REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to enclosures that are easy to set up an dismantle for personal recreational uses, in general, and to ones that are easy to carry about and store away when not needed, in particular.
2. Description of the Related Art
As will be appreciated, toddlers and young children tend to wander away from their families at beach and park locations when attracted by other toddlers and young children nearby. As will also be appreciated, at many of these beaches and parks when weather is nice, areas to spread out at become hard to come by: and it is not unusual for one group to encroach upon another's space, or to unintentionally infringe upon another's sense of privacy. Tents or like arrangements set up to isolate one group from another tend to block the sun, and are somewhat difficult for many to install or otherwise cumbersome to carry about. Once set up, furthermore, they tend to be difficult to expand in size to accommodate any increase in people arriving; similarly, they are oftentimes difficult to reduce in size if fewer people show up than were expected.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
As such, it is an object of the present invention to provide a readily carryable, easy to set up-and-disassemble enclosure which can be easily enlarged or shortened to meet the needs of a “size” situation at hand, and particularly useful at beach and park locations.
And, it is a further object of the invention to provide such an enclosure which serves these purposes not only when the weather is sunny and nice, but also when wind conditions build up and change.
Additionally, it is another object of the invention to provide an enclosure of this type in a construction which not only can be enlarged or shortened, but which can be configured to accept and employ a range of accessories to enhance the adaptability of the enclosure when and wherever set up.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, a disassemblable and carryable beach/park corral forming a personal protective enclosure includes a plurality of poles or rods of substantially equal lengths of plastic or metallic composition, a plurality of sheets or panels of predetermined length and height, means for coupling individual ones of the sheets at opposite ends or sides thereof to individual ones of such lengths of plastic or metallic composition, means for securing the lower ends of those lengths of plastic or metallic compositions to a substrate surface, and means gathering the poles and sheets in a given package arrangement. In accordance with a specific embodiment of the invention, the sheets can be formed in the manner of individual panels, with various pockets formed thereon for storage of such items as keys, phones and wallets, with pouches and other pockets in which to store fruit, liquids and food, and with others for holding such items as towels, clothing and other articles of use commonly employed at beach and/or park settings. Awnings as sunscreens can be set up as well.
In a more general embodiment of the invention, Velcro or zipper closures may be used in securing nylon sheets to the lengths of plastic or metallic composition utilized, with clips being provided along the lengths for doubling up such panels formed thereby if a smaller footprint of corral is desired. A nylon bag is utilizable in holding and carrying the dismantled components to the desired beach or park location selected—and once, set up and disassembled, the bag may be used to carry the components for subsequent storage. As will be appreciated, the corral (once set up) can be used on such substrates as sand at the beach, or on grass at a park facility.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other features of the invention will be more clearly understood from a consideration of the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view helpful in an understanding of one embodiment of the invention as might be employed at a beach location;
FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a portion of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged exploded view illustrating one manner of assembling the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2;
FIG. 4 is a view taken along the sectional line 4-4 of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a view along the sectional line 5-5 of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a top view as to how the embodiment of FIG. 1 might appear once set up for use;
FIG. 7 is a side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1, in connection with the top view of FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 is an exploded view helpful in an understanding as to how the embodiment of FIG. 1 may be inserted into a carry bag for bringing the corral to a beach or park location for use, and for reinserting the component parts into the bag for carrying to a storage location when not needed;
FIG. 9 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the invention illustrating the corral of FIG. 1 reduced in size for a smaller space set up;
FIG. 10 illustrates the use of clips employable in overlaying the sheeting panels in reducing the footprint size of an assembled corral;
FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate alternate embodiments of the invention for adding stability to its erection, and for use at windier locations;
FIG. 13 is a view illustrating a manner of constructing the pole or rod components in stabilizing the corral of the invention in the face of developing winds; and
FIG. 14 illustrates a type of duffel carry bag that may be employed with the components of the corral embodiment labelled, for example, with an advertisement by which the beach/park corral of the invention may be ordered via the Internet.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The disassemblable and carryable beach/park corral 50 of FIG. 1 includes a plurality of substantially equal lengths of plastic or metallic composition (i.e. poles or rods) 12 in FIG. 2, as support posts inserted into sand at a beach 38 or grass at a park location (FIG. 4). A plurality of sheets of predetermined height and length 10 couple together as panels with the poles 12 via Velcro closures 14, 16 (or by like zipper closures), the sheets being preferably of nylon in forming the corral or enclosure 50, Such nylon panels are essentially unrolled out from a carrying bag 30 (FIG. 8) in forming the size of the corral of any given diameter. To facilitate the setting up of the enclosure, the lower ends of the poles 12 are preferably tipped—and of the two section configuration 12a and 12b of FIG. 13 so as to allow both a secure insertion of the poles 12 into the sand or grass, as well as to allow a shift-movement of the upper sections 12a of the poles relative to the lower sections 12b in the face of impinging wind. A sturdiness of the corral then results, becoming even more so as the numbers of panels and poles increase within a given corral diameter. As will be understood, once the corral is broken down for removal, the panels and poles employed can thereafter be rolled or folded up together as a unit for insertion into the bag 30, secured by means of Velcro or like straps or zipper closures 52 wrapped around the outsides of the panels 10 (FIG. 8); one such Velcro closure is also indicated at 18 in FIG. 1.
In accordance with the invention, a series of pockets 20 (FIG. 1) can be secured at the inside surfaces of the panels 10 by clips, Velcro, or zipper closures (illustrated at 22) for the holdings of keys, wallets, bags, purses, sandwiches, fruit, etc., and a further pocket 24 is likewise provided for the holding of bottles of water, soda, or other drinks. Such pockets 20, 24, like the panels 10, can be of a nylon fabrication. A sunscreen or shade awning 26 can be similarly secured at a top edge of a nylon panel (FIGS. 1, 9) so that one can lie with their head beneath it under high sun conditions, or it can be employed in assisting to view there a smartphone or tablet screen at a high brightness beach environment, for example, without having to spread a towel overhead in providing shading. (As will be apparent, this arrangement is additionally employable in the solar charging of a smart phone placed on the awning 26, where applicable, and in an analogous manner.) Similar poles of plastic or metallic composition are there included to support the unraveled awning as at 28 in FIG. 2.
Reference numeral 40 in FIG. 9 in one respect identifies further clips which may be used to connect and retain a cooler or large size bag for storing towels and/or clothing items in the beach or park corral. Or, as will be understood, clips of the type shown at 42 in FIG. 10 may be employed to overlay one panel atop another in providing a reduced footprint for a smaller size corral (as illustrated at 54 in FIG. 9) instead of employing panels of smaller size to achieve that end—or to reduce the size of the corral once it is originally set up, as when fewer people show up than were originally expected. Reference numeral 32 in FIG. 8 identifies a handle for carrying the bag 30, by hand or over the shoulder, with reference numeral 34 representing a pull-cord for closing up the bag 30 once the folded or rolled panels 10 and poles 12 are inserted into the bag as shown by the arrow 54.
FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate alternative embodiments of the beach/park corral, particularly offering advantages for use in windier placements. In FIG. 11, an added pole or rod 70 is placed behind the section of the corral where the shade awning 26 is erected, as well as the addition of further poles or rods included within the panels or added between notches 60 provided downwardly at the top of each panel and, if desired, spaced along their respective lengths. Such intermediately placed poles where added can similarly be clad to provide protection for the inhabitants of the corral in any appropriate manner. And, in FIG. 12—as shown in FIG. 11—wind slits 77 can be provided along the lengths of the nylon panels to allow air to pass through while retaining the poles or rods in installed position as wind currents pick up. Each of the poles or rods of FIGS. 11 and 12 are shown as coupling with the individual panels 10 by means of the Velcro closures of FIG. 3. Decorations on the panels are illustrated at 75.
FIG. 14 illustrates the carry bag 30 for the corral components bearing a label 80 by means of which the corral can be ordered via the Internet. The carry handle 32 is shown, along with the pull-cord closure 34 for the bag, the bag's opposite end 37 being sealed.
In use, the beach/park corral would be carried in its nylon duffel bag 30. Once a desired beach or park location is selected, the corral components are removed and placed via the poles or rods in a pattern to enclose the chairs, lounges, towels, etc. in the desired privacy protected area of concern. If a smaller size is desired because fewer persons than expected show up, the clips of FIG. 10 can be used to overlay the panels. Once the appropriate diameter is staked out and the enclosure completed, various keys, phones, purses, etc. are placeable in the nylon pockets hung on the interior of the panels, with soda, sandwiches, etc. placed in other pouches on the interior. For tanning or laying in the sun, the poles 28 can be inserted for support into the corral in forming the appropriate sunshade awning. At the end of the day, the corral can simply be broken down, the components folded or rolled up, secured by the Velcro or like tie strap, and then reinserted back into the nylon bag holder 30.
While there have been described what are considered to be preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the teachings herein. Thus, for example, while the preferred embodiments of the invention have been described with a plurality of poles or rods fitted within a plurality of nylon panels, it will be noted that the panel sheeting can be composed of several alternate compositions—and that even a single long sheeting could be employed instead, with notches or loops at its upper edge to removably receive and retain the poles extending through them into the sand or grass subsurface. Such a configuration, according to the invention is illustrated by the notches or loops 60 in FIGS. 1, 2 and 6. And, as will be understood, the shade awning 26 can further be supplemented or otherwise modified to incorporate a solar energy generating mechanism or panel on its top for charging any Smart Phone or similar electronic device for further and/or future usage. For at least such reasons, therefore, resort should be had to the claims appended hereto for a true understanding of the invention.
Patent Application
20160143453
