Land vehicles – Wheeled – Extensible
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-06
2004-11-09
Fischmann, Bryan (Department: 3618)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Extensible
Reexamination Certificate
active
06814368
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a foldable stroller, more particularly a foldable stroller, that can be collapsed in three dimensions to have a significantly reduced size for easy storage.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, a conventional foldable stroller has a front support member
10
, a handle
20
, a rear support member
30
, front wheels
101
, rear wheels
301
, a seat
40
, a pair of connecting rods
50
, and a pair of operating rods
60
. The rear wheels
301
are connected to the lower ends of the rear support member
30
, while the front wheels
101
are disposed at the lower ends of the front support member
10
. The rear support member
30
has extension portions at upper ends thereof, and is pivotally connected to the intermediate portions of the front support member
10
. The seat
40
is disposed between the extension portions and the front support member
10
. The handle
20
is connected to the upper ends of the front support member
10
. The connecting rods
50
are pivotally connected to each other at middle portions, and are pivotally connected to the upper ends of the front support member
10
as well as the lower sections of the rear support member
30
at two ends thereof. The operating rods
60
are foldable at the middles, and are pivotally connected to the ends of the connecting rods
50
so that the stroller can be kept in the in-use position by stretching the operating rods
60
.
To fold the stroller, the middles of both the operating rods
60
are pulled so that the parts of the support rods
10
,
30
move closer, resulting in a reduction of the width of the stroller. However, the conventional stroller is found to have disadvantages as follows:
1. Each of the operating rods
60
has to be pulled because no co-moving element is provided to connect one of the rods
60
to the other, making the stroller relatively inconvenient to operate.
2. There is no locking element for locking the conventional stroller in the stretched in-use position. Therefore, the conventional stroller is prone to accidentally collapse and thereby hurt a baby seated thereon should an unintentional external force be exerted on the operating rods
60
.
3. Only the width is reduced when the conventional stroller is folded, leaving the conventional stroller with a relatively large size after folding that will take up a lot of room in storage and transportation.
4. The conventional stroller is folded by causing the rods
60
and the connecting rods
50
to pivot on each other. Being pivotally connected to each other at the centers thereof, the rods
50
are likely to reduce the smoothness of the folding and the unfolding process.
Referring to
FIG. 2
, a pulling element
70
is connected to the middles of the operating rods
60
of the above conventional stroller at two ends; thus, the user only has to fold the upper one of the rods
60
in order to collapse the conventional stroller because the other operating rod
60
will be folded at the same time. However, the other disadvantages have yet to be overcome, namely, (1) a lack of locking elements for securing the conventional stroller in the unfolded position against unintentional folding; (2) an unsatisfactory reduction of size after folding; and, (3) a lack of smoothness of folding and unfolding due to the connecting rods
50
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a main object of the present invention to provide a foldable stroller, which can be folded in three dimensions so that it is relatively compact after folding.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a foldable stroller, which can be easily folded.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a foldable stroller, which has a locking means for preventing the foldable stroller from being inadvertently collapsed into the folded position.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4118052 (1978-10-01), Cabagnero
patent: 4232897 (1980-11-01), Maclaren et al.
patent: 4542916 (1985-09-01), Kassai
patent: 4618184 (1986-10-01), Harvey
patent: 4986564 (1991-01-01), Liu
patent: 5221106 (1993-06-01), Shamie
patent: 5863061 (1999-01-01), Ziegler et al.
patent: 6102432 (2000-08-01), Cheng
patent: 6322098 (2001-11-01), Lan
patent: 6428034 (2002-08-01), Bost
patent: 2002/0113414 (2002-08-01), Tomasi et al.
Fischmann Bryan
Rosenberg , Klein & Lee
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