Hole plug
AssigneeNifco Inc.
InventorTakehiro Sato
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hole plug has a head portion, a leg portion protruding from the head portion, and a flange portion protruding on an upper circumference of the leg portion. The leg portion includes an inner wall having an approximately cylindrical shape and connected to the head portion; and an outer wall extending along the inner wall with a gap among the inner wall from a folded portion provided in an end portion of the inner wall, and forming a bendable thin-walled portion. The thin-walled portion is elastically bent by an external force to be capable of transitioning from a first usage aspect in which the outer wall is locked in the hole with the thin-walled portion being in a non-bending state to a second usage aspect in which a force larger than the first usage aspect is provided to pressure contact relative to the hole.
Claims8
A hole plug for plugging a hole of a plate material, comprising:
- a head portion;
- a leg portion including a cylindrical inner wall downwardly protruding from the head portion, and having a folded portion provided at a lower end thereof and formed as a rigid-body portion;
- and an outer wall extending upwardly from the folded portion along the inner wall to form a gap between the inner wall and the outer wall, and having locking claws arranged on the outer wall to be spaced apart from each other, an outer wall upper portion, and a bendable thin-walled portion arranged between the outer wall upper portion and the folded portion, between the locking claws;
- and
- a flange portion protruding outwardly from an upper end portion of the outer wall of the leg portion,
- wherein the thin-walled portion is thinner than the inner wall and the outer wall upper portion, and is longer than the folded portion relative to an insertion direction of the hole plug, and
- after the leg portion is inserted, for locking, to the hole of the plate material, when the folded portion is pushed upwardly, the thin-walled portion is bent elastically to change from a first usage condition in which the outer wall is locked in the hole with the locking claws in a non-bending state, to a second usage condition in which the locking claws are pushed outwardly to thereby firmly contact the locking claws with an edge of the hole.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.