U.S. patent number 3,736,621 [Application Number 05/168,828] was granted by the patent office on 1973-06-05 for sheathed soft-feel handle and method of making same.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Philadelphia Handle Company, Inc.. Invention is credited to Marton T. Szabo.
United States Patent |
3,736,621 |
Szabo |
June 5, 1973 |
SHEATHED SOFT-FEEL HANDLE AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME
Abstract
A soft-feel handgrip for a handle construction in which
cushioning members for the top and bottom of the grip are provided
with a flexible conductive member on the outer face of the bottom
cushioning member and an open thermoplastic sheath wrapped around
the members to provide overlapped sheath ends directly against the
conductive member whereby the overlapped sheath ends can be
effectively sealed dielectrically. The handgrip may include
non-metallic fillers or stiffeners and/or a spring metal bar spaced
from the overlapped sheath ends by the bottom cushioning
member.
Inventors: |
Szabo; Marton T. (Camden,
NJ) |
Assignee: |
Philadelphia Handle Company,
Inc. (Camden, NJ)
|
Family
ID: |
22613103 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/168,828 |
Filed: |
August 4, 1971 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
16/435 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B29C
66/73921 (20130101); B29C 66/1122 (20130101); B29C
66/496 (20130101); B23P 19/02 (20130101); B29C
66/8322 (20130101); A45C 13/26 (20130101); B29C
66/5326 (20130101); B29C 65/04 (20130101); B29C
66/4322 (20130101); B29L 2031/463 (20130101); B29C
66/71 (20130101); B29C 66/727 (20130101); B29C
66/71 (20130101); Y10T 16/495 (20150115); B29C
66/71 (20130101); B29C 66/71 (20130101); B29C
66/71 (20130101); B29C 66/71 (20130101); B29C
66/71 (20130101); B29C 66/71 (20130101); B29K
2025/06 (20130101); B29K 2033/08 (20130101); B29K
2067/00 (20130101); B29K 2069/00 (20130101); B29K
2027/06 (20130101); B29K 2075/00 (20130101); B29K
2033/12 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A45C
13/00 (20060101); B23P 19/02 (20060101); A45C
13/26 (20060101); A47b 095/02 () |
Field of
Search: |
;16/116,117,110,125,119
;190/57,58 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: McCall; James T.
Assistant Examiner: Troutman; Doris L.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. In a soft-feel handle construction comprised of an elongated
handgrip and means secured to the ends thereof for attachment to
the wall of a carrying case or the like, the improvement in that
the handgrip is comprised of a cushioning member, a resiliently
flexible electrically conductive member against one face thereof
which flexes therewith, and a thermoplastic sheath coextensive with
said cushioning member encompassing said members having a face
consisting of longitudinally extending ends secured to each other
by fusion in overlapped relationship directly against said
conductive member.
2. The handle construction of claim 1 comprising a pair of said
cushioning members and a member therebetween which is stiffer than
said cushioning members.
3. The handle construction of claim 2 wherein said stiffer member
is a non-metallic filler which is substantially coextensive with
said cushioning member and sheath.
4. The handle construction of claim 2 wherein said stiffer member
is a metallic spring bar at least as long as said sheath.
5. The handle construction of claim 1 wherein said conductive
member is metal foil.
6. The handle construction of claim 5 and a plastic strip secured
to said metal foil which is in turn secured by adhesion to said one
face of the cushioning member.
7. The handle construction of claim 1 wherein said conductive
member is a conductive adhesive strip.
8. The handle construction of claim 1 wherein said conductive
member is a coating of metal on said one face of said cushioning
member.
9. The handle construction of claim 4 and a pair of non-metallic
fillers stiffer than said cushioning members but less stiff than
said spring bar on both sides of said spring bar and secured by
adhesion to the corresponding faces of said cushioning members.
10. The handle construction of claim 1 wherein said cushioning
member is made of a foam material.
Description
This invention relates to a handle for radios, television sets,
electronic instruments, luggage, carrying cases and the like.
Soft-feel handles using rubber in the grip portion are known in the
art. The handles shown in the Bush U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,500,973 and
3,531,822 employ a combination of a relatively rigid molded palm
engaging plastic portion with a softer finger-engaging portion. The
present invention relates more particularly to a cushioning handle
employing a thermoplastic sheath and a method of sealing the sheath
dielectrically.
In a sheathed handle, for purposes of esthetics, the lap seam is
provided on the underside thereof. In a construction which combines
a cushioning material such as rubber with a stiffer filler material
and a steel spring bar encompassed by a thermoplastic sheath, the
spring bar is located adjacent the overlapping portions of the
sheath in order to effect sealing thereof dielectrically, i.e., by
subjecting the handle to a high frequency alternating current field
which causes the sheath to be heated from within for a time
sufficient to effect a seal.
In practice, the handle is placed on the grounded bed of a
conventional dielectric sealing machine with the ends of the spring
bar conductively clamped thereto and the electrode die is lowered
onto the lapped sheath. Since the spring bar is immediately beneath
the lapped sheath, the only insulating separation between the die
and the bed is the thickness of the sheath itself and as this is in
the order of magnitude of one thirty-second inch, the current can
readily pass therethrough and the field can concentrate on the
lapped sheath to effectively seal the same.
However, when such a handle is mounted on a carrying case or the
like, the hard steel bar is engaged by the palm and is
uncomfortable. The softness is on the top but not at the bottom of
the handle.
When a handle construction is made in which the spring steel bar is
interposed between layers of cushioning material such as vinyl foam
to yield softness both at the top and bottom thereof, it was found
that in the sealing operation the vinyl foam collapsed thereby
causing loss of the desired soft-feel effect.
It is the primary object of this invention to provide a sheathed
handle construction which is soft both at the top and at the bottom
but whose sheath is effectively sealed dielectrically.
Another object of the invention is to provide a handle having
cushioning material, an internal spring steel bar and a sheath
encompassing the same whose overlapped edges are dielectrically
sealed along the length of the handle, the bar being spaced from
the sealed overlapped edges of the sheath by the cushioning
material.
Another object of the invention is to provide a cushioning handle
with a dielectrically sealed sheath therearound but which contains
no internal spring bar.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of making a
sheathed cushioning handle with and without a core of spring steel
employing dielectric means to seal the overlapping edges of the
sheath.
The objects of the invention are attained by interposing a flexible
resilient metallic layer directly between the overlapped edges of
the thermoplastic sheath and the insulating cushioning material
whereby the alternating current can pass through the sheath
material and fuse the overlapped edges.
These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent
as the following description proceeds in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a conventional dielectric sealing
machine with the handle of the instant invention in place ready for
the sealing operation and partly in section;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of one form of handle of the instant
invention;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4--4 thereof;
FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 of a modified form of the
invention without a spring steel core; and
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view of the dielectric sealing machine
shown mounting the handle construction of FIG. 5.
Specific reference is now made to the drawings in which similar
reference characters are used for corresponding elements
throughout.
Considering first the handle construction 10 shown in FIGS. 1-4,
the grip portion 12 thereof comprises a core of flat spring bar 14,
generally about one sixty-fourth to one thirty-second inch thick, a
pair of filler strips, 16, generally about three thirty-seconds
inch thick, a pair of upper and lower cushioning strips 18 and 19
generally about one-sixteenth to three-eighths inch thick and a
sheath or cover 20, generally about one thirty-second inch
thick.
The core 14 may be made of any suitable spring metal, preferably
steel. The filler strips 16 may be made of paper impregnated with
rubber, cotton duck, hardboard, leather and the like. The
cushioning strips 18 and 19 may be made of any suitable flexibly
resilient material such as foam polyurethane, polystyrene,
polyester and rubber. The sheath or cover 20 may be made of any
suitable thermoplastic resin such as polyvinyl chloride,
polystyrene, polycarbonate, polyurethane, the acrylics, etc., in
single ply or two ply such as vinyl bonded to a vegetable
fiber.
The spring metal core, filler strips and cushioning strips are
secured at their interfaces with suitable adhesive as is the upper
face 22 of the upper cushioning strip 18. The opposite or lower
face of the sheath, i.e., the finger-engaging portion, comprises
longitudinally overlapping free edges 24 and 26.
Interposed directly between the overlapped edges 24, 26 of the
sheath and the lower cushioning strip 19 is an electrically
conductive member 28. The member 28 can take several forms. It can
be a strip of metal foil, such as aluminum, copper and the like,
from about 0.001 to 0.003 inch thick. It can be a strip of plastic,
such as polyvinyl chloride, with a metal coating on one surface
thereof, the other surface being secured by an adhesive such as
rubber cement to the lower cushioning strip 19. It can be a plastic
strip, such as cellulose acetate, having pressure sensitive
adhesive on opposite faces with metallic foil secured on one face
so that the other face can be adhered to the lower cushioning strip
19. It can be an electrically conductive adhesive strip. Or, it can
be a metallic coating deposited on the surface of the lower
cushioning strip.
Thus, the electrically conductive member 28 must not be so thin as
to create too much resistance to the flow of current therethrough,
must be sufficiently resiliently flexible to follow the shape of
the handgrip 10 and should be malleable so that the feel of
hardness in the handgrip is minimized.
A conventional dielectric sealing apparatus having a fixed bed 30
connected to the ground, a vertically movable die or electrode 32
substantially coextensive with the handgrip 10 and a very high
frequency alternating current connected therebetween is employed.
See, for example, "Heat Sealing" by Robert D. Farkas, Reinhold
Publishing Corporation, New York, 1964, Chapters 7 and 8 , which is
herein incorporated by reference. The handgrip with the spring core
14 and conductive strip 28 extending beyond the ends of the sheath
or cover 20 as at 34 and 36 is laid in a well in the bed 30 with
the overlapping ends 24 and 26 facing the die 32. Except for the
protruding ends of the core and the conductive member, the filler
and cushioning strips are coextensive with the sheath. A metal
clamp 37 engages the free ends 34 and 36 of the conductive strip
and core and conductively connects them to the bed. While only one
such clamp is shown on the right hand side in FIG. 1, it will be
understood that usually another such clamp is provided on the left
hand side of the bed and engages the free ends of the core and the
conductive strip in the same manner, although a single clamp is
operative. Where the conductive member 28 is a coating rather than
a discrete strip, the coating will be applied on the open ends of
the handgrip and will conductively contact the spring metal core 36
which will then be clamped to the bed. Although preferable, it is
not essential that the conductive member or coating 28 be connected
to the metal core 36.
When the die is lowered into the contact with the overlapping ends
24 and 26 of the sheath or cover 20 and the current is applied, the
overlapped ends become sealed as shown in FIG. 4. It has been found
that with a construction such as that described hereinbefore using
a dielectric sealing machine with a 2Kw output, the sheath can be
effectively sealed in about 4 seconds.
Although a handgrip construction with a core of spring metal is
preferred, a handgrip construction without such a spring metal core
may be provided within the purview of the invention. Such a
construction is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 and comprises essentially a
pair of upper and lower cushioning strips 38 and 40 separated by a
filler strip 42, a conductive strip or coating 44 below the lower
cushioning strip 40 and a thermoplastic sheath or cover 46
encompassing these members, the lower face of the sheath having
overlapped ends 48 and 50, as in the construction shown in FIG. 2.
The contacting surfaces of the members 38, 40 and 42 may be secured
to each other by adhesion as may the upper face 52 of the sheath 46
to the upper cushioning strip 38. The filler strip 42 may be
thicker or otherwise made more rigid than those employed with the
metal core of FIGS. 1-4 to stiffen the handgrip yet permit it to be
flexible.
This handgrip is placed in the well of the bed 30 in the manner
previously described and the conductive member 44 is made to extend
through at least one end of the handgrip as at 54, preferably both
ends. The end of the member 44 is conductively attached to the bed
by the clamp 58 and the machine turned on for a time sufficient to
seal the overlapped ends 48 and 50 of the sheath or cover 46 as
shown at 60 in FIG. 5.
After the handgrip sheath has been dielectrically sealed suitable
hardware 62 is secured to the ends of the handgrip for attachment
to a carrying case and the like. While FIG. 3 illustrates one type
of handle, it will be understood that many different kinds of
handles can be provided with the present handgrip. Thus the
hardware or adapters at the ends of the handgrip can be such as to
effect pivotal, slide or similar connections to the wall of a
carrying case or the like.
While preferred embodiments of the invention have here been shown
and described, it will be understood that minor variations may be
made without deparating from the spirit of the invention and the
scope of the appended claims.
* * * * *