Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to fastening devices, and more
particularly to devices for securing speaker cables, power cords, tubing or
like rnaterials in a bundled or coiled configuration.
S BACKGROUND OF THE INVENllON
Cables provided in sound reproduction systems or other
electronic systems are often provided in lon8 lengths to accommodate the
possible need of an individual to space components of the system by a
considerable distance. For example, a long length of speaker cable might be
10 provided to accornmodate a potential need to separate a receiver or arnplifier
some distance from an associated speaker. It is not uncommon to secure the
cable in a bundle with a fastener comprising a length of wire concealed
between two thin strips of paper, commonly referred to as a "twist-tie". The
end user may from time-to-time release the bundle to pay out or drawn in the
15 cable, as speakers are moved. An alternative type of fastener which might be
used for such purposes is formed of a single strip of plastic deflning a shank
have serrated or toothed edges and a slot through which the shank can be
inserted and locked to form a loop, the loop being located about the materials
to be secured in a bundle or coil. Similar fasteners might be considered for
20 other applications such as securing a coil of garden hose, power cables and the
like.
There are several problems with such prior fasteners. First,
they tend to be lost when the bundled or coiled mateIials are released.
Second, both types of prior fasteners are difficult to fasten when the relevant
25 diameter of a bundle or coil approaches the length of the fasteners themselves.
Fasteners formed with a serrated or toothed shank are particular difficult to
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manipulate in such circumstances. It would be desirable to provide an
alternative fastening device which conveniently overcomes such problems.
BREF SUMM~RY OF THE INV~IION
In one aspect, the invention provides a fastening device
5 comprising an elongate base strip having a pair of opposing faces. Connection
means are associated with the base strip which comprise either hook fasteners
and fibrous loop fastening material. For purposes of this specification, the
terms "hook fasteners" and "fibrous loop fastening material" should be
understood as designating fasteners of the same general type as those
10 commonly known and distributed under the trade mark Velcro~M. These are
arranged to permit the base strip itself to be releasably secured to a cable, tube
or the like and to permit the base strip to be wrapped about the cable, tube or
the like, when bundled or coiled, and secured to itself to retain the materials in
bundled or coiled configuradon.
In a more specific aspect, the invention provides a fastening
device comprising an elongate base strip having a pair of opposing faces.
First, second and third connecdon means extend from one of the opposing
faces, the first connecdon means being attached to the base strip adjacent one
end thereof, the second connecdon means being attached to the base strip
20 adjacent an opposing end, and the third connection means, intermediate the
first and second connection means. Fourth eonnecdon means extend from the
other of the opposing faces. One of the first and third connection means is
formed with fibrous loop fastening material and the other with hooked
fasteners. One of the second and fourdl connecdon means is formed with
25 fibrous loop fastening material and the other with hooked fasteners. The basestrip is formed of a material sufficiently flexible that ~e first and third
connecdon means can be engaged with one another by hand as to attach the
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fastening device to a length of cable, conduit or the like and that the second and
fourth connection means can then be engaged with one another by hand as to
secure the cable, conduit or the like in a bundled or coiled state.
Other aspects of the invention will be apparent from a
5 description of a preferred embodiment below and will be more specifically
identified in the appended claims.
DI~SCRI~ON OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will be better understood with reference to
drawings in which:
fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a fastener embodying the
invention securing a bundle of cable;
fig. 2 is a fragmented perspective view providing further
detailing the construction of the fastener.
12~1~1 ION OF PREFERR~ EM13ODlME~
Fig. 1 shows a fastener 10 securing a bundle of cable 12. It
should be noted that the fastener 10 would normally be wound more tighdy
about the cable 12 than has been illustrated. The particular rep~esentation has
been selected to highlight dhe manner in which the fastener 10 attaches to dle
cable 12 and how dhe fastener 10 maintains dhe cable 12 in a bundled or coiled
20 form.
The construction of the fastener 10 is detailed in fig. 2. It
comprises an elongate flexible base strip 14. Hooked fasteners 16 cover dhe
entirety of one face 18 of the base strip 14, and are anchored directly in the
base strip 14 and extend away from the one face 18. Each hook is essentially
25 a loop of fairly rigid fibre which has been cut to define a hooking element.
The base strip 14 and hooked fasteners 16 are essentia11y a strip of Velcro~
material.
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The opposite face 20 of the base strip 14 is associated with
three connectors. A first connector 22 is positioned adjacent one end of the
base strip 14, a second connector 24, adjacent an opposing end of the base
strip 14, and a third connector 26 intermediate the two connectors 22,24.
S The first and second connectors 22,24 are formed with a mass of fibrous loop
fastening material, and more particularly are cut from standard VelcroTM
fastener sheets of this general nature. The first connector 22, which is typical,
has fibrous loop fastening matelial 28 anchored to a base sheet 30. The base
sheet 30 is secured to the opposing face 20 of the base strip 14 by means of
any appropriate adhesive.
The intermediate or third connector 26 associated with the face
20 of the base s~ip 14 is formed with hooked fasteners 32. The hooks 32 are
anchored into a base sheet 34, and the base sheet 34 is adhesively secured to
the face 20 of the base~ strip 14. The hooks 32 are of course complementary
to the fibrous loop fastening material 28 associated with the first connector 22,
and serve to form a releasable connection therewith upon engagement in the
manner characteristic of Velcro~' fasteners. The intermediate connector 26 is
positioned proximate to and spaced a predetennined distance from the first
connector 22. This distance corresponds in a very rough manner to the
maximum diameter of a cable or tubular member to which thG fastener 10 is to
be secured. To attached the fastener 10 to the cable 12, the end portion of the
base strip 14 bearing the f~st and third connectors 22,26 can be wrapped by
hand about the cable 12 into the configuration illustrated, and the first and third
connectors 22,26 engaged to form a releasable joint. This permits the fastener
10 to remain attached at all ~mes to the cable 12, whether the cable 12 is
retained in the bundled form or released to pay out or draw in the cable 12.
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The fastener 10 can, however, be removed by disengaging the first and third
connectors 22, 26 if use with the cable 12 is no longer required.
The second connector 24 can be releasably engaged by hand
with the hooked fasteners 16 extending away from the face 18 of the base
5 strip 14. As apparent in fig. 1, once the first connector 22 and third connector
26 are fastened to the cable 12, the base strip 14 can be wrapped around the
cable bundle and the second connector 24 engaged with the hooked fasteners
16 covering the face 18 of the base strip 14 to releasably secure the bundle.
Because hooked fasteners 16 cover the majority of the surface of the face 18
10 of the base strip 14, the second connector 24 can be fixed to the hook
fasteners 16 at various locations. This permits the fastener 10 to conveniently
accommodate cable bundles of various size, and pennits the fastener 10 to be
wrapped without difficulty about bundles or cables whose diameter
approaches the length of the base strip 14 itself.
The precise arrangement of hook and fibrous loop fasteners is
not critical to the invention. For example, the face 18 of the base strip 14
might be entirely formed with fibrous loop fastening material and the second
connector 24, with complementary hook fasteners to permit attachment
around a bundle of cable. Similarly, the first and third connectors 22, 26
20 which are used to secure the fastener 10 directly to a cable might have theirrespective hook and fibrous loop fasteners interchanged. Additional fasteners
might be formed, for example, on the face 20 of the base strip 14 to permit
attachment of the fastener 10 to cables of different size in a tighter fit, or to
reduce the amount of wrapping of the base strip 14 which might be re~guired
25 to encircle a small bundle or coil; however, such measures increase the
complexity of ~e fastener 10 and are not preferred.
The invention also provides a novel method for constructing
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such fasteners. A number of fasteners substan~ially identical to the fastener
10 can be produced simultaneously. The starting rnaterial is a base sheet of
VelcrolM hook fasteners roughly 4 inches by 6 inches which will ultimately
define the basç strip associated with each of the individual fasteners. Two
5 strips of fibrous loop fastening material are cut having a widlh of about a 1/2
inch and a length of about about 4 inches (equal to one side of the hook
fastener sheet). A single strip of hooked fastener material is cut having a
width about 1/2 inch and once again a length of about 4 inches. An adhesive
is applied to the base material associated with the three fastener strips, and
10 these are then adhered to the smooth surface of the base sheet opposite to the
side formed with hooks, parallel to the 4 inch sides of the base sheet with one
fibrous loop fastener strip immediately at one 4 inch side of the base sheet andthe other fibrous loop fastener strip irnmediately at the other 4 inch side of the
base sheet. The hooked fastener strip is positioned proximate to one of the
15 two fibrous loop fastener strips according to the spacing required between the
first and third connectors 22, 26 described above. The resulting assembly
consists of the base sheet with hook fasteners extending from one face and the
three fastener strip extending from the opposite face in parallel, spaced-apart
relation. The assembly can then be cut with any appropriate cutting tool at
20 inten~als of about 3/8 of an inch perpendicular to the three fastener strips to
p~duce a multiplicity of fasteners similar to the fastener 10 having a width of
3/8 of an inch, a length of 6 inches and three connector seg nents which are
roughly 3/8 of an inch by 1/2 inch. The various dimensions may of course be
altered to produce fasteners of different overall dimensions for different
25 applications. It will be appreciated that hook and fibrous loop fasteners may be interchanged during assembly as has been suggested above.
To facilitate production, the three fastener strips may be
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positioned at predetermined locations on a first support plate with the
associated base strips exposed for receipt of an adhesive. The base sheet
comprising the hooked fasteners rnay be located in a predetermined position
on a second support plate preferably hinged to the f~t support plate. The
S second support plate may have a surface formed with fibrous loop fasteners to
ensure that the base sheet is not displaced once properly positioned. Once the
adhesive has been applied to the three fastener strips, the second support platemay be rotated towards the first plate about the hinge joint to engage the
smooth face of the base sheet with the adhesively coated surfaces of the three
base strips. The support plates may ther~ be left in a closed orientatio~ un~l
the adhesive is set and the plates then opened. The resulting assembly can
then be cut as described above to produce the individual fasteners.
The fastener 10 described herein will be seen to overcome
disadvantages associated with more conventional cable fastening means.
First, the fastener 10 can be releasably attached to wire or cable to prevent
loss of the fastener 10 when the wire or cable is released. Second, the
fastener 10 can be very convenienay wrapped and secured about a bundle of
wire and cable even if the diameter of ale wrapped bundle approaches the veIy
length of the fastener 10 itself.
It will be appreciated that particul~r embodiments of the
invention have been described and ahat modifications may be rnade therein
vithout departing from the spirit of the invention and wiahout necessarily
departing from the scope of the appended claims. In particular, none of the
specific applications for such fasteners which are mentioned herein should be
viewed as restricting the scope of the invention.
