Package and article carriers – Carried by animate bearer – Article held by receiver
Patent
1998-12-14
2000-02-15
Garbe, Stephen P.
Package and article carriers
Carried by animate bearer
Article held by receiver
224259, 224627, 224631, 224645, A45F 304
Patent
active
060242655
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a rucksack. The invention is particularly concerned with a rucksack having a device which acts to transfer load within the rucksack carrying system, and for compressing the load within the rucksack.
The term "rucksack" as used comprises a load-carrying bag having a front and a back wall and two side walls. A carrying harness is attached to the back wall of the rucksack. Typically the shoulder harness comprises a pair of shoulder straps which are attached at their upper ends to the back wall of the rucksack with means for attaching the shoulder straps to the back wall of the rucksack and are adjustable as described, for example in PCT WO94/261434.
The lower ends of the shoulder straps are attached to the lower corners of the back wall of the rucksack by adjustable straps. Typically, the rucksack is provided with a waistbelt which is also attached to the back wall of the rucksack at a lower part thereof. The waistbelt is intended to fit around the waist of the person carrying the rucksack ("the user") and is intended to rest on the hips of the user.
In an earlier rucksack design, the load carrying bag simply hung from the shoulders of the user, and the greater part of the load was distributed onto the shoulders of the user. This causes excessive tiredness and fatigue in the shoulder muscles and it is difficult to carry heavy loads for long periods. It is known that it is desirable to transfer the load from the shoulders to the lumbar region of the spine and unto the hips. It is also desirable to stabilise the load within the rucksack and reduce swaying of the load. Finally, the centre of gravity of the load should be brought close to that of the user for improved stability.
During the 1970's some of these objects were partly achieved by providing an internal frame in the back wall of the rucksack. The frame comprises a pair of aluminium bars or staves which extended vertically to each side of the back wall of the rucksack. The frame staves are contained within fabric sleeves formed in the back wall of the rucksack.
The staves act to transfer a proportion of the pack load from the shoulders to the hips of the users, while simultaneously flexing to absorb jolts.
In the prior art, side compression of the load is achieved by means of load compression straps attached to the side walls of the rucksacks which can be tightened to bring the front and back walls of the rucksack together to partly compress the load within the rucksack.
However, with this arrangement, the loaded rucksack is free to sway from side to side as it is carried by the user. This can be disconcerting and dangerous to the user when climbing on steep ground or when the pack is used for high-energy activity such as mountain running.
It is also known to have an internal frame in the back wall of a rucksack. The internal frame comprises a sheet of plastics or the like incorporated within the back wall of the rucksack, and extending substantially vertically of the rucksack. The plastic sheet may be stiffened by means of a metal (for example, aluminium) bar extending upwardly and centrally of the back wall of the rucksack. A pair of glassfibre rods is provided to each side of the plastics sheet and extend vertically of the back wall of the rucksack, and are contained within vertical sleeves formed, to each side of the back wall, at the corner portion between the back wall and the side walls of the rucksack. The glass fibre rods service to assist in transferring load from the top to the waist belt of the rucksack. However, they are not effective in transferring load from the front portion of the rucksack, nor do they act to adequately compress the load. Furthermore, they do not prevent swaying of the rucksack during use. In addition, this system is heavy to carry, and is expensive to manufacture.
In a further modification of the aforesaid system, the two parallel rods are replaced by a single rod which is bent into an inverted u-shape, and is attached in a planar fashion, vertically to the back wall of the
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patent: 4096978 (1978-06-01), Noice
patent: 5090604 (1992-02-01), Howe
patent: 5529230 (1996-06-01), Smith
patent: 5586705 (1996-12-01), Leonard
patent: 5725139 (1998-03-01), Smith
patent: 5890640 (1999-04-01), Thompson
"Osprey Packs. 1995" Catalogue, pp. 1-25.
Brevard Maerena W.
Garbe Stephen P.
Lowe Alpine Holdings Limited
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