Amusement devices: toys – Construction toy – Having parts assembled for relative movement
Patent
1993-06-29
1995-06-27
Hafer, Robert A.
Amusement devices: toys
Construction toy
Having parts assembled for relative movement
446 85, 446 93, 446 95, 446466, 446128, 52393, A63H 3308
Patent
active
054275580
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a toy building element incorporated in a toy building set with building elements which have mutually complementary primary and secondary coupling means for interconnecting several building elements.
It is increasingly demanded that such building sets and the building elements incorporated in Them shall be versatile and have new functions which widely imitate functions in The objects which the children imitate when playing, or which enable new uses and imaginative constructions. The present invention satisfies such a requirement.
Various inventions for spring suspension of The wheels of toy cars and toy aircrafts are known from the following patent applications: GB 2 037 596, DE 3 737 521 and JP 1126297. The inventions-described in these applications all have a quite special use and cannot be incorporated in a toy building set of the said type with known means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention, as defined in claim 1, enables a heretofore unknown function in known toy building sets, viz. that substructures can be built together by means of a simple, very compact building element and perform springing motion with respect To each other.
Claims 2 and 3 provide expedient embodiments of the building element.
Claims 4-6 state how a shaft of e.g. the wheels of a toy vehicle can be received in one of the mutually movable parts. It will hereby be possible to build cars and other vehicles where the wheels are individually spring mounted.
If an element according to the invention is arranged on each side of the toy vehicle, a through-going shaft may moreover be placed in these two elements so that the shaft is hereby spring mounted at both sides of the constructed vehicle.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will be explained more fully by the following description of exemplary preferred embodiments with reference to the drawing, in which
FIG. 1 is a vertical section through an element of the invention with a mounted wheel,
FIG. 2 is another vertical section through the element of FIG. 1,
FIG. 3 shows a use of the element in FIG. 1,
FIG. 4 shows another use of the element of FIG. 1,
FIG. 5 shows an alternative embodiment of the element of the invention, and
FIG. 6 is a vertical section through another alternative embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
FIGS. 1 and 2 show an element 10 of the invention, which has a first part 11 which is hollow, and whose interior accommodates a second part 12. A screw spring 13 is provided between a downwardly directed inner face 14 of the first part 11 and an upwardly directed face 16 of the second part 12, said spring exerting a force on these faces 14 and 16. The second part 12 is slidable in a vertical direction in the interior of the first part 11 between boundaries determined by the engagement of the upper face 17 of the second part against the face 14 of the first part 11 and abutment of a lower face 18 of the second part 12 against lower end stops 15 on the first part 11. These end stops 15 are provided as inwardly protruding projections.
The second part 12 has a through hole 19, and it is shown in FIG. 1 how a shaft 20 with a wheel 21 is mounted in the hole 19. At its end facing away from the wheel 21, the shaft 20 has two radially resilient flaps 22 serving as a snaplock.
The wheel 21 and its shaft 20 can freely rotate in the hole 19, and the wheel 21, the shaft 20 and the second part 12 are interconnected so as to perform the same vertical movement with respect to the first part 11 under the action of the spring 13.
It will be seen in FIG. 1 that the element 10 has a part 23 protruding laterally and displaced vertically with respect to the rest of the element. The upper side of the element is formed with cylindrical, primary coupling means 24, and the lower side of the element is formed with complementary secondary coupling means in the form of recesses permitting coupling with the primary coupling means of other elements. These secondary coupling means
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Knudsen Jens N.
Madsen Finn D.
Carlson Jeffrey D.
Hafer Robert A.
INTERLEGO AG
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