US3618174A - Magnetic fastener - Google Patents

Abstract

A QUICK DETACHABLE FASTENER FOR ATTACHING ARTICLES TO SHEET MATERIAL HAS AN ANNULAR RING MAGNET AND ARMATURE WITH A CENTRALLY DISPOSED GUIDE POST FOR MATING WITH THE ANNULAR RING TO MAINTAIN THE ARMATURE AND MAGNET RING IN PROPER ALIGNMEMT, AND A CLAMP ATTACHED TO THE ARMATURE FOR SECURING THERETO AN ARTICLE TO BE MOUNTED, THE SHEET MATERIAL BEING HELD BETWEEN THE ARMATURE AND MAGNET BY THE MAGNETIC ATTRACTION THEREBETWEEN.

Description

United States 3,618,174 Patented Nov. 9, 1971 3,618,174 MAGNETIC FASTENER Herbert Schainholz, 316 Locust St., Teaneck, NJ. 07666, and lPeter Katz, 18 lLocust lllace, Livingston, NJ.

Filed Feb. 4, 1970, Ser. No. 8,655 lint. Cl. A44b 21/00 U.S. Cl. 24--73 2 Claims ABSTRACT` F 'li'HlE DISCLUSURE This invention relates to magnetic fastening means and more particularly to quick detachable magnetic means for attaching articles to thin materials such as cloth, plastic, paper sheeting or the like.

It is desirable to attach articles to thin sheets of material and yet be able to quickly move the articles to another location or remove them entirely. For example, certain medical procedures fo1 patients conned to bed require that infusion or drainage tubes lead from receptacles exterior to the patients bed and communicate with the patients body. Such tubing is usually fastened to the patients body means of adhesive backed tape and also to the bed sheets by means of a safety pin, adhesive tape or other fastening device which temporarily holds the tubing in place until the fastening means is released. Oftentimes, movement of the patients body will cause the tubing to be pulled therefrom or will tear the bed sheets, inasmuch as a fastening device holding the tubing to the bed sheet will not freely yield and allow the tubing to move with the patient.

Furthermore, such fastenings also have the disadvantage of requiring time to assemble and disassemble to that the article being fastened cannot be quickly and simply moved to a new location when desired.

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide fastening means for quickly attaching and detaching articles to sheet materail, which means instantly releases the article after a predetermined force on the article is exceeded.

The invention accordingly comprises a permanent magnet and an armature of magnet material having a clamp disposed on one side thereof for securing thereto an article to be mounted, and aligning means mounted on the other side thereof for aligning the armature to the magnet. By interposing a sheet of material onto which p th'e fastener is to be attached, between the aligning means and the magnet and pressing the two components together, the magnetic attraction therebetween `will hold the components in an assembled condition in a selected location. A force supplied to the article, sufficient to overcome the magnetic holding force, will quickly disassemble the fastener and allow the article to be moved to a new location.

Other features, advantages and additional objects of the present invention will Ibecome manifest to those skilled in the art upon making reference to the detailed description which follows in the accompanying drawings in -which the preferred structural embodiments incorpo rating the principles of the present invention are shown by way of illustrative example only.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the elem'ents of a magnetic 4fastener embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary cross-sectional View of the fastener elements taken along the lines 2-2 of FIG. l;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the magnetic fastener of the present invention attached to sheet material; and

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of a modification of the present invention.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the fastener of the present invention includes an armature 10, which may be disc shaped and formed from a suitable magnetic material such as steel. A post 12, formed from plastic or integrally formed from the armature itself or from other magnetic material, and a clamping device 14 are ach held to opposite sides of armature 10 by means of a pivot pin 16 which passes through armature 10. The assembly of these elements is such that the clamp 14 is free to rotate about pin 16. Positioned beneath armature l0 is an annular permanent magnet 18 which preferably has a wafer-like configuration to minimize its bulk. It is, however, understood that the magnetic wafer may be rectangular, cylindrical or any other suitable shape. For illustrative purposes, magnet 18 is shown as being generally cylindrical in form. Magnet 18 is preferably magnetized transversely along one of the larger sides thereof, rather than axially, in a manner such that the surface adjacent to armature 10 when the fastener is in an assembled condition, has a stronger magnetic field than the opposite or bottom surface.

Clamp 14 may comprise any clamp suitable for securely holding a desired article to be mounted in a selected position by the fastener of the present invention. For purposes of illustration, however, clamp 14 may be formed from plastic and is shown as comprising a toothed projecting member 20 with a strap 22 having slots 24 disposed therein. Strap 22 is arranged in an article securing position by wrapping it around an article to be mounted, then placing a selected one of slots 24 over member 20, engagement of one of the teeth of member 20 with the walls of a selected slot 24 being effective to hold the strap in a desired position.

To attach the fastener to sheet material, armature 10 is first aixed to the article to be mounted by means of clamp 14. For example, a length of plastic tubing 26, as shown in FIG. 3 may be attached to armature 10 by clamp 14. Post 12 is next placed in a desired location on the selected sheet material 28. Magnet 18 is then located beneath post 12 with the sheet material 28 interposed therebetween. Armature 10 is then attracted to magnet 18 by the attractive force thereof, causing the sheet material 28 covering post 12 to be pushed into aperture 30 of magnet 18. Post 12 and aperture 30 are dimensioned with respect to each other to provide a snug fit with sheet material 28l yfilling the space between adjacent walls thereof. The strong attractive force of magnet 18 will hold armature 10 in an assembled relationship tightly against the sheet material interposed therebetween, with post 12 maintaining armature 10 and magnet 18 in alignment with each other and serving to oppose any tendency of a transverse or sliding separation upon application of a shearing force. However, the force of attraction of magnet 18 is not so great that it can not be overcome by a relatively hard pull on tubing 26 or such other article as may be held by clamp 14.

While the fastener of the present invention may be used with any suitable thin material as, for example, rubber, plastic, paper or fabric sheeting, which is sufficiently pliable and resilient to withstand the indenting caused by post 20 when inserted in magnet 18, the invention is particularly advantageous when used with common bed sheeting supplied to medical patients. 'It will be seen that by means of the present invention, tubing, cords, or other apparatus desired to be temporarily mounted to the bedding of a medical patient confined to bed, can be rapidly attached to the bedding in any desired location without fear that the movement of the patient will either disconnect the article so mounted, or cause the bedding to be torn as is often the case when the article is fastened to the bedding by means of a safety pin.

A modification of the invention is shown in FFIG. 4 wherein armature 10 is formed into a shell or a cup-like configuration with circumferentially depending sides and post 12 is omitted. Shell 32 is dimensioned with respect to wafer magnet 18 such that it will fit snugly thereover as a substantially complete cover, yet allow sheet material 28 to be interposed therebetween without permanently deforming or damaging the material. As in the embodiment mentioned above, a suitable clamp 14 is attached to shell 32. Furthermore, wafer magnet 18 need not have an annular configuration but may have a solid body.

It is to be understood that it is not necessary that the armature and wafer magnet of the present invention have a circular configuration and that other suitable configurations of these elements, such as square or rectangular shapes, may be used if desired.

We claim:

11. -A lquick detachable magnetic fastener for removably fastening articles to sheet material comprising, an annular permanent magnet having an axial hole therethrough, an armature, means mounted on said armature for attaching thereto an article to be fastened to said sheet material,

and a post attached to said armature and extending outwardly therefrom to mate with said axial hole and position said armature adjacent to complementary surfaces of said magnet, said post and said complementary surfaces of said magnet being dimensioned to provide a spacing therebetween sufficient to allow said sheet material t0 vbe interposed between said magnet, said armature, and said post, the magnetic attraction between said armature and said magnet being'operative to clamp said sheet material therebetween to maintain said article in a selected position.

2. The invention defined in claim 1 wherein said armature is a fiat disc having said post integrally formed thereon, and said article attaching means is pivotally mounted on said disc.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,164,623 7/1939 Posner 24-73.l51 UX 2,615,227 10/1952 Hornik 24-201 B X 2,693,654 11/1954 Clark 24-201 B X 3,000,016 9/1961 'Ridge 24-73 .151 X 3,054,585 9/1962 Roberts et al. 248-74 PB 3,392,729 7/1968 KLenoir 24-245 X FOREIGN PATENTS 743,821 1/1933 France 24-81 HS 374,845 3/ 1964 Switzerland 24-201 B DONALD A. GRIFFIN, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 24-73 SH

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