Tent – canopy – umbrella – or cane – Umbrella
Patent
1996-07-08
1998-05-19
Kent, Christopher Todd
Tent, canopy, umbrella, or cane
Umbrella
135 22, 135 23, 135 29, 135 31, A45B 2502
Patent
active
057525340
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to an umbrella, particularly a standing umbrella, sunshade, garden umbrella or similar, with a frame, a roof structure and a canopy, where the roof rods are linked to a pole element bearing a cap and moveable in a telescopic manner relative to the vertical pipe, and a slide, on which stretchers linked to the roof rods act flexibly, is moveable along the vertical pipe, the cap and the slide moving in opposite directions during opening and closing of the umbrella, and with at least one additional stretcher arranged flexibly above the slide between the umbrella pipe and a roof rod, the slide being fitted with a locking device with which it can be locked in its upper position and the canopy can be tensioned.
An umbrella of this kind is known from DE-A-41 06 147. The umbrella described in this publication is designed in such a way that the canopy can be easily opened and stretched to achieve sufficient wind resistance without a drive unit, even by a weak person, by manual operation of the slide and the locking device. Particular emphasis is placed on wind resistance in this context, as the umbrella affords protection in all kinds of weather and having to close it if the wind suddenly rises is frequently undesirable or not immediately possible. If the canopy, i.e. the roof membrane, is insufficiently stretched, turbulence occurs on the upper and lower sides of the umbrella membrane in the event of sudden gusts of wind. A fluttering movement thus arises which exerts unpredictable and uncontrollable forces on the umbrella rods. Owing to these forces, the positions of the umbrella rod pivot points in relation to one another can change, in particular, meaning that the canopy as a whole becomes unstable. A precisely defined and temporally constant tension of the canopy is required in order to avoid damage to, or even destruction of, the canopy in strong winds or storms.
A locking device which works in conjunction with a retaining arm fixed to the umbrella pipe is proposed for this purpose in the aforementioned DE-A-41 06 147. The umbrella can then be opened by a person in such a way that he initially pulls the outer edge of the roof towards himself, thus partly opening the umbrella. As the cap and the slide move in opposite directions and the centre of gravity of the roof structure thus remains at virtually the same height, the roof structure comes to a halt when the application of manual force is interrupted or concluded. Thus, when the roof is drawn apart sufficiently, its edge can be released and the slide which moves along the vertical pipe can be grasped. The pushing up of the slide, which can be carried out just as simply, then leads to extensive opening of the umbrella, during which the expenditure of energy necessary to stretch the roof membrane, which can no longer be effected by manually pushing the slide up further, finally becomes apparent. In this extensively open position, the roof structure still comes to a halt if the slide is released, meaning that the locking device, with which the slide can be locked in its upper position and the roof membrane can be tensioned, can now be operated manually. For this purpose, the locking device is preferably fitted with a tension lever lock which works in conjunction with an abutment fitted at the lower end of the retaining arm. By applying the very little force required, the slide can be pushed up along the vertical pipe so far that the tension spring clip of the tension lever lock can be latched into the abutment and tensioned by moving the hand lever.
With the aid of the locking device construction known from DE-A-41 06 147, simple manual stretching of the roof membrane can be effected to create sufficient wind resistance in standing umbrellas with an umbrella diameter of up to about 4 m. In this context, one disadvantage discovered with these umbrellas, which will be described below, does not have such a pronounced effect that the wind stability aspired to with the known construction is impaired.
It has been determined that the clearance in
REFERENCES:
patent: 973207 (1910-10-01), Pokorny
patent: 2775977 (1957-01-01), Haupt
patent: 4424824 (1984-01-01), Becher
patent: 5329953 (1994-07-01), Becher
patent: 5370144 (1994-12-01), Yang
Becher Textil-und Stahlbau GmbH
Kent Christopher Todd
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