Bezel of luggage handle

Information

  • Patent Grant
  • 6672440
  • Patent Number
    6,672,440
  • Date Filed
    Wednesday, June 26, 2002
    22 years ago
  • Date Issued
    Tuesday, January 6, 2004
    20 years ago
Abstract
A bezel of luggage comprises a vertical portion, a horizontal portion, a first recess surrounded by the horizontal portion and the rear lower side, and a second recess surrounded by the front upper side and the vertical portion. This can protect fingers and thumb in the handle retracting process. This is because there is a sufficient space left between handle grip and second recess and between handle grip and first recess respectively when handle grip is fully retracted onto bezel.
Description




BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION




1. Field of the Invention




The present invention relates to handle of luggage and more particularly to a bezel luggage having a safety arrangement for preventing hand from being hurt in retracting handle.




2. Description of Related Art




A conventional wheeled luggage is always equipped with a retractable handle. Accordingly, a recessed bezel is a necessary element in luggage for receiving a retracted handle. In general, bezel is provided on the top rear portion of luggage. A great number of patents worldwide have been disclosed related to the improvement of bezel. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,798 to Tsai entitled “Trunk With A Concealable Retractable Handle” and Taiwanese Utility Model Publication No. 387,218 entitled “Bumping Prevented Device for Luggage Handle” both disclose a small recess for hand to insert into in addition to the large recess of bezel. The difference of them is that the small recess is located below the large recess in the former while an additional bumping prevented device further provided above the large recess in the latter. The purpose of small recess is for providing a passage for hand to insert into bezel to grip handle grip easily. However, in the former, the problem of hurting fingers in bezel while retracting handle has not been considered. Such may be best illustrated in

FIGS. 1A and 1B

. As shown in

FIG. 1A

, fingers F are safe before handle grip H is retracted into bezel R. However, as shown in

FIG. 1B

, when handle grip H is pushed down quickly thumb T is squeezed at the edge C between handle grip H and top of luggage. Since the pushing force is strong if the retracting of handle is quick thumb T tends to hurt in such case. To solve the problem mentioned above, the latter further provides an additional bumping prevented device


28


in the recess


27


which is located at upper portion of vertical wall of the bezel. However, the device


28


is made of sponge which tends to be easily worn after use for a period of time. Such may also have thumb T to hurt the upper edge or lower edge of the recess


27


of bezel as mentioned above. Thus, improvement exists.




SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION




It is an object of the present invention to provide a safe retractable handle system of luggage wherein an upper small recess is provided in a joint of vertical portion and upper front part of bezel and a lower small recess is provided in a joint of horizontal portion and lower rear part of bezel respectively. By configuring as this, hand of user may not be hurt in the process of retracting handle into bezel.




To achieve the above and other objects, the present invention provides a bezel on a top rear portion of a wheeled luggage including a retractable handle having two handle rods and a top handle grip, the bezel comprising a body including a front upper side, two-arcuate sides, and a rear lower side; a vertical portion; a horizontal portion; two spaced tunnels near sides of the horizontal portion sleeved on the handle rods of the handle; a first recess surrounded by the horizontal portion and the rear lower side for permitting fingers of user to insert in while the handle grip is fully retracted onto a space defined by the vertical and the horizontal portions; and a second recess surrounded by the front upper side and the vertical portion for permitting a thumb of user to insert in while the handle grip is fully retracted onto the space defined by the vertical and the horizontal portions. This can protect fingers and thumb in the retracting process.




The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.











BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS





FIG. 1A

is a schematic cross-sectional view of bezel portion of a conventional luggage, where handle is not fully retracted;





FIG. 1B

is a view similar to

FIG. 1A

, where handle is to be fully retracted;





FIG. 2

is a perspective view of a first preferred embodiment of luggage incorporating a safe bezel according to the invention;





FIG. 3A

is a schematic cross-sectional view of bezel portion of

FIG. 2

luggage, where handle is not fully retracted;





FIG. 3B

is a view similar to

FIG. 3A

, where handle is fully retracted;





FIG. 4

is a perspective view of bezel shown in

FIG. 2

;





FIG. 5

is a perspective view of a second preferred embodiment of bezel of luggage according to the invention; and





FIG. 6

is a perspective view of a third preferred embodiment of bezel of luggage according to the invention.











DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS




Referring to

FIGS. 2

to


4


, a description of a first embodiment of safe bezel of wheeled luggage in accordance with the invention will be detailed below. The luggage comprises a main body


30


, a bezel


10


on the top rear portion of the body


30


, a retractable handle


20


having a top handle grip


21


, and two sets of wheels


40


on the rear bottom portion of the body


30


.




As shown in

FIG. 4

specifically, bezel


10


comprises a body


11


including a front upper side


110


, two arcuate sides


111


, and a rear lower side


112


, a vertical portion


12


, a horizontal portion


13


, two spaced tunnels


14


near sides of horizontal portion


13


sleeved on two handle rods of handle


20


, a first recess


16


surrounded by horizontal portion


13


and rear lower side


112


, and a second recess


15


surrounded by front upper side


110


and vertical portion


12


wherein the latter two elements are the most important ones, i.e., the characteristics of the invention. The purpose of recesses


15


and


16


are for providing passages for hand to insert into bezel


10


to grip handle grip


21


easily while safely. As shown in

FIG. 3A

, fingers F and thumbs T are safe before pushing handle grip


21


down. Further, as shown in

FIG. 3B

, handle grip


21


gripped by fingers F and thumb T is pushed down safely and quickly until handle


20


is fully retracted onto a space defined by vertical portion


12


and horizontal portion


13


. At this time, there is still a sufficient space left between handle grip


21


and second recess


15


and between handle grip


21


and first recess


16


respectively. Hence, fingers F and thumb T are protected. This eliminates the drawback of prior art of possibly hurting thumb T in above retracting process.




Referring to

FIGS. 3A

,


3


B and


4


, it is to be noted that to facilitate passage for hand to insert into the bezel to grip the handle grip easily, according to the first embodiment of the invention, the recesses


15


and


16


are a smooth curved shape. The first recess


16


has a surface that is oriented obliquely relative to the horizontal portion


13


and the rear lower side


112


. The second recess


15


has a surface that is oriented obliquely relative to the front upper side


110


and the vertical portion


12


.




Referring to

FIG. 5

, according to the second embodiment of the invention, the shapes of recesses


15


A and


16


A may be varied. For example, recesses both are smoothly concave but sizes different. Alternatively, as shown in

FIG. 6

, according to the third embodiment of the invention, second recess


15


A is of a smoothly concave shape, while the first recess


16


B is substantially of a parallelepiped for the purpose of further increasing a receiving space for hand to insert into the bezel.




While the invention herein disclosed has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.



Claims
  • 1. A bezel on a top rear portion of a wheeled luggage having two handle rods and a top handle grip, the bezel comprising:a) a body having a front upper side; a rear lower side; two arcuate sides joining the front upper side and the rear lower side; a horizontal portion and a vertical portion extending from the rear lower side and the front upper side, respectively; and two spaced tunnels accommodating the two handle rods; b) a first recess at a juncture of the horizontal portion and the rear lower side; and c) a second recess at a junction of the front upper side and the vertical portion, the second recess having a surface oriented obliquely to the front upper side and the vertical portion.
  • 2. The bezel on the top rear portion of the wheeled luggage according to claim 1, wherein the first recess has a surface oriented obliquely to the horizontal portion and to the rear lower side.
  • 3. The bezel on the top rear portion of the wheeled luggage according to claim 2, wherein the surface of the first recess and the surface of the second recess each have a concavely curved cross-sectional configuration.
  • 4. The bezel on the top rear portion of the wheeled luggage according to claim 1, wherein the first recess has a parallelepiped shape and the surface of the second recess has a concavely curved cross-sectional configuration.
Priority Claims (1)
Number Date Country Kind
90210866 Jun 2001 TW
US Referenced Citations (8)
Number Name Date Kind
294260 Niles Feb 1884 A
5566798 Tsai Oct 1996 A
5689854 Wang Nov 1997 A
5690196 Wang Nov 1997 A
5862898 Chang Jan 1999 A
6079527 Kuo Jun 2000 A
6148478 Kuwayama Nov 2000 A
20030000785 Miller et al. Jan 2003 A1
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number Date Country
387218 Apr 1989 CN