Corrugated clothes hanger structure

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to an improved clothes hanger, more particularly to a clothes hanger that is purposefully frangible as a preventative measure against being restructured into a weapon that can cause bodily harm.

[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art

[0004] On Aug. 25, 1998 Schopfer was issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,934 for a garment carrier. The patent teaches that a blank for forming a garment carrier may be used once, or a few times, for transport of one or a few garments on hanger hooks, and then discarded. Like the novel invention presented, the carrier has a body of thin material, e.g. corrugated cardboard forming an orifice for receiving the free end of one or a few hangers.

[0005] On Feb. 8, 2000 Ho was granted U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,934 for an improved clothes hanger that includes metal wires and plastic bristles. The metal wires are intertwined and spiraled into the shape of a clothes hanger having two shoulder portions. The bristles are twined with the metal wires such that they are located at and project elastically from the shoulder portions of the clothes hanger. When a piece of clothing is hung on the clothes hanger, the bristles support and match the curvature of the shoulders of the clothing, thus preventing wrinkling of the shoulders of the clothing.

[0006] On Mar. 28, 2000 Balser was granted U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,985 for a multiple purpose coat hanger member having additional appendages extending laterally outwardly from the upper neck portion of the hanger from which hanger portions additional articles of clothing can be attached, such lateral extensions comprising a plurality of linear extending members affixed to the neck portion of the hanger, such lateral extension members having attachment means for hanging clothing articles on the extreme end thereof.

[0007] On Dec. 11, 2001 U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,186 was granted to Wing for a formable garment hanger wherein a foam tube is formed over a malleable wire. Since the malleable wire can be extracted and weaponized by being formed into a weapon, the novel invention is clearly distinguishable since it is made entirely of cardboard.

[0008] U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,603 was issued to Gish on Nov. 19, 2002 for a clothes hanger that has a hook for engaging a bar to support the change, a first and second side bar extending at substantially opposite angles from the hook, a horizontal bar extending between the side bars at ends of the side bars away from the hook, and a pliable compression strip having a particular length and opposite ends, one end engaging one of the side bars and the other end engaging the other of the side bars at engagement points on the side bars between the hook and the horizontal bar. The length of the pliable strip is greater than a straight line distance between the engagement points, such that the pliable strip, curving downward, urges against a portion of the horizontal bar, in a manner to secure an article of clothing against the horizontal bar.

[0009] On Jan. 21, 2003 U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,388 was granted to Louw for a hanger with a locking mechanism to secure gripping members that can be disengaged with a user operated lever. The gripping members engage and securely retain an item such as an article of clothing when the locking mechanism is engaged. A tab located on the gripping members acts as a lever and disengages the locking mechanism with decreased effort by an individual user. With this structure, the item can be easily secured to the hanger by engaging the locking mechanism, and freed by easily disengaging the locking mechanism by operation of the tab.

[0010] Clothes hangers have long been used in restricted facilities such as prisons, military installations, jails, and the like for storing clothing of guards, military personnel, and police on and off-duty. A major problem today is that the customary hard plastic hanger, wire hangers, wooden hangers, and combination metal and plastic hangers are a major raw material in prisons and restricted spaces often used to create weapons capable of stabbing or cutting and thereby causing serious bodily harm. There exists a long felt need in the prison industry for a clothes hanger that is not weaponizable and therefore weapon-proof.

[0011] The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome and the need for an unweaponizable hanger are met with the present invention wherein a utility design for a rigid clothes hanger made entirely of corrugated cardboard is presented which is inexpensive to produce, readily produced by stamping out a specific shape from available corrugated cardboard sheets and which further allows the hanger to be made in a variety of sizes such that it can be adapted to fit a wide variety of sizes and styles of clothing. A one piece hanger is made of corrugated cardboard cut out in a single piece from a corrugated cardboard sheet, folded and then intertwisted at dual mating neck parts that form a reinforced cardboard hook for the hanger.

[0012] It is accordingly a primary object of this invention to provide a clothes hanger suitable for use in prisons and related restricted spaces such as commercial airplanes.

[0013] It is another object of the present invention to provide a clothes hanger that cannot be weaponized.

[0014] It is still another object of the present invention to provide a clothes hanger made entirely of corrugated cardboard.

[0015] It is yet another object of the invention to provide a clothes hanger made of one continuous piece of corrugated cardboard folded and interconnected in a novel manner.

[0016] Yet another object of the novel invention is to provide a clothes hanger made of corrugated cardboard in a variety of sizes.

[0017] Still yet another object of the novel invention is to provide a disposable biodegradable corrugated cardboard clothes hanger with a reinforced hanging neck.

[0018] These and other objects and features of the present invention such as the ease of printing and displaying advertising thereon, for example, will be apparent from the following detailed description, taken with reference to the figures of the accompanying drawing.

[0027] Referring to FIG. 1 there is shown a double clothes hanger shaped member 10 having a first slotted hook 12a and a second slotted hook 12b. Connected to the slotted hook 12a is a triangular shaped first shoulder body 14a. At the base of the body 14a there is a mirror image triangular shaped second shoulder body 14b. Near the base of the body 14a there is a first score 16 used as a fold line X. Near the base of the body 14b there is a second score 18 used as a fold line Y.

[0028] Referring to FIG. 2 there is shown a cross sectional view taken along the plane 2-2′ illustrated in FIG. 1. Shown is a section of a corrugated sheet member 19 preferably made of heavy-duty cardboard paper. The member 19 has a top sheet 20 and a bottom sheet 22 filled in between with corrugated filler 24. Further, there are shown cross-sections of the scores 16 and 18 used to form fold lines X and Y, respectively.

[0029] In FIG. 1 a novel cardboard paper clothes hanging instrument is formed from the slotted hanger 10 by folding the first shoulder body 14a along the line X toward the second shoulder body 14b and by folding the second shoulder body 14b along the line Y toward the first shoulder body 14a. Likewise, the first slotted hook 12a is utilized to form a hook piece for the novel hanging instrument by being folded toward the second slotted hook 12b. The slotted hooks 12a and 12b have a connection means, namely, a connector 25 (See FIG. 3) for example, located at a point Z, for interconnecting the slotted hook 12a to the slotted hook 12b which is self-acting and therefore interconnects without hardware or the addition of other structural elements. Thus, the hanging instrument shown is engineered to be stamped or die cut from a sheet of corrugated cardboard.

[0030] As shown in FIG. 1, the first slotted hook 12a has a first horizontal slot 26a which is U-shaped, opening toward the rear, and located at the rear of the hook 12a midway between a top 28a and a base 30a of the hook 12a. The second slotted hook 12b has a second horizontal slot 26b, which is also U-shaped. The first horizontal slot 26a opens in a mating relationship to the second horizontal slot 26b, which is located towards the front or opening of the slotted hook 12b. The horizontal slot 26b is located at the front of the hook 12b midway between an apex 28b and a base 30b. When the hook 12b is folded along the score 18 adjacent to the slotted hook 12a, the slots 26a and 26b are interlocked at a point Z. A hanger instrument 36 made entirely of corrugated paper or paperboard is therefore formed as shown in FIG. 3.

[0031] The hanger instrument 36 has fold lines X and Y with a base area 38 formed therein between these fold lines. The top sheet 20 of the corrugated cardboard is folded inside the instrument 36 up to the point Z of the neck 40. Above the point Z a hook 12 formed of double thickness corrugated cardboard is made from joined first and second slotted hooks 12a and 12b. The top 28a and apex 28b are automatically aligned to form a plural apex 28 for the instrument 36. Natural tension from the folded cardboard tends to spread the first and second slotted hooks 12a and 12b, which make up the hook 12 spread somewhat apart. This arrangement distributes the weight of a garment (not shown) on the instrument 36 equally between the slotted hooks 12a and 12b preventing undue stress and wear on slotted hook 12a at the expense of slotted hook 12b for repeated use of the instrument 36.

[0032] In FIG. 4a there is shown a detailed front-end view of the instrument 36 from the base area 38 up to a margin 42 for hook 12 and above the connection point Z or connector 25. A part of the first slotted hook 12a is twisted and interconnected at the point Z opposite a like part of the second slotted hook 12b. The first shoulder body 14a is folded at the first score 16 flatly adjacent to the second shoulder body 14b. Likewise, the second shoulder body 14b is folded at the second score 18 flatly adjacent to the first shoulder body 14a to form the hanger instrument 36. The margin 42 is formed by the adjacent combination of a margin 42a for the first slotted hook 12a, for example, and the margin 42b for the second slotted hook 12b, for example.

[0033] Referring now to FIG. 4b, there is shown a rear end view or edge view of the instrument 36 of FIG. 3 specifically illustrating the rear of the neck 40. The first base 30a is adjacent to the second base 30b. There is shown a detailed rear end view of the instrument 36. The neck 40 extends from a base 30, formed by the juxtaposition of the first base 30a and the second base 30b, up to the plural apex 28. The instrument 36 is shown extending from the base area 38 up to the plural apex 28 and then around and about the hook 12 to the margin 42 (shown in FIG. 4a). The first slotted hook 12a is twisted and connected to the second slotted hook 12b at the point Z opposite a like part of the second slotted hook 12b. The first shoulder body 14a is folded at the first score 16 flatly adjacent to the second shoulder body 14b. Likewise, the second shoulder body 14b is folded at the second score 18 flatly adjacent to the first shoulder body 14a to form the hanger instrument 36.

[0034] Shown in FIG. 5 is another less costly version of the invention. One of the scores, i.e. fold line Y is eliminated to make the novel invention a less expensive embodiment to produce. Garment hanger instrument 50 is made of corrugated paper and has one score line 52 therein for creating a fold X. Otherwise, the instrument 50 when folded and interconnected at the point Z is essentially the same as the unfolded slotted hanger 10 shown in FIG. 1 or the instrument 36 shown in FIG. 3.

[0035] In FIG. 6 there is shown an unfolded garment hanger 60. The hanger 60 constitutes another slightly more costly version of the novel invention wherein the slots 26a and 26b, usually forming a part of the hook 12 as shown in FIG. 3, are eliminated by the addition of a coating 62, the coating being either hook or loop fasteners or an adhesive such as that used on Post-It's™, for example, on the surface of side 20 of the hanger 60. Triangular first and second windows 64 and 66 are cut out from the top and bottom of the hanger 60. Over these windows 64 and 66 transparent thin plastic window covers 68 and 69 are held in place by the coating 62.

[0036] An additional novel aspect of the invention is the addition of advertising such as the hypothetical logo “AA” shown there, for example. Such logos make this product more attractive to airlines, privately operated prisons, railroads, tour bus lines, and the like.

[0037] As this invention may be embodied in several forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, the present embodiment is, therefore, illustrative and not restrictive, since the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the description preceding them, and all changes that fall within the metes and bounds of the claims or that form their functional as well as conjointly cooperative equivalent steps are, therefore, intended to be embraced by those claims.

• [0038] 10 slotted hanger
• [0039] 12 hook
• [0040] 12a first slotted hook
• [0041] 12b second slotted hook
• [0042] 14a first shoulder body
• [0043] 14b second shoulder body
• [0044] 16 first score
• [0045] 18 second score
• [0046] 19 corrugated sheet member
• [0047] 20 top sheet
• [0048] 22 bottom sheet
• [0049] 24 corrugated filler
• [0050] 25 connector
• [0051] 26a first horizontal slot
• [0052] 26b second horizontal slot
• [0053] 28a top
• [0054] 28b apex
• [0055] 28 plural apex
• [0056] 30 base
• [0057] 30a first base
• [0058] 30b second base
• [0059] 36 instrument
• [0060] 38 base area
• [0061] 40 neck
• [0062] 42 margin
• [0063] 42a margin
• [0064] 42b margin
• [0065] 50 garment hanger instrument
• [0066] 52 score line
• [0067] 60 garment hanger
• [0068] 62 adhesive coating
• [0069] 64 first window
• [0070] 66 second window
• [0071] 68 plastic window cover
• [0072] 69 plastic window cover