US 6,302,366 B1Granted

Grip clip

AssigneeHaworth, Inc.

InventorsCharles Saylor, Sheldon Phillips, Edward Mitchell

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Abstract

An office accessory arrangement including a stationary support rail and a grip clip removably supported thereon. The grip clip includes a pair of opposed grip members joined to one another by a hinge arrangement for enabling relative pivoting of the grip members about a hinge axis. The grip clip has a biasing structure which relatively pivotably biases the grip members in opposite directions towards a closed position in which opposed inner gripping services of the respective grip members engage one another or engage a document therebetween. The support rail has a channel-like part which defines an outwardly opening narrow slot, with one side of the slot being defined by a cantilevered wall of the channel-like part. The grip clip, when engaged with the support rail, is disposed so that the cantilevered wall of the channel-like part projects into a slot defined within the support rail to securely position the grip clip thereon.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A grip clip for engaging a document, said clip comprising:

a pair of identical, one-piece, monolithic elongate elements each constructed of a rigid plastic material, said elongate elements being disposed in adjacent and opposed relationship and pivotally joined together by a hinge structure which is disposed between the opposed elongate elements and substantially centrally between opposite ends thereof for defining a hinge axis which extends transversely of the elongate elements, a spring cooperating with the elongate elements for relatively urging the elongate elements in opposite directions about the hinge axis into a closed gripping position, said pair of elongate elements defining thereon integral first elongate arm portions which are disposed in spaced relation from one another on opposite sides of the hinge axis and are cantilevered upwardly therefrom, said pair of elongate elements also including integral second elongate arm portions which are disposed at opposite sides of the hinge axis and are cantilevered downwardly therefrom, said second arm portions adjacent free ends thereof having opposed inner gripping surfaces which are directly engageable with one another or a document disposed therebetween when the clip is in the closed position, the second arm portions of said elongate elements each having a forked construction when viewed in a plane perpendicular to the hinge axis and including inner and outer arms which are cantilevered downwardly and separated by a narrow slot which extends upwardly between the inner and outer arms and terminates at a closed upper end which is spaced downwardly a substantial distance from an upper free end of the respective elongate element, each said inner arm defining thereon a respective said gripping surface and being cantilevered downwardly through a greater extent than the respective outer arm, each said inner arm also defining thereon an outwardly facing surface which projects downwardly below a mouth of the respective slot to facilitate insertion of a support wall thereinto, and each said outer arm having a progressively increasing thickness defined in a direction transverse to the hinge axis as said outer arms project away from respective free ends thereof.

An office accessory arrangement, comprising in combination:

a stationary support rail having a channel member which defines an outwardly opening narrow slot;
a grip clip for holding a document, said grip clip being removably supported on said rail;
said grip clip including a pair of identical, one-piece, monolithic grip members constructed of a rigid plastic material, said grip members being disposed in opposed relation with one another and being centrally joined by a hinge arrangement which defines a hinge axis for enabling relative pivoting of said grip members about said hinge axis;
said grip members respectively including first elongate portions which project in one direction away from said axis and are disposed so as to be manually engaged, said grip members respectively including second elongate portions which project in an opposite direction from the hinge axis;
said grip clip having a biasing structure which relatively pivotally biases the grip members in opposite directions toward a closed position;
each said second elongate portion defining inner and outer cantilevered arm parts disposed in spaced relation with one another to define a slot therebetween which opens inwardly from a position adjacent one end of the respective second elongate portion and projects along the second elongate portion generally parallel with the axis and terminates at a closed end which is disposed a substantial distance from the other end of the respective grip member, said inner arm parts defining respective opposed inner gripping surfaces adjacent free ends thereof which are engageable with one another or a document disposed therebetween when the grip clip is in the closed position;
and
said channel member of said support rail having a cantilevered wall defining one side of the slot in the support rail, one of said outer arm parts of said grip clip being insertable into the rail slot for confinement therein simultaneous with insertion of the cantilevered wall of said rail into the respective slot of the grip clip, each said outer arm part having a progressively increasing thickness defined in a direction transverse to the hinge axis as said outer arm part projects away from a free end thereof toward the hinge axis, and said thickness of said outer arm part adjacent said closed end of said clip slot is similar to a width dimension of said rail slot to provide a substantially snug mounting of said grip clip on said rail.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.