WIRE SPECTACLE FRAME

Abstract: Wire spectacle frame comprising a bent wire central bridge portion forming two side loops into which elastomer pads are securely inserted and having lens fastening means at the two ends, bent wire side bars with a spiral wound wire coil hinge between the side bar and a lens holding arm having lens fastening means, composed of a first coiled wire termination of the wire side bar defining a circular hole of a certain diameter; a second coiled wire termination of a wire lens fastening frame portion defining a circular hole of the same diameter of said first coiled wire termination of the side bar; and a countersunk headed hinge pin passing through said circular holes and connecting together said two coiled wire terminations. The head-to-head abutting together of the two ends of said two spiral wound coiled wire terminations defines a rotational stop of the hinge with the side bar open.

Description: WIRE SPECTACLE FRAME The present invention relates to spectacles or eyeglasses and more particularly to rimless frames where the lenses are fastened to frame portions of the spectacle and more precisely to frames made of bent for extreme resiliency of the spectacles. Spectacle frames made with highly resilient wire have represented and still do a large part of rimless frames of a metal or metal alloy with a relatively high modules of elasticity. Wire frames offer unsurpassed resiliency by virtue of elastic properties of drawn metal wire with which they are made. These peculiarities and the intrinsic lightweightness of these types of spectacles make them particularly appealing, notwithstanding the continuous and often recurrent fashion changes. Of course, also rimless wire frames must include hinged side bars for folding down the side bars when pocketing the spectacles. The pertinent literature is replete of specific technical solutions of the problem of fastening the lenses to the bent wire portions of the frame and of hinging the side bars, for simplifying the fabrication of the various frame portions, the assembling of the spectacles by professional opticians and for ensuring a problem-free and gratifying use of the spectacles. US Patent No. 625,083 discloses a spectacle frame having the entire rim made of a single length of wire, forming side loops on which bent wire side bars hinge. French Patent No. 1 ,007, 163 discloses a spectacle frame made of bent metal wire, provided with conventional hinges for the side bars. The registered Denmark design No. 734-1984 shows a side bar and the relative hinge mechanism entirely made with metal wire, including a spiral wound coiled wire portion. The US Patent No. 718,363 discloses a temple and spring clamp for the lenses of a rimless spectacle frame of wire wherein an elastic bent wire clamp is used to join hinged side bars to the lenses. The hinge includes a spiral wound coiled wire portion. US Patent No. 5,135,296 and International Publication Application No. WO 87/04806, both claiming the same priority date of Danish application No. 449/86, disclose wire frames with side bar hinges formed of a wire coil and a pintle wire portion. The common way of forming side bar hinges is that of forming a spirally wound coil termination at the end of the wire side bar coupling with a cooperating pintle termination of a lens-holding temple frame portion also of wire. Upon assembling the frame pieces with the lenses, the end of the pintle termination of each hinge protruding out of the coiled termination of the side bar is bent into on elbow shape to permanently join the pieces together and provide for a stop of the rotation of the side bar. The bending the protruding end of the pintle portion of wire is a delicate operation and the bending process is hardly uniform, resulting in hinges of dishomogeneous behavior, often requiring trimming to slacken or tighten them. Even the intrinsically asymmetrical aspect of the two parts that compose the hinge may be unpleasing. The formed hinge often has unbecoming asperities. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wire spectacle frame with side bar hinges of a neat and symmetrical appearance free of asperities and whose behavior is more predictable and homogeneous then that of the bent wire hinges of the prior art. An attendant object of the invention is to provide for a more easily assembled hinge mechanism than the known bent wire hinges. The wire spectacle frame of the invention is defined in claim 1 and particularly preferred embodiments are defined in dependent claims 2 to... The various aspects and advantages of the wire spectacle frame of the invention will become evident through the following description of an embodiment frame and by referring to the attached drawings, wherein: Figures 1, 2 and 3 show the details of a hinge structure of the spectacle wire frame of the invention, by way of an illustration of the various assembling steps; Figure 4 is an exploded view of the fastening means of a hinged side bar to one lens of the spectacle; Figure 5 is a plan view of the bent wire central bridge portion of the frame of the invention showing the lens fastening means in an exploded representation; Figure 6 is a partial side view of one side of the central bridge portion of the frame. In all the drawings, the same parts are identified by the same number. The wire used has enhanced characteristics of elasticity making it suitable for manufacturing springs and the like. For the specific application to the making of spectacle frames, a preferred material is a wire of titanium or of a titanium alloy, however other metals and alloys having appropriate or similar characteristics of elasticity and of resistance to corrosion and staining may be satisfactorily used. With reference to Figures 1 , 2 and 3, the hinging mechanism of a side bar of the wire frame of the invention are depicted by illustrating the assembling process thereof. The wire side bar 1 is terminated with a tightly wound coil portion 2 of at least two complete turns, though the turns may also be more than two. The coil portion 2 is readily made by winding the wire around a mandrel of appropriate diameter and the coiled wire portion is neatly cut along one of the turns. The coil termination 2 of the side bar defines a circular hole of a diameter determined by the diameter of the mandrel over which the wire is tightly wound. An identical tightly wound coil termination 3 is similarly formed also at the end of another length of wire 4, which is thereafter further formed by bending into a shape appropriate for fastening to one side of a lens of the spectacles. Of course, instead of duplicating the winding of the wire over the coil forming mandrel, for the two terminations 2 and 3, the wire could be wound around the mandrel in a single operation for the total number of the termination 2 and 3 and then cut with an appropriate machine along one of the turns. Whichever the way the two coiled wire terminations 2 and 3 are formed, they essentially define a hole of identical diameter. The temple arms or portions 4 of the wire frame may be bent in a functional shape as depicted in Fig. 4. The side bar hinge is assembled by inserting a countersunk headed hinge pin 6 having an outer diameter suitable to rotatably fit through the circular hole defined by the two similar coiled wire terminations 2 and 3. Once inserted in place, the pin 6 is headed to permanently connect the two parts 2 and 3 of the hinge. The cut ends of the two spiral wound terminations 2 and 3 abut one against the other when the side bar 1 is rotated into alignment with the lens fastening arm 4. Once such mutual stop position is reached, the wire side bar and the lens fastening arm 4 will be eventually flexed against the contrasting force of their elastic memory characteristics. When pocketing the spectacles, the side bars 1 will be free to rotate in a normal manner to a fully folded position. Most preferably, the hinge pin 6 is made of a thin walled tube of a metal or metal alloy similar to or compatible with the metal of the coiled wire. The premanufactured tubular pins 6 may have a wall thickness in the order of 1 to few tenths millimeters and an outer diameter in the order of 1 to 1 ,5 millimeters. The tubular pin may already have one end swaged as shown in Figures 1 and 2 and the other end may be manually swaged by the optician upon completing the hinge assembly. Alternatively, the tubular pin 6 may be swaged at both ends in a single operation. Whichever the case the swaging can be easily done in a most reproducible manner by employing a simple pincer-like tool in such a way as to ensure a proper frictional behavior of the hinge. Any excessive slacking of the hinge behavior, may be easily corrected by simply repeating the swaging operation with a greater force. Whether the hinge pin 6 is tubular or not, an important effect of the swaging or heading operation is to determine a plastic deformation of its originally cylindrical profile into a profile that at least partially adaptively reproduces the undulations of the contouring coiled wire terminations 2 and 3. This has been found instrumental to impart to the side bars hinging mechanism of the spectacles most comfortable frictional characteristics that greatly improve the normal handling of the spectacles. Moreover, this peculiarity of plastic deformability of the hinge pin 6 offer the possibility of subsequent adjustments, for example after a prolonged use of the spectacles. A hinge that has become too slack may be easily restored to a comfortably frictional behaviour by simply compressing the hinge pin with a pincer. The shape of the central bridge portion 7 of the spectacle frame is depicted in Figures 5 and 6, showing an exploded plan view of the central bridge portion of the spectacle and a partial elevation view of the exploded items of the assembly, respectively. The bridge portion 7 has a substantially conventional shape, the wire being bent into a functional shape by forming two side loops 7a and 7b through which two conventional nose pads (not illustrated in the figures) of soft rubbery material may be inserted and retained therein, according to a common practice. The two ends 7c and 7d of the bent wire bridge position 7, 7c and 7d are threaded in a manner similar to that of the end 5 of the temple portions 4, depicted in Fig. 4. Indeed, the means for fastening the side temple portions 4 and the central bridge portion 7 to the two lenses may be similar. Essentially a conically bladed, internally threaded, tubular sleeve 8, is preliminarily screwed over the threaded wire end 5 (7c and 7d) and fits into a hole drilled through the lens. A Teflon or nylon protective washer 9 may be preferably used in connection with a fastening nut 10 that is eventually tightened over the protruding threshold wire end. Most preferably, a masking cap 11 may also be used as a counter-nut to prevent loosening of the assembly as well as to improve the haestetic characteristic of the spectacles. The tightening of the assembly compresses the conically bladed tubular sleeve 8 into the hole of the lens and the conical blades 8b bite in the lens material preventing mutual rotation of the lens relative to the fastening means. The sleeve 8, the nut 10 and the cap 11 may be of the same metal or of a different metal compatible with the metal wire with which the frame portions are made.

Claims: C L A I M S 1. Wire spectacle frame comprising a bent wire central bridge portion forming two side loops into which elastomer pads are securely inserted and having lens fastening means at the two ends, bent wire side bars with a spiral wound wire coil hinge between the side bar and a lens holding arm having lens fastening means, characterized in that each spiral wound wire coil hinge is composed of the following cooperating parts: • a first coiled wire termination of the wire side bar defining a circular hole of a certain diameter; • a second coiled wire termination of a wire lens fastening frame portion defining a circular hole of the same diameter of said first coiled wire termination of the side bar; • a countersunk headed hinge pin passing through said circular holes and connecting together said two coiled wire terminations; a head-to-head abutting together of the two ends of said two spiral wound coiled wire terminations defining a rotational stop of the hinge with the side bar open. 2. The wire spectacle frame according to claim 1 , wherein said countersunk headed hinge pin is a tube, at least one end of which, is swaged upon assembling the hinge. 3. The wire spectacle frame of claim 1 , wherein said wire is of titanium or of an alloy thereof. 4. The wire spectacle frame of claim 1 , wherein said lens fastening means include a conically bladed rotation stopping tubular sleeve in a hole of the lens though which a threaded wire end passes, a tightening nut and a masking cap on said nut.

Inventors: GAIGA RINO, TURRI ENRICO, GAIGA, RINO, TURRI, ENRICO
Applicants: COSMO LINE OPTIC S A S DI GAIG, GAIGA RINO, TURRI ENRICO, COSMO LINE OPTIC S.A.S. DI GAIGA RINO E C., GAIGA, RINO, TURRI, ENRICO
Application year: 1998
Main classification: G02C1
IPC codes: G02C1, G02C5