Magnetic pouch attachment mechanism with crash stable locking teeth

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11083265-B2
Application number	US-201615283975-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 3, 2016
Priority date	Feb 11, 2014
Publication date	Aug 10, 2021
Grant date	Aug 10, 2021

Abstract

A magnetic pouch attachment mechanism may include one or more magnetic pouch mounts having an alignment plate with one or more magnetic areas disposed within the alignment plate. The magnetic pouch mount may also include a pouch that may be removably coupled with the one or more magnetic pouch mounts such that when the pouch is placed in proximity to the one or more magnetic pouch mounts, an attractive magnetic force is exerted between the pouch and the one or more magnetic pouch mounts such that the pouch aligns with and couples to the one or more magnetic pouch mounts. A mounting bracket coupled to the pouch may include one or more bracket magnetic areas disposed within the mounting bracket and configured to induce an attractive magnetic force with the one or more magnetic areas.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly comprising:
a pouch configured to receive items into an interior compartment thereof;
a vehicular surface mount comprising:
an alignment plate defining on one side at least one mounting point to secure the alignment plate to a vehicular surface, and on another side a generally planar plate surface to secure the pouch thereto, the generally planar plate surface defining at least one magnetic area, at least one mounting aperture and at least one latch aperture formed therein; and
a latch comprising at least one latch tooth that is movably received within the at least one latch aperture of the alignment plate; and

a mounting bracket that upon connection to the pouch is used to magnetically align, draw in and then secure the pouch to the alignment plate such that when the pouch, and the mounting bracket and the alignment plate are secured to one another, the pouch in turn is secured to the vehicular surface through the alignment plate and the mounting bracket, the mounting bracket comprising:
a bracket magnetic area configured to provide an attractive magnetic force to the at least one magnetic area of the alignment plate;
at least one alignment peg that is disposed on a surface defined by the bracket magnetic area and is configured to be removably received within the at least one mounting aperture of the alignment plate; and
a catch that is disposed on the surface defined by the bracket magnetic area and is configured to provide selective connection to the latch such that upon magnetic attraction, alignment and subsequent connection of the pouch, mounting bracket and vehicular surface mount, a crash-ready retention position defined by the at least one movable latch tooth projecting into the at least one latch aperture to engage with the catch is formed such that the retention position is maintained even after exposure to a vehicular-based G-force loading of at least (a) 15 Gs in a fore-aft direction and (b) at least 17 Gs in a lateral direction.

2. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 1 , wherein the pouch comprises a container and a flap.

3. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 2 , wherein at least one of the container and the flap further comprises a flexible window to allow viewing of the items in the interior compartment.

4. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 2 , further comprising means for securing the flap to the outer surface of the container.

5. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 1 , wherein the pouch is selected from the group consisting of (a) a pouch configured to removably couple with half of a single one of the vehicular surface mount, (b) a pouch configured to removably couple with a single one of the vehicular surface mount, (c) a long pouch configured to removably couple with a pair of vehicular surface mounts positioned horizontally side-by-side, and (d) a tall pouch configured to removably couple with a pair of vehicular surface mounts positioned vertically one above the other.

6. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 5 , wherein the vehicular surface mount comprises an upper magnetic pouch mount positioned vertically above a lower magnetic pouch mount, and the tall pouch further comprises a latch adapter slidably coupled to the mounting bracket and configured to simultaneously actuate a first latch on the upper magnetic pouch mount and a second latch on the lower magnetic pouch mount to release the tall pouch from the upper magnetic pouch mount and the lower magnetic pouch mount simultaneously.

7. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 1 , wherein:
the catch further comprises a rounded surface to aid in aligning the catch with a respective one of the at least one latch aperture through the latch tooth; and
the at least one alignment peg further comprises a rounded surface to aid in aligning each of the at least one alignment pegs with a respective one of the at least one mounting apertures.

8. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 1 , wherein the mounting bracket is made from a ferrous material.

9. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 1 , wherein the vehicular surface mount is configured to be secured directly to the vehicular surface through the at least one plate mounting point.

10. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 1 , wherein the vehicular surface mount is configured to be secured indirectly to the vehicular surface through the at least one plate mounting point and at least one shell comprising a first half shell and a second half shell that are pivotably connected to one another along a common hinge.

11. The crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly of claim 1 , further comprising at least one mounting means with which to couple the mounting bracket to the pouch.

12. A method of utilizing a crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly within a vehicle, the method comprising:
arranging a vehicular surface mount to be securable to an interior surface of the vehicle, the vehicular surface mount comprising:
an alignment plate defining on one side at least one mounting point to secure the alignment plate to the interior surface of the vehicle, and on another side a generally planar plate surface to secure a pouch thereto, the generally planar plate surface defining at least one magnetic area, at least one mounting aperture and at least one latch aperture formed therein; and
a latch comprising at least one latch tooth that is movably received within the at least one latch aperture of the alignment plate;

configuring a mounting bracket to comprise at least one alignment peg and at least one catch such that both the alignment peg and the catch are disposed on a surface defined by a bracket magnetic area; and
configuring the pouch to be secured to the mounting bracket such that upon introduction of the pouch and the mounting bracket into proximity of the alignment plate, an attractive magnetic force between them draws the pouch and the mounting bracket toward the interior surface of the vehicle through the alignment plate, after which the mounting bracket, latch and alignment plate cooperate to have the crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch attachment assembly secured to the interior surface of the vehicle, thereby allowing the at least one latch tooth that makes up a portion of the alignment plate to be biased in a retention position such that it projects into the at least one latch aperture to selectively engage with the at least one catch to maintain retention engagement of at least (a) 15 Gs in a fore-aft direction and (b) at least 17 Gs in a lateral direction.

13. A crash-ready vehicular magnetic pouch retrofit kit comprising:
a vehicular surface mount comprising:
an alignment plate defining on one side at least one mounting point to secure the alignment plate to a vehicular surface, and on another side a generally planar plate surface to secure a pouch thereto, the generally planar plate surface defining at least one magnetic area, at least one mounting aperture and at least one latch aperture formed therein; and
a latch comprising at least one latch tooth that is movably received within the at least one latch aperture of the alignment plate; and

a mounting bracket comprising:
a bracket magnetic area configured to provide an attractive magnetic force to the at least one magnetic area of the alignment plate;
at least one alig

Assignees

• Ferno Washington
• Shell Case Ltd

Inventors

• Spector Yuval
• Schroeder Timothy Paul
• Bar-Erez Eyal

Classifications

• B60R11/06

  for tools or spare parts (for vehicle roof parts B60J7/20; for spare wheels B62D) · CPC title

• A45C7/0045

  comprising a plurality of separable elements which can be used independently of one another · CPC title

• A45C13/1069 Primary

  magnetic · CPC title

• B60R2011/0057

  using magnetic means · CPC title

• E05C19/16

  Devices holding the wing by magnetic or electromagnetic attraction {(E05C17/56 takes precedence)} · CPC title