Backpack

Details Backpack Backpack

2000-03-01

2003-04-22

Cronin, Stephen K. (Department: 3727)

Package and article carriers

Carried by animate bearer

Convertible or combined

C224S580000, C224S627000, C224S637000, C224S645000, C190S01800A

Reexamination Certificate

active

06550651

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a backpack or a knapsack.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Backpacks or knapsacks are containers, usually made of fabric, that have straps and other means for permitting a user to carry the container on his or her back. A backpack has a pair of shoulder straps, and perhaps a hip belt (together, the shoulder straps and the hip belt are known as the “harness”) on its body-contact side for attachment to the user's shoulders and hips, respectively, to support and secure the backpack in place against the user's back. The use of a tumpline secured to the user's forehead in place of shoulder straps and hip belt is of course well known, particularly in the Kingdom of Nepal, but the discussion of backpacks in this section of the specification will assume that shoulder straps and perhaps a hip belt are provided.
A user that carries heavy loads in a backpack attached to his or her back will expend considerable energy even when traveling over level terrain, in addition to suffering aches and pains. One way to reduce the exertion and pain of carrying heavy loads, of course, is to reduce the weight of the load carried. Reducing the weight carried is often more easily advocated than accomplished. The “Ray way” advocated in recent years by ultra long distance hiker Ray Jardine is a disciplined approach to the reduction of pack weight evolved in the context of long distance backpacking, such as for through-hikes of the Pacific Crest Trail. See generally Ray Jardine,
The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker's Handbook
(1996).
Nevertheless, a reduction in the load to be carried is not always possible. For example, professional photographers may have to carry a minimum amount of photographic equipment, in addition to personal gear, in order to perform an assignment. The necessary lenses, camera bodies, tripods, and the like will often amount to a considerable weight.
Climbers often must carry heavy technical climbing gear in addition to their survival gear and rations. In addition, big wall climbers must carry large (and thus heavy) quantities of water to the base of their climbs.
The adults in families with small children may need to carry a considerable amount of gear for both themselves and the children when traveling or hiking.
Hikers and other travelers may be unwilling to make the sacrifices in creature comforts needed to travel with a light load. Furthermore, persons planning to hike long distances without resupply will need to carry a large amount of food. A large and heavy quantity of water will be carried if crossing terrain lacking water sources, such as in deserts.
Thus, one solution to reducing the exertion and pain of carrying a heavy load is to provide a container for the load with wheels so that the container can be pushed or pulled across the surface of the ground (by surface of the “ground” is meant any natural or man-made surface) while the wheels support the weight of the container. This mode of transporting a container will require less exertion (and pain) because the user does not have to support the dead weight of the backpack and its contents.
Of course, the user can employ this mode of transport only when the nature of the ground permits. Rough and irregular surfaces could make supporting and rolling a container on its wheels inconvenient because the irregularities will resist the movement of the wheels and the container will have to be lifted over these irregularities. Some surfaces may be so rough and steep that the user will have to employ his or her hands in order to progress up, down or laterally, such as in climbing at Class 3 (Yosemite Decimal System) and above, and will not be able to spare a hand to push or pull the container. Furthermore, the user may have to employ his or her hands to carry handbags or other containers and will not have a free hand to push or pull the wheeled container.
In such situations, the user must carry the container, preferably on his or her back. Providing wheels to a backpack therefore permits the user to choose the mode of transport according to the situation at hand.
Wheeled backpacks have been known for some time. For example, Talbot, U.S. Pat. No. 2,401,986, describes a “pack cart of a type adapted to be used as a cart for wheeling a pack over the ground or as a pack frame for carrying a pack on the back.” Other examples of backpacks with wheels are H. R. Strand, U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,997 for a “Backpack Trundling Assembly,” Cesari, U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,574 for a “Utility Bag,” Mitomi, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,569 for a “Carrier Bag,” Arbel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,576 for a “Knapsack,” McDermott, U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,447 for a “Portable Variable Capacity Backpack,” and Wulf, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,503 for a “Convertible Luggage System.” Typically, such backpacks have at least two wheels, a handle at the top for pulling or pushing the backpack when it is rolling on the wheels, and some form of rigidity due to an external frame, internal stiffening members or a hard shell construction.
A useful development of late is shown in Wulf, et al., which has a rigid handle that can be deployed from the top of the backpack or luggage container but can also be stored internally in a retracted position.
The known wheeled backpacks have wheels that are “fixed,” meaning that the wheels are not designed to be removed by the user. Furthermore, these wheels are usually placed at the bottom of the body-contact side of the backpack, as in Wulf, et al., Arbel, Mitomi, et al., and McDermott. This has the disadvantage of placing of placing the wheels adjacent to the user's back when the backpack is carried on the user's back. For this reason, Wulf, et al. provide a cover to be wrapped over the wheels to protect the user's back from the “filth that accumulates on the wheels.” Another disadvantage is that the harness (shoulder straps and possibly a hip belt) is exposed to or dragged on the ground when the backpack is pulled or pushed in its wheel-supported or rolling mode. Wulf, et al. therefore secure the cover previously mentioned over the shoulder straps when the backpack or luggage container is in the rolling mode.
Strand and Talbott address these problems by providing wheels on complicated swiveling frames that deploy the wheels into a rolling or ground-contacting position below the backpack or in front of the body-contact side, respectively. The swiveling frames position the wheels adjacent the non body-contact side when the backpack is to be carried on the user's back. Tetzlaff, German Patentschrift 120005, locates the wheels at the top of the non body-contact side.
Another solution to the problems noted above is to place the wheels at the base of the non body-contact side of the backpack, as in Song, U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,286 for a “Wheeled Knapsack.” The wheels therefore are never adjacent to the user's back when the user carries Song's wheeled knapsack or backpack on his or her back. No complicated and heavy swiveling frames for the wheels are needed. Furthermore, the harness or shoulder straps (and hip belt, if one is provided) is positioned away from the ground when the backpack is pulled across the surface of the ground on its wheels.
Song, however, does not explain how the “bag portion” or body of her knapsack is to be provided with the rigidity necessary for her wheeled knapsack to be pulled across the surface of the ground in a rolling or wheel-supported mode without deformation of the bag and contact of parts of the bag, other than the wheels, with the ground. Song also does not show how the user will access the compartment inside her wheeled knapsack.
Backpacks traditionally have openings at their tops (top-loaders such as the Great Pacific Iron Works' Creagh Dubh climbing pack and The North Face's Liberty backpack) or on the non body-contacting side (panel loaders such as The North Face's Ruthsac backpack and Big Shot backpack) or a hybrid or combination of the two (such as Lowe Alpine Systems' Contour IV backpack) to provide access to

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