Amusement devices: toys – Construction toy – Including flaccid connector for joining plural elements
Patent
1998-05-11
1999-12-14
Hafer, Robert A.
Amusement devices: toys
Construction toy
Including flaccid connector for joining plural elements
446 96, 446107, 446490, 403291, A63H 3304
Patent
active
060009845
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a building set of the type described in the introductory part of claim 1, comprising a pull element with an elongated flexible element, such as a string, a wire or a chain, and wherein the one end of the elongated flexible element is secured to a coupling means which is provided on its underside with coupling means for frictionally interconnecting with one or more complementary coupling studs on another building element which is part of the building set.
In the building sets, these pull elements are used to connect portions of the constructions which may be built with the building set components. Thus, the pull elements may transmit pulling forces between the constructions which enables them to be used to connect e.g. individual carts in a train set, as lifting elements in e.g. cranes where the coupling means constitutes a crane hook or the like.
Known pull elements for this purpose are so designed that, at the area where it is secured to the coupling means, the elongated flexible element extends parallel with the coupling direction between the coupling means and the complementary coupling stud. This limits the pulling force which may be transmitted by the pull element to the frictional force between the coupling means and the complementary coupling stud, which limitation may be disadvantageous since it is often desired that this frictional force is comparatively small in order for individual blocks in the building set to be readily interconnected and separated.
Therefore, another type of pull elements is known where the elongated flexible element extends perpendicularly to the coupling direction between the coupling means and the complementary coupling stud whereby the pulling force which may be transmitted is not restricted by the frictional force therebetween. However, the latter type of known pull elements is associated with the drawback that the pull which may be transmitted may exceed the tensile strength of the elongated flexible element, or that of the connecting area between the elongated flexible element and the coupling means to which it is secured. In practice, this may cause the pull element to be destroyed or, at best, the construction onto which the pull element is mounted to break.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a pull element of the type described in the introductory part whereby a pulling force may be transmitted that exceeds the frictional force between the coupling means and the complementary coupling stud without use of the element involving a risk that the pull element is destroyed by pulling forces that exceed the tensile strength of the element.
This is obtained according to the invention by the pull element described in the introductory part being provided in such a manner that the coupling means comprises only one rotationally symmetrical coupling skirt at its underside, and in that the elongated flexible element is connected to the coupling means at a point which is so far away from the underside of the coupling means that a pull in the elongated flexible element transversally to the coupling direction between the coupling means and the complementary coupling stud, said pull being smaller than the tensile strength of the elongated flexible element, will cause a twisting momentum on the coupling means, said twisting momentum being sufficiently large to pull the coupling means and the complementary coupling stud out of the frictional engagement, and that the elongated flexible element extends substantially perpendicularly to the coupling direction between the coupling means and the complementary coupling stud at the area where it is secured to the coupling means.
Claim 2 defines a convenient embodiment where it is further ensured that the pull element cannot be subject to plastic deformation during ordinary use of the element.
By the features defined in claim 3 an element is provided which is not destroyed during ordinary use if the elongated flexible element has a pull strength that exceeds the tensile strength in th
REFERENCES:
patent: 3605323 (1971-09-01), Fischer
Fossum Laura
Hafer Robert A.
INTERLEGO AG
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