Patent Application
20140091193
This invention concerns holders for books, tablet pc's, electronic book readers, etc. The present inventor has heretofore conceived and developed book holders as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,040,591, which is incorporated herein by reference. The holder shown therein is floor mounted and has a weighted base to which is attached a vertical upright, the upright in turn holding a pivot arm assembly to which a book holder platform is attached.
It sometimes would be advantageous to support the device on furniture in particular a table instead of a base and an upright as the device would be simpler, less expensive to produce, and more compact and easily transportable.
Such tables are commonly provided next to a bed, sofa or easy chair and thus would be conveniently located for this purpose.
On the other hand, the device supports the holder platform cantilevered out from its support and the support must therefore be capable of being securely anchored to an end table or a similar furniture piece.
The introduction of tablet pc's, such as the iPad(™)and dedicated electronic readers such as the Kindle(™) book readers have brought these items into widespread use, and a device adapted to conveniently hold them would likewise be advantageous.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a compact holder device for books and electronic devices which can be supported on furniture pieces.
It is another object of the invention to provide such holder device which is adapted to hold books and also to securely hold tablet pc's and electronic reader devices of various sizes and shapes.
The above recited objects and other objects which will be understood upon a reading of the following specification and claims are achieved by a short upright post having a clamp including clamping pieces able to grip narrow overhangs of a table top of an end table or other furniture piece.
The clamp has a 90° V-shaped clamping element comprised of two diverging flat fingers which can be fit against and to a corner to engage narrow overhang surfaces at a corner as on a furniture piece. An opposing clamp/element can be threadedly advanced against the top of the furniture piece at a location above and between the fingers of the lower clamp element.
The grip of each finger on the narrow overhang stabilizes the engagement of the other leg since each leg is positively held in its position by the presence of the clamped other leg, so that neither leg will tip or slip out of engagement with its respective narrow overhang surface.
The end result is that the upright will remain securely clamped and held on the furniture piece.
The clamp itself can also similarly mount other items to other supports.
The holder piece is mounted to the upright by an articulated swing arm assembly pivoted on the upper end of upright which is adjustable in height.
In order to hold variously sized electronic display devices on a platform on the outer end by an outer swing arm, a plurality (preferably four) fields of through holes are formed in the platform. The holes are adapted to receive ends of an elastic cord at any locations within the hole field.
The ends of the elastic cords have crimp attached metal or plastic sleeves which completely enclose the ends of each cord, but only partly enclose the cord for a portion of their length.
The sleeves are able to be inserted through any hole and then tipped on the other side of the platform to retain the cord end in any selected hole. Attaching both ends in respective holes allows a cord loop to be formed in each core at the front side of the platform.
An electronic device, book, magazine, etc. can be held to the platform by having the four corners of the item held received beneath a respective cord loop. This holder arrangement can also be used to secure other devices to other structures.
In the following detailed description, certain specific terminology will be employed for the sake of clarity and a particular embodiment described in accordance with the requirements of 35 USC 112, but it is to be understood that the same is not intended to be limiting and should not be so construed inasmuch as the invention is capable of taking many forms and variations within the scope of the appended claims.
Referring to the Drawings, and particularly
A swing arm assembly 20 connects the platform 18 to a relatively short height upright 22 which is detachably secured to the table 14 by a clamping mechanism 24.
The upright 22 has a V-shaped clamp piece 26, (
The two halves of collar 32 are secured together by a set of screws 31 to enclose both the lower end 70 of the inner arm 68 and the upper end of the upright 22, having portion matched to their respective diameters. Such split collar is shown and described in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,040,591. An upper knob 36 tightens or loosens the grip of the gripping collar 32 on the lower vertical end 70 of the arm 68 to either secure the same in a selected telescoped position of the end 34 in the upright 22 to position the platform 18 at a desired height within the range of telescoping motion.
A lower knob 38 creates a controlled pressure on the upright 22 to vary the pressure thereon. This allows pivoting of the swing arm assembly to a desired rotated position which friction created by turning of the knob 38 will maintain.
The upper clamping piece 30 has a threaded clamping rod 40 received in a threaded hole therein to allow pressure element 42 able to be selectively brought down against or up and away from the table surface by rotation of a clamp knob 44.
The lower clamp piece 26 has a pair of fingers 46A, 46B integral with the central piece 28 and extending at right angles to each other to form a V-shape. The fingers 46A, 46B can be aligned with the undersurface of a narrow overhangs 48A, 48B extending away from a corner of the table 14 (
When the clamping element 42 is tightened against the surface of the table, the clamping piece fingers 46A, 46B are moved up to clamp against these undersurfaces.
The undersurfaces 48A, 48B may be quite narrow, such as a half inch in width, while still reliably hold the cantilevered weight of the platform and item being held. This allows a secure mound since each finger piece 46A, 46B secures the other in position since the grip is much stronger against forces applied in the lengthwise direction of the overhang undersurface. This lengthens the area engaged by each finger 46A 46B which in turn very securely resists crosswise or tipping movement of the other piece 46A, 46B as would otherwise occur by tipping or slipping off the narrow overhanging undersurfaces 48A, 48B.
Thus, a very stable securement of the clamp itself to quite narrow overhangs is achieved by the clamping mechanism 24.
The fingers 46A, 46B can also be extended beneath a straight overhang if desired, but require a deeper overhang depth in order to locate the clamping element 42 at a point lying over the surface to engage the same.
An alternate embodiment of the clamp 24A is shown in
The threaded rod 40A can be shorter since it only needs limited movement to create a clamping pressure by the advance of the clamping element 42A.
This allows insertion of a tip end in any hole 56, with subsequent folding over of the tip end 58 preventing pull out of the cord 52 from the hole 56 in which it is inserted.
Thus a loop can be formed by inserting the ends of a cord in respective spaced apart holes 56 as seen in
The size and location of the loops 52 can be set by the selection of the particular pair of holes 56 in which the tip ends 58 are inserted.
This allows various sized and proportions of the display 50 may be securely mounted to the platform 18. The cord loops can be shortened by routing the cords 52 through two or more holes as seen in
A first end fitting 62 has a tubular portion 64 which receives the horizontal end 66 of an inner arm 68. Swing arm 68 has a vertical segment 70 received in the split sleeve 32 to allow vertical adjustment of the platform 18.
As seen in
As seen in
