Abstract:
A ship-on garment hanger having shielding means at each end of the hanger body to prevent dislodgement of a garment from the hanger by downwardly and inwardly directed dislodging forces, the hanger and the front and rear jaws of the clamp assemblies at the ends of the hanger body being formed integrally in one piece so that the hanger is ideally suited for production by the chain molding technique and consists of only three separate parts including two spring clips.

Description:
[0001]    This invention pertains generally to garment hangers and more specifically to a garment hanger adapted to be employed as a shipping hanger for garment-on-hanger use, said garment hanger having (1) a hanger body assembly in which the hanger body and the front and rear halves of the clamp assembly located at each end portion of the hanger body comprise a single manufactured part so that, when a biasing means is added to each clamp assembly, the body assembly consists of only three parts, and (2) means for precluding dislodgement of a garment from its hanger by dislodgement forces encountered during transportation and push/pull forces arising during manipulation of garments on said hangers by customers in retail outlets. The hanger body assembly is particularly well suited for chain molding whereby the cost of the hanger is at a near absolute minimum.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    A worldwide mode of doing business in the garment industry has evolved in recent years due to economic factors. For example, garments may be very inexpensively manufactured in less developed countries such as Sri Lanka, the garment hanger factory may be located in Taiwan or Hong Kong, and the garments may be destined for sale in the U.S. Thus it is quite common today for garments to be made in one country, the hangers on which the garments are to be displayed made in another country, and the garment displayed for sale in yet a third country.  
           [0003]    At the retail sales level, there is an increasing trend to employ fewer and fewer selling personnel; indeed, the trend has almost reached a self-service mode of selling, though a few sales personnel will always be required for providing style information and fitting. The result however is that the ratio of number of garments to each sales person is increasing. While this ratio does not, in itself, present problems at the retail sale level (due to some extent at least, to lowered expectations of sales clerk assistance by retail customers), the greater number of garments in a retail store department presents logistics problems. For example, at the end of a selling day it is the duty of the sales personnel to straighten up the racks so that a neat and tidy appearance is presented to the eyes of the customers as they enter the department on the next selling day. The greater the number of garments on the racks per each sales person, the greater will be the time required by each sales person to straighten the racks, a fact which is not appreciated by sales personnel at the end of their shift. Part of the straightening process involves pulling a garment, say a size 36 men&#39;s slacks, which has been inadvertently placed in the size 38 section of the rack and inserting it into the size 36 section. At the present time this task can be very time consuming and frustrating, especially when the rack space is limited as it always is for a period of time after a new season&#39;s inventory has been received. Specifically, the pulling out and pushing in motions of extracting a garment from one location on a rack and inserting the garment into another location on the rack can result in a garment on either the moved hanger or a racked hanger dropping its garment, or at least one side of the garment. This usually occurs when the clip of one hanger engages the clip of another hanger in a direction and with a force to cause one jaw of one of the interfering clips to open slightly, thereby releasing the gripping pressure on the garment and letting it drop under the impetus of its own weight. When such an event occurs the time to straighten a rack is increased, much to the annoyance of the sales personnel.  
           [0004]    The problem of contact between two hangers with resultant spillage also occurs in the absence of a need to change the physical location of a garment along the axis of a suspending rack. Specifically, during the course of a selling day adjacent garments will be pulled off the racks, or tilted upwardly for viewing, by customers, following which little or no effort is made to make sure that the viewed garment is returned to a level position. Indeed, at the end of a selling day, some hangers will be level, some will be tipped upwardly at their outer end (i.e.: the end closest to the customer), and some will be tipped upwardly at their inner end. The result is a very untidy appearance. To return the garments to a neat, organized condition sales clerks prefer to either simply press downwardly on the upturned hangers or, at most, wiggle adjacent off-tilted hangers back and forth slightly so as to enable the garments to come back to a neutral position in which they hang straight down. Unfortunately these simple hand motions can also result in dropped garments due, to a considerable extent, to unlocking forces being exerted on one jaw of the two jaws which form the clamp assembly at the end of each hanger. A basic cause of this problem is the fact that in most hangers in use today the upper portion of the clamp which extends upwardly above the jaw is exposed in the sense that it projects into space outside the boundaries, and particularly the width dimensions, of the hanger.  
           [0005]    A further problem which is keenly felt by the clothing manufacturers, though only indirectly by the ultimate consumer, is the substantial cost of the hangers currently in wide use in the industry. The current hangers have a seven piece hanger body assembly consisting of the hanger body, a front half and a rear half of each clamp assembly, and two biasing means, such as spring clips, one for each clamp assembly. This substantial number of individual parts increases cost since the fixturing required to assemble the parts is quite extensive and hence substantial labor and capital costs are required. In some hangers one half of each clamp assembly may be molded integrally with the hanger body, but this type of hanger still consists of five individually manufactured components and the associated labor and capital costs are little, if any, reduced as compared to the seven part hanger body assembly.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    This invention is a garment hanger which overcomes all of the above described problems in a single hanger. Specifically, the garment hanger of this invention has a hanger body assembly consisting of a maximum of three individual parts, including two biasing means such as spring clips, and is adapted for chain molding whereby molding costs, and subsequent assembly costs, are very substantially reduced over all hangers currently on the market. Further, the hanger (a) during transportation following assembly to a garment, (b) in the retail sales outlet, and (c) at all other times, grip a garment in such a fashion that the gripping pressure is not released and a garment dropped no matter how many shakes and bumps the hanger is subjected to during transportation or how quickly and carelessly garments are pulled from a rack and reinserted by customers, or pressed downwardly from above by the hands of a sales clerk passing over a series of hangers to bring the series into level alignment.  
           [0007]    It is a further aim of this invention to accomplish all of the foregoing in a hanger which has a very low profile; that is, a hanger in which the clamp assembly at each end of the generally horizontally oriented hanger body does not project above the upper surface of the hanger body. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
       [0008]    The invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing wherein:  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 1 is a front elevation of the garment hanger of this invention showing the banger body assembly, without the biasing means, in the just molded condition, a hang means being illustrated for clarity of understanding;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2 is a top view;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3 is a front elevation of the garment hanger in an assembled condition, that is, including the clamp biasing means;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 4 is a left end view showing the position of the halves of the clamp assembly when not holding a garment; and  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 5 is an end view with the garment omitted but showing the position of the jaws when holding a garment when viewed from the left side of FIG. 3. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0014]    Like reference numerals will be used to refer to like or similar parts from Figure to Figure in the following description of the invention.  
         [0015]    The garment hanger of this invention is particularly well suited for manufacture by the chain molding method and thereafter for assembly to a garment at a remote garment manufacturing location followed by retention of the garment on the hanger until the hanger is separated from the garment at the retail sales outlet by a retail sales clerk or by the purchaser at his home. In view of this highly desirable characteristic the hanger will sometimes hereinafter be referred to as a “ship-on” hanger.  
         [0016]    The ship-on hanger of this invention is indicated generally at  10  in FIGS. 1, 2 and  3 . The hanger includes a hanger body assembly, indicated generally at  11 , and, in this instance, a hang or hook means indicated generally at  12 . In this instance the hanger body assembly  11  and hook means  12  are shown as separate components. It will be understood however that this is a matter of choice since the hook means may be formed integrally with the body, or be formed to the body as a mold insert or be inserted into its hook boss  13  after the plastic molding operation. It will be understood that any of the current widely used plastic materials are suitable.  
         [0017]    The hanger body assembly  11  includes a generally horizontally oriented hanger body, indicated at  14 , and a left end clamp assembly and a right end clamp assembly, the clamp assemblies being indicated generally at  15  and  16  respectively. Since the clamp assemblies  15  and  16  are identical, though reversed n position, a description of one will suffice as a description of both.  
         [0018]    The hanger body  14  is, in this instance generally C shaped and consists of an upper flange  18 , a lower flange  19 , and a vertical, central or bight portion  20 . From FIGS. 1, 2 and  3  it will be noted that the left end  21  of the upper flange  18  terminates short of the outer portion of the clip assembly  15 .  
         [0019]    The clip assembly  15  consists of a front half or jaw  22  and a rear half or jaw  23 , the two jaws being integrally connected by a strap  24 . In FIG. 1 the front and rear jaws and the strap  24  are shown in their as-molded position from which it will be obvious that the hanger body and the two clamp assemblies may be integrally molded. In FIG. 3 the front jaw  22  of the clip assembly  15  has been folded about the thin strap  24  to overlie the rear jaw  23  in opposed, matching relationship. The two jaws  22 ,  23  are held together by a biasing means which in this instance is an inverted U-shaped spring clip  26  seen best in FIG. 3.  
         [0020]    Rear jaw  23  is, in this instance, an extension of the vertical central portion  20  of the hanger body, as best seen in FIGS. 1, 2 and  4 . A U-curved flange, indicated generally at  28 , extends outwardly from the upper left corner of jaw  23 , the flange having an upwardly facing portion  29  and a vertical portion  30 . The inner edge  27  of the upwardly facing portion  29  and the left end  21  of flange  18  are spaced apart to form an upwardly open space  31  of a width sufficient to receive the spring clip  26  after the front jaw  22  has been swung around 180° along the path of arrow  32  just before the assembly of the spring clip  26  to the left clamp assembly  15 .  
         [0021]    Garment gripping means  34 ,  35  are carried on the lower, inwardly facing surface of rear jaw  23  and front jaw  22 , respectively, of the clamp assembly  15 .  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 5 illustrates the positions of the jaws  22  and  23  when the clamp assembly is in engagement with a garment as represented by center line  33 . In this condition the upwardly facing portion  29  of the curved flange  28  together with the left end portion of the upper flange  18  of the hanger body  14  prevent any impact on the upper edge  36  of front jaw  22  which would tend to pivot the front jaw  22  counter-clockwise around the pivot structure  37  and thereby move front gripping means, here a pad  35 , away from rear gripping means  34  into an open, garment releasing position.  
         [0023]    Similarly, the vertical portion  30  of curved flange  28  together with strap  24  shield the outside of clamp assembly  15 , and specifically the front jaw  22 , from impact forces which would tend to pivot front jaw  22  counter-clockwise about pivot structure  37  and thereby dislodge a garment gripped between jaws  22  and  23 .  
         [0024]    It will be understood that the biasing force of the spring clip means will be strong enough to pivot the garment empty jaws about pivot structure  37  and into the position of FIG. 4 in which the garment gripping pads  34  and  35  are in abutting contact. In such position, the upper end  36  of front jaw  22  may project outwardly to some extent from under the protective shield provided by the upwardly facing portion  29  of curved flange  28  and the left end portion of upper flange  18 . This is not a disadvantage however when no garment is present.  
         [0025]    From FIGS. 1 and 2 it will be appreciated that, since the central portion  20  and flanges  18  and  19  of the hanger body  14 , and the jaws  22 ,  23  and strap  24 , are integral and aligned, the hanger body assembly is ideally suited for chain molding which, as is well known, is one of the least expensive molding methods.  
         [0026]    To assemble, each connecting strap  24  is bent 180° as represented by arrows  32 , until the clamp halves  22  and  23  of each clamp assembly are in opposing, overlapping or matched relationship as seen in FIG. 3. At this point a conventional U-shaped spring clip  26  is inserted downwardly in the inverted position through a space  31  and into gripping  10 O engagement with the outside faces of each of the clamp halves. The spring clip  26  biases the clamp halves  22  and  23 , in the absence of a garment, into the position of FIG. 4 in which the front and rear gripping means, or pads, are in abutting contact with one another.  
         [0027]    Although a specific example, and modifications thereof, have been illustrated and described, it will at once be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications to the basic inventive concept may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. Hence the scope of the invention should only be limited only by the scope of the hereafter appended claims when interpreted in light of the relevant prior art, and not by the foregoing exemplary description.