Spectacles frame with hinge arrangement and method for assembling the spectacles frame |
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申请号 | EP10006131.6 | 申请日 | 2010-06-14 | 公开(公告)号 | EP2270576A1 | 公开(公告)日 | 2011-01-05 |
申请人 | Monoqool ApS; | 发明人 | Jensen, Claus; Holbæk, Henrik; | ||||
摘要 | Spectacles or a spectacle frame with a front part and a pair of temples hingealbly connected to the front part by a hinge construction that uses a row of apertures in the front part and a helical wire section. One end of the helical wire section is attached to an extremity of a temple and the helical wire section is threaded through the apertures in the row. | ||||||
权利要求 | |||||||
说明书全文 | The present invention relates to eyeglasses and spectacles, and in particular to hinge construction for connecting the temples to the front part of the frame of eyeglasses or spectacles and to a method of assembling the frame for eyeglasses or spectacles. A vast myriad of different hinge constructions for connecting the temples to the front part of eyeglasses or spectacles is known. The hinge construction must fulfill several requirements. It must allow the temples to be moved between a folded position for storage and transport of the eyeglasses and an open position. Further, it must keep the temples in the open position in a firm way. Further, the hinge construction must be light and strong, inexpensive and easy to assemble. The most common hinge construction resembles a "door hinge" type of mechanism having a pin connecting two hinge halves, each of which is attached to the frame by screws or rivets. The pin is a threaded screw or bolt so as to fix the pin and to tighten the hinge by adjusting the screw to a friction level that is appropriate, typically so that the temples stay in the position that they are left. In this type of hinge construction there are many parts to manufacture and go wrong. Most commonly this screw will work loose and may become lost. On this background, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hinge construction for spectacles or a spectacle frame that is simple, reliable, aesthetic and easy to manufacture. This object is achieved by providing spectacles or a spectacle frame, said spectacles or spectacle frame comprising a front part for receiving the lenses and a pair of temples, each of the temples is connected at one of their extremities to an end of the front part by a hinge construction to allow the temples to move between a folded and an open position, wherein the hinge construction comprises a row of apertures located at an end of the front part and a helical wire section with one end of the wire section attached to a temple and the helical wire section being threaded through the apertures in the row. The hinge construction is easy to manufacture since it simple and involves only features that can be achieved in a straightforward manner and involves very few components. The construction is a reliable since there are not parts that can come loose or disengaged. Preferably, the helical wire section has a helical portion that is threaded though the apertures and a substantially straight portion that is connected to an extremity of a temple or the straight section is part of a temple. The hinge construction can be configured such that the free end of the helical wire section abuts with a surface of the front part when the temple is in said open position An indentation can be provided in the surface of the front part at the position where the free end of the wire section abuts with the front part. The front part may surround a pair of lenses and the row of apertures may include an aperture that interrupts a loop of material of the front part surrounding a lens, said row of apertures and said spiral wire section being configured to close said open loop and to tighten said loop around the lens when the spiral wire section is threaded through the apertures. The front part may comprise two ledges at a substantially straight angle with the overall extend of the front part and the row of apertures is located in said ledges The row of apertures can be located in the lenses for obtain a rimless frame. The cross sectional of said helical wire section wire has a circular or oval or rectangular or polygon shape. The object above is also achieved by a method for assembling a spectacle frame, said method comprising threading a helical wire section attached at one of its extremities to an extremity of a temple through a row of apertures provided in a front part of a spectacle frame. The method allows for a simple effective and reliable assembly of the frame. Further objects, features, advantages and properties of the spectacle frame and method according to the invention will become apparent from the detailed description. In the following detailed portion of the present description, the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the exemplary embodiments shown in the drawings, in which:
In the following detailed description of the spectacle frame and spectacles (eyeglasses) according to the invention will be described by the exemplary embodiments. The front part 10 is provided with loops that surround the lenses 11 and with two nose pads 18. The front part 10 can be made of any usual material for spectacles, such as for example plastic (also fiber reinforced), various metals including stainless steel, in the form of plate, wire or molded material. Each temple 12 has front end for attaching to a front part 10 of the spectacles and a tip end for locating over the user's ear. In the embodiment of The temples 12 are connected to the front part 10 by a hinge construction that includes a helical wire section 15. In this embodiment the wire material of the temple 12 is formed as one piece with the helical wire section 15. The helical wire section 15 is threaded through a role of apertures 20 that is provided in the front part 10. The helical wire section 15 can rotate inside the row of apertures 20 to a certain extent so as to allow the temple 12 to move between the folded position and the open position. In the open position the free end of the helical wire section 15 abuts with the surface of the front part 10 and the temple 12 can therefore not move further outwards than the shown open position. Thereby, the spectacles are firmly held on a user's head. At the position on the surface of the front part 10 where the free end of the helical portion 15 abuts therewith there can be provided an indentation (not shown) that ensures that the free end of the helical portion 15 does not move sideways over the surface of the front part when the free end of the helical portion 15 is forced to the surface and thus, scratching of the surface of the front part 10 can be avoided. A row of apertures 20 is provided at each side (extremity) of the front part 10. In the embodiment of When the helical wire section 15 is threaded through the apertures in the loop in the front part 10 is closed and tightened. In an embodiment the lead of the helical wire section 15 is chosen to give a slight discrepancy between the distance between successive windings of the helical wire section 15 and the distance between successive apertures in the row 20 to cause a certain amount of friction that ensures that the temples stay in the position at which a user leaves them, e.g. in the folded or in the open position. When the open loop front part 10 of The handedness of the windings in the helical wire section 15 is chosen such that rotation in the direction in which the temple 12 moves from the folded position to the open position causes the helical section to be threaded further into the row of holes. As shown in The embodiments described above are illustrated with reference to substantially closed apertures in the row of apertures. However, the invention can also be used with apertures that open up to one side of the front part 10, as long as the shape of the apertures is suitable for engaging the material of the helical wire section and for preventing the helical wire section to disengage form the apertures. The embodiments described above are described with reference to a single helical wire section 15 at each opposite end of the front part 10. However, more than one helical wire section 15 can be used at one and the same side of the front part 10. In such an embodiment one end of each of for example two helical wire sections 15 on one side of the front portion 10 is connected to the temple associated with that side of the front part 10. Thus, a wide temple could be supported by a helical wire section 15 at the top of the side of the front part 10 and a helical wire section at the bottom of the side of the front part 10. Preferably, these two helical wire sections 15 will have an opposite handedness. The embodiments above are described with reference to a wire based temple. However, in other embodiments (not shown) the temples can be made of non-wire material, such as plastic plate or molded material or metal plate or cast material and the temple is attached with its front end to an extremity of a helical wire section 15. The term "comprising" as used in the claims does not exclude other elements or steps. The term "a" or "an" as used in the claims does not exclude a plurality. Although the present invention has been described in detail for purpose of illustration, it is understood that such detail is solely for that purpose, and variations can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. |