Chairs and seats – With weather shield or insect protector – For child seat
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-28
2001-01-09
Brown, Peter R. (Department: 3624)
Chairs and seats
With weather shield or insect protector
For child seat
C297S183200, C297S183400, C016S377000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170910
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pivot for pivotally supporting a structure over a child support or other support device. More particularly, the invention relates to a canopy pivot that is easily attached to a child's seat and rotates with respect thereto to provide adjustability for an attached canopy. In addition, the invention relates to a canopy pivot that is automatically lockable at a plurality of positions with respect to a child seat such that a canopy can be quickly and easily positioned relative to the child seat.
2. Description of Related Art
Adjustable canopies are available for a variety of support structures, including vehicles, chairs, strollers, baby carriers, child car seats and other child supports. The use of an adjustable canopy in children's support structures is particularly popular for the purpose of protecting an infant or child from different elements, including sun rays, wind and rain.
Typically, an adjustable canopy that is attached to a support structure includes a complicated mechanism for pivoting the canopy relative to the support structure. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,166 to James discloses a sunshade for a child's car seat that includes a locking pivot for adjusting the canopy. A screw
70
and cap
74
must be loosened so that each of the ribs
32
,
34
and
36
can be adjusted with respect to each other and the car seat. To lock the ribs
32
,
34
and
36
in position with respect to each other and the car seat, screw
70
and cap
74
must be manually turned and tightened while each of the ribs are held in position.
Another type of adjustable pivot is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,958 to Lan. The Lan device has a toothed wheel (retaining member
5
) that floats in a first structure (stationary seat member
31
) and second structure (pivotable seat member
4
) to lock the first and second structures together when the toothed wheel is in a first position. The second structure can be pivoted relative to the first structure when the toothed wheel is pushed against the force of a return spring and out of contact with the second structure. Once the second structure is in a desired position, the toothed wheel is released to allow the return force of the return spring to reposition the toothed wheel into mating relationship with the second structure, thus locking the first and second structures in place. The Lan device is complicated to manufacture and assemble and requires a separate manual lock/unlock step for operating the pivot.
Attempts have been made to avoid the step of manually unlocking and locking a canopy or other structure in position relative to a support device. For example, two different inventions use cylindrical ratchet members to automatically lock and unlock a canopy pivot without requiring a separate step of loosening, retracting or unlocking the canopy pivot. In the first invention, U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,745 to Huang discloses an adjustable device for a hood of a toy stroller. The adjustable device includes a first side element
40
and a second side element
40
′. Sandwiched in between the first and second side elements is a middle element
50
that is configured as a wheel having two cylindrical toothed portions divided by a plate portion
52
. A toothed periphery
531
on each cylindrical portion mates with protrusions
43
and
43
′ located in the first and second side elements, respectively. When support element
20
is rotated about the adjustable device, protrusion
43
′ rides over the toothed portion
531
of the middle element
50
. Protrusions
43
′ will lock into one of the spaces between the teeth of the toothed portion
531
to lock the support
20
in position with respect to the stroller when rotation of the support
20
is stopped. Support
10
can be similarly and separately moved and locked in position by the corresponding toothed surface
531
and protrusions
43
.
The Huang device suffers from the drawback that the support members
10
and
20
must be made of relatively rigid material, for example metal, so that a requisite amount of force can be applied to unlock the adjustable device and rotate the support about the adjustable device. In addition, the adjustable device requires a plurality of separate structures and is fairly complicated to manufacture. The device is also susceptible to wear and tear since the teeth elements must flex for rotation to take place. Finally, smooth rotation of the support members does not occur because the mating toothed surfaces require the support member to vibrate and move back and forth in radial directions as the support member rotates about the adjustable device.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,343 to Parker et al. discloses an adjustable canopy that includes a canopy stay
74
having a plurality of detents
78
therein that mate with a plurality of tangs
82
formed on a cylindrical protrusion from the car seat shell. The Parker device is simpler than that disclosed in Huang but suffers from many of the same drawbacks. Moreover, because the stay
74
must ride over each of the extending tangs
82
, the radial motion of the stay
74
is not smooth when the position of the canopy is being changed. In addition, a high level of force is required to release the tangs
82
from the detents
78
and to rotate stay
74
with respect to the infant car seat. Finally, the reliability of the adjustment mechanism is low due to wear and tear on the tangs
82
over time.
Therefore, the industry lacks a canopy adjustment device with a reliable, easy to use, and durable pivot locking structure. In particular, a device is needed that is simple in structure and requires a minimum of moving parts. A device that does not require locking teeth to flex would provide certain advantages in wear and tear and durability. In addition, a device that smoothly rotates between adjustable positions and does not require a separate unlocking step is not known in the industry and would provide certain advantages over existing canopy pivots. For example, a device that does not vibrate or move in a radial direction while being unlocked and rotated is needed. In addition, it would be advantageous to require as little force as possible to rotate a canopy frame about the canopy pivot while allowing the canopy pivot to lock the canopy frame in place relative to a support structure when force is not applied to the canopy frame. Finally, a device that is economic and light weight while providing the above stated advantages would provide an improvement in the field of canopy pivots.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention solves the above mentioned problems and avoids the drawbacks and disadvantages of the conventional art by providing a side locking pivot mechanism that is simple and economic in construction and rotates smoothly between positions requiring little force to unlock and rotate the mechanism.
In particular, the invention incorporates, for example, a canopy pivot for a child support that has a first member with indents and a second member with protrusions. The second member is rotatable with respect to the first member and is lockable and unlockable with respect to the first member due to the particular flexibility of specific portions of the first member, as discussed below.
A retainer is provided to keep the first member and second member from going beyond a predetermined distance with respect to each other. Accordingly, when the first member is rotated with respect to the second member, the portion of the first member located between the point of contact of the retainer and the indent flexes to allow the protrusion of the second member to ride over the indent, and smoothly ratchet to a new location.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the above principles of the pivot invention are incorporated into a canopy for a child support. In particular, the first member is built into a child support and includes a slotted opening. The second member includes a pivot pin that can be snapped into the slotted op
Brown Peter R.
Mattel Inc.
Morgan & Lewis & Bockius, LLP
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