Supports – Article carried – Anti-mar or nonslip e.g. – cushioned
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-14
2002-10-15
Braun, Leslie A. (Department: 3632)
Supports
Article carried
Anti-mar or nonslip e.g., cushioned
C248S682000, C248S694000, C248S615000, C206S320000, C206S586000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06464197
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an antislip pad for protectively mounting onto an end of a changeover switch, particularly a changeover switch for computer peripherals, so that the changeover switch having antislip pads mounted at two ends thereof does not easily slip over a supporting surface due to a minor external force applied on the switch.
With the highly developed electronic and information technologies, people could obtain required information and do transactions over networks via computers. Thus, the computer has become a necessary tool in people's daily life, work, study, recreation, and leisure activities.
There are many peripherals that could be connected to a computer to perform works on-line. However, only a limited number of connecting ports are provided on a computer main unit for the peripherals. To solve this problem, there is developed a changeover switch providing multiple connecting ports to enable connection of more peripherals to the main unit. By operating knobs or push buttons provided on the changeover switch, it is possible to decide which peripherals are on-line. For some users who use the computer at high frequency, it is a common thing to have two or more main units. In this case, the users may also use the above-mentioned changeover switch to switch among different main units.
The changeover switch usually includes a casing that is made of metal or rigid plastics and therefore has highly rigid and smooth surface. The changeover switch is usually flatly positioned on a top of the main unit that also has rigid and smooth surface. Due to the rigid and smooth contact surface between the changeover switch and the top of the main unit, the changeover switch tends to slip over and drop from the main unit. Moreover, in the case two or more changeover switches are used, they are usually sequentially stacked. The changeover switches being stacked at higher positions are frequently subject to slip and drop and resultant damages.
A slipped and fallen changeover switch would very possibly result in disconnected cable and/or unwanted operation of knobs or push buttons on the switch, and therefore causes abrupt stop of on-line operations on the computer or abnormal shutdown of the computer, as well as serious loss of important data that are being processed.
It is therefore necessary to work out some way to protect the changeover switch against undesired slipping and falling from a supporting surface.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A primary object of the present invention is to provide an antislip pad having good softness for mounting onto an end of a changeover switch to protect upper and lower surfaces of the switch. A changeover switch having two ends protected with the antislip pads of the present invention is not in direct contact with a smooth supporting surface and is therefore not easily subject to slip due to a minor external force applied on the changeover switch.
To achieve the above and other objects, the antislip pad for changeover switch according to the present invention is in the shape of a lying letter “n” having a vertical wall portion and two ribs inward projected from front and rear ends, respectively, of the vertical wall portion, so that the two ribs and an inner surface of the vertical wall portion together define a limiting space adapted to restrain front, rear, top and bottom edges and an end surface of an end of the changeover switch when the antislip pad is locked onto the end of the changeover switch with fastening members or screws.
Two upper and two lower lugs are vertically correspondingly provided at upper and lower end surfaces, respectively, of the antislip pad of the present invention. Each of the upper lugs is provided at a top with a round recess, and each of the lower lugs is provided at a bottom with a round projection having an outer diameter slightly smaller than an inner diameter of the round recess, so that two or more antislip pads could be stacked with the projections of an upper pad fitly engaging with the recesses of a lower pad to prevent the superposed pads from slipping relative to each other.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4850490 (1989-07-01), Reynolds
patent: 4925149 (1990-05-01), DiFrancesca et al.
patent: 5265720 (1993-11-01), Meliconi
patent: 5385232 (1995-01-01), Foos et al.
patent: 5392920 (1995-02-01), Prete
patent: 6092651 (2000-07-01), Miller
patent: 6123200 (2000-09-01), Stephens et al.
patent: RE37253 (2001-07-01), Moren et al.
patent: 6268039 (2001-07-01), Chou et al.
Aten International Co. Ltd.
Brann Deborah
Braun Leslie A.
Liauh W. Wayne
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