Chain and end attachment means

• US 4,377,078 A
• Filed: 08/04/1981
• Issued: 03/22/1983
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/1981
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intimate Jewelsinc Poboxx 266 Katonah Ny10536 A Corporation of NY
• Original Assignee: Intimate Jewels Incorporated
• Inventors: Block, Alvin
• Primary Examiner(s): Shay, F. Barry
• Application Number:
  US06/291,221
• Time in Patent Office: 595 Days
• Field of Search: 63/2, 63/4, 24/115 M, 24/116 A, 24/136 L, 59/93
• US Class Current: 63/3.1
• CPC Class Codes: A44C 5/2057 Fasteners locked by sliding or rotating of the male element of the fastener; Turn-button fasteners
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 24/3904 Bead chain fasteners

Abstract

A keeper for detachably attaching the two ends of a length of flexible linear solid chain, such as a necklace or a bracelet, to each other. A spherical ball at one end of the chain is inserted into a deformable clamp which is attached to the other end of the chain. The clamp has two arms which detachably engage the ball. A frusto-conical keeper element is freely mounted about the chain length adjacent the clamp; the keeper element converges and tapers away from the clamp, so that when the clamp with engaged ball is displaced into the keeper element by concomitantly pulling the keeper element and the other end of the chain away from each other, the clamp and engaged spherical ball are tightly fitted into the keeper element. The outer surface of each curved arm of the clamp thus engages the inner surface of the keeper element, so that the two chain ends are detachably attached to each other, and cannot be separated from each other, except by pulling the one end of the chain length away from the keeper element.

Claims

1. A safety chain keeper for detachably attaching the two ends of a length of flexible linear solid chain to each other which comprises a substantially spherical member, said spherical member being permanently mounted to one end of said chain length, a deformable clamp, one end of said clamp being mounted to the other end of said chain length, the other free end of said clamp having two discrete and spaced apart end portions, the middle portion of said clamp between said one clamp end and said other free clamp end being of substantially circular shape and comprising two curved arms, and a frusto-conical keeper element, said keeper element being freely mounted about said chain length adjacent said clamp, said keeper element tapering and converging away from said clamp to a terminal diameter at one end less than the diameter of said spherical member plus the thickness of the two arms of the middle portion of said clamp, the other end of said keeper element having a diameter greater than the diameter of said spherical member plus the thickness of the two arms of the middle portion of said clamp, said two arms of the middle portion of said clamp being resiliently biased away from each other, so that when said spherical member is inserted into said clamp between said two arms, said clamp is adapted to deform and said two arms to detachably engage said spherical member, and so that when said clamp with engaged spherical member is displaced into said keeper element, by concomitantly pulling said keeper element and said other end of said chain length away from each other, the clamp and engaged spherical member are tightly fitted and wedged into said keeper element, the outer surface of each curved arm of the middle portion of said clamp engaging the inner surface of said keeper element, so that the two ends of the length of flexible linear solid chain are detachably attached to each other and cannot be separated from each other except by pulling the one end of said chain length away from said keeper element.

2. The safety chain keeper of claim 1 in which the spherical member is hollow.

3. The safety chain keeper of claim 1 in which the free end of each curved arm of the middle portion of the clamp is provided with a terminal finger, each finger extending linearly away from the one end of the clamp.

4. The safety chain keeper of claim 1 in which the curved arms of the middle portion of the clamp are flat and rectilinear in cross-section.

5. The safety chain keeper of claim 1 in which the curved arms of the middle portion of the clamp are curved in cross-section, the cross-sectional curvature of the arms conforming to the curved outer surface of the spherical member.

6. The safety chain keeper of claim 1 in which the spherical member is a terminal one of a plurality of substantially identical spherical members flexibly linked to each other, and the terminal diameter of the keeper element at the one end is greater than the diameter of a spherical member.

7. The safety chain keeper of claim 1 in which the length of flexible linear solid chain is a necklace or a bracelet.