WO2021207778A1

WO2021207778A1 - A glasses frame

Info

Publication number: WO2021207778A1
Application number: PCT/AU2020/050374
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nikolas ROBINSON; Edward Ko
Original assignee: Good Citizens Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Good Citizens Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-15
Filing date: 2020-04-15
Publication date: 2021-10-21
Anticipated expiration: 2022-10-15

Abstract

A glasses frame is described including: a frame front; two arms which are hingedly attached to the frame front; each arm includes a pair of spaced apart resilient portions, and each resilient portion includes an engagement formation; the engagement formations may be moved towards and away from each other by virtue of the resiliency of the resilient portions and are arranged to engage with corresponding formations provided on the frame front to attach the arms to the frame front; and a retaining piece is associated with each arm and maintains the resilient portions in their spaced apart relationship to retain each arm in engagement with the frame front.

Description

A GLASSES FRAME

Technical Field The present invention relates to a glasses frame such as is used to fabricate a pair of spectacles or sunglasses.

Background to the Invention Glasses frames typically include two arms which are hingedly attached to a frame front. Apertures are provided in the frame front for mounting a pair of lenses. When used to fabricate spectacles, vision corrective lenses are fitted to the frame. In the case of sunglasses, tinted and/or polarised lenses are used.

Glasses are made up of several different materials and the frames might be made from aluminium, steel, gold or plastic. This makes it difficult to recycle them.

In particular, the hinge mechanism which affixes each arm to the frame front typically includes an arrangement including a pair of metal hinge pieces, one affixed to the frame, and one to the arm, with a screw joining the two which also acts as a pivot pin. It would be advantageous to provide a glasses frame which was more easily recyclable.

Summary of the Invention In a first aspect the present invention provides a glasses frame including: a frame front; two arms which are hingedly attached to the frame front; each arm includes a pair of spaced apart resilient portions, and each resilient portion includes an engagement formation; the engagement formations may be moved towards and away from each other by virtue of the resiliency of the resilient portions and are arranged to engage with corresponding formations provided on the frame front to attach the arms to the frame front; and a retaining piece is associated with each arm and maintains the resilient portions in their spaced apart relationship to retain each arm in engagement with the frame front. The engagement formation provided on each resilient portion may be a projection and each corresponding formation provided on the frame front may be a recess.

The projections may be substantially dome shaped.

The recesses may be substantially cylindrical.

Each retaining piece may be located between the opposed resilient portions.

Each retaining piece may be attached to the frame front.

Each retaining piece may be attached by snap fitting to the frame front.

Each retaining piece may be removed by pushing on a rearwardly facing surface of the retaining piece from the rear face of the frame front.

The rearwardly facing surface of the retaining piece may be covered by a breakaway portion of the frame front.

The frame front may include two through holes which accommodate a portion of each retaining piece.

Each retaining piece may extend around a side of the frame front from the front face of the frame front to the rear face of the frame front.

All of the frame front, the arms and the retaining pieces may be formed from recyclable plastic.

All of the frame front, the arms and the retaining pieces may be formed from recycled plastic.

The present invention provides a novel mechanism for hingedly attaching the arms of a glasses frame to the frame front which enables the entire glasses frame to be formed from recyclable plastic. This allows the entire glasses frame to be recycled easily without the need to dismantle the frame or to remove small metal components and thereby eliminates waste going to landfill.

Furthermore, the glasses frame can itself be formed from recycled plastic materials which therefore avoids the use of virgin plastics produced from fossil based petrochemical feed-stock, such as natural gas or crude oil to further reduce the environmental impact of the production of glasses frames.

Brief Description of the Drawings

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a glasses frame according to an embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is an upper perspective view of the glasses frame of figure 1;

Figure 3 is a detailed close up view of the inside of the right hand side of the glasses frame of figure 1, showing the hinge mechanism in enlarged detail;

Figure 4 is a wireframe view of figure 3, showing hidden details;

Figure 5 shows the region of the glasses frame of figure 4, but viewed from the outside of the glasses frame; and

Figure 6 is a top down cross sectional view of the region of the glasses frame shown in figure 3, with the cross section being taken through and in a plane parallel to the shim 40.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Referring to figures 1 and 2, a glasses frame 10 is shown including a frame front 20 and two arms 30, 31. The arms 30, 39 are hingedly attached to the frame front 20 by way of a hinge arrangement and are retained in engagement with the frame front by way of retaining pieces in the form of shims 40, 49. The frame front 20, the arms 30, 39 and the shims are all formed from recycled plastic which is in itself recyclable such as rPET or recycled nylon. Apertures 50 are shown fitted with lenses, which may be any type of lenses including vision corrective lenses or, in the case of sunglasses, tinted or polarised lenses.

The hinge mechanism used to hingedly attach each of the arms 30, 39 to the frame front 20 will now be described with reference to a detailed description of the right hand side of the glasses frame 10 which is shown in enlarged detail in figures 3 to 6.

Referring to figures 3 to 5, arm 30 includes a pair of spaced apart resilient portions in the form of upper finger 31 and lower finger 33. Upper finger 31 includes an engagement formation in the form of an upwardly directed projection being a dome shaped projection 32. Similarly, lower finger 33 includes a downwardly directed dome shaped projection 34.

The dome shaped projections 32, 34 engage with corresponding formations provided on the frame front. Frame front 20 includes an upper lug 21 which includes an engagement formation in the form of a substantially cylindrical aperture 22 which receives dome shaped projection 32 and lower lug 23 includes a substantially cylindrical aperture 24 which receives dome shaped projection 32.

When arm 30 is not attached to the frame front 20, the dome shaped projections 32, 34 may be moved towards each other by squeezing the fingers 31, 33 together. When the fingers are released, the projections move apart again by virtue of the resiliency of the plastic used to form the fingers 31, 33. The arm 30 can therefore be attached to the frame front by squeezing the fingers 31, 33 together and then releasing them to engage the dome shaped projections 32, 34 with the cylindrical apertures 22,

24.

Referring now also to figure 6, the shim 40 is then located between the fingers 31, 33 and is snap fitted about a region 26 of the frame front. The shim 40 snap fits about the region 26 by virtue of the resiliency of the plastic from which the shim is formed. The outer perimeter of the shim extends around the side of the frame front 20 from the front of the frame front to the rear of the frame front.

When located between the fingers 31, 33, the shim 40 prevents the fingers 31, 33 from moving towards each other and thereby prevents the dome shaped projections 31, 33 from becoming disengaged from the apertures 22, 24 to thereby retain each arm in engagement with the frame front. The projections 32, 34 and apertures 22, 24 form a hinge about which the arm can rotate with respect to the frame so that the arms of the glasses frame can be folded for storage, and unfolded to be worn, in a usual manner.

It may be desired to change one or both of the arms of the glasses frame. This could be done to fit arms of a different length, style or colour, or to replace an arm which has become damaged. If at any time it is desired to remove arm 30 from the frame, then the shim 40 can be released by using a small tool to push on surface 42 of the shim through the rear end of either of hole 25 to temporarily deform the shim and release it from being clipped around the region 26. The fingers 31, 33 can then be squeezed together and arm 30 can then be removed and refitted at a later time, or a different arm can be fitted, by squeezing the fingers 31, 33 together and reattaching the arm 30 to the frame front and refitting the shim 40.

The left hand side of the frame is a mirror image of the right hand side which has been described in detail above and operates in an identical manner to attach arm 39 using shim 49.

In some embodiments, rather than providing a completely through hole 25, a small breakaway portion may be provided which blinds the hole 25 at the rear face of the frame front. The breakaway portion can be broken away by pushing on the breakaway portion with a small tool to thereby push on the rear portion of the shim to release the shim. Providing a breakaway portion may allow for improved flow of molten plastic material during an injection moulding operation used to produce the frame front 20.

It can be seen that embodiments of the invention have at least one of the following advantages:

• A glasses frame can be formed entirely of plastic, with no metal components required for the hinge mechanism. This in turn means that the glasses frame can be formed entirely from recyclable plastic which could also itself be recycled plastic. · In the case of a desire to change one or both of the arms of the glasses frame, then this can be easily achieved by releasing the snap-fitted shims which retain the arms to the frame front.

Any reference to prior art contained herein is not to be taken as an admission that the information is common general knowledge, unless otherwise indicated.

Finally, it is to be appreciated that various alterations or additions may be made to the parts previously described without departing from the spirit or ambit of the present invention.

Claims

1. A glasses frame including: a frame front; two arms which are hingedly attached to the frame front; each arm includes a pair of spaced apart resilient portions, and each resilient portion includes an engagement formation; the engagement formations may be moved towards and away from each other by virtue of the resiliency of the resilient portions and are arranged to engage with corresponding formations provided on the frame front to attach the arms to the frame front; and a retaining piece is associated with each arm and maintains the resilient portions in their spaced apart relationship to retain each arm in engagement with the frame front.

2. A glasses frame according to claim 1 wherein the engagement formation provided on each resilient portion is a projection and each corresponding formation provided on the frame front is a recess.

3. A glasses frame according to claim 2 wherein the projections are substantially dome shaped.

4. A glasses frame according to claim 2 wherein the recesses are substantially cylindrical.

5. A glasses frame according to any preceding wherein each retaining piece is located between the opposed resilient portions.

6. A glasses frame according to any preceding claim wherein each retaining piece is attached to the frame front.

7. A glasses frame according to claim 6 wherein each retaining piece is attached by snap fitting to the frame front.

8. A glasses frame according to claim 7 wherein the retaining piece can be removed by pushing on a rearwardly facing surface of the retaining piece from the rear face of the frame front.

9. A glasses frame according to claim 8 wherein the rearwardly facing surface of the retaining piece is covered by a breakaway portion of the frame front.

10. A glasses frame according to claim 8 wherein the frame front includes two through holes which accommodate a portion of each retaining piece.

11. A glasses frame according to any preceding claim wherein each retaining piece extends around a side of the frame front from the front face of the frame front to the rear face of the frame front.

12. A glasses frame according to any preceding claim wherein all of the frame front, the arms and the retaining pieces are formed from recyclable plastic.

13. A glasses frame according to any preceding claim wherein all of the frame front, the arms and the retaining pieces are formed from recycled plastic.