Abstract:
A low friction hanger system for reducing the lateral force required to move a hanger on a rod. The system includes a friction reducing element located between a hanger hook of the hanger and a supporting rod. The friction reducing element can include a roller or low friction material either integral with the hanger hook or retrofitted thereto. The friction reducing element can also include low friction material on the rod which is either integral therewith or retrofitted thereto. Optionally, lateral force displacement magnets or laterally extending arms will aid in the lateral displacement the hanger relative to other hangers.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to improvements in the current system and methods that are in place for hanging clothes or other items that utilize a two or more piece system that incorporates at least a hanger and a supporting type rod or equivalents. The invention allows for easier movement of the hanged material and allows for more even distribution of the hanged material. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   When one looks at magazines or television programs that highlight closets, one might notice that the clothes are typically shown hanging very neatly and separated and evenly spaced to give a tidy and organized appearance. In reality, very few people have closets where the clothes naturally hang the way they are depicted in the magazines. If one were to look at most people&#39;s closets, one would notice that more than likely the clothes are clumped together with the hanger tops close and angled in a way that gives a disorderly appearance. In addition, when the user attempts to move clothes that are hanging in the closet in an effort to remove a particular article, sometimes a great amount of force and balance is required, particularly if many articles of clothing are to be shifted. This can be difficult, particularly for the elderly and the handicapped, and can make it very difficult to remove clothes, especially if the closet is full of hung items. 
   Besides using hangers to hang garments, there are other applications for hangers and rods, such as using hangers to hang other items, including hanging storage bags for prescription medications in pharmacies, folders for papers, just to name a few. 
   An important objective of a commercial outlet, such as a clothing store or boutique, is to make browsing through the products as easy as possible. While the invention is clearly not limited to garment hangers and a system, herein the example clothing on garment hangers will be used. With current hanger systems, many garments will hang on the same rack, which can require many hung garments to be moved when seeking to view and/or remove a specific garment. Also, in the case of circular clothing racks, a large number of units of hung clothes may need to be shifted. It stands to reason that if garments can be moved on a hanger with less effort, this will be advantageous since it will help a customer to view potential purchases more easily, making that customer less likely to walk away without first looking through everything they came to see. Many stores have employees who, as a part of their responsibilities, have to constantly move garments in an effort to cater to their customers. If the moving of multiple garments can be made easier and require less effort, this may lessen the possibility of repetitive physical stress to the employees which can in turn increase employee productivity and job satisfaction. 
   There accordingly remains a need for a system for making it easier for people to keep hanged items more evenly spaced apart from each other and easier to move on hangers on the rack. 
   BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   The invention utilizes a friction lessening means or material located on at least one of the hook portion of the hanger and the rod where the hook portion of the hanger and the rod make contact in order to reduce friction and decrease the amount of force needed to move the hanger on the rod. 
   In addition; the invention preferably allows the hangers to evenly distribute themselves either through the natural attributes of physical science and through mechanical design (e.g., springs) or by magnetic repulsion, by implanting magnets with similar polarity embedded in the body of the hanging system. 
   In practice, a user will hang his or her clothes on a hanger of the invention and then place the hanger on the bar or rod. In the case where the friction lessening feature is on the hanger neck, the portion of the hanger neck with the friction lessening feature will make contact with the bar and will ride on the bar. The friction lessening feature can comprise a roller element, including a ball bearing or plurality of ball or roller bearings structures. As used herein, the term “roller element” is defined to mean any mechanical friction reducing mechanism, which can include but is not limited to wheels, ball bearings and rollers. The friction lessening feature can also include a low friction piece of material such as Teflon®, carbon, carbon polymer or other materials located on an underside of the hanger neck where it contacts the bar or rod. Alternately, the low friction feature can be located on an upper portion of the bar or rod, and, for example, can comprise low friction material such as Teflon®. As used in this application, the term “friction reducing material” or “low friction piece of material” is defined as an insert which lowers the frictional coefficient that would otherwise be there had the material not been included. The friction lessening feature will help with the problem of multiple hangers on the same rod bunching up. Indeed, instead of bunching up together as a result of friction holding the hangers in place, as is the problem with prior art hangers and rods, the hangers of the invention will be able to move more naturally to a position of natural equilibrium as there is little opposing resistance from the contact point of hanger and rod with the significant reduction in friction. 
   In addition, it is foreseeable that under certain circumstances relatively heavy items, such as heavy coats, and other items put onto these hangers may result in a vertical load that might overcome part of the benefit afforded from the friction-reducing feature of the invention. To address these types of situations, a further feature of invention can include a means to provide an ancillary external lateral force that will aid the natural tendency for adjacent hangers to spread apart. This ancillary external lateral force means can be in the form of an embedded magnet or a mechanically designed arm that is integrated into the hanger and which act as a force feature that would work laterally in aiding in the spreading apart of adjacent hangers. 
   The invention includes an embodiment where the friction-limiting device is a separate device, e.g., a sleeve with an integrated friction-diminishing device built into it that can be attached to retrofit any existing hanger. This separate device can be attached to the hook portion of any existing hanger as a retrofit. Moreover, the friction lessening feature can be built directly into a rod or can be provided as a retrofit device that can be attached to at least a top edge of the rod to provide for decreased friction. 
   The invention also includes a method for making hangers self-align on a rod, wherein a very low friction contact is established between a hanger and a hanger rod and wherein optional mechanical and/or magnetic repulsion means are used to aid in the self-alignment feature. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a prior art hanger on a prior art clothes rod. 
       FIG. 2  is a plan view of one exemplary embodiment of a low friction hanger of the invention. 
       FIG. 3A  is a detail showing the hook portion of an exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger of the invention having a single roller. 
       FIG. 3B  is a detail showing the hook portion of an exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger of the invention having a single roller that is more integrated into the bottom of the hook portion. 
       FIG. 4  is a partially exposed detail showing the hook portion of an exemplary embodiment of a low friction retrofitable cover for hanger hooks installed on a hanger hook. 
       FIG. 5A  is a detail showing the hook portion of a further exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger of the invention having two rollers. 
       FIG. 5B  is a detail showing the hook portion of a further exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger of the invention having three rollers. 
       FIG. 6  is a detail showing another exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger of the invention having a wheel. 
       FIG. 7  is a detail showing an exemplary embodiment of a retrofitable low friction feature of the hanger of the invention for installing on a hanger hook. 
       FIG. 8  is a perspective view showing an exemplary embodiment of a low friction cover being attached to a top portion of a hanger rod. 
       FIG. 9  is a side view showing one exemplary embodiment of a mechanical separation displacement mechanism of the invention. 
       FIG. 10  is a side view showing one exemplary embodiment of a magnetic separation displacement mechanism of the invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   The invention is now described with reference to the drawings.  FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an exemplary prior art clothes hanger  10  on a prior art clothes rod  12 . The clothes hanger  10  has a hook portion  14  connected to a lower hanger portion  16 . An underside of the upper hook portion  18  will make contact with an upper surface  20  of the rod. Prior art garment hangers can be formed of bent wire, metal, wood, plastic and/or papers and other materials. The hook portion can be integral with the lower portion and is typically formed of plastic, wood or metal. Clothes rods are typically made of wood, metal or plastic. There is often a considerable amount of friction between where the hook portion rests on the rod, and particularly when heavy items are carried on a garment hanger, a considerable amount of force may be needed to move clothes hung on a hanger on a rod. 
     FIG. 2  is a plan view of an exemplary embodiment of a low friction hanger  30  of the invention. Low friction hanger  30  has a hook portion  32  with an upper hook portion  34  having low friction material  36  located on an underside thereof. This low friction material can comprise, for example and without limitation, a hard and slick plastic material such as Teflon®. Distance adjustment means  38  to provide for self adjustment of the distance between adjacent hangers can optionally be provided on the hanger, e.g., at a portion below where a neck  40  of hook portion joins an upper portion of a generally triangular shaped lower hanger portion  42 . The distance adjustment means  38  can comprise, for example, permanent magnets which act in synergy with the friction reducing feature and are aligned such that the magnetic fields of adjacent hangers will repeal each other, and thus provide a motive force to assist in self-aligning hangers. (see  FIG. 10 ) 
     FIG. 3A  is a detail showing the hook portion  50 A of an exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger of the invention comprising a roller element in the form of a single roller  52  below the upper hook portion  54 . The roller  52  will preferably have a concave curvature that will accommodate a wide variety of different sized rods and will permit even hangers carrying heavy items to be easily moved on a rod with little lateral force required. The precise shape of the roller can be modified as necessary. Also, as is shown in  FIG. 3B , roller  52  can be incorporated more fully into the upper curved portion  54  of the hook portion  50 B for stylistic and sizing considerations. Again, as used herein, the term “roller element” is defined to mean any mechanical friction reducing mechanism, which can include but is not limited to wheels, ball bearings and rollers. 
     FIG. 3B  is a detail showing the hook portion of an exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger of the invention having a single roller that is more integrated into the bottom of the hook portion. 
     FIG. 4  is a partially exposed detail showing the hook portion  60  of a hanger (not shown) which has its upper portion  62  covered with an exemplary embodiment of a low friction retrofitable cover  64  for hanger hooks. The retrofitable cover  64  can be preformed of low friction material, such as Teflon® and can be designed to slide over the free end  66  of hook portion, and thereby imbue a convention hanger with low friction attributes. 
     FIG. 5A  is a detail showing the hook portion  70  of a further exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger of the invention having two roller portions  72  incorporated into a lower side  74  of the upper portion  76 . Each roller portion  72 , can, for example have rolling bearing members, such as ball bearings  78  which will freely roll and establish low friction contact points with the rod (not shown). 
     FIG. 5B  is a detail showing the hook portion of a yet further exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature of the hanger hook  80  of the invention having three roller elements  82 ,  84  and  86  located on an underside  88  of hanger hook with roller  84  preferably arranged directly under a center of gravity CG of the hanger, and will be straddled by roller elements  82  and  86 , which can be relatively widely spaced apart to accommodate hanger rods of a wide variety of dimensions. 
     FIG. 6  is a detail showing another exemplary embodiment of a low friction feature  90  of the hanger of the invention, which has a wheel roller  92  that has a smaller contact area  94  and smaller profile than the wider rollers  54  of the embodiments of  FIGS. 3A and 3B . The wheel roller  94  is rotatably affixed to an upper hook portion  96 . 
     FIG. 7  is a detail showing an exemplary embodiment of a retrofitable low friction hanger device  100  of the invention. The retrofitable feature comprises a roller bearing  102  rollably affixed to an affixation portion  104 . Although depicted as a hollow curved tube section  106  for slipping over the upper portion of a hook portion of a hanger, it can be in the form of a clip structure which is adapted for affixation to the underside of a hanger hook if desired, or another structure. Furthermore, other types of rolling members can be provided. 
     FIG. 8  is a perspective view showing an exemplary embodiment of a low friction cover  120 , which is adapted to fit over at least a top portion of a hanger rod. In the embodiment shown, the low friction cover (e.g. made as hard or silica plastic or metal) has shape that comprises a portion of the outer shell of a cylinder, and can be adapted to snap around the rod  122  and/or can be affixed there with adhesives (e.g. peel and stick type, etc.) Other lower friction cover shapes can comprise, for example, a narrow strip, and can be formed of durable, yet low friction material, such as a hard and slick plastic such as Teflon®. 
     FIG. 9  is a side view showing an exemplary embodiment of a mechanical separation mechanism  130  of the invention. The exemplary mechanical separation mechanism  130  can comprise arms  132  which extend from at least one side, and preferably both sides  134  and  136  of the hanger  138 , for example, in the region of the hanger just below where the hook portion hangs on the rod. The arms  132  can comprise, for example, springs which provide a lateral pushing force that will act upon an adjacent arms  132  of adjacent hangers if the hanger is too close, and thereby cause the other hangers to move to establish more equal spacing between hangers on a rod. Although springs are shown, resilient material, such as elastomeric sponge material, air cushions, plastic arms, or other structures and designs can be utilized. 
     FIG. 10  is a side view showing an exemplary embodiment of a magnetic separation mechanism  150  of the invention, fitted onto two adjacent hangers  152  of the invention. The magnetic separation mechanism  150  can comprise pairs of permanent magnets  154  and  156  aligned with their like polarities facing each other (e.g. the north or south sides facing each other) so that a South (or North) magnetic field is set up at both sides of the hanger, which will repulse other hangers with a like magnetic separation mechanism  150 . One advantage of using pairs of magnets adjacent to each other with like polarities facing each other is that no matter which direction a hanger is placed on a rod, a repulsive magnetic force will be established. 
   Of course, it is also possible to use single permanent magnets in each hanger, and have sets of hangers that would pair of hangers with N-S polarity alignment and S-N alignment. In this arrangement, hangers would have to be placed in a closet with the two different types of hangers arranged for magnetic repulsion, such as N-S, S-N, N-S, and S-N. This is clearly less desirable than pairs of magnets since more attention would need to be taken when hangers are placed on a rod, since if two hangers have the same polarity alignment (e.g. N-S and N-S) where to be placed adjacent to each other on a rod, the hangers would tend to be drawn together. As shown in  FIG. 2 , one or more of the permanent magnets can be used in the hanger of the invention, depending on how much repulsive force is desired. 
   Having thus described exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the above disclosures are exemplary only and that various other alternatives, adaptations and modifications may be made within the scope of the present invention. The presently disclosed embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.