Fastening device

A fastening device comprising:

• a stud component having a body portion, a substantially cylindrical shaped stud member with a vertical length and a stud diameter and extending substantially vertically from a first inner surface and a disc interengaging means integral with and at the protruding end of said stud member, said disc interengaging means having an inner and an outer diameter said inner diameter being not less than said outer diameter and greater than said stud diameter;
• a socket component fabricated using material which is resilient but form retaining adapted to interfit and interengage with said stud component, having an arcuate interior aperture surface defining a substantially elliptical shaped aperture through said socket component with a vertical aperture axis substantially in parallel alignment with said stud member, said elliptical shaped aperture having a vertical length being not greater than said stud member length, a minor axis having a dimension greater than said outer diameter of said disc interengaging means and not greater than said stud diameter, and a major axis dimension greater than and orthogonal to said minor axis, one-half the sum of said major and minor axes dimensions being greater than said inner diameter and both said axes orthogonal to said vertical aperture axis, said elliptical shaped aperture axes dimensions deformable so that said minor axis dimension increases as said major axis dimension decreases upon inserting and extracting of said stud component into and from said socket component and upon squeezing of said socket component along a direction parallel to said major axis and perpendicular to said minor axis of said elliptical shaped aperture, said interengagement of said socket component with said stud component being only at both ends of said minor axis when said stud component is in interengagement with said socket component;
• and
• said stud component and said socket component adapted to clamp material between them when said stud component is inserted into said socket component.

A method for engageably and releasably attaching together two components, a stud component and a socket component said socket component having a substantially elliptical shaped aperture therein, said stud component comprising a body portion, a substantially cylindrical shaped stud member projecting therefrom, means for deforming said aperture when said stud component is inserted into said socket component, said socket component fabricated using material which is resilient but form retaining and each said components adapted with cooperating, interfitting, interengaging means said method comprising the steps of:

• deformingly inserting said cylindrical shaped stud member into said substantially elliptical aperture causing said aperture to deform to receive said cylindrical shaped stud member said deformation of said aperture and said resilient material providing forces which causes said interengaging means to interengage said stud and said socket components;
• and
• squeezing said socket component along a direction parallel to a major axis and perpendicular to a minor axis of said elliptical shaped aperture in a manner so as to deform said aperture and release said forces thus releasing said interengaging means, said aperture deformation being from a substantially elliptical shaped aperture to an aperture which is sized to allow the removal of said stud component from said socket component without said stud component being subjected to any substantial tensile stresses and insertion of said stud component into said socket component without said stud component being subjected to any substantial compression stresses.