Child walker

Details Child walker Child walker

1999-07-07

2001-07-17

Mar, Michael (Department: 3619)

Land vehicles

Wheeled

Coasters

C280S650000, C280S647000, C280S033994, C188S020000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06260867

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a child walker, and more particularly to a child walker with a capability of bearing a child in a seated position, a capability of supporting a child in standing position, a capability of assisting a child in learning walking and a capability of preventing from tipping.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the growth of children, child walkers provide a convenient means for an infant to be entertained, before, during, and after the transition from crawling to walking. Walkers provide support for a child in a seated position, but are readily movable by the child in a standing position. In the early learning, children have not the ability of controlling the direction of moving of walkers, which may go in the direction of uncertain manner, sometimes forward, sometimes backward, sometimes left, sometimes right. It is obvious that children can not choose the direction toward the dangerous area or toward the safe area under the situations described as foregoing.
Conventional walkers typically include a seat chair which is connected to the circular frame by supporting structure for supporting the child and some wheels located in the bottom of the circular frame. The number of wheels is not certain, it may be four wheels located at four corners of the frame or, more, six wheels. Conventional walkers can be freely oriented toward any directions through all non-directional wheels without constrains or brake arrangement. But it is very dangerous for children who are not able to control the direction of walkers yet. Accordingly, conventional walkers are generally provided with instructions and warnings to advise against the use of the walker without appropriate caregiver supervision, or against the use in the vicinity of floor edges, such as stair steps. However, these instructions and warnings, although practical and effective when followed, are not always observed. Therefore some terrible tipping accidents of the child walker occurred, especially when the child walker passes over an edge of a floor or the vicinity of stair steps.
An example of a conventional walker which attempts to respond to these concerns may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,681 (“the '681 patent”) to Graco Children's Products Inc., issued Apr. 17, 1996. The '681 patent is to provide a child walker which has improved stability and resistance to tipping by including three wheels located in the relative position of triangle, in which two wheels are freely oriented and one wheel is constrained to move in a straight line to limit the direction of travel allowed by the child to maximize its stability. The '681 patent is to provide a child walker with immediate braking when the walker passes over an edge or a ledge. Besides, the '681 patent provides a child walker which can be adjusted by a caregiver to control the speed of the walker, and provides a rolling mechanism adapted for connection to a base member of a child walker to provide immediate braking or to limit the direction of travel of the child walker when the mechanism proceeds over an edge or a ledge.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is to provide a child walker which is safe and can prevent from tipping , especially, when it passes over an edge of a floor or the vicinity of stair steps.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a child walker that has an auto-brake structure and can restrict the moving speed.
The present invention child walker includes a seat for supporting a child, a supporting structure connected to the circular base member for supporting the seat and moving device which is located at the bottom of the base member in an appropriate position separately for supporting the base member and can be freely moved. The circular base member and the specially designed moving device prevent the child walker from tipping when it passes over an edge of floor or the vicinity of stair steps and provide an auto-braking function to restrict the moving speed of child walker.
The present invention, child walker, includes the following functions.
Firstly, the function of resistance to tipping, which is achieved by a specially designed moving device which constrains the child walker to move in only desired narrow directions in order to prevent the lateral movement of the child walker, especially when the child walker is passing over an edge of floor or the vicinity of stair steps, and when the center of gravity of the child walker is getting close to, but not getting over, the edge of the floor or the vicinity of stair steps , the child walker is then sloping, and by the bottom area of the circular base member or by the friction pad attached to the bottom area of the circular base member in order to provide sufficient friction force between the child walker and the floor and to prevent the child walker from continuing moving.
The function of auto-braking and control of the moving speed of moving of the child walker, which is provided by the specially designed moving device, which can effectively constrain the child walker toward a desired narrow direction. When the child walker encounters a lateral force or external force to push it toward the side direction, the moving device will automatically generate a counter force to make the child walker slow down and in the same time keep the direction of the child walker toward the desired direction considered safe in order to secure the child walker not to tip in case of passing over the edge of the floor or vicinity of the stair steps.
The moving device of the present invention of chid walker includes a circular base member, two un-directional rollers and two directional rollers. These rollers are respectively connected to four corners of the circular base member of the child walker, wherein the un-directional rollers can turn around to any direction and move to the desired direction while the directional rollers are constrained to only one direction but with a little deviation from the predetermined direction. That is, the directional rollers will automatically provide a braking force to prevent the child walker from over speeding or lateral moving when the child walker does not go to the safe moving direction.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5785154 (1998-07-01), Chen
patent: 5813681 (1998-08-01), Saint et al.
patent: 5865451 (1999-02-01), Hu
patent: 5881846 (1999-03-01), French et al.
patent: 5888178 (1999-03-01), Welsh, Jr.
patent: 5899471 (1999-05-01), Li-Wei
patent: 5967535 (1999-10-01), King

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