Importance

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Abstract

This invention provides a clip for joining tubular members that employs living hinges that are part of a unitary clip including jaws and a base spring. The jaws are joined by a center living hinge and each jaw is also joined along a surface opposite its gripping surface to a cantilevered end of the base spring by a side-mounted living hinge. When the clip jaws are in a fully open orientation, with the center hinge at a maximum distance away from the base spring, the user biases the central hinge toward the base spring. The base spring ends are thereby biased away from each other, and after the jaws rotate about their living hinges through a position of maximum spread in the base spring ends, the spring ends rebound, forcing the jaws downward toward the base spring, and into a fully closed orientation. The clip includes a base that can be an anchor that embeds in foam of an upholstery cushion, or can have an adhesive that allows it to be secured to a structure, in the case of a pipe or conduit clamp. The clip can be formed by extrusion, with the hinges optionally coextruded from a more-resilient material. The extrusion can define a strip with cut lines therein that nearly separate the individual clip segments, enabling the clip strip to be stored on a spool and paid out as needed.

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First Claim