ADJUSTABLE CLOTHES HANGER
An adjustable clothing hanger including a pair of side members (104,106) selectively adjustable relative to a hanger body (102) and in moveable relationship with upper and lower cross bars (108, 110). The hanger may also include a lockably rotatable hook (100).
This application is, and Applicant claims the benefit of, a national stage application filing under 35 U.S.C. 371 based on PCT/AU2007/000965, filed Jul. 11, 2007, which claims the benefit of priority from earlier filed application Serial No. 2006903749, filed Jul. 12, 2006
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to improvements in an adjustable clothes hanger.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention in one preferred aspect provides for an adjustable clothes hanger, comprising a body having a first shoulder portion and a second shoulder portion; a first side member having an upper arm adapted for telescopic movement with said first shoulder portion; a second side member having an upper arm adapted for telescopic movement with said second shoulder portion; an upper cross bar connecting said first and second side members; and a lower cross bar connecting said first and second side members, said upper and lower cross bars each comprising at least two portions adapted for telescopic movement with one another, said portions of said upper cross bar being asymmetrically positioned relative to said portions of said lower cross bar when the hanger is in a non-expanded position.
In another preferred aspect, the present invention provides for an adjustable clothes hanger, comprising a body having a first shoulder portion and a second shoulder portion; a first side member having an upper arm adapted for telescopic movement with said first shoulder portion and a lower arm at an angle relative to said upper arm; a second side member having an upper arm adapted for telescopic movement with said second shoulder portion and a lower arm at an angle relative to said upper arm of said second side member, said lower arms of said first and second side members being of different lengths and adapted for telescopic movement with one another, one of said upper arms having a length greater than the length of one of said lower arms.
In yet another preferred aspect, the present invention provides for a clothes hanger, including a body having a first shoulder portion and a second shoulder portion; a hook rotatively attached to said body; and a locking mechanism for selectively locking the rotative position of said hook relative to said body.
In another preferred aspect, the present invention provides a method for selecting a radial position of a hook of a clothes hanger relative to a body of the hanger, the method including axially moving the hook relative to the body in a first direction; moving the hook in a second direction to engage the hook with a portion of the body to prevent the hook from rotating about its axis.
Alternative embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the claims which follow. Wherever possible, like numbers will refer to like parts.
As shown in
Body 100 is preferably of round tubular material having tubular spigots 126, 127 pressed into shoulder portions 116, 118, respectively. Spigot ends 126, 127 may be formed by moulding or die forming or may be fabricated by insertion of a tubular or round bar spigot into free ends of the divergent shoulder portions formed of tubular material. Alternatively, body 100 may be tubular with open ends to receive complementary spigot ends of the side members. It will be appreciated that the ends of shoulder portions 116,118 may be formed with a reduced diameter instead of pressing a tubular spigot therein. Body 102 may be formed of solid or tubular material such as metal or plastic.
As shown in
Referring to
With reference to
Upper cross bar 108 and lower cross bar 110 are preferably asymmetrically arranged relative to one another so that the end of each of tubular receivers 130 and 132 are not in the same vertical plane in both the unexpanded position (
The opposed asymmetries of upper cross bar 108 and lower crossbar 110 provides enhanced stability. Upper and lower cross bars 108, 110 are preferably oriented parallel to one another and at an acute angle relative to each of the upper arms of the side members. Preferably one of the portions of one of the cross bars extend from one of the side members through a central vertical plane (CVP) separating first and second side members 104, 106. For example, as shown in
Preferably one of each of the upper and lower crossbar portions attached to each of the side members is tubular and the other is a spigot so that the side members are telescopically interengageable. The use of an asymmetrically disposed spigot and socket arrangement for the telescopic cross bar portions enables a greater scope for expansion.
As shown in
The hanger may be provided with other components. For example the shoulder portions and/or side members may be provided with shoulder boards or the like, such as shown in
Pushing hook 100 downward through recess 124 enables key 170 to pass out of detente 125 and spring outward, as illustrated in
Having described the preferred components of the clothes hanger, a preferred method of use will now be described with reference to
To operate the lockable rotatable hook, a user may select a radial position of hook 100 relative to body 102 by axially moving hook 100 relative to body 102 in a first direction, for example, pressing hook 100 towards body 102. Next, the user may move hook 100 in a second direction to engage hook 100 with a portion of body 102 to prevent hook 100 from rotating about its axis. For example, the user may rotate hook 100 about its axis and then release the hook, permitting the biasing force of spring 172 to cause a portion of hook 100 to move upwards and into contact with detentes 125.
Referring now to
The interchangeability of the bend sections allows a user to form the hanger into different shapes, for example, with different separation distances between the cross bars. To facilitate user preferences, the hanger may be sold in a kit with differently shaped and/or sized bend sections as well as cross bar portions, which may all be configured for interchangeability. Hanger 20 may be used in a similar manner as that described relative to hanger 10 above.
The foregoing description is by way of example only, and may be varied considerably without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example only, the telescopic connections between the side members and the spigots or the shoulder portions of the body of the hanger may include a track or tongue and groove configuration. Selective securing means other than spring locks or tabs may be used.
For example, peripheral clothing holders such as clips 152 or hooks 142 may be configured with an extension adapted for insertion (screw-in or push-in) into a recess to lock the position of the side member relative to the hanger body (in a manner similar such as described relative to the tabs of hanger 30 above).
The upper and lower cross bars may be configured so that each side member has a pair of lower arms that engage a pair of corresponding lower arms of an opposed side member directly, without an intervening rod. A single cross bar may be utilized instead of two or more cross bars. Where the cross bars include rods, the upper and lower rods may have the same length or different lengths.
The hook may include an alternative locking mechanism, or omit the locking mechanism altogether. For example, the hook may be fixedly attached to the hanger body, or integrally formed with the hanger body. The locking mechanism of the hook, where present, may include a ratchet mechanism so that as the hook is rotated about its axis, at preselected intervals the hook will ratchet into position. Where the locking mechanism includes detentes, the detentes may be included on the shaft of the hook. The number of detentes may be varied as desired. The hook shaft may be solid or hollow as desired or appropriate. The rotatable closet hook enables the hanger to be rotated relative to a hanging rail.
The rotatable closet hook may be freely rotatable relative to the body member. Alternatively the rotatable closet hook may be provided with one or more detentes or other means of selectively locating the closet hook at a particular angular disposition relative to the body member, as described above. For example, the spring may be included in a portion of the hanger body to resiliently interact with detentes included on the hook shaft.
The use of a rotating hook enables, amongst other things, the use of the hanger at maximum extension in shallow wardrobes. The locking mechanism enables the user to select an angle for the position of the hanger relative to the bar on which the hook engages. One advantageous result is that the user may arrange their wardrobe so that all of their clothes are displayed at a locked angle instead of the traditional stacked front and back arrangement. The angled presentation permits greater visibility of the clothes and is adaptable to varied closet configurations.
The hanger may be constructed from materials such as metal, plastic and/or wood.
The present invention provides numerous advantages. For example only, the presence of the two crossbar portions provides an unexpected stability of the adjustable hanger assembly thus permitting the use of minimum sections for the tubular parts. When in a lateral asymmetrical arrangement, additional stability is provided by the cross bars.
The features described with respect to one embodiment may be applied to other embodiments, or combined with or interchanged with the features other embodiments, as appropriate, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
It will of course be realized that the above has been given only by way of illustrative example of the invention and that all such modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of the invention as herein set forth.
Claims
1. An adjustable clothes hanger, comprising:
- a body having a first shoulder portion and a second shoulder portion;
- a first side member having an upper arm adapted for telescopic movement with said first shoulder portion;
- a second side member having an upper arm adapted for telescopic movement with said second shoulder portion; an upper cross bar connecting said first and second side members; and a lower cross bar connecting said first and second side members, said upper and lower cross bars each comprising at least two portions adapted for telescopic movement with one another, said portions of said upper cross bar being asymmetrically positioned relative to said portions of said lower cross bar when said hanger is in a non-expanded position.
2. The hanger of claim 1, wherein at least one of said cross bars includes a third portion adapted for telescopic movement with said other two portions.
3. The hanger of claim 1, wherein one of said portions of one of said cross bars extends from one of said side members through a central vertical plane separating said first and second side members.
4. The hanger of claim 1, wherein one of said portions of each of said cross bars extends from one of said side members through a central vertical plane separating said first and second side members.
5. The hanger of claim 1, wherein one of said portions of one of said cross bars is a rod that is exposed when said hanger is moved from the non-expanded position to an expanded position.
6. The hanger of claim 5, wherein said rod is exposed only on one side of a central vertical plane separating said first and second side members.
7. The hanger of claim 5, wherein one of said portions is adapted to move within said rod.
8. The hanger of claim 1, further comprising a depth stop configured to prevent said first and second side member from completely separating from said body.
9. The hanger of claim 1, wherein each of said first and second side members include an opening and each of said first and second shoulder portions include an opening, the openings of said first side member and said first shoulder portion being alignable to form a first pair of aligned openings, the openings of said second side member and said second shoulder portion being alignable to form a second pair of aligned openings, further comprising a shoulder board having a projection for insertion into one of said pair of aligned openings.
10. An adjustable clothes hanger, comprising:
- a body having a first shoulder portion and a second shoulder portion;
- a first side member having an upper arm adapted for telescopic movement with said first shoulder portion and a lower arm at an angle relative to said upper arm;
- a second side member having an upper arm adapted for telescopic movement with said second shoulder portion and a lower arm at an angle relative to said upper arm of said second side member, said lower arms of said first and second side members being of different lengths and adapted for telescopic movement with one another, one of said upper arms having a length greater than the length of one of said lower arms.
11. The hanger of claim 10, wherein one of said shoulder portions of said body has a length longer than that of one of said upper arms of said side members.
12. The hanger of claim 10, wherein each of said first and second side members includes a second lower arm adapted to be in telescopic relationship with each other.
13. The hanger of claim 1, further comprising a hook adapted to be in rotative engagement with said body, said hook comprising a locking mechanism for selectively locking the rotative position of said hook relative to said body.
14. A clothes hanger, comprising:
- a body having a first shoulder portion and a second shoulder portion;
- a hook rotatively attached to said body; and
- a locking mechanism for selectively locking the rotative position of said hook relative to said body.
15. The hanger of claim 14, wherein said locking mechanism includes a plurality of detents radially dispersed about the rotative axis of said hook.
16. The hanger of claim 14, wherein said locking mechanism includes a spring.
17. The hanger of claim 16, wherein said spring is configured to bias said hook into engagement with one of said detents.
18. A method of selecting a radial position of a hook of a clothes hanger relative to a body of the hanger, the method comprising the steps of:
- axially moving the hook relative to the body in a first direction;
- moving the hook in a second direction to engage the hook with a portion of the body to prevent the hook from rotating about its axis.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of moving includes axially moving the hook in the direction opposite to the first direction.
20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of axially moving includes moving the hook towards the body.
21. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of moving includes contacting a portion of the hook with at least one detente.
22. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of moving includes permitting a biasing force to move the hook into engagement with the portion of the body.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 11, 2007
Publication Date: Feb 18, 2010
Inventor: Peter James Munro (Queensland)
Application Number: 12/373,484