A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 37 CFR 1.71(d).
Field of Endeavor
The present invention generally relates to, carrying accessories, and, more particularly, expandable luggage.
Brief Description of the Related Art
Expandable luggage is quite popular among travelers to carry extra accessories without having a need to include additional bags or luggage for keeping up the extra accessories while travelling. Various types of expandable luggage are currently available in the market. Such available luggage in the market may be selected by consumers depending upon their respective needs. However, there have been continues on-going research and idea generation to improve the design of the expandable luggage and provide consumers with more available options for keeping and carrying their accessories.
Until now there are types of luggage that are available in the market that may vertically expand in height to increase the height the overall storages space of the luggage. Other luggage, such as described in the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/016,456 to which this disclosure is a continuation-in-part, may be expand from one of its side in addition to its expansion from the top side to increase the overall space of the storage space of the luggage even further in vertical as well as horizontal directions at the same time.
Going forward, the present disclosure is presented to further improve such expandable luggage, and, accordingly generates a need to provide expandable luggage that may further improve in terms of managing and utilizing storage space in such expandable luggage in a cost effective and durable manner to add up more options for the consumers in expandable luggage space.
In view of the stated requirement, the present disclosure discloses an expandable luggage, which will be presented in the following simplified summary to provide a basic understanding of one or more aspects of the disclosure that are intended to overcome the discussed drawbacks, but to include all advantages thereof, along with providing some additional advantages. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of the disclosure, nor to delineate the scope of the present disclosure. Rather, the sole purpose of this summary is to present some concepts of the disclosure, its aspects and advantages in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented hereinafter.
A general object of the present disclosure is to describe an expandable luggage that may further be improved from its existing peers available in the market, which may be more effective in terms of managing and utilizing overall storage space in a cost effective and durable manner and to add up more options for the consumers in expandable luggage space. Various other objects and features of the present disclosure will be apparent from the following detailed description and claims.
The above noted and other objects, in one aspect, may be achieved by an expandable luggage includes a compartment and a cover. The cover is swingly attached to the compartment to close and open the compartment. The compartment includes a bottom surface and a peripheral wall vertically extending from a periphery of the bottom surface, defining the compartment with a closable opening. Further, the cover includes a top surface and a protrusion vertically extending from a periphery of the top surface so that the protrusion coordinates with the compartment when the cover closes the closable opening. The expandable luggage includes a horizontally expandable gusseted arrangement configured along the entire peripheral wall of the compartment to horizontally expand a size of the compartment from all sides thereof and accessible from the closable opening.
The expandable luggage further includes a zipper arrangement coupled to the compartment and the cover to close and open the expandable luggage. The zipper arrangement includes a first zip member coupled across an entire periphery wall of the compartment, and a second zip member coupled to an entire periphery of the protrusion of the cover.
The expandable luggage further includes a strap member coupled to the zipper arrangement along it entire periphery. The strap member may extend from the first zip member across its entire periphery.
In one arrangement, the horizontally expandable gusseted arrangement includes a bottom gusset and a top gusset. The bottom gusset is coupled to a bottom edge of the entire peripheral wall and the bottom surface of the compartment such that the bottom gusset foldably lies between the peripheral wall and the bottom surface of the compartment. The top gusset is coupled to a top edge of the entire peripheral wall and to the zipper arrangement such that the top gusset foldably lies between the peripheral wall and the zipper arrangement. The top and bottom gussets may be made of one of a flexible fabric material or a hard fabric material of combination thereof.
In one embodiment, the top gusset is coupled to the strap member to be foldably accommodated between the peripheral wall and the zipper arrangement.
The expandable luggage further includes top and bottom attaching arrangements along the peripheral wall. In one example, the top and bottom attaching arrangements along the peripheral wall are zip arrangements. In one embodiment, bands coupled along the top and bottom gussets may be provided to hold the expansion, during the zipper expansion. In another example, the top and bottom attaching arrangements along the peripheral wall are a plurality of clip arrangement to clip and unclip the horizontally expandable gusseted arrangement. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of clip arrangement may include complementary engagements and elastically stretchable bands engaged between the complementary engagements to support the expanded top and bottom gussets during expansion.
The expandable luggage may further includes a vertically expandable gusseted arrangement configured along the periphery of the top surface of the cover to expand a height of the cover to vertically increase the size of the compartment at a closed position of the compartment when the cover closes the closable opening.
In one arrangement, the vertically expandable gusseted arrangement may include a gusset coupled to an edge of the entire periphery of the top surface and to a top edge of the protrusion to the zipper arrangement such that the gusset foldably lies between the top surface and the protrusion. The gusset may be made of one of a flexible fabric material or a hard fabric material of combination thereof.
The expandable luggage may further include an attaching arrangement coupled along the periphery of the top surface of the cover. In one example, the attaching arrangement is a zip arrangement to zip the vertically expandable gusseted arrangement. In one embodiment, bands coupled along the gusset may be provided to hold the expansion, during the zipper expansion. In another example, the attaching arrangement is a plurality of clip arrangement to clip and unclip the vertically expandable gusseted arrangement. In one embodiment, each of the plurality of clip arrangement includes complementary engagements and elastically stretchable bands engaged between the complementary engagements to support the expanded gussets during expansion.
The expandable luggage may further include a plurality of pockets along the peripheral wall and the cover.
The expandable luggage may further include a handle arrangement having a telescopic handle. In one example explanation, the telescopic handle may at its extended position supports one side of the horizontally expandable gusseted arrangement apart from carrying the expandable luggage. In one arrangement, the handle arrangement may further include a plurality of telescopic support elements coupled to the telescopic handle. The plurality of telescopic support elements may at their extended position supports from other three sides of the horizontally expandable gusseted arrangement.
The expandable luggage may further include wheels coupled to the bottom surface of the compartment for maneuvering the extendable luggage.
The expendable luggage may be extendable in horizontal direction and well as in vertical direction at the same time or may be extended independently as per the requirement. The expandable luggage may be improved from its existing peers available in the market, which may be more effective in terms of managing and utilizing overall storage space in a cost effective and durable manner and to add up more options for the consumers in expandable luggage space.
These together with the other aspects of the present disclosure, along with the various features of novelty that characterize the present disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the present disclosure. For a better understanding of the present disclosure, its operating advantages, and its uses, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
The advantages and features of the present disclosure will better understood with reference to the following detailed description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein like elements are identified with like symbols, and in which:
Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the description of several views of the drawings.
For a thorough understanding of the present disclosure, reference is to be made to the following detailed description, including the appended claims, in connection with the above-described drawings. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present disclosure can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, structures are shown in block diagrams form only, in order to avoid obscuring the disclosure. Reference in this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “another embodiment,” “various embodiments,” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. The appearance of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but may not be of other embodiment's requirement.
Although the following description contains many specifics for the purposes of illustration, anyone skilled in the art will appreciate that many variations and/or alterations to these details are within the scope of the present disclosure. Similarly, although many of the features of the present disclosure are described in terms of each other, or in conjunction with each other, one skilled in the art will appreciate that many of these features can be provided independently of other features. Accordingly, this description of the present disclosure is set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the present disclosure. Further, the relative terms, such as “top,” “bottom” and the like, herein do not denote any order, elevation or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another. Further, the terms “a,” “an,” and “plurality” herein do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item.
Reference will now be made to the embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings
The compartment 110 and the cover 140 are coupled to each other; in particular, the cover 140 may be swingly attached to the compartment 110 along any of its side. The cover 140 may swingly be attached to the compartment 110 for closing the re-closable opening 114 of the compartment 110. As depicted in
The zipper arrangement 170 may be coupled to the compartment 110 and the cover 140 to close and open the expandable luggage 100. In an arrangement, the zipper arrangement 170 may include a first zip member 171 and a second zip member 172, as seen in
Furthermore, in one embodiment, a strap member 173 may extend from bottom of the first zip member 171 across entire periphery 112 of the compartment 110. The strap member 173 may be of rigid configuration to provide rigidity to the first zip member 171 with respect to the compartment 110.
The compartment 110 may be expandable in a horizontal direction from all the sided, such as sides 112a, 112b, 112c and 112d. To enable the compartment 110 to be expandable in the horizontal direction from the sides 112a, 112b, 112c and 112d, the compartment 110 may include the horizontal gusset 120 configured along the entire peripheral wall 112 of the compartment 110 to horizontally expand a size of the compartment 110 from all sides 112a, 112b, 112c and 112d and accessible from the closable opening 114, while the closable opening 114 being of constant size.
In an example arrangement, the horizontal gusset 120 may include a bottom gusset 121 and a top gusset 122. The bottom gusset 121 may be coupled to a bottom edge 112a of the entire peripheral wall 112 and the bottom surface 111 of the compartment 110 to foldably accommodate the bottom gusset 121 between the peripheral wall 112 and the bottom surface 111. As shown in
The horizontal gusset 120 may include top 130 and bottom 131 attaching arrangements along the peripheral wall 112, as shown in
In one embodiment, the top and bottom gussets 121, 122 may be made of one of a flexible fabric material or a hard fabric material of combination thereof. In most preferred embodiment, hard fabric material may be used as top and bottom gussets 121, 122. In another embodiment, the gussets 121, 122 may be made of any other material, such as, plastic. However, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, the gussets 121, 122 may be made of any other suitable material.
Further, as described above, the cover 140 swingly attached to the compartment 110 for closing the re-closable opening 114 of the compartment 110 includes the top surface 141 and the protrusion 142 that vertically extends from the periphery 143 of the top surface 141. Now similar to the compartment 110, the cover 140 may also include extension mechanism that enables to increase the size of the extendable bag 100 in vertical direction in addition to the horizontal direction by increasing the size of compartment 110. For that, the vertical gusset 150 may be configured along the periphery of the top surface 141 of the cover 140 to expand a height of the cover 140 to vertically increase the size of the compartment 110 at a closed position of the compartment 110 when the cover 140 closes the closable opening 114. In one example arrangement, the vertical gusset 150 may include a gusset 151 coupled to an edge 141a of the entire periphery of the top surface 141 and a top edge 142a of the protrusion 142 such that the gusset 151 foldably lies between the top surface 141 and the protrusion 142. For example, an end portion 151a of the gusset 151 may be coupled to the edge 141a of the entire periphery of the top surface 141, while the other end 151b of the gusset 151 may be coupled to the top edge 142a of the protrusion 142 to enable the gusset 151 to be foldably accommodated between the top surface 141 and the protrusion 142.
The vertical gusset 150 may also include an attaching arrangement 160 along the periphery 143 of the top surface 141 of the cover 140, as shown in
Similar to the top and bottom gussets 121, 122, the gusset 151 may also be made of one of a flexible fabric material or a hard fabric material of combination thereof. In most preferred embodiment, hard fabric material may be used as gusset 151. In another embodiment, the gussets 151 may be made of any other material, such as, plastic. However, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure, the gussets 151 may be made of any other suitable material.
In one embodiment, the expandable luggage 100 may include a plurality of pockets 180 along the peripheral wall 112 and the cover 140. In one embodiment, the expandable luggage 100 may include wheels 185 configured along the bottom surface 111 of the compartment to enable the easy maneuver the extendable baggage 100.
In one embodiment, the expandable luggage 100 may further include a handle arrangement 190 coupled to the bottom surface 111 of the compartment 110. In one embodiment, the handle arrangement 190 may be a telescopic handle, as known to person skilled in the art. However, in another embodiment, the handle 190 may include a telescopic handle 191 and a plurality of telescopic support elements 192 coupled to the telescopic handle 192. The telescopic handle 191 at its extended position supports the horizontally expandable gusseted arrangement 120 one side 112b of the expandable luggage 100, and the plurality of telescopic support elements 192 at their extended position supports the horizontally expandable gusseted arrangement 120 from other three sides 112a, 112c, 112d of the expandable luggage 100.
The expandable luggage may further include various other element and components as available in the art to facilitate the user in desired manner, and are considered to be within the scope of the present disclosure, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the present disclosure and its practical application, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the present disclosure and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is understood that various omission and substitutions of equivalents are contemplated as circumstance may suggest or render expedient, but such are intended to cover the application or implementation without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims of the present disclosure.
This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/016,456 filed on Sep. 3, 2013.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
61744365 | Sep 2012 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 14016456 | Sep 2013 | US |
Child | 15215610 | US |