The present invention relates to a wheel assembly, and more particularly to a hollow wheel assembly of a luggage.
Luggage, so called wheeled luggage, is a case with a plurality of wheel assemblies on a bottom thereof for user may draw the luggage to walk. U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,145 disclosed a conventional wheel assembly of a luggage including a main seat, a wheel holder seat, and a wheel. The wheel is connected to the wheel holder seat by a pivot pin, so that the wheel is free to rotation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,156 disclosed another conventional wheel assembly of a luggage, including a wheel, a wheel mount, an axle, a hollow cylindrical bearing, and a hollow shaft. The hollow shaft is inserted into the hollow cylindrical bearing, and then they are mounted in a bore of the wheel. Next, the wheel, together with the hollow shaft and the hollow cylindrical bearing, is mounted to the wheel mount with the axle inserted into the wheel mount and the hollow shaft to let the wheel rotate freely.
WO 2007063302 taught wheels for luggage items, in which the wheel includes a body, an inner support member, a bearing, and a tyre. The inner support member is fixedly connected to the body, the bearing is connected to an inner side of the inner support member, and the tyre is mounted to an outer surface of the bearing. As a result, the tyre and the bearing are free to rotate relative to the inner support member.
CN 202727872 disclosed a hollow wheel set, in which a hollow wheel is mounted in a hollow folk, and a bearing is provided between the hollow wheel and the hollow folk. As a result, the hollow wheel is rotatable.
There always is a bearing in the conventional wheel assemblies as described above. U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,156 provides the axle inserted into the wheel, so that there is no passage at a center of the wheel. WO 2007063302 and CN 202727872 each provides the wheel with a vision passage at a center thereof.
CN 103625211 taught another conventional wheel assembly of a luggage, in which a horizontally sliding axle is provided under a wheel bracket. A hollow pulley includes a tyre mounted on a pulley bracket, and is connected to the horizontally sliding axle. A decorative cover is mounted on the hollow pulley, and is fixed to the wheel bracket by a hook or a fixed pin. The hollow pulley is rotatable without a bearing, and it only has a vision passage at a center thereof.
In view of the above, the primary objective of the present invention is to provide a hollow wheel assembly of a luggage, which has a vision passage through the wheel assembly.
The secondary objective of the present invention is to provide a hollow wheel assembly of a luggage, which has a structure without a bearing to simplify the structure.
In order to achieve the objective of the present invention, a hollow wheel assembly, which is adapted to be mounted on a bottom of a case of a luggage, includes a wheel mount, which is adapted to be connected to the case of the luggage, including a shaft sleeve with an assembling passage; two wheel members connected to opposite ends of the shaft sleeve respectively for free rotation; and a hollow shaft inserted into the assembling passage of the shaft sleeve, and having a vision passage passing through the hollow shaft in an axial direction thereof. The inner ring portion is provided with an assembling bore at a center thereof, and the shaft sleeve is inserted into the assembling bore. Opposite ends of the hollow shaft are abutted against the inner ring portions respectively. The outer wheel members are mounted on the outer ring portions of the inner wheel members respectively, whereby one may see through the wheel members via the vision passages when the wheel members are rotating.
In an embodiment, each of the wheel members includes a plurality of vision bores, and one may see through the wheel members via the vision bores as well as the vision passages when the wheel members are rotating.
The present invention provides the wheel assembly without a bearing to simplify the structure thereof.
The present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of some illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which
As shown in
As shown in
The wheel mount 22 further has a shaft sleeve 38 on an end of the assembling member 32, and the shaft sleeve 38 has an assembling passage 40.
The wheel assembly 20 of the first preferred embodiment further includes a hollow shaft 42, and the hollow shaft 42 has a vision passage 44 passing through the hollow shaft in an axial direction thereof and two stop flanges 46 at opposite ends thereof.
The wheel members 24 each have an inner wheel member 48 and an outer wheel member 50. The inner wheel member 48 has an inner ring portion 52, an outer ring portion 54, and a plurality of connecting portions 56.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The stop flanges 46 are formed on the opposite ends of the hollow shaft 42, and outer diameters of the stop flanges 46 are greater than an outer diameter of the shaft sleeve 38, and smaller than inner diameters of the inner ring portions 52. Therefore, the stop flanges 46 of the hollow shaft 42 are able to prevent the wheel members 24 from escaping from the shaft sleeve 38.
The inner ring portion 52 has a shoulder portion 66 on a side thereof to be abutted against the corresponding stop flanges 46 of the hollow shaft 42 to restrict the wheel members 24.
With the structure as described above, the wheel members 24 of the wheel assembly 20 are able to rotate. People can see through the wheel members 24 via the vision bores 58 while the wheel members 24 are rotating, and so does the vision passage 44 even when the wheel members 24 are stopped.
The wheel members 24 are connected to the opposite ends of the shaft sleeve 38, so that no bearing is needed between the wheel members 24 and the wheel mount 22 that could simplify the structure of the wheel assembly 20.
As shown in
As shown in
It must be pointed out that the embodiments described above are only some preferred embodiments of the present invention. All equivalent structures which employ the concepts disclosed in this specification and the appended claims should fall within the scope of the present invention.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
1410676 | Herold | Mar 1922 | A |
3977040 | Sugasawara | Aug 1976 | A |
4706329 | Screen | Nov 1987 | A |
4722115 | Yang | Feb 1988 | A |
5394589 | Braeger | Mar 1995 | A |
5873145 | Chou | Feb 1999 | A |
6322156 | Kuo | Nov 2001 | B1 |
6786559 | Kidd | Sep 2004 | B1 |
9168689 | Stoehr | Oct 2015 | B2 |
9630450 | Chang | Apr 2017 | B1 |
9669658 | Tong | Jun 2017 | B1 |
20040098830 | Tsai | May 2004 | A1 |
20050081329 | Tsai | Apr 2005 | A1 |
20070186373 | Melara | Aug 2007 | A1 |
20080163455 | Tsai | Jul 2008 | A1 |
20110203074 | Trivini | Aug 2011 | A1 |
20110296649 | Hozumi | Dec 2011 | A1 |
20120233809 | Lee | Sep 2012 | A1 |
20140283335 | Meersschaert | Sep 2014 | A1 |
20150113766 | Hou | Apr 2015 | A1 |
20170197463 | Chang | Jul 2017 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
202727872 | Feb 2013 | CN |
103625211 | Mar 2014 | CN |
2007063302 | Jun 2007 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20180162160 A1 | Jun 2018 | US |