Plastic belt buckle with interlocking prong catches

Abstract

A buckle including an auxiliary locking feature includes a female buckle part, including a strap-receiving portion and a body portion defining a recess for receiving a mating portion of a male buckle part and a pair of edge recesses. The male buckle part also has a strap-receiving portion and a pair of flexible female buckle-engaging prongs having catches which snap over mating recesses of female member. The male member also has a resilient cantilevered tongue carrying a release button extending through an opening in the front of the female part, the tongue including integral stop members. The prongs include bosses which engage the stop members. When the prongs are inserted into the recess of the female member, they snap over the mating recesses of the female member and the tongue is pressed downwardly to cause the release button to snap into the opening. With catches engaged, the stops align with the bosses on the prongs preventing the prongs from being depressed to release the buckle until the release button is depressed. Depressing this button moves the stops away from the bosses and allows the prongs to be moved inwardly into the buckle to release the catches. An improved modification of the above-described embodiment includes upwardly and downwardly directed interleavable tapered surfaces on the stops and bosses to prevent simultaneous contact of the release button during inadvertent inward movement of the prongs resulting in release of the buckle.