This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. ยง119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 200920179638.0 filed in China on Oct. 13, 2010, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a joint structure, and in particular, to a joint structure which is manipulated by pushing a button for folding a collapsible play yard.
Generally, play yard for keeping and caring infants or pets inside is designed for easy portable and stow, such as the play yard in U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,437 issued to Dillner disclosed a play yard with a structure having a bed frame covered by fabrics and a space formed for accommodating infants or pets.
For convenience to carry and to store the play yard, generally it is designed to be deployable and collapsible. The foldable play yard is provided with a joint for deploying the frame stably and collapsing conveniently. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,837 to Mariol disclosed a play yard which having a structure for making use of the ends of a pair of arms to engage with the locking members which is connected to the ends of upper rails of both sides, therefore, the upper rails are fixed and the frame is in a stable deployed status. Whenever the user intends to fold the frame, a rotational member is used to drive the pair of arms to disengage the end of the arms from the locking members for further rotating of the upper rails to convert into in a folded status.
Since the locking member of the joint structure of the prior art is troublesomely connected to the ends of the upper rails, a gap is then to be caused and thus would result in a wobbling problem of the joint structure; therefore an unsuccessful locking may be resulted for having the gap. Moreover, such an unsuccessful locking may be also caused by the weakness of the arms of the locking member which is merely been supported by ends of the arms.
In order to simplify the manipulation and structure of the related art, the present invention provides a joint structure for a collapsible play yard, includes a U-shaped housing, a button-mount, a sliding block and a button. The U-shaped housing has a pair of side walls for pivoting with a pair of frame bar members each having a length of substantially flattened undersurface. The button-mount is formed with a sliding way and attached to one of the side walls. The sliding block is movable transversally engaging with the substantially flattened undersurface of both of the frame bar members in an engaged position, and movable to a released position to release both of the frame bar members for folding the collapsible play yard. The button connects with the sliding block and is biased by a resilient element for reciprocally sliding along the sliding way so as to drive the sliding block to the engaged position and the released position. When pushing on the button, the sliding block can be driven to the released position that permits the pair of frame bar members to be rotatable relative to the U-shaped housing.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings, which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention.
Preferred embodiments of the apparatus according to the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
Referring to
The button-mount 6 is attached to one of the side walls 31 and formed with a sliding way 61 for guiding the button 7 sliding therein reciprocally. Preferably, the sliding way 61 may be covered with a first colored surface 62 which reveals while the button 7 is pushed inwardly and the sliding block 5 is disengaged from both of the frame bar members 11 as shown in
The sliding block 5 is movable transversally to engage with the substantially flattened undersurface 12 in an engaged position 50, and movable to a released position 60 to release both of the frame bar members 11 for folding the frame 10 of collapsible play yard.
The button 7 connects with the sliding block 5 and is biased by a resilient element 8 for reciprocally sliding along the sliding way 61 so as to drive the sliding block 5 to the engaged position 50 and the released position 60.
The resilient element 8 may be embodied as a compression spring which sleeves on the stem 72, with one end biasing on one of the side walls 31, and another end biasing on the button 7, exerting to force the sliding block 5 to move toward the engaged position 50 as best shown in
Referring to
Preferably, the button 7 has a second colored surface 71 covered on the circumference that reveals while the sliding block 5 is moved into the engaged position 50, and invisible while the sliding block 5 is moved into the released position 60.
As schematically illustrated in
Referring to
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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200920179638.0 | Oct 2009 | CN | national |