary recess for receiving said finger when it is pre-stressed into an arch.

6. A clothes pin as defined in claim 5, wherein the finger has a laterally protruding portion at its free end and said auxiliary recess is shaped to receive said portion and to hold it in said last-named recess.

7. A clothes pin of resilient plastic material comprising, in combination, a pair of laterally opposed beams having end portions constituting opposed article gripping jaws at one end and opposed actuating arms at the opposite end, a bendable bridge integrally connecting said beams intermediate their ends, said bridge being adapted when in an unstressed state to position said beams with said jaws together in closed relation and with said arms separated 'in open relation, relative closing movement of said arms being adapted to open said jaws and to bend said bridge into a stressed state in which said jaws are biased toward closed position, a finger integral with one of said arms and adapted to be bendable from an inoperative unstressed position to an operative stressed position between said arms in which said jaws are constantly biased toward closed position, and means integral with the other of said arms adapted to engage said finger to retain it in said operative stressed position, said finger being adapted through closing movement of said arms to be bent into an increasingly stressed state to supplement the tendency of said bridge in its stressed state to close said jaws. v

8. A clothes pin according to claim 7 having a pair of fingers opposite each other on the inner side of the arms.

9. A clothes pin according to claim 7 in which the fin- 4 ger in its operative stressed position extends from one arm near the bridge and is directly obliquely downwardly towards the other arm.

10. A clothes pin according to claim 7 in which the finger in its operative stressed position extends from one arm near the bridge and then upwardly toward the other arm to form a prestressed arch.

Reterences Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 10,3 11 Hotchkiss etal Dec. 13, 1853 2,002,001 Beard May 21, 1935 2,519,987 Wernette Aug. 22, 1950 2,591,477 Tegarty Apr. 1, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 16,167 Great Britain Dec. 10, 1886 126,165 Sweden Sept. 20, 1949 496,093 Belgium June 30, 1950 688,260 Great Britain Mar. 4, 1953

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