Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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ORN~M~NTAL BUTTON BODY WITH CLASP AND
METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to an ornamental button,
such as a male-female button to be used on a garment
or a tack button to be used on a garment of denim, and
more particularly to an ornamental button body assemb-
ly and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art:
An ornamental button body assembly is currently
known (from Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI 1-
37122) which comprises an ornamental button body made
of hard plastics and having in its rear surface a
recess with a groove extending along the deepest por-
tion of its peripheral wall, and a metallic clasp in
the form of a tube having at its base a ridged flange
adapted to be deformed to expand outwardly; in assem-
bling, the flange is inserted into the recess and is
then compressed and expanded by a tool so as to be
fitted in the groove.
Another known type ornamental button body as-
sembly (Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication
No. HEI 2-130214) comprises an ornamental button body
having in its rear surface a recess having a
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frustoconical peripheral wall increasing in diameter
progressively from the bottom to the mouth, and a
clasp having a flange larger in diameter than that of
the mouth of the recess; in assembling, the clasp is
forcibly pressed against the ornamental button body to
bend the peripheral portion of the flange in such a
manner that the flange is inserted into the recess un-
til it comes in contact with the peripheral wall of
the recess.
Regarding the first-named prior art, in the
ornamental button body assembly made of hard plastics,
bone or ivory, since when the ridged flange of the
metallic tubular clasp is inserted into the recess and
is then compressed and expanded by a tool so as to be
fitted into the groove extending along the deepest
portion of the peripheral wall of the groove, the
mouth edge of the groove would be damaged or expanded
to receive the flange loosely, thus causing the
ornamental button body to pivotally move with respect
to the clasp. Furthermore, since a tool is used to
forcibly press the ridged flange against the ornamen-
tal button body, the pressing force is directly trans-
ferred to the ornamental button body placed on a hold-
ing die, thus causing the front surface of the
ornamental button body to be damaged.
In the second-named prior art, since the clasp
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having a flange larger in diameter than the mouth of
the recess formed in the rear surface of the ornamen-
tal button body is forcibly pressed against the
ornamental button body by a tool to bend the
peripheral portion of the flange in such a manner that
the flange is fitted in the recess, the mouth edge of
the recess would be damaged to receive the flange
loosely, the pressing force is directly transferred to
the ornamental button body placed on a holding die,
thus causing the front surface of the ornamental but-
ton body to be damaged.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of this invention to
provide an ornamental button body assembly in which a
tubular clasp can be attached to the rear surface of
an ornamental button body easily in a very simple con-
struction without giving any damage not only to the
clasp but also the front surface of the ornamental
button body. Another object of the invention is to
provide a method of manufacturing such an ornamental
button body assembly.
According to a first aspect of the invention,
there is provided an ornamental button body assembly
comprising: an ornamental button body having in its
rear surface a recess with a bottom larger in diameter
than a mouth; a tubular clasp having at one end a flange
substantially equal in diameter to a mouth edge of the
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recess, the flange being received in the recess; and
an annular spring disposed between the flange and an
mouth-side inside wall of the recess.
The recess may have an inverted frustoconical
contour, the flange of the clasp being bent along an
outer peripheral edge so as to form a complement to
the sloping inside wall of the frustoconical recess.
According to a second aspect of the invention,
there is provided a method of manufacturing an
ornamental button body assembly, comprising the steps
of: inserting a flange of a tubular clasp into a
recess formed in a rear surface of an ornamental but-
ton body with a bottom larger in diameter than a mouth,
the flange being substantailly equal in diameter to a
mouth edge of the recess; forcibly inserting an annular
spring between a surface of the flange and a mouth-side
inside wall of the recess while compressing the annular
spring; and then restoring the compressed annular spring.
In assembling the ornamental button body assemb-
ly of this invention, a tubular clasp having at one
end a flange is placed in the recess formed in the
rear surface of the ornamental button body, with an
annular spring sandwiched between the inside wall of
the recess and the front surface of the flange, so
that the tubular clasp is attached to the ornamental
button body stably, thus making the ornamental button
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body assembly durable in any use.
When this ornamental button body assembly is
used in an ornamental button such as a female button,
a male button or a tack button, the tubular portion
projecting from the rear surface of the ornamental
button body is pierced through, for example, a piece
of cloth and then the distal end of the tubular por-
tion is clenched against a female body, or the clasp
having a U-shape tubular portion is placed on one sur-
face of a piece of cloth and then the tack is pieced
through the cloth from the other surface so as to be
secured to the tubular clasp.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a female
button;
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of an
ornamental button body assembly;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an ornamen-
tal button body assembly according to one embodiment
of this invention;
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a modified
ornamental button body assembly according to another
embodiment;
FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of another
modified ornamental button body assembly according to
still another embodiment;
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FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a modified
tubular clasp; and
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of an apparatus
for manufacturing an ornamental button body assembly.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Several embodiments of an ornamental button body
assembly according to this invention will now be de-
scribed in detail with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an ornamental button
body assembly according to a first embodiment of the
invention includes an ornamental button body 1 for an
ornamental button, such as a female-male button or a
tack button, formed of hard plastics, bone, ivory or
metal. The ornamental button body 1 has a recess 2
which is formed centrally in a rear surface of the
ornamental button body 1 and which has a frustoconical
inside wall 3 increasing in diameter progressively
from the mouth to the bottomin such a manner that the
area of the bottom of the recess 2 is slightly larger
than that of the mouth. The ornamental button body as-
sembly also includes a tubular clasp 5 having at one
end a flange 4 which is substantially equal in
diameter to a mouth edge 10 of the recess 2 and which
is inserted in the recess 2. An annular spring 6 having
a circular cross section and a cutout is inserted between
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the flange 4 and the mouth-side inside wall 3 of the
recess 2. The annular spring 6 serves to hold the flange
4 of the tubular clasp 5 stably in the recess 2, preventing
the flange 4 from being removed from the recess 2.
The annular spring 6 used in this embodiment
should by no means be limited to a cutout-ring spring
and may be a disk spring or a rubber spring, if it is
a resilient member shrinkable and extendible radially
within a constant circle. The tubular clasp 5 may be a
clasp having a tubular portion whose distal end is
folded into a U shape, as shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 1,
reference numeral 7 designates a female button body;
and 8, a piece of cloth through which the tubular por-
tion of the clasp 5 attached to the rear surface of
the ornamental button body 1 is pierced, whereupon the
distal end of the tubular portion is clenched against
the tubular portion of the female button body 7 to
thereby attach the female button body 7 to the cloth
8.
According to a second embodiment, as shown in
FIG. 3, the shape of a recess 2 formed centrally in
the rear surface of an ornamental button body 1 is to-
tally identical with that of the first embodiment. The
shape of an outer peripheral edge 9 of a flange 4 of a
tubular clasp 5 is different from that of the previous
embodiment, being bent so as to complement to the
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slant inside wall 3 of the inverted frustoconical
recess 2. A cutout annular spring 6 is inserted be-
tween the bent outer peripheral edge 9 of the flange 4
and the mouth-side inside wall 3 of the recess 2.
With this arrangement, when a force is exerted
on the button so as to remove the tubular clasp 5 from
the recess 2 of the ornamental button body l, the an-
nular spring 6 will shrink so as to move along the
slant inside wall 3 of the recess 2 or will expand to
move along the bent outer peripheral edge 9 of the
flange 4, thus keeping a balanced condition so that
the flange 4 will hardly be removed from the recess 2.
In a third embodiment shown in FIG. 4, a recess
2 formed in the rear surface of an ornamental button
body l is similar to that of the previous embodiment
except that the mouth edge lO'of the recess is rounded
to facilitate insertion of an annular spring 6. The
annular spring 6 has a generally triangular cross sec-
tion. Partly since one side surface of the annular
spring 6 is complentary to the inside wall 3 of the
recess 2, partly since one apex of the annular spring
6 is pisitioned inwardly of the rounded mouth edge 10' of
the recess 2, and partly since another apex is in contact
with the flange 4 of the tubular clasp 5, it is pos-
sible to compress the annular spring 6 easily so as to
remove from the recess 2 so that the ornamental button
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body l can be exchanged with a new one.
In a fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 5, a recess
formed in the rear surface of an ornamental button
body with a bottom larger in diameter than a mouth is
different from the inverted frustoconical shape of the
foregoing embodiments and has a mere peripheral groove.
The rounded mouth edge 10' of the recess 2 is rounded
to facilitate insertion of an annular spring 6. The
annular spring 6 has a trapezoidal cross section; for
insertion, the annular spring 6 is forced into the
recess 2 with its slant surface facing the rounded
mouth edge 10' of the recess 2 of ornamental button
body 1, with its apex contacting a flange 4 of a tubular
clasp 5 and with its bottom surface facing the mouth-
side inside wall 3 of the recess 2. Therefore the
annular spring 6 can be inserted in a simple operation
and serves to secure the tubular clasp 5 to the ornamental
button body 1 stably.
According to another feature of this invention,
there is provided a method of manufacturing an
ornamental button body assembly, comprising the steps
of: inserting the flange 4 of the tubular clasp 5 into
the recess 2 formed centrally in the rear surface of
the ornamental button body 1 with the bottom larger in
diameter thant the mouth, the flange 4 being substantailly
equal in diameter to the mouth edge of the recess 2;
forcibly inserting the annular spring 6 between the front
sùrface of the flange 4 and the mouth-side inside wall 3
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of the recess 2 while compressing the annular spring 6;
and then restoring the compressed annular spring 6 to
secure the tubular clasp 5 to .he ornamental button
body 1.
To carry out this method, an apparatus such as
shown in FIG. 7 may be used. The apparatus comprises
an ornamental button body holding die 11, an auxiliary
die 12 and a punch 13. The holding die 11 has a flat
upper surface for supporting an ornamental button body
1. The auxiliary die 12 is to be mounted on the upper
surface of the holding die 11 and has vertically ex-
tending and axially aligned upper and lower through-
holes 15, 14. The diameter of the upper through-hole
15 is equal not only to the outside diameter of the
flange 4 of the tubular clasp 5 but also to the diameter
of the edge of the recess 2 of the ornamental button
body 1. The diameter of the lower through-hole 14 is
equal to the outside diameter of the ornamental button
body 1. The mouth edge 16 of the upper through-hole 15
is tapered to support the annular spring 6 for com-
pression. The punch 13 has a diameter equal to the
diameter of the upper through-hole 15 of the auxiliary
die 12 and is reciprocatingly movable into and out of
the upper through-hole 15, having an axial hollow 17
large enough to receive the tubular portion of the
clasp 5.
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In use, the ornamental button body 1 with its
front surface facing downwardly is placed on the hold-
ing die 11, and then the flange~4 of the tubular clasp
5 is inserted into the recess 2 of the ornamental but-
ton body 1, whereupon the auxiliary die 12 is posi-
tioned above the ornamental button body 1. Meanwhile
the ornamental button body 1 is placed in the lower
through-hole 14 and then the annular spring 6 is
placed on the tapered mouth edge 16 of the upper
through-hole 15. Then the punch 13 is lowered to com-
press the annular spring 6 and then to insert the com-
pressed annular spring 6 into the recess of the
ornamental button body 1, whereupon the compressing
action is released to restore and hence expand the an-
nular spring 6 to secure the tubular clasp 5 to the
ornamental button body 1.
With the ornamental button body assembly of this
invention, since the tubular clasp is attached to the
ornamental button body merely by compressing and ex-
panding the annular spring, it is very simple in con-
struction and can be manufactured with ease.
Particularly since no mechanical deformation
process is given to the flange of the tubular clasp
while the tubular clasp is attached to the ornamental
button body, precise and reliable attachment can be
achieved, thus guaranteeing products free from
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defects. Furthermore, since no forcible pressing force
of the punch is exerted directly on the ornamental
button body during assembling, any damage would not be
given to the front surface of the ornamental button
body, thus obtaining a neat ornamental button body as-
sembly.
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