1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lace buckle, and more particularly to a U-shaped lace buckle with a capability of firmly fastening in a fix position or releasing two ends of a lace, and resisting two end of the lace from pulled out by force.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of lace or rope in our every day life is common, in that a lace may be used in shoes, tying bags and in clothing. Most commonly, a lace used in shoes, may be passed through holes of the shoes and ultimately the two ends of the lace are tied to form a slipknot so as to fasten lace in position. However, for example, after a long-hours in use, the slipknot may become loose and gets untied, as a result the shoes may come off or even at times the person with loose shoes may fall and sprain ankle due to losing of balance.
A conventional lace buckle has been developed to overcome the above problems. A conventional lace buckle is shown in FIG. 9. The lace buckle comprises a buckle base A, a fastening portion A2, a through channel A1 located on a side wall of the buckle base A, and an rotary plug B rotatably disposed into a central hollow opening which passes from a top to a bottom of the buckle base A and traverses through the channel A1. The lace is passed through the channel A1 in between the rotary plug B and the internal sidewall of the buckle base A. Then, the lace is pulled until a desired distance is reached, the lace will remain fastened in that position. As the lace is being pulled, and since the rotary plug B is free to rotate within the central hollow opening of the buckle base A, will rotate as the lace passes through the channel A1 in between the rotary plug B and the internal sidewall of the buckle base A, thus making the frictional force between the rotary plug B and the sidewall of the buckle base A as less as possible. Therefore, the action of tightening the lace can be done promptly without much effort and because of less frictional force is applied during the tightening, therefore the life of the lace can be extended. However, there are drawbacks from using the above-mentioned conventional buckle, in that since the rotary plug B is free to rotate within the central hollow opening of the buckle base A cannot efficiently secure the lace into position, and in order to secure in position, one need to tie a slipknot. Referring to FIG. 10, shows another conventional buckle comprising a buckle case C having a base C1 attached on the buckle case C, and an operative rod D, inserted in a hollow hole from a top of the base C1, secured by torsional spring E, and a turning handle F having a gear like surface F2 and a projected handle F1, operatively mounted on the base C1 of the buckle case C. The turning handle F is positioned as a preset angle, such that a lace can be passed through a gap between the gear like surface F2 of the turning handle F and an internal sidewall of the base C1 in the through channel C2, wherein the dimension of the gap is designed to be smaller than a diameter of the lace when the turning handle F is positioned in the preset angle, thus the lace can be secured in position between the gear like surface F2 of the turning handle F and the internal wall of the base C1 of the buckle case C in the through channel C2. To slip the lace out off case C, the turning handle F turned to increase the dimension of the gap in which the lace was secured. However, still there are drawbacks in the above-mentioned conventional buckle although it can more securely position the lace, buckle assembly required three major elements, thus the cost of manufacturing assembly parts and their material are higher. Therefore, a new lace buckle for overcoming the problems of the prior art, such as securing the lace in position as well as reduce manufacturing cost for make the lace buckle is highly desirable.
Accordingly, in the view of the foregoing, the present inventor makes a detailed study of related art to evaluate and consider, and uses years of accumulated experience in this field, and through several experiments, to create a new lace buckle of the present invention. The present invention provides an innovated cost effective U-shaped lace buckle for firmly fastening or releasing two ends of a lace, which can effectively prevent the two ends of the lace from being pulled out by force.
In order achieve the above objects and other objects of the present invention, a U-shaped lace buckle is provided. The U-shaped lace buckle comprises a shallow trench located at a central region. A releasing hole and a fastening hole are disposed within the central hollow region. The dimension of the releasing hole is larger than that of fastening hole. The releasing hole and the fastening hole are connected by a gradually tapering hole, wherein the dimension of the tapering hole connecting with the releasing hole is larger and the dimension of the tapering hole connecting with fastening hole is smaller. And the fastening hole comprises a plurality of gear elements projecting from the inner surface. Further, the lace buckle comprises a through channel that passes from one end to the other end and connected through an arch-shaped groove located in between said two ends.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the lace is inserted through the releasing hole and then the lace is squeezed through the tapering hole into the securing hole, in doing so, as the dimension of the securing hole is smaller than the lace therefore the securing hole will press against the sides of the lace to prevent the lace from dislodging from the lace buckle, and remain secured in position. The U-shaped lace buckle of the present invention is easy to use, and can be suitably applied for securing a variety of laces.
According to another aspect of the present invention the U-shaped lace buckle can be secured onto the surface of a suitable substrate such as shoes, garments, bags, and the like. The lace buckle can be secured by passing a lace through the channel from one end through the arch-shaped groove to the other end and positioned on the surface of an appropriate article and finally two distal ends of lace is stitched onto the surface of the article.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the U-shaped lace buckle can be manufactured using a plastic through a simple molding process, as one integral piece and requires no additional parts or accessories, therefore the manufacture of the lace buckle is more simplified and cost effective.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds