Loose-leaf binder

Abstract

A loose-leaf binder comprises a back and a loose-leaf coil. The back comprises a lower sheet and an upper sheet. Each side of the back is formed with a track having a downward opening. At least one end of the back is formed with an open end portion. Each lateral side edge of the lower sheet is formed with a slightly upwardly projecting flange. The lower sheet is formed with at least one engaging slot corresponding to the open end portion of the flange. The loose-leaf coil to be selectively disposed below the back is formed with continuous C-shaped portions by bending a wire. Each end of each C-shaped portion is formed with a track section to slide in the track of the back. The track section can be selectively engaged and restricted within the engaging slot of the lower sheet of the back.

Claims

1. A loose-leaf binder disposed on a loose-leaf book, the loose-leaf binder comprising: a back comprising a lower sheet and an upper sheet, wherein each of two sides of the back is formed with a track having a downward opening, at least one of two ends of the back is formed with an open end portion, each of two lateral side edges of the lower sheet is formed with a slightly upwardly projecting flange, and the lower sheet is formed with at least one engaging slot corresponding to at least one of two ends of the flange; and a loose-leaf coil selectively disposed below the back, wherein the loose-leaf coil is formed with continuous C-shaped portions by bending a wire, each of two ends of each of the C-shaped portions is formed with a track section which is slid in the track of the back, and the track section of the C-shaped portion is selectively engaged and restricted within the engaging slot of the lower sheet of the back.

2. The loose-leaf binder according to claim 1, wherein an end plug is inserted into the open end portion of the back to close the open end portion of the back.

3. The loose-leaf binder according to claim 1, wherein each of two sides of the upper sheet of the back is formed with a downward extending arced edge portion, and upper sections of two sides of each of the C-shaped portions of the loose-leaf coil are formed with inclined expanding sections corresponding to the arced edge portions of the upper sheet of the back, so that a bottom edge of each of the C-shaped portions is formed with a level section having a width equal to a width of the back, the number of inner papers through which the C-shaped portion passes is increased.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a pictorial exterior of a loose-leaf binder of the invention combined with a loose-leaf book.

(2) FIG. 2 is a pictorially schematically decomposed view showing the loose-leaf binder of the invention for the purpose of illustrating the aspects and the relative relationships of the main elements.

(3) FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the pictorial exterior of the loose-leaf binder of the invention for the purpose of illustrating the state of the combination.

(4) FIGS. 4A and 4B are partially cross-sectional side views showing the loose-leaf binder of the invention for the purpose of illustrating the operation state of the holding plate and the end plug.

(5) FIG. 5 is a schematic top view showing the loose-leaf binder of the invention for the purpose of illustrating the placement state when the fewer loose-leaf pages are present.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(6) The invention relates to a loose-leaf binder having the specific embodiment to be exemplified with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the relative terms, such as front, rear, left, right, top, bottom, upper, lower, horizontal and vertical, may be used herein for ease of description to describe the invention. The relative terms do not restrict the invention, and do not restrict the member to any position or spatial orientation. The dimensions specified in the drawings or specification may be modified according to the design and requirement of the specific embodiment of the invention without departing from spirit or scope of the claimed invention.

(7) The detailed construction of the loose-leaf binder of the invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The loose-leaf binder comprises a back (10) and a loose-leaf coil (30) combined together, so that the loose-leaf coil (30) can be used to bind binding holes (51) of the side edge of the paper (50).

(8) The back (10) comprises a lower sheet (11), an upper sheet (12) and two parallel upright baffles (13) between the lower sheet (11) and the upper sheet (12), so that the back (10) forms an I-shaped longitudinal body. A space surrounded by the lower sheet (11), the upper sheet (12) and the two upright baffles (13) is formed with an insert slot (15). At least one end of two ends of the back (10) is formed with an open end portion. A portion of the upper sheet (12) abutting upon an end edge corresponding to the open end portion is formed with a retaining hole (150) communicating with the insert slot (15), so that at least one end plug (20) can be selectively engaged and positioned with the retaining hole (150). In addition, two tracks (16) are respectively formed on two opposite outer sides of the two upright baffles (13) between the lower sheet (11) and the upper sheet (12). Furthermore, two sides of the upper sheet (12) are formed with two downward extending arced edge portions (120), respectively, so that an opening (18) is formed between the bottom edge of the arced edge portion (120) of the upper sheet (12) and the edge of the lower sheet (11), and the loose-leaf coil (30) can go out of and slide in the opening (18). Moreover, one slightly upwardly projecting flange (110) is formed on each of two lateral side edges of the lower sheet (11). Also, the lower sheet (11) is formed with at least one engaging slot (111) on at least one of two ends of the flange (110), and the engaging slot (111) is for engaging and limiting the loose-leaf coil (30).

(9) The end plug (20) can be inserted into each open end portion of the back (10). Also, the end plug (20) comprises a plug body (21) for closing each of opposite ends of the back (10), and a base cover (28), wherein the two sides of the plug body (21) are formed with side tines (22) to be inserted into the two side tracks (16) of the back (10), respectively, and a receiving slot (23) is formed between the two side tines (22). The plug body (21) is formed with a U-shaped resilient member (25) in the receiving slot (23). The resilient member (25) may be inserted into the insert slot (15) of the back (10). Also, the top surface of the resilient member (25) is formed with a post (250) corresponding to the retaining hole (150) of the back (10), and the top surface of the post (250) is formed with a downward inclined surface (251) corresponding to the back (10) so that the post (250) of the resilient member (25) can be easily snapped into the retaining hole (150). Furthermore, the free end of the resilient member (25) is formed with an upward compressing edge (26). The base cover (28) can correspondingly cover the end portion of the plug body (21) with the covering range exceeding the post (250), so that an insert space (see FIG. 4A) into which the end portion of the back (10) can be inserted is formed between the outer surface of the plug body (21) and the inner surface of the base cover (28). The middle of the end edge of the base cover (28) is formed with one through hole (29) corresponding to the compressing edge (26) of the resilient member (25), so that the compressing edge (26) can project through the through hole (29) and be pressed by the user to separate the post (250) of the resilient member (25) from the retaining hole (150) of the back (10), and to facilitate the selective engagement and disengagement between the end plug (20) and the back (10).

(10) The loose-leaf coil (30) can be selectively disposed below the back (10), and is formed by bending a wire to have several continuous C-shaped portions (31). Each of two ends of each C-shaped portion (31) is formed with a track section (32) to slide in the track (16) of one of the two sides of the back (10). Furthermore, each of the upper sections of the two sides of each C-shaped portion (31) of the loose-leaf coil (30) is formed with an inclined expanding section (310) corresponding to the arced edge portion (120) of the upper sheet (12) of the back (10), so that the bottom edge of each C-shaped portion (31) is formed with a level section (33), which has the width equal to the width of the back (10) and can pass through the inner papers (50). Thus, the number of the inner papers (50) through which the loose-leaf coil (30) passes can be increased, and the book becomes neater and stabler to enhance the beauty when being placed in an upright manner.

(11) Thus, a beautiful loose-leaf binder that can be operated by one single hand can be constructed.

(12) As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, when the invention is actually used, one of the track sections (32) of each C-shaped portion (31) of the loose-leaf coil (30) is firstly inserted into the binding holes (51) of the papers (50), and then one end of the loose-leaf coil (30) is aligned with one end of the back (10), so that the track sections (32) of the two ends of the loose-leaf coil (30) can be concurrently pushed into the tracks (16) of the two sides of the back (10), and the track section (32) of the loose-leaf coil (30) is in flat surface contact with the flange (110) of the lower sheet (11) of the back (10). At this time, the C-shaped portions (31) and the back (10) form an annular closed state so that the papers (50) cannot be detached from the C-shaped portions (31). Next, the track sections (32) of the C-shaped portions (31) of the two ends of the loose-leaf coil (30) are inserted into the engaging slots (111) of the lower sheet (11) of the back (10), so that the two ends of the loose-leaf coil (30) can be restricted on the back (10) without arbitrarily coming off.

(13) Next, the side tines (22) and the resilient members (25) of the end plugs (20) on the two ends are sequentially aligned with the two side tracks (16) and the insert slots (15) of the two ends of the back (10), and the post (250) of the resilient member (25) is engaged with the retaining hole (150) of the back (10) (see FIG. 4A), so that the end plugs (20) are inserted into two ends of the back (10) (see FIG. 1) to bind the loose-leaf papers (50) into one book.

(14) When the papers (50) of the loose-leaf book are to be replaced, added or removed, the index finger of one hand can be used to support the bottom surface of the end plug (20), and the thumb can be used to press the compressing edge (26), so that the post (250) of the resilient member (25) of the end plug (20) can be separated from the retaining hole (150) of the upper sheet (12) of the back (10) (see FIG. 4B). At this time, the user only needs to directly pull out the end plug (20) to separate the end plug (20) from the back (10). Because the loose-leaf coil (30) is restricted by the engaging slot (111) of the lower sheet (11) of the back (10), the loose-leaf coil (30) cannot easily come off, and the user can easily take out the loose-leaf coil (30), and further remove the papers (50) of the loose-leaf book from the loose-leaf coil (30) to perform the replacement, addition or removing.

(15) According to the above-mentioned description, it is obtained that the loose-leaf binder of the invention has the following advantages and effects.

(16) First, the design that the two side flanges (110) of the lower sheet (11) of the back (10) are formed with the engaging slots (111) can be utilized, so that the C-shaped portions (31) of the two ends of the loose-leaf coil (30) can be restricted, the C-shaped portions (31) of the loose-leaf coil (30) can be held equally spaced, and it is possible to prevent the loose-leaf coil (30) from arbitrarily coming off after the end plugs (20) are removed from the two ends of the back (10).

(17) Second, because the C-shaped portion (31) of the loose-leaf coil (30) is inserted into the engaging slot (111) of the back (10) and the side tine (22) of the end plug (20) is attached to the inner surface of the back (10), the loose-leaf coil (30) cannot be rubbed when the end plug (20) is pulled, the displacement of the loose-leaf coil (30) cannot be caused, and the operation convenience can be enhanced.

(18) In addition, the end plug (20) has the resilient member (25), and the post (250) of the resilient member (25) can be selectively engaged with or disengaged from the back (10), so that the user can use one single hand to operate the engagement and disengagement between the end plug (20) and the back (10), and the operation convenience can be effectively enhanced.

(19) Furthermore, the two sides of the upper sheet (12) of the back (10) have the downward arced edge portions (120) working in conjunction with the inclined expanding sections (310) of the C-shaped portions (31) of the loose-leaf coil (30), so that the bottom edge of each C-shaped portion (31) is formed with the level section (33) having the width equal to the width of the back (10), the number of papers that can be bound can be increased, and the page capacity can be greater than that corresponding to the width of the back (10). Thus, when the books are horizontally stacked or stand on the bookshelf, the front covers of the books can be in direct contact with each other and stacked without being affected by the too-wide back (10). So, the tilting down phenomenon can be prevented, and the overall smoothness and beauty can be enhanced according to its special property.

(20) In summary, it is understood that the creative invention can effectively solve the problems encountered in the prior art, and further significantly enhance the effect. Since there is no product or public use that is the same as the invention with the enhanced effects in this technical field, the invention as filed is novel and cannot be obviously made.

(21) Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.