Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/EP1466537B1/en
Timestamp: 2020-01-17 15:00:21
Document Index: 195719254

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 24', 'art 25', 'art 25', 'arts 25', 'art 32', 'art 32', 'art 32', 'art 24', 'art 32', 'art 25', 'art 32', 'art 32', 'art 32', 'art 24', 'art 24']

EP1466537B1 - Buckle - Google Patents
EP1466537B1
EP1466537B1 EP20040251820 EP04251820A EP1466537B1 EP 1466537 B1 EP1466537 B1 EP 1466537B1 EP 20040251820 EP20040251820 EP 20040251820 EP 04251820 A EP04251820 A EP 04251820A EP 1466537 B1 EP1466537 B1 EP 1466537B1
EP20040251820
EP1466537A1 (en
2003-04-11 Priority to JP2003108225A priority Critical patent/JP4128101B2/en
2003-04-11 Priority to JP2003108225 priority
2004-03-26 Application filed by YKK Corp filed Critical YKK Corp
2004-10-13 Publication of EP1466537A1 publication Critical patent/EP1466537A1/en
2011-11-23 Publication of EP1466537B1 publication Critical patent/EP1466537B1/en
101700031500 TECR family Proteins 0 description 6
Conventionally, clothes, bags, helmets, baby carriages, sporting goods or the like have often employed a fastening with a strip-shaped material such as a belt or a tape. For such fastening, a buckle that can be attached to a belt etc. and manually locked/unlocked has been used.
A buckle disclosed in US Patent No. 5791026 (prior art 1) has a flat tubular socket and a plug inserted into the socket. The socket has a belt-holding part or an attachment part for attaching to a sheet or the like, and apertures are formed on both lateral sides thereof. The plug has a belt-holding part located on a rear end of the plug, a guide bar provided at its center extending to a front end from the rear end, and a pair of lock arms to be disposed at the both sides and to be extended to the front end of the plug from the rear end of the plug. The lock arms are made of flexible material and provided with engaging parts on an outer sides to be engageable with the inside of the socket.
With respect to such problem, the buckle disclosed in the prior art 1 is provided with a retaining strap so as to connect approximately tip end of each lock arm with the intermediary of the guide bar. The retaining strap is made of flexible material and formed in V-shape. More specifically, the retaining strap is integrally molded with each lock arm, a guide bar and a plug base. The retaining strap is disposed so as to be V-shaped opening toward the front ends of the respective lock arms.
According to such buckle, a base end of the lock arm is connected to a plug base, and a front end of the lock arm is connected to a front end of the guide bar, thereby providing an effect for restricting plastic deformation of the lock arm, being similar as the effect for restricting overextension due to the retaining strap described in the prior art 1. Note that the buckle of the prior art 2 is characterized in that the side of the rear end of the lock arm (the side connected to the plug base) is formed thinner than the side of the front end thereof (the side connected to the guide bar), thereby improving the deformability. The lock arm rotates around the front end of the guide bar as a pivot point.
The prior art 1 shows that the retaining strap is V-shaped in order to readily realize compressive deformation. However, since the retaining strap is disposed at the narrow space between each lock arm and the guide bar, the retaining strap part in each side is deformed by a large amount upon the coupling/decoupling of the buckle, therefore, the buckle still needs extra pressing force for being decoupled.
Since the retaining strap is disposed so as to connect approximately each front end of the lock arms with the intermediary of the guide bar, a recess is formed between the tip ends of the lock arms and the guide bar, therefore, the recess cannot sufficiently prevent other material from hanging-up hereinto.
The prior art 2 can sufficiently resolve the hanging-up to other material since each lock arm in each side is connected to the front end of the guide bar.
Other buckle designs are shown in US-A-4712280 , US-A-5027481 , JP-A-40-7051106 , JP2001-346612A and US-A-2002/0040515 .
A buckle according to the present invention is set forth in claim 1.
With the bridge disposed to be close to the plug front end as a whole, the lock arm more securely prevents other material from getting hereinto.
Fig. 1 is a front elevational view showing a coupled state of a buckle according to an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a side elevational view showing the coupled state of the buckle according to the embodiment;
Fig. 3 is a front elevational view showing a plug of the buckle according to the embodiment;
Figs. 1 to 3 are illustrations each showing an embodiment of the present invention.
In Figs.1 and 2, a side-release buckle 1 of this embodiment has a socket 10 and a plug 20.
The socket 10 integrally molded of synthetic resin has a flat tubular main body 11. The main body 11 has an insertion slot 12, into which the plug 20 is inserted, a pair of operation apertures 13 in each lateral side to disengage the plug 20, and a holding slot 14 at a base end of the socket 10 to secure a belt etc. The insertion slot 12 and the operation aperture 13 are communicated with a cavity inside the main body. Engaging parts (not shown) are formed on the inside of the main body 11 to engage with a tip end part of the plug 20 inserted from the insertion slot 12.
The plug 20 is integrally molded of synthetic resin. The front end of the plug 20 can be inserted into and released from the socket 10 by manually pressing the both sides of the socket 10.
As shown in Fig. 3, the plug 20 has a base 21 provided at the rear end, a pair of lock arms 22 extending to the front end of the plug 20 from the base 21, a guide bar 23 disposed between the lock arms 22. The lock arms 22 and the guide bar 23 define the front end part of the plug 20, which is inserted into the socket 10.
There are an engaging part 24 engageable with a corresponding engaging part located on the inside of the socket 10 and a pressing part 25 to be pressed by a manual operation on the intermediaries of the lock arms 22. The pressing part 25 is exposed through the operation aperture 13 of the socket 10 for enabling the manual operation while the plug 20 is inserted in the socket 10. A holding slot 26 is provided at the base 21 to secure a belt etc.
Both ends 31 of the bridge 30 are connected to mutually facing surfaces of the lock arms 22. The both ends 31 are located at the rear of the pressing parts 25 of the lock arms 22, and locations thereof are located on the side of the base 21 relative to an expected position to which a pressing force F for decoupling of the buckle 1 is applied.
The front end of the guide bar 23 is adequately disposed forward of the expected position of a pressing force F. The central part 32 extending around the tip end of the guide bar 23 is disposed so as to have a predetermined space between the central part 32 and the front end of the guide bar 23 under ordinary condition. In other words, when the pair of lock arms 22 extends outward, the bridge 30 is pulled toward the both sides and the center angle thereof is enlarged so that the central part 32 contacts the tip end of the guide bar 23.
When the plug 20 and socket 10 are coupled, the front end part of the plug 20, i.e. the lock arm 22 and the guide bar 23 are inserted into the insertion slot 12 of the socket 10. Postures of the main body 11 of the socket 10 and the plug 20 are thus relatively aligned according to the guide bar 23, and the engaging part 24 of the lock arm 22 is engaged with the inside of the main body 11 by further insertion.
The bridge 30 is disposed in a manner such that the both ends 31 thereof are positioned at the rear of the plug 20 and the central part 32 is positioned at the front of the plug 20 relative to an axis of the force F for manually pressing the pressing part 25, thereby allowing flexible deformation and smooth operation.
Note that the scope of the present invention is not restricted to the above specific embodiment, but includes modifications described below.
Each center angle of the bridge 30 is preferably 90 degrees or less, a reasonable effect, however, can be obtained even if each center angle is 90 degrees or more, e.g. 120 degrees. Note that the center angle is preferably 90 degrees or less, if possible, approximately 60 degrees to make the bridge easily flexed as described in the embodiment. The angle needs to be set with respect to the space where the bridge 30 is disposed, therefore minimum angle within the available space is preferable.
The central part 32 of the bridge 30 is not restricted to the circular arc, however, it may be obviously sharpened angle. Note that the circular arc is more advantageous for durability or the like.
Any curvature radius can be employed for each circular arc of the central part 32. When the curvature radius is large, the central part 32 would be U-shaped rather than V-shaped, and the present invention includes such configuration.
Further, the bridge 30 each can entirely be a circular arc without an obvious bending part, i.e., it can be C-shaped, and such configuration can also obtain the effect for restricting overextension of the lock arms 22.
Furthermore, each bending part of the bridge 30 is not restricted to be V-shaped or U-shaped, it may be, however, W-shaped with a plurality of bending parts. In such case, each angle of the bending parts can be set appropriately.
The bridge 30 can be disposed at any position with no respect to the expected position of the pressing force F during disengagement. Note that location of the bridges 30 on the axis of the force F is advantageous as in the embodiment.
In the embodiments, the engaging part and the pressing part can be appropriately arranged. For instance, the engaging part 24 can be located on any position between the lock arms 22, or can be arranged at the tip end of the lock arm 22 as long as the position of the engaging part 24 is on a part of the lock arm 22. Further, the orientation of the lock arm 22 may be not only toward the lateral side of the socket 20 but also toward a flat side of the socket 20.
a socket (10);
a plug having a front end and a rear end, the front end being inserted, in use, into the socket (10) and released from the socket by exerting a pressing force on both sides of the socket (10), the plug having a base (21) at the rear end of the plug (20), at least a pair of lock arms (22) extending from the base (21) to the front end of the plug (20), at least one guide bar (23) disposed between the lock arms (22), an engaging part (24) formed on a part of the lock arm (22) to engage in use, with the socket (10) and a pressing part (25) disposed at a part of the lock arm (22) to be pressed to release the front end from the socket (10);
a flexible bridge (30) connecting the parts of at least the pair of the lock arms (22)
, ends (31) of the bridge (30) being connected to the lock arms (22) at a position rearward of a front end of the guide bar (23) and a central part (32) of the bridge (30) extending around the front end of the guide bar (23).
The buckle according to claim 1, characterized in that the ends of the bridge are connected to the lock arms (22) at a position rearward of the pressing part (25), and the central part of the bridge is at a position to the forward of the pressing part (25).
The buckle according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the bridge (30) is approximately V-shaped bent at the central part (32).
The buckle according to claim 3, characterized in that the centre angle of the V-shape is 90 degrees or less.
EP20040251820 2003-04-11 2004-03-26 Buckle Active EP1466537B1 (en)
JP2003108225A JP4128101B2 (en) 2003-04-11 2003-04-11 buckle
JP2003108225 2003-04-11
EP1466537A1 EP1466537A1 (en) 2004-10-13
EP1466537B1 true EP1466537B1 (en) 2011-11-23
ID=32866801
EP20040251820 Active EP1466537B1 (en) 2003-04-11 2004-03-26 Buckle
US (1) US7096545B2 (en)
EP (1) EP1466537B1 (en)
JP (1) JP4128101B2 (en)
KR (1) KR100601259B1 (en)
CN (1) CN1270650C (en)
ES (1) ES2376233T3 (en)
HK (1) HK1066153A1 (en)
TW (1) TWI243031B (en)
ES2357460T3 (en) 2005-07-20 2011-04-26 Illinois Tool Works Inc. Side opening buckle unit.
TWM294226U (en) * 2006-02-10 2006-07-21 Taiwan Ind Fastener Corp Side-releasing buckle
JP5161009B2 (en) 2007-10-30 2013-03-13 Ｙｋｋ株式会社 Connector
WO2009093313A1 (en) 2008-01-23 2009-07-30 Ykk Corporation Buckle
JP2011254928A (en) * 2010-06-07 2011-12-22 Nifco Inc Buckle
WO2012066615A1 (en) * 2010-11-15 2012-05-24 Ykk株式会社 Buckle
JP2013063149A (en) * 2011-09-16 2013-04-11 Nifco Inc Buckle
JP3197854U (en) * 2015-03-25 2015-06-04 Ykk株式会社 buckle
CN105476150A (en) * 2016-01-05 2016-04-13 张明 Detachable structure of changeable helmet pull belt
JPH072123B2 (en) * 1992-11-20 1995-01-18 美生 徳田 buckle
JP2000166616A (en) 1998-12-11 2000-06-20 Nifco Inc Buckle
TW423962B (en) * 1999-12-16 2001-03-01 Taiwan Ind Fastener Corp Buffering buckles
JP3790094B2 (en) * 2000-06-09 2006-06-28 モリト株式会社 Connector with length adjustment function
US20030145439A1 (en) * 2002-02-06 2003-08-07 Li-Ming Chao Reuse joint device for neck protection
2003-04-11 JP JP2003108225A patent/JP4128101B2/en active Active
2004-03-26 EP EP20040251820 patent/EP1466537B1/en active Active
2004-03-26 ES ES04251820T patent/ES2376233T3/en active Active
2004-04-02 US US10/817,588 patent/US7096545B2/en active Active
2004-04-08 KR KR20040024065A patent/KR100601259B1/en not_active IP Right Cessation
2004-04-09 CN CN 200410032837 patent/CN1270650C/en active IP Right Grant
2004-04-09 TW TW93109993A patent/TWI243031B/en active
2004-11-24 HK HK04109271A patent/HK1066153A1/en not_active IP Right Cessation
US20050091808A1 (en) 2005-05-05
EP1466537A1 (en) 2004-10-13
US7096545B2 (en) 2006-08-29
ES2376233T3 (en) 2012-03-12
JP4128101B2 (en) 2008-07-30
TWI243031B (en) 2005-11-11
CN1270650C (en) 2006-08-23
CN1535634A (en) 2004-10-13
HK1066153A1 (en) 2006-12-29
TW200420242A (en) 2004-10-16
JP2004313268A (en) 2004-11-11
KR20040089500A (en) 2004-10-21
KR100601259B1 (en) 2006-07-14
CN102014684B (en) 2013-05-29 Male snap part and female snap part
Inventor name: FUJIMOTO, KAYO
Inventor name: NISHIDA, YASUTAKA
Inventor name: UEHARA, RYOICHIRO
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