CA1098701A - Reinforced articles of elastomeric material - Google Patents

Abstract

REINFORCED ARTICLES OF ELASTOMERIC MATERIAL
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present invention relates to facial likenesses or caricatures made of elastomeric materials and reinforced with wire in a manner such that the facial position can be manipulated to selectively alter the expression or appear-ance thereof.

Description

The present invention relates to the art oE manufac-ture of articles such as facial likenesses or caricatures made of elastomeric resilient materials such as rubber or plastics which can be cast or molded.
The art of casting or molding of articles made from resilient rubber or plastic r.laterials is well developed and facial likenesses of known or fictitious characters can of course be made therefrom. Wllile resilient materials oE this type can be readily deformed, due to the elastic memory of the materials of which the caricatures are manu-factured, only a single facial expression has heretofore been attainable.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a facial likeness or caricature in which the facial ex-pression can be selectively changed by simple manipulation o, the caricature.
The present invention accordingly provides an article of elastomeric material having a facial portion in tne iorm of a facial likeness or a caricature capable of assuming a variety of different Eacial expressions, said article having derormable reinforcement embedded in the elastomeric material and said facial portion and said reinforcement being capable of being manually Manipulated and said rein-forcement holding the elastomeric material in the selected facial expression, said reinEorcement comprising a first reinforcing member extending substan-tially around the periphery of the Eacial portion of the article and a second reinforcing member extending transversely across the facial portion of the article, said second reinforcing mer~er being affixed to said first reinforcing member.

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The advantages and the objectives of the present invention are attained in the following description of a preferred embodi-ment.

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1 ¦ BRIEF D2SCRIPTION OE' TH~: DRA~INGS
3 I In the accompanying drawinys:
4 I Figure 1 comprises a front view of a caricature con-5 structed in accordance with the preferred embodiment and . 6 ¦ shows the external features thereof;
7 ¦ Figure 2 comprises a rear view showing built-up areas 8 ¦ in which the resilient rubber or piastic material is .
9 thickened and reinforced;
10 ¦ Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the reinforcement 11 ¦ and 13 ¦ Figure 4 is a profile or side view, partly in section, 14 ¦ of the caricature shown in Figure 1.
15 ¦ DETAILED DESCRIPTION ` s 16 ¦ Articles according to the present invention can be made .
17 ¦ of any suitable non-toxic resilient rubber or plastic mater-18 ¦ ial which can be cast in a mold. Non-toxicity of the plastic 20 I material is not an essential characteristic but is highly , 21 I desirable since articles constructed according to the present 22 ¦ invention will frequently be used as toy items where they 23 ¦ can be subjected to use by children thus non-toxicity of each 24 ¦ material is highly desirable.
25 ¦ In Figure 1 is shown a facial caricature 2 including 2271 all of the usual facial features and in which a face 3 is 281 shown immediately adjacent a pair~of feet 4. It will of 29 course be appreciated that any shape of the caricature can 301 be used with or without feet adjacent to the face 3. As . :
31¦ can be seen from Figure 1, the eyes 6 will comprise gener-321 ally cylindrical or conical projections 8 which are inset

-2-~ 1~9~37~1 1 ¦ into the face 3 in a recessed area 10. Such construction 2 ¦ enables the eyes 6 to be protruded forwardly from the face 3

3 ¦ to the dashed line position shown in Figure 4 by manipulation from the rear of the article as will be described subsequently 6 ¦ in greater detail.
7 ¦ As also seen in Figure 1, the mouth 12 is shown to com-8 prise separate upper and lower lips 13, 14 which extend for-9 wardly and which are generally parallel to each other.
Reference is here made to Figure 4 which is the profile view, 12 partially in section, showing the spacing of the lips 13, 14 13 from each other. Also shown in dashed line position in Fig-14 ure 4 is the location to which the eyes 6 and lips 13, 14 can be forwardly protruded if desired.
16 As seen in Figure 2, the rear portion of the face portion 17 of the article includes a generally concave cavity 16. The 18 facial portion has a thickened periphery 18 extending there- ~l 19 around for reception of a peripheral reinforcement 20 which li 21 may be a wire. The peripheral reinforcement 20 includes two 22 end portions each having a suitably configured anchor 21 23 which is embedded in the material immediately below the facial 24 portion of the article as shown. A second reinforcment wire 24 which may be in the form of a generally rectangular loop 26 is located in the facial portion of the article as shown to 2278 provide reinforcing at the area adjacent the eyebrows 25 and 2 in the area adjacent the lower lip 14. A third reinforcing wire 26 is located as shown to provide transverse reinforce-33l ment for the upper lip 13.

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l All of the reinforcing wires 20, 24, 26 will be made of 2 a deformable wire which preferably comprises a stainless 3 steel annealed alloy which is corrosion free. Such wire can 5 be readily deformed and will hold its selected shape. Pref-6 erably a non-toxic coating of high density polyethylene will 7 be u~ed on the wire which is embedded in the resilient mater-8 ial of which the article is made.
9 Again referring to Figure 2, it can be seen that the areas 24a and 26a in which the wires24, 26 respectively are 12 embedded are constructed to be somewhat thicker or more 13 massive than the remainder of the article in order to provide l an adequate thickness of material surrounding each reinfor-15 cing wire. Also, each eye 6 is mounted on a boss 9 of rela- 7 l tively thin material so that depression of the boss 9 will 17 readily cause the eyes 6 to be protruded forwardly. Similar-l ly, a boss 15 extends in the cavity immediately behind the 2 mouth 12 such that depression of th~ boss 15 will cause a 2 change in configuration of the mouth 12.
2 For clarity in illustration, the reinforcement is shown 2 separ~tely in Figure 3. While three separate pieces of rein-24 forcing wire 20, 24, 26 hav~ been shown it will be appreciated 25 by persons skilled in the art that different patterns of rein-226 forcement may be more appropriate for different usages. In 2 the preferred embodiment, the reinforcing wires are welded or 2 otherwise bonded together before they are embedded in the 30 resilient material during the casting or molding process.
31 Thus, the reinforcing wires will not become detached from 3 each other but will remain capable of assuming whichever posi-tion is desired.

1o987ol j 1 ¦ The type of elastomeric material, thickness thereof and 2 ¦ typé of wire must be selected together to ensure that the 3 finished article can be readily manipulated by hand to select-

4 ively alter the facial expressions. Thus the wire must be 6 ¦ stiff enough to hold the elastomeric material in the desired 7 shape~yet the wire must be flexible enough so that it can be s 8 easily bent and will retain its position -9 By way of example only, articles have been constructed in which the size of the facial portion is approximately 4"
11 in width and 4 1/2" in height. The elastomeric material is 23 about 3/16" thick in most portions except those having re-14 inforcing wire therein wherein a minimum of about 1/8" cover exists on all sides of the wire. The wire employed was an 16 18 guage stainless steel having a polyethylene coating thereon.
17 Such articles can be easily manipulated to assume and retain ', 18 desired facial expressions of infinite variety. The facial 29 portions of the articles can be made to smile, frown, laugh, 21 squint, stare or any combination of the above. The lips can 22 be spread apart or pressed close together and the eyebrown can 23 be pushed downwardly or upwardly to register anger or surprose, 24 etc.
While the foregoing constitutes a complete description of 26 the preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated by persons 27 skilled in the art that modifications can be made from the 28 preferred embodiment and the scope of protection is to be evaluated solely with respect to the attached claims.

Claims (9)

1. An article of elastomeric material having a facial portion in the form of a facial likeness or a caricature capable of assuming a variety of different facial expressions, said article having deformable reinforcement embedded in the elastomeric material and said facial portion and said reinforcement being capable of being manually manipulated and said reinforcement holding the elastomeric material in the selected facial expression, said reinforcement comprising a first reinforcing member extending substantially around the periphery of the facial portion of the article and a second reinforcing member extending transversely across the facial portion of the article, said second reinforcing member being affixed to said first reinforcing member.

2. An article of elastomeric material according to claim 1 wherein said reinforcement is metallic.

3. An article of elastomeric material according to claim 2, wherein said second reinforcing member provides reinforcement extending in the area of said facial portion transversely thereof substantially above the eyebrows.

4. An article of elastomeric material according to claim 3 including a reinforcing member in said facial portion extending transversely thereof below the lower lip.

5. An article of elastomeric material according to claim 4 wherein said second reinforcing member is generally in the form of a rectangular loop and provides said transverse reinforcing members above the eyebrows and below the lower lip.

6. An article of elastomeric material according to claim 5 wherein said second reinforcing member is affixed to said first reinforcing member at locations adjacent the narrow ends of said rectangular loop.

7. An article of elastomeric material according to claim 6 further comprising a third reinforcing member providing reinforcement in said facial portion transversely thereof in the area of the upper lip.

8. An article of elastomeric material according to claim 7 wherein said third reinforcing member is affixed at the ends thereof to said first and second reinforcing members.

9. An article of elastomeric material according to claim 1 wherein said reinforcement comprises a wire having a non-toxic plastic coating thereon.