Devices of this type are generally intended to clip on a belt, or the edge of an article of clothing, for the purpose of carrying an article about without the inconvenience of holding it in the hand, or carrying it in a pocket. The article to be carried may be anything from a simple tool which is needed frequently to a sophisticated portable terminal used to input data, or a mobile telephone.

Known devices for this purpose include a clothing attachment means in the form of a clip for attaching to a belt or other article of clothing (such as the edge of a pocket) and a releasable fastening for enabling the portable equipment to be attached and released from the clip, as needed.

Prolonged wearing of the known device can become uncomfortable because the equipment being carried tends to interfere with the normal movement of the body, particularly when sitting or crouching or in an unusual position. A particular problem is that the edge of the equipment tends to dig in to the body during, for example, sitting necessitating frequent re-arrangement of the device and the item being carried to ease discomfort.

The present invention seeks to overcome this problem by providing, between the clothing attachment means and the releasable fastening, a flexible connection means.

The flexible connection means may for example comprise a piece of planar flexible material which is attached, on the one hand, to the clothing attachment means and, on the other hand, to the releasable fastening, by connections which are spaced apart, thus leaving a section of the flexible material between the two. Preferably the flexible connection means comprises a flat strip or strap of flexible material, having the clothing attachment means attached at one end and the releasable fastening at the other. When worn, the normal orientation of the device is with the clothing

attachment means uppermost, and the releasable fastening beneath, interconnected by the flexible connection means.

The material of the flexible connection means may be any suitable flexible material which may be woven, solid or composite, and may be of natural or synthetic material.

Although the clothing attachment means will generally comprise a clip, it is possible to provide alternative clothing attachment means such as buttons or the device could even be formed integrally with a suitable belt or strap intended to be worn on the body.

Preferably the releasable fastening includes means for pivotally supporting the equipment so that it can be pivotted to improve comfort during normal movement of the body, and also deliberately turned to view the equipment more clearly-for example to view a screen or operate buttons.

In the preferred embodiment, pivotting is also the means whereby the equipment may be released from the fastening to enable it to be used normally To this end, means are provided for preventing the equipment from being released until the equipment has been pivotted to a certain angle or range of angles, whereupon it can be removed.

In an embodiment, the releasable fastening comprises a tray-like member having a circular wall within which pivots a correspondingly-sized circular member which forms part of or is attached to the equipment to be carried. Means are provided for holding the circular member within the tray-like member, but the aforementioned circular walls extend only over a limited arc, leaving no wall over an arc of sufficient length to allow the circular member to be slid out. Preferably, the tray-like member is oriented, when in use, such that the part with no wall is the upper part so that the circular member has to be raised against gravity in order to remove it. Also, the means for holding the circular member within the tray-like member are such that the circular member can only be released when it is pivotted to the correct position relative to the tray-like member. Thus, release can be considered as occurring in two stages: firstly pivotting of

the equipment to a release position, and then removal by raising against gravity.

It may also be advantageous to provide means for releasing the equipment, even when it is not pivotted to its correct position, when a larger than usual force is applied, for example in an emergency situation.

In order that the invention may be better understood, an embodiment thereof will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a perspective view from above of an embodiment of an attachment device according to the invention; and Figure 2 is a part-exploded view of the device of Figure 1.

The attachment device comprises a clip 1 for attachment to a belt, strap or other article of clothing, a flexible strap 2 and a releasable fastening device 3. The fastening device 3 is operable to retain or release a clamp ring 4 which is attached to or forms part of the equipment (not shown) to be carried.

The clip 1 comprises first and second members 5,6 made of rigid material such as metal or rigid plastics material which are joined by a U- shaped leaf spring 7 of spring steel or suitable plastics material. The leaf spring 7 is attached to the respective members 5 and 6 by any suitable means, for example by rivets through holes 8,9, by means of retaining tabs or by ultra-sonic welding.

The spring 7 is such as to hinge the two members 5,6 with respect to one another and to maintain them in a closed position whereby they may enclose and securely grip any belt or clothing placed between them. It will be noted that, when closed, there is a narrow gap sufficient to accommodate the thickness of an average belt. Furthermore, the surface 10 of member 1 is advantageously serrated in order to improve the grip of the clip on normal clothing or wider than normal belts.

Each of the members 5,6 has a generally L-shape with individual parts 11,12 and 13,14 constituting the individual arms of the L for members 5 and 6 respectively. The parts 12 and 14 are approximately horizontal in

use and, as can be seen in Figure 1, are spaced a short distance apart.

This thus forms a very easy and effective way for opening the clamp when the device is to be removed. All that is necessary is to squeeze the two parts 12 and 14 together using the fingers, and the clamp will open.

The strap 2 may be attached to the member 6 by a co-moulding operation, or may be sandwiched between the member 6 and the spring and rivette through the aforementioned holes 9.

The releasable fastening device 3 comprises a support member of rigid plastics material, said support member being formed of two parts: a first part 15 whereby the attachment device 3 is attached to the bottom end of the strap 2, for example by co-moulding or rivetting, and a second part 16 which has the general shape of a circular tray having a discontinuous circular wall 17 adapted to receive the clamp ring 4, as will be explained.

The clamp ring 4 has also the shape of a circular tray, with a flat base 23, and upstanding walls 24. Formed in the centre of the base 23 is a hole which opens into a radial slot 19 which extends to the exterior of the ring.

At the centre of the second part 16 is an upstanding spigot 18 about which the clamp ring 4 rotates. The base part 20 of the spigot has a diameter sufficient to accommodate the slot 19 in clamp ring 4 and is equipped with a head 21 which is of larger diameter than the width of the slot 19. Thus it will be seen that, when in the position illustrated in Figure 1, the clamp ring is securely located with respect to the second part 16: outwards movement is prevented by interaction of the sides of slot 19 with the head 21 of the spigot; upwards and sideways movement is prevented by interaction between the slot 19 and the base 20 of the spigot ; downwards movement is prevented by interaction between the clamp ring 4 and the wall 17.

In order to remove the clamp ring 4, under normal circumstances, it is necessary to turn the clamp ring 4 within the second part 16 until the slot 19 faces downwards, when seen in Figure 1, at which point it will be possible to remove the clamp ring 4 by moving it upwards, which is now possible because movement is no longer constrained by the wall 17. The

angular length of that upper part of the tray which does not have a wall can be adjusted to give a suitable span of angles within which removal of the clamp ring is possible: too small a span makes the clamp ring difficult to remove; too large a span increases the danger than the clamp ring will become accidentally released during excessive swinging movement of the equipment being carried as a result of rapid body movements.

It will be noted that a lower gap also exists in the wall 17. This gap is too narrow to allow the clamp ring 4 to be removed through it under normal conditions and the normal operation of the device is thus as described above. However, the walls 17 may optionally have through-slots 22 extending as shown and rendering the top part of the wall, above the ~ respective slot 22, into a finger 25 which has a degree of flexibility. Under extreme conditions, with a large downwards force being applied to the clamp ring 4, these fingers 25 will move apart to allow the clamp ring to be released in, for example, an emergency situation.

As has been mentioned, the clamp ring 4 is attached to or forms part of the equipment being carried. In practice, the clamp ring 4 is orientated with respect to the equipment such that, when the equipment hangs down from the attachment device, the clamp ring is in the position shown in Figure 1. The device allows the thus-suspended equipment to freely rotate whilst being securely retained unless the equipment is rotated (thus rotating clamp ring 4) to allow it to be released. The presence of the flexible strap 2 between the suspended equipment and the clip 1 allows the attachment device to conform to the shape of the body during normal body movement, resulting in increased comfort. Furthermore, the combination of the flexible strap and free rotation allows the equipment to be easily lifted and twisted whilst still fitted so that any display on the equipment can be viewed or controlled or functional operations performed.

The method of attaching the equipment to the attachment device is as follows. With the clip 6 fitted on the belt or to some other suitable area of clothing, the equipment to be carried is held in the hand in the approximate correct alignment and its clamp ring 4 is engaged onto the

releasable fastening device 3. During this operation the clamp ring is orientated approximately 180° away from the position shown in Figure 1.

Upon release of the equipment by the hand, the equipment is allowed to swing through approximately 180° to its normal suspended position-at which point the clamp ring 4 is in approximately the position shown in Figure 1. For this purpose, the clamp ring 4 should be positioned on the equipment away from its centre of gravity; this enables the equipment to swing by gravity to a stable rest position suspended from the attachment device. While in this rest position, the equipment cannot be released from the fastening device 3 until it is twisted through 180°, as explained above.

The engagement/disengagement position is only a limited and small portion of the total 360° of rotation of the available freedom of movement of the equipment whilst suspended from the attachment device.