Patent Publication Number: US-9402449-B1

Title: Fastener for angle-adjustable earring

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention generally relates to a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring and, more particularly to a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring, the fastener being capable of improving appearance of an earring by allowing an angle of an earring that is attached to a wearer&#39;s earlobe via the fastener to be adjusted according to a tilted angle of the wearer&#39;s earlobe and to characteristics of the design of an earring. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Earrings are popular and are commonly worn by women, but nowadays earrings are being increasingly worn by men as well. That is, in modern times men also wear earrings to express their personality. Earrings take various forms and are made of various materials, for example, precious metals. 
     By and large, earrings are attached to a wearer&#39;s ears in two ways. 
     First, some earrings (clip-on earrings or ear-screws) are clipped to or screwed onto a wearer&#39;s earlobes. These earrings have the disadvantage causing pain to a wearer because the wearer&#39;s earlobes are pressed by the clips or screws. 
     Some earrings (for example, body piercings) are pierced through the earlobes. This earring attachment method has the advantage of not causing pain to a wearer when the earrings are worn. 
     However, piercing-type earrings have a problem that their appearance changes according to their attachment angles to a wearer&#39;s earlobes. This is because people have different shapes of earlobes. Specifically, an angle of an earlobe that is tilted with respect to an imaginary plane of a wearer&#39;s face may vary person to person when viewed from the wearer&#39;s frontal face. For this reason, when piercing-type earrings are worn, the shape of the piercing-type earring looks different according to viewing angles or tilt angles of the piercing-type earring. 
     For example, ring-shaped earrings look most beautiful when they are attached to the earlobes in a posture in which they are perpendicular to the ground so that they look to have a perfect ring shape when viewed from the wearer&#39;s side face and look to have a linear vertical bar shape when viewed from the wearer&#39;s frontal face. 
     When conventional piercing-type earrings are attached to earlobes, pins of the piercing-type earrings are inserted into holes that are formed to be perpendicular to the wearer&#39;s earlobes. Generally, the earlobes of human ears are inclined at 45° to 70° with respect to the anterior-posterior direction of the head. 
     Therefore, when a pair of ring-shaped earrings is worn at a right angle to the earlobes, the worn earrings are not parallel to each other. As illustrated in  FIG. 10 , the front parts of the earrings are directed to be diverged from each other when viewed from the wearer&#39;s frontal face and the earrings look to have an oval shape when viewed from the wearer&#39;s side face. 
     On the other hand, earrings are usually designed such that they look the most beautiful when they are viewed from the wearer&#39;s frontal face. 
     However, conventional earrings are difficult to be attached to wearer&#39;s earlobes at optimum angles at which the earrings look most beautiful. Therefore, it has been difficult to express the unique design characteristics of earrings when the earrings are worn by wearers. 
     DOCUMENTS OF RELATED ARTS 
     Patent Documents 
     
         
         (Patent Document 1) Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0420445 (registered on Jun. 26, 2006) 
         (Patent Document 2) Korean Utility Model Application Publication No. 20-2011-0004083 (Published on Apr. 27, 2011) 
       
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring that can adjust an angle between an earring and an earlobe when the earring is attached to the earlobe, thereby improving appearance of an earring that is worn by a wearer. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring that enables an earring to express its design characteristics. 
     A further object of the present invention is to provide a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring that can improve reliability and marketability of an earring. 
     In order to accomplish the objects of the invention, according to one aspect, there is provided a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring, including: a housing having a hollow box shape with an opening at a front end thereof and being fixed to an end of an earring at a remaining end thereof; a latch member received in the housing; a pin member fixed to one end of the latch member, inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the latch member, and installed to extend outside housing from the end of the latch member; a control member having a protrusion that controls a position of the latch member that is locked; an elastic member that elastically supports the control member in the housing; and a cap member having a slide hole, the cap member being attached to the opening of the housing in a state in which the elastic member, the control member, and the latch member are installed in the housing, wherein the pin member extends from the latch member to the outside of the housing through the slide hole so that an angle of the pin member is adjustable. 
     The elastic member may be a coil spring. 
     In order to accomplish the objects of the invention, according to one aspect, there is provided a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring, including: a housing having a hollow box shape with an opening at a front end thereof and being fixed to an end of an earring at a remaining end thereof and; a latch member received in the housing; a pin member fixed to one end of the latch member, inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the latch member, and installed to extend outside housing from the end of the latch member; a leaf spring member having a locking portion that is a bent portion of the leaf spring and that maintains a position of the latch member that is locked, the leaf spring member elastically supporting a control member; and a cap member having a slide hole, the cap member being attached to the opening of the housing in a state in which the elastic member, the control member, and the latch member are installed in the housing, wherein the pin member extends from the latch member to the outside of the housing through the slide hole so that an angle of the pin member is adjustable. 
     The housing may be provided with a recess and the cap member is provided with a hook that extends inward from an end of an arm, and wherein the hook is hooked in the recess so that the housing and the cap member are combined with each other. 
     The latch member and the housing may be provided with a shaft hole and a hinge hole, respectively; a shaft is inserted in the shaft hole; and the latch member and the pin member are assembled with the shaft so that the latch member and the pin member are rotated about the shaft. 
     The latch member may be provided with two or more steps of control recesses. 
     According to the present invention, it is possible to adjust an attachment angle of an earring with respect to a wearer&#39;s earlobe. 
     Accordingly, the present invention improves appearance of earrings and helps design characteristics of earrings best exhibited, thereby increasing reliability and marketability of an earring. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view illustrating a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring according to one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded perspective view illustrating a main part of the fastener for an angle-adjustable earring according to the embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a cross-sectional view of the fastener for an angle-adjustable earring according to one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view illustrating a state in which an earring to which the fastener according to the one embodiment of the invention is applied is attached to an earlobe; 
         FIG. 5  is a plan view illustrating a state in which an earring to which the fastener for an angle-adjustable earring according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied is about to be attached to an earlobe; 
         FIG. 6  is a cross-sectional view illustrating a latch member in the fastener for an angle-adjustable earring according to the embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 7  is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state in which an angle of a pin member engaged with the latch member is changed from the state of  FIG. 6 ; 
         FIGS. 8 and 9  are plan views illustrating angle changes of a pin member in a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring according to another embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 10  is a front view of a conventional earring that is attached to an earlobe; 
         FIG. 11  is a front view of an earring, to which the fastener according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied, worn by a wearer; and 
         FIG. 12  is a side view of an earring, to which the fastener according to the embodiment of the present invention is applied, worn by a wearer. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     An earring  1  is a piercing-type earring that is worn in a manner that a hole is punched in a wearer&#39;s earlobe  2  and a pin member  30  of the earring  1  is inserted into the hole. An attachment angle of the earring  1  worn by a wearer can be adjusted. This earring may have a ring shape that is not excessively thin but has uniform thickness and width. 
     In order to attach the earring  1  to an earlobe  2 , as illustrated in  FIG. 3 , an angle-adjustable fastener according to one embodiment of the invention is fixed to an end of the earring  1  through welding or via an adhesive. 
     The fastener includes a housing  10  having a hollow box shape and an opening at a front end thereof. A cap member  70  is attached to the open front end of the housing  10  to prevent members installed inside the housing  10  from being removed or separated from the housing. 
     A latch member  20  is installed inside the housing  10  and a pin member  30  is fixed to a front end of the latch member  20 . 
     A thin bar-like pin member  30  may be separately manufactured and fixed to the latch member  20  through welding. Alternatively, the pin member  30  and the latch member  20  may be unified. 
     The pin member  30  and the latch member  20  are installed in the housing  10  in a state in which the pin member  30  is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the center of the earring  1 . An angle between the center of the body of the earring  1  and the pin member  30  can be adjusted according to user&#39;s choice. 
     A control member  40  has a protrusion  41 . An end of the latch member  20  may be locked on or under the protrusion  41 . The control member  40  is elastically supported in the housing  10  by an elastic member  50 . 
     The protrusion  41  of the control member  40  is always in contact with the latch member  20  due to the elastic force of the elastic member  50 . When a user moves the pin member  30 , the elastic member  50  contracts and the control member  40  retreats, so that the end of the latch member  20  moves from the upper side to the underside of the protrusion  41  or from the underside to the upper side of the protrusion  41 . Then, the position of the end of the latch member  20  may be maintained on or under the protrusion  41 . 
     The opening of the housing  10  is closed by the cap member  70  in a state in which the elastic member  50 , the control member  40 , and the latch member  20  are installed in the housing  10  so that parts installed in the housing  10  will not be removed or separated from the housing  10 . 
     The cap member  70  has a slide hole  71  that extends in a left-and-right direction of the cap member  70 . The pin member  30  is assembled with the cap member  70  such that the pin member  30  passes through the slide hole  71 . The pin member  30  moves left and right along the slide hole  71  so that the angle of the pin member can be changed. 
     The elastic member  50  may be a coil spring. 
       FIGS. 8 and 9  illustrate a fastener for an angle-adjustable earring according to another embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in  FIGS. 8 and 9 , a leaf spring member  60  functions as both the control member  40  and the elastic member  50 . Therefore, the position of a latch member  20  that is locked is controlled by the leaf spring member  60 . 
     The leaf spring member  60  may be a leaf sprig having strong elasticity. The leaf spring member  60 A has a bent portion  61  serving as a locking portion  61  that locks the latch member  20 . In the housing  10 , the leaf spring member  60  elastically supports the latch member  20  and controls the position of the latch member  20 . 
     A combining member that combines the housing  10  with the cap member  70  may be a recess  11  formed in the housing  10  and a hook  73  which extends inward from an end of an arm  72  of the cap member  70 . The hook  73  is hooked in the recess  11  so that the housing  10  and the cap member  20  can be combined with each other. 
     The arms  72  extend in parallel with each other from upper and lower ends of the cap member  70  and have elasticity. Therefore, when the hook  73  is hooked in the recess  11 , the firmly hooked state can be maintained. 
     The arms  72  can be removed as necessary by forcing the arms  72  open. 
     The latch member  20  is installed such that it is housed in the housing  10  and is in contact with the inside surface of the cap member  70 . Therefore, the latch member  20  is not removed from the housing  10  and pivoting motion of the latch member  20  is guided in the housing  10 . 
     The latch member  20  and the housing  10  are provided with a shaft hole  12  and a hinge hole  22 , respectively. Preferably, a shaft  80  is inserted in the shaft hole  12  and the latch member  20  and the pin member  30  are assembled with the shaft  80  so that the latch member  20  and the pin member  30  are rotated about the shaft  80 . 
     As illustrated in  FIGS. 6 and 7 , the latch member  20  is a bar-like member with a rounded end portion. The end portion is locked on or under the protrusion  41  of the control member  40 . In this way, an angle of the pin member  30  is changed in two steps. 
     The latch member  20  may have two or more steps of control recesses  21 . 
     For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the latch member  20  is provided with three control recesses  21  so that the angle of the pin member can be changed in three steps according to in which step of control recess  21  the protrusion  41  of the control member  40  is positioned. 
     In addition, as illustrated in  FIGS. 8 and 9 , the latch member  20  is provided with three control recesses  21  and the angle of the pin member can be changed in three steps according to in which step of control recess  21  the locking portion  61  of the leaf spring member  60  is positioned. 
     The fastener according to the embodiment of the present invention is fixed to one end of the earring  1  in a state in which an angle of the pin member  30  can be adjusted in two or more steps, so that the earring  1  is attached to an earlobe in a manner that it is inserted through a hole that is already formed in the earlobe. 
     Human earlobes are mostly tilted at an angle of from 20° to 70° with respect to the anterior-posterior direction of the head (i.e. viewing direction of a viewer in front of an earring wearer). 
     Accordingly, as indicated by an imaginary line of  FIG. 10 , after the earrings are attached to earlobes such that the earrings are perpendicular to the earlobes and thus are not parallel to each other, the directions of the earrings are adjusted according to the tilted angles of the wearer&#39;s earlobes so that the earrings are in parallel with each other and are positioned to face the front direction (viewing direction). The directions of the earrings can be adjusted by adjusting angles of the pin members  30 . 
     As a result, the earrings are positioned to look most beautiful when they are worn, and design characteristics of the earrings can be best expressed. 
     Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims. 
     The present invention applies to a technology of a fastener. Specifically, the present invention may apply to the field of earring whose attachment angles can be adjusted according to tilt angles of earlobes or design of the earrings.