Patent Application
20200131013
Not Applicable
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Not Applicable
The disclosure and prior art relates to debris shield devices and more particularly pertains to a new debris shield device for protecting a driver of an industrial vehicle from falling objects.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising an industrial vehicle that is driven for lifting and transporting objects. The industrial vehicle has a driver cage thereon and a shield is coupled to the driver cage. The shield is comprised of a rigid material to protect a driver of the industrial vehicle from falling objects. Additionally, the shield is comprised of a translucent material to facilitate the driver to see through the shield.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A shield 20 is provided and the shield 20 is coupled to the driver cage 14. The shield 20 is comprised of a rigid material to protect a driver of the industrial vehicle 12 from falling objects. Additionally, the shield 20 protects the driver from precipitation, dust and other contaminants that could conceivably fall through the driver cage 14. The shield 20 is comprised of a translucent material to facilitate the driver to see through the shield 20.
The shield 20 has a bottom surface 22, a top surface 24 and a perimeter edge 26 extending therebetween. The bottom surface 22 rests on each of the members 18 having the perimeter edge 26 being coextensive with a perimeter 28 of the top side 16 of the cage. A plurality of fasteners 30 is provided and each of the fasteners 30 extends through the shield 20 and engages the driver cage 14 for retaining the shield 20 on the driver cage 14. Each of the fasteners 30 extends through the top 24 and bottom 22 surfaces of the shield 20 and engages a respective one of the members 18. Moreover, the fasteners 30 are spaced apart from each other and are distributed around the perimeter edge 26 of the shield 20. Each of the fasteners 30 may be screws, zip ties or any other selectively releasable fastener.
In use, the shield 20 is positioned on the top side 16 of the driver cage 14 and each of the fasteners 30 is extended through the shield 20 and each of the fasteners 30 engages the driver cage 14. Thus, the driver is protected from falling objects when the industrial vehicle 12 is being employed for lifting and transporting objects. Moreover, the translucent quality of the shield 20 permits the driver to see through the shield 20 when the industrial vehicle 12 is driven. In this way the shield 20 does not limit the driver's ability the position the objects at an elevated position when the objects are being transported and lifted. Additionally, the shield 20 enhances the driver's comfort with respect to protecting the driver from precipitation, dust and other contaminants that could otherwise pass through the driver cage 14.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
