Re-Usable Clip
Background
People use and lose small articles such as pens, lighters, and similar articles quite often in everyday life. What is presented is a reusable clip that can be mounted to small articles and to which small articles can mount to.
Summary
A reusable clip is presented that comprises a stem and a flexible tongue. The stem is formed into the shape of a hook comprising a long arm and a short arm. The flexible tongue is affixed to the short arm. The tongue extends to the bottom of the long arm and removably attachable to the bottom of the long arm with an attachment and receiving device.
The attachment and receiving device could be clips, buttons, hooks, pins, hook and loop fasteners, removable adhesives, magnets paired with other magnets, magnets paired with metal receiving pieces, or any other device. The stem is preferably a metal plate. The tongue is preferably a flexible sleeve that is attached to the short arm with glue, pins, screws, rivets, nails, welding, or any other means. The tongue may be made from vinyl, plastic, rubber, silicone, an elastomeric material, etc.
In some embodiments of the reusable clip, the attachment and receiving device comprises a magnet located at the bottom of the long arm and a corresponding magnet located within the tongue. In other embodiments, a linking device is mounted to the reusable clip wherein the linking device is key chain links, carabiners, clips, or other device. Some embodiments of the reusable clip further comprise a jacket that is a tube that extends the length of the long arm. The jacket is sized and configured to receiving both the long arm and an article such that the long arm and the article are pressed together within the jacket and the jacket does not interfere with said attachment and receiving device. The jacket could be made out of rubber, vinyl, plastic, silicone, an elastomeric material, or some other material.
Those skilled in the art will realize that this invention is capable of embodiments that are different from those shown and that details of the apparatus and methods can be changed in various manners without departing from the scope of this invention.
Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions are to be regarded as including such equivalent embodiments as do not depart from the spirit and scope of this invention.
Brief Description of the Drawings
The features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the subsequent detailed description presented in connection with accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a reusable clip;
FIG. 2 is a different perspective view of the reusable clip of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a front view of the reusable clip of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a cross section view of the reusable clip of FIG. 1 along the lines indicated in
FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 shows a use of the reusable clip of FIG. 1 as a money clip;
FIG. 6 shows a use of the reusable clip of FIG. 1 to hold notes and the like;
FIG. 7 shows a use of the reusable clip of FIG. 1 to hold an article to a user's pocket; FIG. 8 shows a lighter being inserted into a jacket that is mounted to a reusable clip of FIG. 1;
FIG. 8A shows the lighter fully inserted into the jacket of FIG. 8;
FIG. 9 shows the reusable clip of FIG. 1 with a jacket mounted to a user's pocket with a pair of eyeglasses inserted into the jacket; and
FIG. 10 shows the reusable clip with a linking device.
Detailed Description
Referring to the drawings, some of the reference numerals are used to designate the same or corresponding parts through several of the embodiments and figures shown and described. Corresponding parts are denoted in different embodiments with the addition of lowercase letters. Variations of corresponding parts in form or function that are depicted in the figures are described. It will be understood that variations in the embodiments can generally be interchanged without deviating from the invention.
FIGs. 1-4 show an embodiment of reusable clip 10 that comprises a stem 12 that is formed into the shape of a hook. The stem 12 comprising a long arm 14 and a short arm 16. A flexible tongue 18 is affixed to the short arm 16. The tongue 18 extends to the bottom of the long arm 14 and is removably attachable to the bottom of the long arm 14 with an attachment and receiving device 20. This reusable clip 10 has a variety of functions and uses that will be illustrated below. The tongue 18 is preferably a flexible sleeve that is attached to the short arm 16 with any one of glue, pins, screws, rivets, nails, and welding. The tongue 18 is preferably made from any one of vinyl, plastic, rubber, silicone, and an elastomeric material. The attachment and receiving device 20 is shown in the figures as magnets paired with other magnets but it may be any other device that allows the tongue 18 to be releasably attached to the bottom of the long arm 14. FIG 4 shows the attachment and receiving device 20 comprising a magnet located at the bottom of the long arm 14 and a corresponding magnet located within the tongue 18.
The attachment and receiving device 20 could be clips, buttons, hooks, pins, hook and loop fasteners, removable adhesives, and magnets paired with metal receiving pieces. The stem 12 is preferably a metal plate and if that is the case, the attachment and receiving device 20 could be a simple magnet that connect to the long arm 16 of the stem 12.
It will be readily understood that the reusable clip 10 has a variety of uses. FIG. 5 shows the reusable clip 10 used as a money clip to hold articles 22 such as currency, credit cards, or other items that would otherwise be put in a wallet. In this embodiment, the attachment and receiving device 20 is capable of securing the tongue 18 to the long arm 16 of the stem 12. In this case, the attachment and receiving device 20 is a magnet located at the bottom of the long arm 14 and a corresponding magnet located within the tongue 18 as shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 6 shows that the reusable clip 10 could be used as a device to hold articles 22 such as notes and the like. If the attachment and receiving device 20 has any magnetic elements, the reusable clip 10 could be mounted to a metallic surface (not shown) such as a refrigerator or a filing cabinet. FIG. 7 shows a reusable clip 10 inserted into a user's pocket. If the attachment and receiving device 20 has any magnetic elements, the reusable clip 10 could be used to mount items that have metallic components to the reusable clip 10.
As shown in FIGs. 8 and 8A, the reusable clip 10 could also comprising a jacket 24 that could be used to accommodate articles 22 that are not mountable to the attachment and receiving device 20. In the figures, the jacket 24 is a tube that extends the length of the long arm 16 of the stem 12. The jacket 24 is sized and configured to receive both the long arm 16 and the article 22 such that the long arm 16 and the article 22 are pressed together within the jacket 24 and the jacket 24 does not interfere with the attachment and receiving device 20. In FIGs. 8 and 8A, the article 22 is a lighter that is sized to fit snugly within the jacket 24. It is preferable that the jacket 24 is made out of rubber, vinyl, plastic, silicone, or some other elastomeric material. FIG. 9 shows that the article 22 does not need to fit snugly within the jacket 24 but can also be used to hold a pair of eyeglasses more securely than placing them in the user's pocket.
FIG. 10 shows a variation of the reusable clip 10a in which a linking device 26a is mounted to the reusable clip 10a. This allows the reusable clip 10a to be attached to, for example, a user's belt loop or other location. FIG. 10 shows that the linking device 26a is a clip but it could be any other device such as a key chain link, a carabiner, etc.
This invention has been described with reference to several preferred embodiments. Many modifications and alterations will occur to others upon reading and understanding the preceding specification. It is intended that the invention be construed as including all such alterations and modifications in so far as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents of these claims.