Patent Application
20190135321
Liquified petroleum gas, otherwise known as LPG or LP gas refers to mixtures of hydrocarbon gasses, typically propane and/or butane. LPG may be used for heating, cooking, powering devices, and refrigeration. LPG is commonly used in applications where installing infrastructure for delivering natural gas is impossible or impracticable such as in remote locations or in applications involving mobile devices such as powering forklifts or other vehicles, cooking in trailers or campers, or as a refrigerant in transportation.
Domestic and commercial applications using LPG commonly use gas stored and transported in metal cylinders such as shown in
The above mentioned and other features and objects of this invention, either alone or in combinations of two or more, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention itself will be better understood by reference to the following description of an embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. Although the drawings represent embodiments of the present invention, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated in order to better illustrate and explain the full scope of the present invention. The flow charts and screen shots are also representative in nature, and actual embodiments of the invention may include further features or steps not shown in the drawings. The exemplification set out herein illustrates an embodiment of the invention, in one form, and such exemplifications are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the claimed technology and presenting its currently understood best mode of operation, reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the claimed technology is thereby intended, with such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated device and such further applications of the principles of the claimed technology as illustrated therein being contemplated as would normally occur to one skilled in the art to which the claimed technology relates.
In the following examples reference will be made to cylinders used for the storage, transportation, and delivery of liquified petroleum gas or LPG. One of ordinary skill in the art would understand that the devices described in the present application could be adapted for use with other cylinders designed for the storage and transport of other types of compressed gasses such as oxygen, nitrogen, acetylene, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquified natural gas (LNG), and the like.
Figure I shows an example of a hand truck for transporting an LPG cylinder according to the disclosed technology. In this example, hand truck 200 includes main arm 202 arranged generally perpendicular to a lip 204 or ledge portion. In other examples, a hand truck may include two or more vertical arm portions rather than a single arm portion. Ppair of wheels 206 are positioned such that lip 204 rests on the ground when hand truck 200 is tipped forward and balances on wheels 206 which may roll freely when hand truck 200 is tipped backward. In this particular example, hand truck 200 further includes foldable arm extension 210 having grip 208 so hand truck 200 may be collapsed at pivot point 212 for storage or when otherwise not in use. Hand truck 200 also includes cradle 216 sized and configured to conform with the curve of a particular size of cylinder 220, one or more straps 218 for securing cylinder 220 to hand truck 200, and hook 214 for latching the hand truck to the handle portion and/or guard portion of a cylinder. Hand truck 200 may further include one or more stabilizing protrusions or pegs (no numbered) disposed on the lip such that the stand ring of the cylinder is prevented from sliding off lip 204. As seen in
Another example of hand carts 240 according to the disclosed technology are shown in
While the claimed technology has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character. It is understood that the embodiments have been shown and described in the foregoing specification in satisfaction of the best mode and enablement requirements. It is understood that one of ordinary skill in the art could readily make a nigh-infinite number of insubstantial changes and modifications to the above-described embodiments and that it would be impractical to attempt to describe all such embodiment variations in the present specification. Accordingly, it is understood that all changes and modifications that come within the spirit of the claimed technology are desired to be protected.
The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/511,416, filed May 26, 2017, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62511416 | May 2017 | US |
