Belt buckle with interactive dual tongues
AssigneeIndiana Mills & Manufacturing, Inc.
InventorsMichael A. Wiseman, James R. Chinni
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pair of interactive tongues are for latching to a dual-tongue belt buckle. The belt buckle includes false latching features that only permits the latching mechanism to trigger when both of the tongues are fully inserted into the buckle. The contact surfaces of the first and second tongues include interactive features that prevent the tongues from sliding past one another in the direction of the tongue bars when the contact surfaces are meshed. The interactive features of the contact surfaces are shaped and configured so that the contact surfaces can be meshed by moving the tongues toward each other in a plurality of different directions that are perpendicular to the direction defined by the tongue bars.
Claims12
A belt buckle-tongue combination comprising:
- a first tongue having a first main body with a first contact surface and a first web attachment aperture, and further including a first tongue bar extending therefrom in a first direction;
- a second tongue having a second main body with a second contact surface shaped to mesh with said first contact surface and a second web attachment aperture, and further including a second tongue bar extending therefrom in said first direction;
- a buckle main body having a cavity therein shaped to force said first and second contact surfaces to mesh when one of said first and second tongue bars is partially received in said cavity and the other of said first and second tongue bars is inserted into said cavity and advanced in said first direction;
- interactive means formed on said first contact surface of said first tongue and said second contact surface of said second tongue and operable when said first tongue is inserted into said buckle main body prior to said second tongue which is thereafter inserted to force both tongues simultaneously fully into said buckle main body when insertion pressure is applied to only one of said tongues in said first direction;
- a movable latch mounted in said body and movable from an unlatched position to a latched position wherein said latch engages said first and second tongue bars;
- manual operating means accessible at the exterior of the buckle main body for moving said latch between said latched position and said unlatched position to release said first and second tongues from locking engagement with said buckle main body;
- and
- false latching means movably mounted in said buckle main body and contactable and moved by said first and second tongues when inserted into said buckle main body, said false latching means being operable to allow said latch to lockingly engage said tongues when said first and second tongue bars are simultaneously fully inserted into said buckle main body but further operable to hold said latch from moving to said latched position when only one of said first or second tongue bars is inserted into said buckle main body.
A pair of tongues lockingly engageable with a dual tongue belt buckle comprising:
- a first tongue having a first main body with a first contact surface and a first web attachment aperture, and further including a first tongue bar extending therefrom in a first direction;
- a second tongue having a second main body with a second contact surface shaped to mesh with said first contact surface and a second web attachment aperture, and further including a second tongue bar extending therefrom in said first direction;
- said contact surfaces including interactive features that prevent said tongues from sliding past each other in said first direction when said contact surfaces are meshed;
- and
- wherein said contact surfaces can be meshed by moving said tongues toward each other in a plurality of different directions that are perpendicular to said first direction.
A method of latching a safety belt buckle comprising the steps of:
- providing a pair of individual tongues having a main body with a contact surface, a web attachment aperture and a tongue bar extending from the main body in a direction, wherein the contact surfaces include interactive features that prevent the tongues from sliding past one another in said direction when the interactive features engage one another;
- providing a belt buckle that will latch to the pair of individual tongues when the tongues are simultaneously fully inserted into the belt buckle;
- inserting one of the tongue bars into the belt buckle in said direction;
- inserting the other of the tongue bars into the buckle in said direction until the interactive features of the contact surfaces engage each other;
- and
- pushing one of the tongues in said directions so that the engagement of the interactive features will simultaneously advance the other of the tongues until both tongues are fully inserted into the belt buckle and latched thereto.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.