APPARATUS FOR POSITIONING AND MOUNTING AWARDS
An apparatus for displaying ribbons and badges on a garment wherein predetermined arrangements of awards can be quickly and reliably established using designated openings in a template. Using break-away portions, the template can be sized as needed and pin holes are preferably used to mount ribbons having a marking implement such as a pin to secure the ribbon to a uniform. A separate badge positioning section includes horizontal slots preferably slightly offset vertically with a portion of said horizontal slots co-linear.
This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/024,890, filed Dec. 29, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,325,339, and claims priority to same and incorporates same herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONFor police, fire, and other civil service careers, formal events and ceremonies often require the donning of formal uniforms including the display of any commendations obtained in the line of duty. This is even more prevalent in the military where formal uniform apparel is more commonly worn. Such uniforms typically include a pair of pants, dress shirt, and covering jacket. The display of any medals, ribbons, or badges may be strictly regulated in certain situations. In particular, regulations exists pertaining to the spacing and positioning of the commendations on the uniform. Depending on the number of commendations, it can take a considerable amount of time to correctly comply with the various specifications and regulations on the placement and spacing of the commendations. Incorrect placement is unacceptable, particularly in military applications, but performing this process repeatedly each time dress formals are worn would consume a significant amount of time. In addition, different occasions call for different sets of medals to be worn. Also, the addition of new awards may necessitate an entirely different arrangement or spacing requirement.
In addition to the spacing and time concerns, the typical medals include a pin for piercing the shirt or dress jacket. A clamping mechanism worn on the inside of the jacket or shirt secures the medals to the garment. These securing devices may cause discomfort to the wearer and damage the garment.
One crude device frequently used to located the awards is a piece of leather or cardboard secured to the inside of the jacket or shirt. However, both leather and cardboard degrade over time and the holes do not retain a precise placement location as hole size become larger or otherwise loses its shape. Cardboard has a particularly limited life due to its paper construction. In addition, the pins on the back of the ribbons and medals can pierce the cardboard or leather in any location and are not restricted to certain locations on the back piece. Thus, precise placement using these materials remains difficult.
One device purportedly used to secure ribbons and the like can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,805 to Haegley. In that patent, a securing device located on the inside of a uniform garment includes clasps encased within a soft foam material for repeated insertion by a pin. However, Haegley's device requires that the clasps be permanently fixed in the foam material so adjustment is precluded for accommodating different sizes of awards. Further, soft foam material will erode from repeated uses limiting the effectiveness of the device.
Accordingly, it has been demonstrated that there is a need in the art for an apparatus that can simply and quickly mount awards such as medals and ribbons to a uniform in a precise but variable manner that does not result in discomfort to the bearer of the awards and yields a reliable and timesaving procedure for arranging the awards on a uniform.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is directed to an award template for positioning and supporting a plurality of awards such as ribbons and badges to be worn on a uniform. The template may be generally in the form of a plate having a badge positioning section and a ribbon positioning section. Each section further comprises a positioning aspect that receives a fastening implement on the back of an award for positioning a set of ribbons and badges in relation to a predetermined location on a garment, such as the top edge of a pocket on a shirt or jacket. Other aspects of the present invention will become apparent with further reference to the following drawings and specification.
Referring to
If the inner portion R1 of the ribbon positioning section 36 is used, the intermediate portion 33 and the outer portion 39 may be removed by cutting, bending, or otherwise removing the portion of the template along dividing lines 49. The dividing lines 49 can be reductions in the thickness of the plate, or perforations in the plate that allow the excess portions to be cut or sheared to reduce the length of the ribbon positioning portion 36. The template further comprises indicia used to help position the badges or awards on the template, thereby increasing the ease with which awards are arranged on the template 30. For example, indicia “RIFLE” is placed on the far left hand side of the badge positioning section 34 beneath a horizontal slot 47a designating the position of a badge awarded for rifle marksmanship. Similarly, indicia “PISTON” is placed on the far right hand side of the badge positioning section 34 beneath a second horizontal slot 47b designating the position of a badge awarded for pistol marksmanship. Other indicia can be used for the particular application to assist the bearer in complying with certain regulations relating to the order and positioning of certain awards. Further, the template includes additional indicia to assist the user in aligning the template with the garment to be worn. For example, the letter “V” indicates a center of the template that can be aligned with the center of a pocket or other portion to the garment to center the arrangement. Further, dashed lines 99 can be used to align the top edge of a pocket or the like to establish a point of reference for placing the awards.
The medal positioning section 34 comprises two horizontal elongated slots 47a, 47b for locating the pins of two medals. The slots 47a, 47b are slightly offset vertically with slot 47b slightly higher than slot 47a, with a recessed portion 44 at the same vertical position as the slot 47a. In this way, a single medal may be centered by placing a first positioning pin in slot 47a and a second positioning pin in slot 47b at recessed portion 44 so that the medal will hang properly in a vertical orientation.
Referring to
As one can appreciate, without the present invention the highly precise spacing of the ribbons 230 and badges 200 with respect to one another as well as the placement on the garment 210 itself can be a trial by error method that requires a significant amount of time to perfect. However, by using the template of the present invention, placement of the ribbons and badges can be done in a relatively short amount of time. For instance, measuring the required distance from the top of a shirt pocket to install a first set of ribbons and then adding another four rows of ribbons may require multiple attempts and can lead to significant frustration. With the present invention, however, the template is secured against an interior surface of the garment and the ribbons are simply laid over the outer surface of the garment. Then the pins of a first board are pushed through and the pin holes of the template guide the pins into place. The clasps 225 are then clamped onto the exposed pin ends to secure the ribbon 230 in the proper position. The next row is mounted in a similar manner. Using the template, a multi-row ribbon set up can be created quickly and with great precision.
As
In
If more than six ribbons are to be mounted to the uniform, then the template of
In use, the medal wearer lays out the garment (shirt or jacket) on a flat surface. The template is trimmed as necessary to accommodate the required number of ribbon bars to be worn. For example, assuming a two ribbon bar display on a particular row, the extra end pieces indicated by the indicia R2 and R3 that make up a three bar holder may be broken off by hand or removed using a suitable cutting instrument. If both ribbon bars and badges will be worn, the supporter is placed flush and centered above the left pocket. Conveniently an indicia such as a “V” indicating the center of the supporter may be used. If wearing only ribbons, then the template is positioned over the left pocket so that the dashed lines 99 line up with the top edge of the pocket. Once the template is in position, the user takes pencil and marks the placement of the ribbon bar and badges, if applicable, on the shirt or jacket. For example, a pencil mark is placed through pin holes at 56a for the placement of the ribbon. The placement pins of the ribbons are inserted through the pencil marks to align the badge. The template is then placed on the inside surface of the jacket or shirt. The corresponding holes used to mark the pencil marks on the outside of the garment are slid over the inwardly extending pins. Then each pin receives a clasp to capture the pin and secure the template against the inside surface of the garment. In this manner, the arrangement of the awards on the uniform correspond precisely with the spacing and order of the template to create an arrangement that complies with the regulations and maintains proper spacing and positioning for repeated wearings.
The foregoing discussion is meant to be illustrative of the present invention but not limiting in its scope. Rather, one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that many variations to the above described embodiments are possible without deviation from the spirit of the invention, and such variations should be deemed within the scope of the invention. Therefore, the invention is properly limited only by the plain and ordinary meaning of the words used in the claims appended below, as the inventor had not attempted to limit the scope of the invention in any manner in the foregoing discussion.
Claims
1-20. (canceled)
21. A ribbon template device for against the front of a military uniform blouse garment to selectively mount a plurality of military ribbons carried on elongated bars having respective sets of rearwardly projecting mounting pins spaced apart respective selected distances, to position the ribbons in a predetermined vertically spaced pattern, the ribbons being of a predetermined width and the pins being sized to receive fasteners, the template device comprising:
- an elongated planar template to be positioned vertically against the inside surface of the blouse garment and including a plurality of sets of positioning openings spaced horizontally from one another to receive the sets of pins of the respective bars, the sets of positioning openings being spaced vertically from one another to, upon the respective sets of pins of the ribbon bars being inserted into the respective sets of positioning openings, space the ribbons disposed in the predetermined vertically spaced pattern the template may be positioned against the inside surface of the blouse garment and the respective sets of pins inserted through the garment and the respective sets of openings to position the respective ribbons in the predetermined vertically spaced pattern and the fasteners attached to the respective pins to hold the template and ribbons in place.
22. The template device as set forth in claim 21 wherein:
- the openings are spaced apart to, when the pins are inserted thereon, display the ribbons spaced flush against each other.
23. The template device as set forth in claim 21 that includes:
- at least one of the openings of at least one set is vertically elongated slot.
24. The template device as set forth in claim 21 wherein:
- the template is constructed of brass.
25. The template device as set forth in claim 21 wherein:
- the template includes, a plurality of horizontal slots spaced a predetermined distance below the opening for receiving pins of bars mounting military badges to be spaced a specified distanced below the ribbons.
26. The ribbon template as set forth in claim 21 wherein:
- the individual fasteners and are constructed to cover the free ends of the respective pins.
27. The ribbon template device as set forth in claim 21 wherein:
- at least one opening of each of the sets of positioning openings includes a pin hole for receipt in close fit relationship of one of the pins of each bar.
28. The ribbon template device as set forth in claim 21 wherein:
- the template is formed with at least some of the openings spaced apart to, when the pins are inserted therein, display the ribbons in a selected horizontally spaced relationship.
29. The ribbon template device of claim 21 wherein:
- the planar template includes structurally weakened sections for convenient separation of portions thereof.
30. The template device as set forth in claim 21 for mounting selected ones of the ribbons associated with a selected achievement and wherein:
- the template includes indicia adjacent predetermined ones of the openings to receive the sets of pins of the bars carried to the respective selected ones of the ribbons.
31. The ribbon template device of claim 21 wherein:
- the template includes indicia for alignment with center of a pocket on the blouse garment.
32. The template device of claim 21 wherein:
- the openings are configured with the plurality of horizontal slots for receipt of the respective sets of rearwardly projecting mounting pins of at least some of the ribbons.
33. The template device of claim 32 wherein:
- at least one of the slots is offset vertically from another of the slots.
34. The ribbon template device of claim 33 wherein:
- the other of the slots includes a vertically recessed portion.
35. A method of mounting a plurality of military ribbons of the type carried on respective elongated bars having respective sets of rearwardly projecting mounting pins spaced apart respective distances to, for positioning the ribbons in a predetermined vertically spaced pattern, the ribbons being of a predetermined width and the bars including pins sized to be received in respective fasteners and including the steps of;
- selecting a planer template including a plurality of sets of positioning openings spaced horizontally from one another to receive the sets of pins of the respective bars, the sets of positioning openings being spaced vertically from one another to, upon the respective pins of the ribbon bars being inserted to the respective sets of positioning openings, space the ribbons disposed in the predetermined vertically spaced pattern;
- placing the template inside the garment against the inside surface thereof;
- positioning the template relative to a landmark on the garment to position the openings relative to the landmark;
- inserting the pins of the plurality of sets of pins through selected ones of the openings to locate the ribbons in the predetermined vertically spaced pattern; and
- inserting fasteners on the pins.
36. The method of claim 35 that includes:
- selecting the template as fabricated of brass.
37. The method of claim 35 wherein:
- the step of positioning the template relative to the landmark includes positioning it relative to a pocket on the blouse.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 4, 2008
Publication Date: May 29, 2008
Inventor: James G. Jordan (Redondo Beach, CA)
Application Number: 12/025,670
International Classification: A44C 3/00 (20060101); A44B 17/00 (20060101);