Supports – Supporting base – Including attachment or holder for article
Reexamination Certificate
2003-12-09
2004-10-19
Braun, Leslie A. (Department: 3632)
Supports
Supporting base
Including attachment or holder for article
C248S918000, C248S676000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06805327
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a foot member and, more particularly, to a combination foot member, which is practical for use to support the mainframe of an informative apparatus, for example, a computer system in vertical.
2. Description of Related Art
When informative apparatus are used in a house, the positioning of the mainframe of each informative apparatus has a great concern with the utilization of house space. For example, the mainframe of an early designed personal computer has a flat rectangular shape, and is to be positioned on the floor or a flat surface in horizontal. This horizontal positioning requires much installation space. Therefore, vertical computers are commonly used at the present time to replace early designed horizontal computers. When a vertical computer is used, it occupies less floor or table space.
When setting the mainframe of a personal computer in vertical, the center of gravity of the mainframe is shifted upwards, and the mainframe may fall to be floor easily when vibrated or hit by an external body. In order to support the mainframe of a personal computer on the floor in a vertical position stably, foot members may be used.
FIG. 1
shows two foot members
92
put beneath the mainframe
91
of a vertical computer. As illustrated in
FIG. 2
, the foot member
92
is comprised of two parts coupled together and slidable relative to each other. Because this design of foot member has no stop means to stop disconnection of the parts from each other, the parts may be forced away from each other accidentally when the user adjusting the pitch, thereby causing the mainframe
91
to fall to the floor or to injure the user's body.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a combination foot member that eliminates the aforesaid problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the main object of the present invention to provide a combination foot member, which has stop means that stops falling of the parts accidentally, preventing damage to the hardware or human body.
To achieve this and other objects of the present invention, the combination foot member comprises a first part and a second part coupled to each other. The first part and the second part each are comprised of a base and a sideboard. The base comprises a top wall, a first sidewall, a second sidewall opposite to the first sidewall, a bottom receiving chamber defined by the top wall, the first sidewall and the second sidewall, and a forwardly extended guide board suspended in the bottom receiving chamber near the first sidewall below the elevation of the top wall. The top wall has a front side terminating in a butt end near the second sidewall and a rear side provided with a coupling structure. The guide board has a L-shaped stop member downwardly extended from the front side thereof and an opening faced to the first sidewall. The second sidewall has a horizontal guide rail disposed at the inner surface and terminating in a downwardly extended stop flange. The sideboard is pivoted to the coupling structure of the base, and turnable to a vertical position perpendicular to the base. When coupling the first part and the second part to each other, the guide board of the base of one part of the foot member is respectively inserted slantwise into the bottom receiving chamber of the base of the other part of the foot member to force the respective L-shaped stop member to overstride the corresponding stop flange, and then the guide board of the base of one part of the foot member is respectively inserted straightly into the bottom receiving chamber of the base of the other part of the foot member for enabling the respective L-shaped stop member to slide forward along the corresponding horizontal guide rail. When the two parts of the foot member are assembled for use to support the mainframe of a computer in vertical, the user can move the parts of the foot member relative to each other to adjust the pitch between the sideboards. In case an excessive force is applied to the parts of the foot member to force the parts apart during pitch adjustment, the respective L-shaped stop members will be slid backward along the corresponding horizontal guide rail and stopped at the corresponding stop flanges, preventing falling of the parts from each other accidentally.
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Bacon & Thomas PLLC
Braun Leslie A.
Marsh Steven
Tatung Co. Ltd.
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