Abstract:
A garment hanger attachment having a flexible outer tube element and an inner partial tube element for securely attaching to a garment hanger arm and effectively lengthening and broadening the support area of a garment hanger arm so as to both inhibit crease and pucker formation in a hanged garment and enable the hanger to support larger and heavier garments than it otherwise could.

Description:
This application is a continuation-in-part that claims the benefit of nonprovisional application Ser. No. 13/021,748. Furthermore, application Ser. No. 13/021,748 is hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     The present invention generally relates to garment hangers, and it is specifically directed to devices for attaching to hangers in order to prevent unsightly creasing and puckering along the shoulder areas of hanged garments that can occur due to the width or diameter of a hanger&#39;s arms being considerably less than the width of human shoulders for which a particular garment is intended (a problem that is exacerbated by increased garment weight) or due to incongruence between the respective lengths of a hanger&#39;s arms and a garment&#39;s shoulders. 
     Garment hangers come in a variety of styles and sizes which are typically fabricated of either metal wire, plastic or wood. In the dry cleaning industry, for example, cylindrical wire hangers are most often used to mount cleaned garments on because of their relatively low cost of manufacture. Moreover, for simplicity, a dry cleaner will typically use only one size (in terms of wire diameter &amp; shoulder length) of hanger for all of its cleaned garments. However, the proposition of using a single model of hanger to support each of many garments of widely varying masses, shoulder dimensions, and material impressionability can be problematic. For example, it is generally undesirable to use a wire hanger to support a men&#39;s suit jacket because the small gauge (diameter) of the hanger wire, coupled with the weight of the jacket, may form a crease running along the shoulder area of the jacket. Furthermore, if the hanger arms are shorter than the jacket&#39;s shoulder length, puckers may form at the respective spots along each of the jacket arms where the hanger arm ends and the jacket arm, therefore, abruptly begins freely hanging down under its own weight, unsupported by hanger arm. In fact, the jacket may easily slide off the hanger entirely if too much arm length is unsupported. To address these and similar hanger-garment size incompatibility issues, a plethora of hanger attachment devices have been developed in the prior art. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,379 to Balph discloses a hanger sleeve extension comprising a tubular body formed by a hanger engagement portion for sliding over a hanger arm, as well as a sleeve insert portion that extends outward from the engagement portion. In a preferred embodiment, the hanger engagement portion is simply a fabric sleeve with fastening cords at its proximal end, while the sleeve insert portion comprises a fabric-covered, high-density synthetic material that exhibits some degree of rigidity. However, the present inventor recognizes a deficiency in the Balph device with regard to the tedious need for a user to tie each of two attachments&#39; tie cords to the base of the hanger hook (and subsequently untie them when it is necessary to remove the attachments) in order to prevent the attachments from sliding off the hanger as a garment is being removed. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,275 to Murray discloses a unitary, elongated, flexible body of resilient foam material, such as flexible polyurethane foam, that features a half-slit running longitudinally along the body and a shorter, longitudinally centered, through-slit. The through-slit allows a hanger hook to protrude up through the body while the resilient material conforms to hanger arms enveloped within the half-slit. In a preferred embodiment, a flocking material covers the resilient foam. The present inventor recognizes, however, that while the Murray device may certainly be effective in preventing the kind of longitudinally oriented creases that a wire hanger might create along the length of a garment shoulder, it still may not prevent the forming of puckers, or even lateral creases, in larger garments having shoulder length dimensions greater than the length of supporting hanger arms. That is because the outer segment of garment shoulder that is not undergirded by hanger arm and/or highly rigid foam material will be left to hang and will abruptly bend downward and form a pucker or lateral crease at the point which that underlying, sufficiently rigid support ends. 
     If, on the contrary, an embodiment of the Murray device comprises a foam body that is both long enough to extend as far beyond the length of a standard-sized hanger arm as is necessary to span the entire shoulder length of a broad-shouldered, heavy garment and rigid enough to, in fact, support that outer shoulder area of the garment and prevent it from abruptly bending at the point where the hanger arm ends, then that foam body may tend to be too long and inflexible to stow into many suitcases and other travel compartments. So, in the judgment of the present inventor, the Murray device presents an undesirable tension between (a) compatibility with a wide range of garments and (b) efficient storability and/or portability. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 6,840,413 to Cameron, et al. describes a hanger-mountable device for preventing creases and wrinkles that is formed by an elongate, injection molded article having a cylindrical exterior surface and a length-running opening that leads into a hollow interior which is slightly smaller in diameter than is the hanger arm to which the device is to attach. In some embodiments, this interior hollow space has a cylindrical profile so as to conform to cylindrical wire or plastic hangers, and in other embodiments it has a different profile (e.g., rectangular) for accommodating non-cylindrical profiled hanger arms. Furthermore, in addition to having the appropriate shape, the molded interior space should be precisely dimensioned to snuggly conform to a particular hanger&#39;s arms. 
     Nevertheless, the present inventor recognizes that while the Cameron device can effectively prevent creasing and wrinkling of clothing draped along the lengths of both the crossbar and arm sections of hangers, it is not suitable for addressing the puckering and creasing that, for example, the Murray device addresses by extending a hanger&#39;s support surface beyond the length of its arms. In fact, the Cameron patent discloses and explicitly claims that the device is to be modified by way of cutting off the portion of the device which exceeds the length of the hanger arm that it is to be installed onto. Moreover, if one were to simply imagine a Cameron-like device that did extend beyond the length of hanger arms to provide extended, non-creasing support for garment arms, one could just as easily imagine the potential for such a device to become detached from a hanger arm due to the weight of the clothing material. 
     More specifically, vertical load applied, by clothing material, along the span of such an attachment device which extends beyond its span of attachment to a hanger arm will create torque on that device. In other words, the portion of such an attachment device which is attached to hanger arm will be urged away from that arm. Considering that such a device features a slit opening and is, likely, flexible enough for the opening to momentarily expand to receive a hanger arm being intentionally pressed into it or to release a hanger arm being intentionally pulled out of it, one could expect a similar widening of that opening and release of the device caused by torque generated by the sheer weight of clothing acting on the extension part of such a device. This could obviously result in such a device accidentally detaching from a hanger. 
     Consequently, the present inventor appreciates a need for a hanger attachment device that, in view of prior art, is improved relative to its ability to be used with hangers of many different specifications and is effective in supporting, without creasing or puckering, garments of a wide range of shoulder lengths while remaining less bulky and more efficiently storable than are many of its prior art counterparts. The present inventor also appreciates the need for such a hanger attachment device to be configured in a way that secures it to hanger sufficiently to prevent unwanted detachment caused by garment-applied torque. The present invention for a hanger attachment device substantially fulfills these needs. 
     SUMMARY 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a garment hanger attachment device that effectively widens the contact surface area of a hanger arm and thereby prevents the introduction of shoulder crease impressions into hanged clothes that might otherwise be formed by the smaller diametered hanger arm that the device attaches over. 
     It is another object of the invention to provide a garment hanger attachment device that, in effect, lengthens a hanger arm and thereby prevents hanged upper body garments having broader shoulder dimensions from developing puckers that the hanger alone might otherwise cause to be formed at a point along the garment shoulder inward of the arm seam due to the garment abruptly bending over at and hanging from the distal end of the insufficiently long hanger arm. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide a garment hanger attachment device that includes an inexpensive to manufacture, easy to assemble and simple to manipulate mechanism for reliably securing the device to the arm of a hanger such that the device cannot be torque off of the hanger arm by the weight of the garment that it is supporting. 
     Finally, it is yet another object of the invention to provide a garment hanger attachment device that is rigid enough to support heavier garments (e.g., leather jackets), but is structured so as to enable a single unit of the device to frictionally fit onto hanger arms of a range of cross-sectional profiles (e.g., cylindrical and non-cylindrical) and diameters. 
     In one aspect of the present invention, the attachment device comprises an elongate, flexibly rigid piece of tubular material that has a slit opening which spans a part of the length of the tube. This piece constitutes an outer tube portion of the present device. Typically, the interior and exterior surfaces of this tube are cylindrical, but they can have other geometric contours within the scope and spirit of the invention. In any event, the slit opening can be easily pried further open to receive and release any conventional wire hanger. 
     In another aspect of the present invention, the attachment device also includes a partial tubular piece, or “sleeve,” that fits telescopically within the aforementioned outer tube. The sleeve slides within the outer tube so that it can cover the slit opening after the device is attached to a hanger arm. This will prevent the device from being unintentionally detached from the hanger. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an elevational view of a pair of hanger attachment devices in accordance with the present disclosure, the devices being shown mounted to the arms of a garment hanger; 
         FIG. 2  is a partial elevational view of an attachment device of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a side elevational view of an attachment device in accordance with the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view of an attachment device in accordance with the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 5  is a bottom perspective view of the outer tube element of attachment device in accordance with the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there are illustrated two units of the present attachment device  2  mounted to the sloping arms  54  of a typical garment hanger  50 . It should be noted that, although  FIGS. 1 &amp; 2  depict a molded plastic, closed hanger (“closed” in that it includes a crossbar  56  which forms a triangular enclosure with the two arms  54  that lead downwardly away from its hook  52 ), the attachment  2  is not limited to use with only hangers constructed of plastic or having a closed configuration. In fact, the present inventor anticipates that the instant device  2  will primarily be mounted to the type of thin gauge wire hangers commonly used by dry cleaning establishments. Nevertheless, as shown in  FIG. 2 , the attachment  2  is an elongate device that mounts to the hanger arm  54  throughout an “engagement segment”  4 , and it has an “extension segment”  8  which effectively extends the hanger&#39;s garment support surface from the length L1 of the hanger arm  54  to the combined length L2 of the hanger arm  54  and attachment extension segment  8 . In a preferred embodiment, each of these segments  4 ,  8  makes up approximately half the length of the attachment device  2 . Typically, the engagement segment is [substantially] linear, while the extension segment  8  is [substantially] arcuate, as is depicted in  FIG. 3  and indicated in  FIGS. 1 &amp; 2 . 
     A preferred embodiment of the attachment  2 , as can be most clearly seen in  FIG. 3 , comprises two main components: a flexible outer tube  10  and a partially tubular sleeve  20  that telescopically fits into the outer tube  10  and slides along its inner surface. Typically, the outer tube  10  is made of a plastic or rubber material that enables the tube  10  to flex and its extension segment  8  to arc [further] downward under a sufficient load (e.g., the weight of a men&#39;s jacket), but also causes it to substantially rebound back to its original, less arced [or straight] posture when the load is removed. 
     As can be seen in  FIG. 5 , the outer tube  10  has a slit opening  14  formed along a portion of the length of its bottom surface. More specifically, this opening  14  resides in the tube&#39;s engagement segment  4 , so that that segment  4  can receive a hanger arm  54 . In a preferred embodiment, the opening  14  does not extend into the extension segment  8 , and the extension segment  8  is, therefore, either a complete cylindrical enclosure or a solid tubular element. However, it should be noted that the slit  14  can extend a greater proportion of outer tube&#39;s length, and even its entire length, in alternative embodiments. 
     The slit opening  14  is narrower then the gauge of typical hanger wire, but it momentarily widens when an opening force is applied to the engagement segment  4  by virtue of pressing through the slit  14  a hanger arm  54  that has a diameter greater than the slit width. The, proximal end  12  of the outer tube  10  is beveled to make a hanger arm  54  more easily insertable into the engagement segment  4 . Its distal end  18  can be closed and rounded so as to not form a sharp edge capable of damaging a garment, but that is not an essential configuration. 
     The sleeve  20  is of a cross-sectional profile and dimensions that cause it to telescopically fit into at least the engagement section  4  of the outer tube  10 . In other words, the sleeve  20  should have an outer surface diameter approximately equal to the inner surface diameter of the outer tube  10 , as can be best seen in  FIG. 4 . It is envisioned that the sleeve  20  is a half or partial tube with an open top section, formed along its length, of greater width than the slit opening  14  formed along the outer tube  10 . Radially centered along the bottom of the sleeve  20  is a finger tab  22 . When the sleeve  20  is positioned within the outer tube  10 , the tab  22  protrudes through the slit opening  14  to enable a user to slide the sleeve  20  back and forth within the outer tube  10 . The tab&#39;s positioning within the slit  14  also keeps the sleeve  20  from rotating within the outer tube  10  so that any portion of the length of the sleeve  20  that is within the outer tube  10  will be effectively closing the slit opening  14  along that span. This prevents a hanger arm  54  from becoming dislodged from the attachment  2 . 
     The sleeve  20  is inserted into and removed from the outer tube  10  through the tube&#39;s proximal end  12 . The extent to which it can be slid linearly into the outer  10  is limited by the length of the slit opening  14 . Preferably, the slit opening  14  terminates and the tab  22  is positioned along the length of the sleeve  20  such that minimal length of the sleeve  20  is able to extend into the extension segment  8  of the outer tube  10  which is downwardly curved and/or subject to bend when supporting a garment (because the tab  22  is retained at the distal end of the slit opening  14 ). 
     Aspects of various embodiments of the present invention that are not recited above or claimed below may be noted from observing the illustrations included herein.