Pet collar

Abstract

A plurality of resiliently yieldable, molded plastic links, each having complimentary ball and socket portions at opposed longitudinal ends, are snap-locked together to form a closed loop pet collar. One of the interlocked links is adjustable to release when subjected to a threshold collar tension, to protect the pet should the collar catch on some obstruction. For this purpose, the adjustable link includes an adjusting screw threadedly disposed in a longitudinal bore of the link and accessible for screwdriver adjustment through the socket portion thereof, and having an end extending centrally and longitudinally into the ball portion of the link. The ball portion of the link is slotted to modify the compressibility thereof and the internally mounted screw is longitudinally positionable to vary the ball portion compressibility and thus the threshold force required to release this link from the socket portion of an adjoining link. Alternatively, the adjustable link may be formed in two parts, with an integrally molded longitudinally aligned screw portion on a socket part which is threadedly insertable into an opening in a separate slotted ball portion part. The screw portion both secures the separate ball and socket parts together and adjusts the compressibility of the ball portion. In another embodiment, one or more of the interconnected or interlocked links is specially treated with an insecticide or flea repellent chemical, wherein the treated links may be replaced after dissipation of the chemical. Still another version of the collar provides for the molding of the individual links as alpha-numerical characters, each being structurally integral with the ball and socket portions, so that a plurality of different alphabet and number characters may be selectively linked together to identify the pet.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.