Patent Application
20150041272
The present invention is in the field of collapsible rolling luggage.
Luggage is commonly used for carrying clothing and other personal articles on travels. Luggage comes in different sizes such as carry-on size which is a standard size in the airline industry. More recently, luggage has come standard with rolling wheels and telescopic extending handles. A variety of different luggage containers have been made to be collapsible. These collapsible luggages come in a wide variety of different designs and configurations.
One type of configuration is an expandable type of luggage as demonstrated by Paul Scicluna and Victor Sanz in their Aug. 24, 2010, U.S. Design Pat. No. D622,060, titled Expandable Wheeled Luggage. The illustration presents a picture of a wheeled luggage with the capability to expand when the two zippers that are encircled on the front of the luggage face are loosened. Whereas Scicluna et al focuses on a luggage that expands other varieties of luggage collapse for space convenience. An example of the collapsible variety is Tan's U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,890, published. on Jun. 11, 2002, which is disclosed herein by reference. Tan proposed a collapsible luggage that consisted of three separate pieces: a wheeled base, a folding collapsible cover, and a top panel. When in use the folding collapsible cover is attached to the wheel base using a zip fastener. The vertical length of the luggage would be able to fit golf clubs. When the folding collapsible cover is not in use, it can be compacted to a small area and stacked on top of the wheel base. In this case, the top cover could also be placed over the wheeled base and convert the luggage into a standard sized rolling luggage.
Collapsible luggages sometimes relinquish the rigidity of its structure to obtain the versatility that enables it to fold upon itself. However, Michael Bettua and Joseph Kiran have proposed a solution to this issue in their European Patent number EP 2 051 602, published May 5, 2013, and titled Collapsible Expanding Luggage. Their patent describes a luggage that is segmented in to multiple parts, which allows for the luggage to fold, yet be composed of a sturdy material to maintain the safety of soft luggage when in use. The segmented areas are connected together with flexible material that bends when folding the luggage to store away.
A collapsible luggage includes a panel assembly that has a number of walls made of panels. The luggage has a rear panel, and a left side wall connected to the rear panel at a left side wall rear edge. A right side wall is connected to the rear panel at a right side wall rear edge, and a bottom wall is connected to the rear panel at a bottom wall rear edge. A top wall is connected to the rear panel at a top wall rear edge. The panel assembly has a deployed position and a stowed position. The panel assembly forms a cavity for storing articles when the panel assembly is in the deployed position. The front cover panel has a front cover panel hinged connection to the panel assembly and has a front cover panel zippered connection to the panel assembly.
A right side wall pocket is formed between a right side wall outside layer and a right side wall inside layer. A left side wall pocket is formed between a left side wall inside layer and a left side wall outside layer. A right side wall insert panel is conformed to the shape of the right side wall pocket and a left side wall insert panel is conformed to the shape of the left side wall pocket. In the deployed position, the right side wall insert panel is installed into the right side wall pocket and the left side wall insert panel is installed into the left side wall pocket. In the stowed position, the right side wall insert panel is uninstalled from the right side wall pocket and the left side wall insert panel is uninstalled from the left side wall pocket to make the luggage collapsible.
The right side wall zipper closing the right side wall pocket, and further comprising a left side wall zipper closing the left side wall pocket.
The top wall includes a top wall fixed panel and a top wall folding panel. The top wall fixed panel is connected to the rear panel. The top wall fixed panel is hinged to the top wall folding panel. The top wall folding panel has a top wall edge that receives zippered connection to the front cover panel zippered connection of the front cover panel. The top wall folding panel folds inward toward the cavity for storing articles when the collapsible luggage is being converted to stowed position. Similarly, the bottom wall may have a bottom wall fixed panel and a bottom wall folding panel. The bottom wall fixed panel is connected to the rear panel. The bottom wall fixed panel is hinged to the bottom wall folding panel. The bottom top wall folding panel has a bottom wall edge that receives zippered connection to the front cover panel zippered connection of the front cover panel. The bottom wall folding panel folds inward toward the cavity for storing articles when the collapsible luggage is being converted to stowed position.
One or more wheels can be mounted on a bottom surface of the bottom wall. The wheels are mounted to the bottom wall fixed panel. A bottom wall support can be mounted on a bottom surface of the bottom wall. The bottom wall support is mounted to the bottom wall folding panel. A carrying handle can be mounted to a top surface of the top wall wherein the carrying handle is mounted to the top wall folding panel. An extending handle can be mounted on the rear panel. The extending handle preferably protrudes through a top surface of the top wall at the top wall fixed panel.
The following call out list of elements can be a useful guide in referencing the element numbers of the drawings.
The present invention is a rolling luggage that has a foldable capability. The luggage can be transformed from a first state to a second state. The luggage is manually manipulated by a user so that the luggage can be collapsed to approximately half height in a collapsed mode and then deployed to a deployed mode. The collapsed mode can be called the stowed position and the deployed mode can be called the deployed position.
As seen in
In a deployed mode, the luggage functions similar to typical rolling luggage. The luggage generally has a bottom wall 20, a top wall 40, and a pair of side walls 32. The front cover panel 26 has a zippered connection to the bottom wall 20, the top wall 40 and the pair of side walls 32. The front cover panel 26 has a continuous zipper across the top edge of the other walls. The front cover panel 26 and the rear panel 50 cooperate with the walls, namely the the bottom wall 20, the top wall 40 and a pair of side walls 32 to enclose articles within the luggage compartment. The luggage has walls that enclose a cavity within the luggage. The cavity is a luggage compartment suitable for holding article such as clothing. The rear panel 50 is preferably stitched to the walls at four sides of the rear panel. The rear panel 50 may be supported by a stem for receiving an extension handle 44. The extension handle stem may connect from a top end of the top wall and extend down to the bottom wall 20 to provide a rigid frame and structure for the rear panel 50.
The top wall 40 is connected to the left side wall 32 at a left edge and the top wall 40 is connected to the right side wall 32 at a right edge. The bottom wall 20 is connected to the left side wall 32 at a left edge and the bottom wall 20 is connected to the right side wall 32 at a right edge. The walls are connected to each other as well as connected to the rear panel 50.
The bottom wall 20 may further include a bottom wall support 21 that is formed as a foot. The bottom wall support 21 can be eight plastic injection molded piece that has a pair of feet and the pair of feet can be related to the bottom surface of the bottom wall 20.
The bottom wall comprises a bottom wall folding panel 22 that is hinge connected to a bottom wall fixed panel 23. The bottom wall fixed panel 23 is secured to the rear panel 50. The bottom wall folding panel 22 folds inward into the luggage compartment on a bottom panel folding line 25 that is located between the bottom wall fixed panel 23 and the bottom wall folding panel 22. The bottom panel folding line 25 is parallel to a zippered edge of the bottom wall 20.
The folding lines, namely the top folding line and the bottom folding line are preferably parallel to a plane of the front cover panel. The folding lines are the locations where the hinged connection is located within the folded wall, namely within the top wall and within the bottom wall. The folding line passes across the entire length of the folded wall starting from a left side wall to a right side wall. The length of the folding line is therefore is equivalent or approximately equivalent to the length of the wall being folded. The wall being folded is folded along the length of the wall at the folding line. The folded walls, namely the top wall and a bottom wall can be bisected by the folding line. A top folding line can bisect the top wall into a top wall forming panel and a top wall fixed panel and a bottom folding line can bisect the bottom wall.
The bottom wall 20 may also have wheels 24 mounted to the bottom wall fixed panel 23. The wheels allow a user to move the luggage by rolling. The zippered edge of the bottom wall 20 is zippered connected to a front cover panel 26. The front cover panel 26 may have a front cover panel pocket 27 that is for retaining magazines and other flat personal articles.
The bottom wall 20 folds down on the bottom panel folding line 25 when the bottom wall is being folded into collapsed configuration. The bottom wall 20 folds back up on the bottom panel folding line 25 when the bottom wall is being folded into deployed configuration. The bottom wall folding panel 22 and the bottom wall fixed panel 23 are preferably at least partially rigid, but can be made of flexible material such as fabric encapsulating or laminating to a flexible semi-rigid plastic or metal panel. If hinge hardware is used, the hinge hardware should be covered by fabric so that it is not visible. Hinge hardware is not preferred. It is preferred to have the bottom panel folding line 25 having a fabric hinge.
The luggage has a pair of side walls 32 namely a left side wall and a right side wall. The side walls are formed as pockets. The side wall pockets retain a side wall insert panel 33. The side wall insert panel 33 is shaped to conform to the shape of the side wall pockets. The side wall pockets are closed by side wall zippers. More specifically, the right side wall zipper 34 closes a side wall insert panel 33 within the right side wall pocket 35. Similarly, the left side wall zipper 37 closes a side wall insert panel 33 within the left side wall pocket 38. The pair of side walls 32 both have a side wall inside layer 39 and a side wall outside layer 36. The side wall pocket is formed between the side wall inside layer 39 and the side wall outside layer 36. The side wall insert panel being used is preferably a thick sheet of plastic that is flexible but still has sufficient structure to support the side wall. The side wall pocket can also be used by a user for supplemental storage of flat articles such as tabloid magazines for use during commercial air travel. The side wall insert panel 33 can be doubled up if necessary for greater rigidity. If doubled up, the pair of side wall panels would double to become a pair of pair of side wall panels. By doubling up, two panels would become four panels. Doubling of the panels would allow a user to stash flat articles between the panels.
When the at least semi-rigid panels are installed in the side walls, the side walls are raised to a deployed position and when the panels are removed from the side walls, the side walls are in a stowed position. The panels can be stored in the front cover panel pocket 27 when not in use. The top edge of the panel is preferably rounded so that it fits into a rounded top edge of the side wall pocket. Similarly, the bottom edge of the panel is preferably contoured so that it fits into the bottom contoured edge of the side pocket. Contour and rounded in this description refers to shapes that are not strictly rectangular.
The top wall 40 has a similar construction to the bottom wall in that the top wall 40 has its a top wall folding panel 41 and a top wall fixed panel 42. The top wall folding panel 41 may have a top wall handle 43 that is connected to the top wall folding panel by a handle rivet.
Optionally, the top wall handle 43 has a padded cushion 45 stitched or button connected to the top wall handle 43 to provide a soft grip for user. When a user is lifting the luggage by the top wall handle 43, the top wall handle 43 suspends the handle rivets 46, which in turn suspends the top wall folding panel 41. The top wall folding panel 41 is in turn connected to the top wall fixed panel 42 as well as the pair of sidewalls 32.
The top wall folding panel 41 is pivotally connected to the top wall fixed panel 42. The top wall fixed panel 42 is preferably rigidly connected to the back panel 50. The back panel 50 is reinforced and has a preferably rigid frame that is due to the extending handle 44. The extending handle 44 is mounted to the top wall fixed panel 42. The top wall folding panel 41 connects to the top wall fixed panel 42 at a top wall fold line 48.
The top wall folding panel 41 can fold down like the bottom wall forming panel 22 when the side wall insert panels 33 are removed from the side wall pockets. The top wall folding panel 41 is preferably hinged by fabric to the top wall fixed panel 42. The extending handle 44 is preferably mounted on the back panel 50 such that it protrudes from a back portion of the top wall fixed panel 42. The extending handle 44 can be flush to a top wall fixed panel 42 when the extending handle is in retracted position. The top wall fold line 48 is preferably located between the extending handle 44 and the handle rivet 46.
The top wall fold line 48 is parallel to a top wall edge 47. The top wall edge 47 has zippered connection to the front cover panel 26.
Optionally, a supplemental top panel 51 can reinforce the top wall folding panel 41. The supplemental top panel can be secured to the top wall folding panel 41 by hook and loop tape, zippers or snap buttons. Analogously, a supplemental bottom panel 52 can reinforce a bottom wall folding panel 22. The supplemental bottom panel 52 can also be secured to the bottom wall folding panel 22 by hook and loop tape, zippers or snap buttons. The supplemental bottom panel 52 preferably is approximately the size of the bottom wall 20. The supplemental top panel 51 is preferably approximately the same size of the top wall 40. The supplemental panels, namely the supplemental bottom panel 52 and the supplemental top panel 51 provide reinforcement by providing a rigid panel that spans across the bottom wall folding line 25 and the top wall fold line 48. The supplemental panels have releasable attachment to the corners, such as by the connection means described above. The supplemental panels can be made of material similar to the standard pair of side wall insert panels 33.
The supplemental panels can be folded down so that they are parallel to the rear panel 50 when the supplemental panels are in stowed position. Supplemental panels may have a stitched connection to the rear panel 50 at the rear edge of the supplemental panels. Supplemental panels would be preferably connected to the rear panel 50 at only the rear edge so as to provide a single folding fabric hinge of each of the supplemental panels. Supplemental panels may also have a zippered connection to the walls being reinforced. When the luggage is in a stowed position, the luggage has a smaller volume.
The detailed description provides an example of the invention. The following claims define the scope of the invention.
