Patent Publication Number: US-11641892-B2

Title: Safety wear item

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 63/155,843 filed on Mar. 3, 2021. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This application concerns safety wear items such as vests or sets of straps of a type that have lights such as LEDs mounted thereon so as to make a wearer much more visible to an onlooker in low light conditions. 
     This situation arises in the context of preventing injuries to hunters, construction workers, etc., in low light conditions due to a failure of someone to realize that another person is present, who could be injured by the activity of that someone. For example, while hunters commonly wear bright clothing, this may not help in low light conditions. As a result, a hunter could discharge his firearm in the direction of a person who is not seen by the hunter. 
     Such safety wear item are currently available, but those items have significant limitations which are sought to be eliminated by the present invention. 
     Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,130, which shows a set of straps having a series of LEDs thereon which lie flat on the wearer&#39;s back and chest having opposite ends adapted to be attached to a belt worn by a user. 
     One limitation is that it is time consuming to remove all of the LEDs particularly one after the other in order to wash the safety wear item. 
     It is also inconvenient to remove and replace all of the LEDs if this is necessary to replace one or more of the LEDs. 
     It is an object of the present invention to enable convenient and rapid removal of lights on wear to replace failed LEDs or to wash the safety wear after removal of the LEDs. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention comprises a safety wear item such as a vest having several elongated strips which each have a series of LED lights secured along the length thereof. 
     Each of the strips are mounted thereon by an easily detachable means (such as by a hook and loop fastening such as Velcro™) from the wear item and to a wider reflective strap mounted on the wear item so that all of the LEDs can be removed quickly. 
     Each strip is separately mounted to the reflective tape by a connection which is readily detachable and reattachable. 
     This allows quick and convenient removal and replacement of one or more of the strips having a series of LED lights thereon so as to allow washing the wear item, or replacement of a strip having a defective LED by detaching any strip having a failed LED and replacing the same with a strip in which all of the LED&#39;s are working. Only a fraction of the LEDs needs to be removed and that fraction are all removed together so that it can be quickly accomplished. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a perspective front view of a safety vest according to the invention. 
         FIG.  2 A  is a rear view of the safety vest shown in  FIG.  1   . 
         FIG.  2 B  is an end view of one of the strips shown in the Figures with a representation of reflected light beams. 
         FIG.  3    is an exploded view of all of the strips mounting LEDs on the safety vest. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following detailed description, certain specific terminology will be employed for the sake of clarity and a particular embodiment described in accordance with the requirements of 35 USC 112, but it is to be understood that the same is not intended to be limiting and should not be so construed inasmuch as the invention is capable of taking many forms and variations within the scope of the appended claims. 
     Referring to the drawings, and particularly  FIG.  1   , a safety wear item such as a safety vest  10  according to the invention is shown, which is comprised of a sleeveless vest type garment  12  which has a neck opening  14  tapering down the front thereof to a zipper  16  which may allow opening the front to facilitate putting the vest  12  on and taking it off in a conventional manner. 
     In the present embodiment, as seen in  FIG.  1    there are four separate LED mounting flexible strips  18 A,  18 B,  18 C and  18 D, two strips are each wrapped around the top of the left and right sides of a shoulder portion of the safety vest  10  and vertically down the back and the front of the vest. Two other strips  18 C and  18 D extend horizontally around the right and left side of the vest  10  adjacent the bottom of the vest  10 . 
     Each flexible strip  18 A- 18 D has a number of spaced apart LEDs  20  fixedly mounted thereon. 
     Each strip  18 A- 18 D is mounted atop a length of a reflective tape  22 A- 22 B extending vertically around an upper side of respective sides of the safety vest  10 , while tape  22 C extend horizontally completely around a bottom region of the vest  10 . 
     It should be understood that the circuitry used to energize the LEDs is entirely contained within the strips  18 A- 18 D, which is a standard practice control for energizing the LEDs  20 . That is, electricity from a rechargeable battery  28  is applied to one end of each of the strips  18 A- 18 D by a connector  24  and a conductor  26  at the other end redirects the electricity when switch  30  is operated back down each of the strips  18 A- 18 D to the other pole of the battery  28  so as to complete the circuit which powers the LEDs. The battery  28  is contained in an upper pocket  32  with the switch  30  protruding out through one side of the upper pocket  32 A to be conveniently accessible. The LED strips  18 A- 18 B and tapes  18 C- 18 D extend over the respective lower pockets  34 A and  34 B. 
     This technique also has been used to energize only some of the LEDs cooperating with a switch in such applications on cars to enable use as turning signals or brake lights by energizing only some of the LEDs  20  in a series by a controller (not shown) contained in the strips  18 A,  18 B,  18 C and  18 D.