Woven article

A woven article (1), such as a carpet for a vehicle compartment, is provided with a removable portion (7) to form an opening (8) when some optional component is to be passed therethrough. The opening is partly circumscribed by a plurality of first slits (2a to 2d) which are spaced from each other. At least one second slit (4a to 4d) is further formed outwardly or inwardly of the contour of the opening in an overlapping relationship with two neighboring first slits. Substantially all the warps (5) and wefts (6) extending across the opening intersects with at least one of the slits to provide an uninterrupted opening of desired shape.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a woven article, such as a carpet for a 
vehicle compartment, which includes mutually woven yarns, i.e. wefts and 
warps, and may be formed with an opening, if necessary, to pass an 
optional component therethrough. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Such a woven article is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The article 1 includes 
warps 5 and wefts 6, and is conventionally formed with a plurality of 
cutting lines 2a to 2d in the form of slits, which are aligned on a 
contour of the opening to be formed, and separated from each other leaving 
bridge-like connections 3a to 3d therebetween. By manually exerting 
pressure, warps and wefts extending between neighbouring slits 2a to 2d 
can be removed. However, warps and wefts extending between opposite 
bridge-like connections 3a to 3d are left connected across the opening to 
be formed (FIG. 1B). Thus, a complete opening cannot be formed without 
cutting the remaining yarns manually or by using a suitable cutting blade. 
Such an operation is troublesome and time consuming. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a woven 
article of the type mentioned above, which can be formed with a complete 
opening, if necessary, in a very simple and positive manner. 
According to the present invention, there is provided a woven article 
consisting of mutually woven warps and wefts, in which an opening having a 
closed contour can be formed optionally, said article being formed with a 
plurality of first slits extending along the contour and spaced from each 
other, wherein the article is further formed with at least one second slit 
which is offset outwardly or inwardly of the contour of the opening in an 
overlapping relationship with two neighboring first slits in the 
circumferential direction of the opening, the first and second slits being 
so arranged that any one of the warps and wefts extending across the 
opening to be formed intersects with at least one of the slits. 
With the above arrangement, each of the warps and wefts extending across 
the opening to be formed has one or two free ends at the intersection with 
the slits, thus defining a readily removable portion corresponding to the 
opening. Cutting blades are not required to form a complete opening. All 
what is necessary is just to manually exert pressure to remove the 
removable portion. An opening having a desired shape can be formed in a 
very simple manner in short a time, and the periphery of the opening has a 
refined appearance.

DETAILED EXPLANATION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown a woven article according to the 
first embodiment of the present invention. As in the article shown in FIG. 
1A, the article 1 according to the present invention is formed with a 
plurality of first slits 2a to 2d which are aligned on a contour of the 
opening 8 to be formed, and separated from each other. In this embodiment, 
the article 1 is further formed with a plurality of second slits 4a to 4d 
which are slightly offset outward from the bridge-like connections 3a to 
3d between the first slits 2a to 2d. The second slits 4a to 4d are 
arranged such that each end portion of the second slits 4a to 4d overlaps 
the end portion of neighboring ones of the first slits 2a to 2d in the 
circumferential direction of the opening, i.e. in the direction of the 
warps 5 and/or wefts 6. Consequently, the first and second slits 2a to 2d, 
4a to 4d cooperate to completely surround the opening to be formed. This 
means that each yarn extending across the opening to be formed necessarily 
intersects with two slits 2a, 2b; 4b; 4d; 2c, 2d; 2b, 2c; 4a, 4c; 2a, 2d 
on opposite sides of the opening thus defining a removable portion 7. On 
the other hand, yarns extending across the spaces between the bridge-like 
connctions 3a to 3d and the slits 4a to 4d without intersecting with the 
slits consist of warps 5 only or wefts 6 only, which are maintained 
connected with the remaining portion of the article 1. The latter yarns 
and the yarns of the removable portion 7 are woven with each other in the 
abovementioned spaces. In order to prevent undesirable removal of the 
portion 7 or formation of the opening, the abovementioned spaced should 
have a sufficient surface area. In other words, the distance between the 
neighboring first slits 2a to 2d, i.e. the length of the bridge-like 
connections 3a to 3d, and the distance between the connections 3a to 3d 
and the second slits 4a to 4d i.e. the width of the spaces, are so 
determined as to provide a sufficient frictional resistance between the 
yarns of the removable portion 7 and the yarns of the remaining portion of 
the article 1. When the article 1 on the rear surface is coated with a 
layer of synthetic resin material, the distance between the slits can be 
made smaller. 
When the woven article 1 is to be formed with the opening 8 to pass 
therethrough an optional component, the portion 7 is manually applied with 
pressure. By this, the yarns of the portion 7 in the vicinity of the 
second slits 4a to 4d are separated from the yarns of the remaining 
portion of the article extending inside of the second slits 4a to 4d 
against the frictional resistance therebetween. As shown in FIG. 3A, thus 
formed opening 8 has its periphery partly formed by the warps 5 only and 
partly by the wefts 6 only, which extend substantially along the contour 
of the uninterrupted opening 8 having a desired shape. Correspondingly, as 
shown in FIG. 3B, the removed portion 7 includes a periphery partly formed 
by the warps 5 only or by wefts 6 only, which project outwardly of the 
portion 7. 
FIGS. 4 and 5 show the second embodiment of the present invention, wherein 
the second slits 4a to 4d are formed slightly inside of the contour of the 
opening to be formed, on which the first slits 2a to 2d are aligned. In 
this case, the opening 8 formed by removing the portion 7 has a periphery 
partly defined by warps 5 only and partly by wefts 6 only, which project 
slightly inwards of the contour for the length corresponding to the 
distance between the first and second slits 2a to 2d, 4a to 4d. Those 
yarns do not disturb passage of an optional component through the opening 
8, since they have free inner ends which automatically conform with the 
cross-sectional shape of the optional component. 
In the embodiments described above, the entire contour of the opening 8 to 
be formed is completely surrounded by the first and second slits. But, the 
present invention is not limited to such an arrangement. For example, as 
shown in FIG. 6, the article 1 may be formed with a pair of relatively 
long first slits 2a, 2b which are aligned on the contour of the opening, 
and a single second slit 4a disposed inside or outside of the contour. In 
this case, by removing the portion 7 of the article 1, an opening 8 is 
formed which appears to be divided into two semi-circular shape. However, 
each of the warps 5 extending across the opening from the bridge-like 
connection 3a has a free end formed by the second slit 4a. Thus, the warps 
5 at the center of the opening 8 can be freely displaced toward the 
periphery of the opening when passing an optional part therethrough. 
It will be appreciated that, according to the present invention, the woven 
article is formed with a plurality of first slits substantially aligned on 
the contour of the opening to be optionally formed, and with at least one 
second slit between at least one pair of the first slits. The second slit 
is in overlapping relation with the first slits in the circumferential 
direction of the opening, and offset outwardly or inwardly of the contour. 
By this, a complete opening can be formed, if necessary, without using 
cutting blade, in a very simple manner, and the thus obtained opening is 
not disturbed by the yarns extending across the opening.