Buckle for a respirator mask
AssigneeMoldex-Metric, Inc.
InventorMichael Forbes Scholey
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A buckle located around a resilience strap and a method of manufacturing includes a resilient strap material provided on a continuous basis and having a particular width and thickness. The strap material is stretched to reduce the width and thickness of the strap material at a particular position. A mold member is provided to form a buckle and the buckle is molded around the strap at the particular position where the strap material is reduced in width and thickness to increase the friction between the buckle and the strap material.
Claims12
A method of manufacturing a buckle located around a resilience strap including the following steps,
- providing resilient strap material having a particular width and thickness,
- stretching the strap material to reduce the width and thickness of the strap material at a particular position,
- providing a mold member to form a buckle located around the strap at the particular position,
- molding a buckle around the strap at the particular position where the strap material is reduced in width and thickness, and
- removing the buckle now integrally molded around the strap material having the reduced width and thickness while allowing the strap material at positions exterior to the buckle regain the original width and thickness.
A buckle and integral strap formed by the following method,
- providing a resilient strap having a first width and thickness dimension in a normal state and reduced width and thickness dimension in a stretched state,
- forming the strap with a first length portion in the normal state and a second length portion in the stretched state,
- molding a buckle around the strap in the length portion of the strap in the stretched state, and
- locking the buckle in position on the strap by the friction between the strap and the buckle and with the friction increased because of the stretched position of the strap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.