Button Fastening Kit Resilient Gating Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional methods for attaching buttons to garments are slow, laborious, and prone to detachment, with existing solutions often requiring sewing or metal crimping, and lacking in reattachment capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A Button Assembly Kit that uses a resilient gating mechanism with terminal elements and anchoring structures to securely fasten buttons to garments without sewing or metal crimping, utilizing piercing cones and spacing rings for easy and permanent attachment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional sewing methods are used to attach buttons, then the attachment is relatively secure, but the process is slow and laborious
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the button from the garment and provides a separate reattachment kit containing a button retainer and button combination tool. This allows the button to be detached completely and reattached later using a simple push-in mechanism rather than requiring sewing, thus improving productivity while maintaining reliability through the secure engagement of the button retainer with the garment fabric.
Solution Approach 2:
The button retainer is designed with self-gripping features that automatically secure the button when inserted into the garment. The resilient gripping elements engage with the button holes without requiring additional tools or complex assembly steps, enabling users to attach buttons themselves without sewing skills, thereby improving both productivity and accessibility.
2Reliability
If metallic pedestal crimping is used to attach buttons, then the attachment is robust, but the device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The button retainer is designed as a simple, inexpensive plastic component that can be easily manufactured and replaced. Rather than using complex metallic crimping mechanisms, the retainer uses a simple push-in design with resilient gripping elements that secure the button through friction and elastic deformation, significantly reducing device complexity and manufacturing cost while maintaining adequate attachment robustness for typical button loads.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the material parameter from metal to plastic and the attachment mechanism from mechanical crimping to elastic gripping. The resilient gripping elements are made of flexible material that deforms elastically to grip the button, transforming the attachment mechanism from a complex metalworking process to a simple elastic deformation process, thereby reducing complexity while maintaining robustness.
3Adaptability or versatility
If threaded buttons are used, then the attachment can be adjusted, but the buttons tend to detach and fall frequently
Solution Approach 1:
The button retainer serves as an intermediary component between the button and the garment. It features a recess that receives the button and resilient gripping elements that secure it in place. This intermediary structure provides both adjustability (the button can be removed and reattached) and stability (the gripping elements hold the button firmly), resolving the contradiction between adaptability and reliability.
4Productivity
If existing button assemblies are designed for fast attachment, then the attachment speed improves, but they are not designed for button reattachment
Solution Approach 1:
The button retainer and combination tool are designed as a universal system that can attach buttons to various garments with different fabric types and button hole configurations. The resilient gripping elements adapt to different button sizes and shapes, and the tool can accommodate various button retainers, making the system versatile for both initial attachment and reattachment scenarios across different garment types.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Facilitates quick, robust, and tool-free button attachment to garments, ensuring secure fastening that withstands pulling forces and can be manufactured inexpensively from common materials, addressing the limitations of existing methods.
Implementation Method 1
the action of trapping is initiated by a forceful intrusion of a terminal element into the aperture which houses the trapping mechanism. The intrusion of the terminal element bends a multiplicity of resilient flaps (i.e. a multiplicity of resilient gates) which reside at the entrance of the aperture housed at the anchoring structure. Once the terminal element reaches below the tips of the maximally bended flaps, the flaps are released. Next, the released flaps unbend due to their elasticity and turn upwards until they end up resting on the pole above the terminal element
Data Source
AI summary
The kit comprises a fastening structure and an anchoring structure. The fastening structure includes two vertical poles which are connected at their top ends by a horizontal bar and are inserted into two apertures of the button. The lower ends of the poles are attached to terminal elements. The anchoring structure comprises two trapping mechanisms which are configured to trap the terminal elements and to prevent them from detachment once they fully enter the mechanisms. The user places the fastening structure with the button above the cloth at the desired location and places the trapping mechanisms below the cloth opposite to the terminal elements. Next, the user pushes the poles downwards pierces the cloth and permanently traps the terminal elements by fully inserting them into the trapping mechanisms. The user can create a buttoning gap by installing two spacing rings on the poles between the button and the cloth.