Breakable Finger Ring

Abstract

A breakable finger ring made of any material comprising links that allow the invention to break apart when force is applied. The invention permits release of finger from the ring in case the ring gets caught in moving machinery or heavy object. One or more weak links are placed in various locations to allow the ring to fail gracefully. The links comprising of interlocking members encompass slots where shafts can either be molded in place or inserted. The shafts to be made of any material with lower tensile and shear strengths than the ring members.

Claims

1. A ring for being worn on a finger and comprising: ring members; and one or more links which allow the invention to break apart.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein the links are of weaker material compared to the invention of claim 3.

3. The invention of claim 1 wherein the ring members are made of any material including, but not limited to, polymers, metals and metal alloys, or stones and minerals.

4. The invention of claim 1 further comprising shaft with varying shapes and cross-sectional areas.

5. The invention of claim 4 wherein the shaft is either molded in place or inserted in the slots in the invention of claim 7.

6. The invention of claim 3 wherein the ring has interlocking members at either ends.

7. The invention of claim 6 wherein the said interlocking members comprising of slots where the invention of claim 4 is placed using method in the invention of claim 5.

8. The invention of claim 4 wherein the shaft is made of any material with tensile and shear strengths of less than that of the invention of claim 3.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

[0010] Different views of the invention are presented in the Drawings section of this application. These illustrations are non-limitative thereof, in which:

[0011] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the ring; and

[0012] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the invention with the separate ring members exploded for clarity; and

[0013] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the link containing the shaft; and

[0014] FIG. 4 shows non-limitative elevation views of the invention; and

[0015] FIG. 5 shows non-limitative top views of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0016] With reference to the drawings, one or more links are strategically placed around the ring to allow the invention to break apart when load is applied. These links can be placed at locations shown in FIG. 5 or any variations deemed appropriate by the manufacturer or designer.

[0017] The shaft, denoted as 3 in FIGS. 4 and 5, can be melted in place using any polymer, tin-silver solder alloys or any metal alloys. Alternately, the shaft can be any metals with low tensile strength like silver. In most cases, the said shaft can be molded separately before it is inserted in the designated slot. The cross-sectional area and shape of the shaft can be adjusted based on the desired design and load resisting capacity.

[0018] Because the failure mechanism depends on the low tensile and shear strengths of the shaft, the ring members denoted as 1 in FIGS. 4 and 5, can be made of any material including, but not limited to, natural and man-made stones and minerals, metal and metal alloys, or polymers. The versatility of this invention makes it more desirable than existing rubber rings intended to relieve the users from the danger of ring avulsion.

[0019] Another way to execute the invention is by combining materials of different strengths. For example, during the production of the ring, the ring members can be connected using silver or tin alloy solders or any weaker material. This will allow the ring to break apart without the interlocking members and shaft described above. The invention can be carried out not only in new rings, but also in existing rings. This can be done by cutting the ring in separate members and connecting them back using the variations of weak links described in this report.

[0020] Although the invention has been described above using specific design and processes, it should be understood that various modifications, additions and alterations may be made to the invention without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the affixed claims.