Land vehicles – Wheeled – Stable vehicles – handle-propelled
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-20
2003-05-06
Johnson, Brian L. (Department: 3618)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Stable vehicles, handle-propelled
C016S03500D
Reexamination Certificate
active
06557870
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a front wheel of a stroller, and particularly to one which is provided with a direction limiting means so that the direction the wheel is moving in can be limited to one perpendicular to the front of the stroller.
Referring to
FIGS. 6 and 7
, a conventional stroller front wheel with direction limiting structure includes a connecting member
20
, a pivotal rod
30
, a slide block
50
, a connecting tube
40
and a front wheel part
60
.
The connecting member
20
has an upper tube portion connected to the front support rod
10
of the stroller. The pivotal rod
30
is passed through both the connecting member
20
and the connecting tube
40
, which is connected to the axle of the wheel part
60
, thus, the direction the front wheel
60
moves in can be changed. The connecting member
20
further has a guide rail
201
, and the connecting tube
40
has a guide rail
401
aligned with the guide rail
201
. The slide block
50
is movably disposed between the guide rails
201
and
401
.
When the slide block
50
is moved upwards along the guide rails
201
and
401
to stay away from the guide rail
401
, the front wheel can move along in any direction. When the user wants to limit the direction the front wheel moves in to one perpendicular to the front of the stroller, he or she has to move the slide block
50
downwards to a locking position where a part of same to stay between the rail
201
and the rest between the rail
401
.
However, the conventional stroller front wheel is found to have a drawback that it has to be moved to make the guide rail
201
align with the guide rail
401
otherwise the slide block
50
can't be moved to the locking position, i.e. the stroller wheel can't be used very easily.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is a main object of the present invention to provide a stroller front wheel with a direction limiting means which can be used relatively easily.
The direction limiting means of a stroller front wheel of the present invention includes a control lever and an elastic member. The control lever is pivoted to a connecting block supporting the axle of the wheel, and has a front pointed end and an engaging part sticking up on the other end.
The elastic member is attached to the connecting block from a lower end, and has an upper convex part and an intermediate concave part.
An engaging gap is provided on the rear part of the outer side of a support rod of the stroller; the connecting block has a sticking-up pivotal rod part passing through the support rod. Thus, the control lever can be pivoted between an unlocking position where the pointed end stays above the upper convex part of the elastic member for the engaging part of the control lever to stay away from the engaging gap and a locking position where the pointed end is on the intermediate concave part for the engaging part of the control lever to abut a lower edge of the support rod. The elastic member will bias the pointed end of the control lever further down in the locking position when the direction the wheel moves in changes for the engaging part to face the engaging gap, making the engaging part move into the engaging gap to prevent the direction of the wheel from changing.
So, the user doesn't have to first move the wheel for the engaging part to face the engaging gap for making the direction limiting structure function, i.e. he or she only has to move the pointed end onto the intermediate concave part effortlessly, and the engaging part will automatically engage the engaging gap in the course of the user pushing the stroller along.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4028773 (1977-06-01), Morgan
patent: 4349937 (1982-09-01), Fontana
patent: 4543685 (1985-10-01), Kassai
patent: 4570288 (1986-02-01), Kassai
patent: 4649596 (1987-03-01), Kassai
patent: 4759098 (1988-07-01), Ko
patent: 5172451 (1992-12-01), Chiu
patent: 5191674 (1993-03-01), Zun
patent: 5517718 (1996-05-01), Eichhorn
patent: 5975545 (1999-11-01), Hu
patent: 6212733 (2001-04-01), Yeh
Cheng Pao-Hsien
Restifo Jeffrey
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