Title

ROTARY STEPPED JOINT

Technical field

The present invention belongs to the sector of adjustable mechanical devices and to the sector of systems to carry and hook holsters for firearms, in particular hostlers for handguns and revolver.

More specifically, the objective of the present invention is an adjustable mechanical joint suitable for associating an object such as, for instance, a holster, with an external support, so that the object can be rotated by the user in order to be positioned in the preferred angle.

In particular, the present invention refers to a stepped adjustable mechanical joint which can be used to operatively associate a holster, or any other object with a similar size, with an internal element of a bag or a handbag .

Present status of the art

Mechanical adjustable devices are known and, in particular, devices developed and set up in order to make it easier and more practical to carry holsters for short firearms are known, and usually it is a matter of devices suitable for being hooked to a belt; these are configured in such a way as to allow the user to modify the angle between the holster itself and the support element hooked to the belt, according to his/her own personal needs.

Withdrawing a firearm from its holster is one of the most dangerous movements to do with a firearm: in some cases, for instance in emergency or dangerous situations, the user shall be able to withdraw his/her own firearm as fast as possible, although always in safety conditions in order to prevent involuntary gunshots. Therefore, technical solutions were studied to allow the user to modify the angle of the holster with respect to the support element connected to the belt, so as to be able to orient the holster and guarantee an optimum withdrawn angle of the firearm for the user himself/herself, depending on whether the latter is in the sitting or standing position or, for instance depending on whether the belt supporting the holster is worn on the hips or it is of an axillary type .

A solution of the above-mentioned type is shown in the European patent EP1479998 which describes an adjustable device to hook a holster to a belt provided with a slide to adjust the vertical distance of the holster with respect to the belt, with an articulation to adjust the distance between the holster and the user' s body, and with a support which allows the inclination of the holster to be adjusted; the support of the holster comprises a connection plate internally to which is housed a disc, integral with the holster itself, which can be driven into rotation with respect to said plate after releasing the restraint means which usually prevent said disc from rotating, by pressing a pushbutton.

A similar solution is described in the Italian patent IT 0001405151 wherein is illustrated a rotary support for a holster comprising a small plate, connected to a belt or to a cuisse or axillary support, and a disc, connected to the holster and coaxially and rotatably coupled to said small plate; the rotation is prevented by a lever pushbutton, but if the user acts on it he/she can drive the disc into rotation with respect to the small disc, whereas radial tongues elastically hinged on the small plate prevent the disc from disengaging, as long as they are not activated by the user in order to separate the two elements. Both the above-described technical solutions refer to devices that are very complex and consequently expensive to be manufactured and quite complicated to use, formed of numerous parts and consequently too bulky to be easily housed inside a bag or a handbag.

Document JPH0835797 describes a rotary device which supports a handgun, stick, or transceiver holder and assures its return to a predetermined angular position with respect to the vertical direction.

However, the devices illustrated above feature an operation that is very complicated and inadequate to be used in emergency or hazard circumstances, or during police operations: in such situations, where excitement and agitation dominate, the user might not be able to disengage sufficiently fast the fixing mechanism of the rotation of the holster or, on the contrary, could make it unintentionally, for instance making abrupt movements and inadvertently acting on the fixing levers or pushbuttons, thus causing an unexpected rotation of the holster and consequently of the firearm; moreover, pushbuttons and levers can easily get entangled with clothes or with other accessories, disengaging themselves involuntarily.

Such problems of the above-described known art are addressed in patent application US 2010/0243690 Al, in which it is illustrated a rotary support for holster substantially comprising a support that can be hooked to a belt, a disc rotationally coupled to such support, and engagement means suitable for preventing said disc from rotating with respect to said plate. The holster can be rotated with respect to the plate by making an effort intense enough to overcome the resistance exerted by the engagement means, which are in particular constituted of projections projecting from the disc and suitable for being engaged in corresponding cavities present in the plate. The latter technical solution doesn' t include pushbuttons or levers on which one can act to allow the rotation of the holster, however the coupling between the disc and the plate is implemented by a screw which engages a through hole of the plate and which is screwed into a threaded bush that engages an outer edge of the disc, the latter being free of rotating with respect to said bush. Therefore, the tightening torque of the screw defines the resistance that it is necessary to overcome to drive the disc into rotation with respect to the plate. It follows that the connection between the plate and the disc shall be sufficiently loose to allow the projections (which are not elastic means) to disengage from their respective cavities, whenever it is necessary to rotate the holster, but in this way the plate and the disc can't be arranged in direct contact to each other and hence dirtiness or humidity can penetrate between these two elements, with the risk that the rotation of the holster can be slowed down or even blocked over time. Also, if the contact between the plate and the disc took play and became very loose, it might cause the involuntary and unexpected rotation of the holster even in this case.

Finally, none of the solutions described above is aimed at carrying the firearm inside a bag or a handbag, for easily hiding it from sight and quickly withdrawing it in case of necessity .

Objects and summary of the invention

A first objective of the present invention is to provide a holster support which allows to orient the handgun according to the user's preferences, so that he/she can withdraw it quickly by making a gesture which also allows him/her to sight it effectively.

A non-secondary objective of the present invention is to provide an adjustable and easy-to-use support for holsters, as to guarantee the further advantage of adjusting the firearm in the preferred position with the maximum speed and facility, without having to intervene on levers or pushbuttons, so as to be particularly advantageous in hazardous or emergency circumstances.

A further objective of the present invention is to provide a rotatable holster support which is secure and reliable, preventing the holster itself from involuntarily and/or unintentionally rotating.

A further objective of the present invention is to provide an adjustable support wherein the engagement means between the movable part and the fixed part of the support are safe from humidity, powder, and dirtiness, so as to guarantee reliability of the system over time.

A last but not least objective is to provide a compact device which can be inserted inside a bag of any shape or size, in such a way that no one can detect the presence of a firearm inside the bag.

Finally, a further objective of the present invention is to provide an adjustable mechanical device which is simple and sturdy, which can be used to associate an object with an external support, so that the object can be rotated by the user to be positioned in a preferred angle.

Other objectives and advantages of the invention will be clear to those skilled in the art by reading the following text .

The above-mentioned objectives are achieved by an innovative rotary joint which comprises a box-like body having an inner axial-symmetric cavity inside of which there an internal body rotationally housed, the latter having the shape of a rotation solid and being arranged coaxially to the inner cavity of the box-like body, configured so that one of its ends is in contact with the external world through an opening cut on one of the base surfaces of the box-like body.

The base surface of the box-like body opposed to that having the opening can be coupled with an external element which is at least partially planar, such as for instance the inner part of a bag, a belt or other types of supports for holsters; from the opposed part of the box-like body the end of the internal body is coupled with the holster or, in any case, to the object to be adjusted.

Both the coupling between the box-like body and the external element and the coupling between the internal body and the holster can be of a fixed or reversible type, in the latter case, for instance, screws, press stud, or flaps with a Velcro® type tape can be used.

The internal body can rotate step by step with respect to the box-like body, by taking on angular positions that are preset and equally spaced from each other, thanks to the presence, internally to the box-like body, of special elastic means which reversibly engage projecting elements internally to respective cavities.

The operation of adjustment of the inclination of the holster or, in any case, of the object supported by the adjustable joint, is performed by the user, by rotating the holster itself and by overcoming the contrast action exerted by said elastic means. In this way, the holster can be rotated by the user in his/her preferred position.

Brief description of the drawings

Figure 1 shows an exploded view of the rotary joint according to the present patent application, the inner body (3) being housed coaxially, according to an axis (Z), internally to a box-like body, the latter being formed of an annular base body (1) and of an upper disc-like flange (2) ; in the embodiment shown in this figure are visible the elastic means (6) which, in the present solution, consists of a conical helical spring. On the upper portion of the inner body (3) is centrally defined a cylindrical recess in order to facilitate the positioning of the lower end of the spring. This figure also shows the projecting elements (51), the latter being constituted of spheres partially housed in respective seats obtained in the lower portion of the outer tangential edge (31) of the internal body (3), whereas the cavities (41) are obtained in the upper portion of the inner tangential edge (12) of the base body (1) . On the upper surface of the disc-like flange (2) are shown three cylindrical recesses equally angularly spaced away from each other, arranged in such a way as to facilitate the positioning of fixing means, such as press stud or the like .

Figure 2 shows an exploded view of a second possible embodiment of the rotary joint according to the present patent application, wherein the projecting elements (51) are reliefs projecting from a male annular plate (5) above rotationally connected to said base body (1) and said cavities (41) are obtained in a female annular plate (4) below rotationally coupled with said internal body (3) ; it also shows the elastic means (6) . In this embodiment too, the elastic means are formed of a conical helical spring whose inner end engages a respective recess centrally defined on the upper portion of the internal body (3) .

Figure 3 shows an exploded view of a further possible embodiment of the rotary joint according to the present patent application, wherein the projecting elements (51) are reliefs projecting from the outer lateral surface of a male annular plate (5) rotationally connected to said internal body (3) and said cavities (41) are cut on the inner lateral surface of a female annular plate (4) rotationally connected to said base body (1) .

Detailed description of an embodiment of the invention

The rotary joint according to the present patent application is suitable for associating an object (B) , in particular a holster, with a support external element (A) , the latter preferably being a planar element arranged internally to a bag, or a belt, a breast or cuisse support or another support element for holsters.

The rotary joint comprises an annular base body (1) and an upper disc-like flange (2), associated with each other to form a box-like body with a lower opening and internally to which is rotationally housed an internal body (3) . The base body (1), the flange (2), and the internal body (3) are coaxial to each other since they are arranged on the same axis ( Z ) .

The lateral surface of the annular base body (1) includes a raised perimetric edge (11) and whose lower surface presents an inner tangential edge (12) .

The upper disc-like flange (2) is suitable for facing the upper surface of said base body (1) below and engaging itself internally to said raised perimetric edge (11) ; the upper surface of said flange (2) comprises association means for associating with an external support element (A) . The internal body (3), whose upper surface presents an outer tangential edge (31), comprises a lower portion (32) which rotationally engages internally to the inner tangential edge (12) of the base body (1) and which presents association means for associating with an object (B) below, such as a holster.

Very advantageously, the rotation of the internal body (3) around the axis (Z), induces one or several projecting elements (51), equally spaced from each other along a circumference internal to said box-like body, to reversibly and elastically engage themselves internally to a plurality of cavities (41), also equally spaced from each other along a circumference internal to said box-like body and whose number is equal to or greater than the number of said projecting elements (51) .

In a very advantageous embodiment, the adjustable device comprises elastic countering means (6) formed of a conical helical spring interposed between the lower surface of said flange (2) and the upper portion of said internal body (3) which includes a special central recess for housing the lower end of the spring. Such elastic means (6) are suitable for engaging the projecting elements (51) internally to the cavities (41), so that in order to drive the internal body (3) into rotation with respect to the box-like body, it is necessary to overcome the contrast action exerted by the elastic countering means (6) .

In accordance with a possible alternative embodiment of the joint according to the present patent application, the projecting elements (51) comprise one or several spheres, housed in respective overhanging seats cut below of the outer tangential edge (31) of the internal body, said spheres are arranged in such a way as to be partially projecting and free of rotating with respect to said seats; such spheres are suitable for engaging the cavities (41) cut in the upper portion of the inner tangential edge (12) of the base body (1) .

In a second alternative embodiment, the present joint also comprises a male annular plate (5) and a female annular plate (4) . The male annular plate (5) presents one or more projecting elements (51) above and facing the surface of the inner tangential edge (12) underneath the base body (1) with means that prevent a reciprocal rotation, such as for instance reliefs projecting from the lateral surface of the male annular plate (5) suitable for engaging respective cavities present on the inner lateral surface of the base body (1) . The female annular plate (4) rests on the male annular plate (5) underneath and it faces the lower surface of the overhanging tangential edge (31) of the internal body (3), with means that prevent their reciprocal rotation, such as for instance reliefs projecting from the inner lateral surface of the female annular plate (4), suitable for engaging respective cavities present on the lateral surface of the lower portion (32) of the internal body (3) ; the plate (4) presents said cavities (41) below, suitable for engaging the projecting elements (51) .

In a third possible alternative embodiment, the rotary joint according to the present invention comprises a male annular plate (5) integrally connected to the overhanging lower surface of said tangential edge (31) of the internal body (3) and from the outer lateral surface on which one or several projecting elements (51) project, and a female annular plate (4), facing the surface of the inner tangential edge (12) underneath of said base body (1) with means that prevent their reciprocal rotation, the inner lateral surface of said female annular plate (4) presenting said cavities (41) suitable for engaging said projecting elements (51) . In this latter possible embodiment of the rotary joint, elastic countering means interposed between said internal body (3) and said disc-like flange (2) are not provided.

Preferably, the coupling means for coupling said flange (2) and said external upper element (A) and/or the coupling means for coupling said internal body (3) and said external lower element (B) are of a reversible type, such as, for instance, press stud, or "hook and loop" coupling elements" ĨVelcro®)