Patent Application
20210378373
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The disclosure relates to coupling devices and more particularly pertains to a new coupling device for attaching a plurality of articles of luggage together for transporting the plurality of articles of luggage on rollers of a single one of the articles of luggage.
The prior art relates to coupling devices including a coupling assembly for stacking articles of luggage on top of each other. The prior art also discloses a coupling device for suspending one article of luggage from the top side of another article of luggage for simultaneous transportation. The prior art further discloses a strap for hanging objects from an article of luggage. Additionally, the prior art discloses a strap for attaching a pair of articles of luggage together. In no instance does the prior art disclose a rigid coupling that is matable to another rigid coupling for attaching articles of luggage together.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a plurality of engagements that is each coupled to an outer wall of a respective one of a plurality of articles of luggage. Each of the engagements releasably engages one another to couple the articles of luggage together. In this way the plurality of articles of luggage can be transported on rollers of a single one of the articles of luggage.
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
The plurality of engagements 12 includes an upward engagement 18 and a downward engagement 20. Each of the upward engagements 12 is positioned on a first lateral side 26 of the respective article of luggage 16 and each of the downward engagements 20 is positioned on a second lateral side of the receptive article of luggage 16. Each of the upward engagements 18 is releasably attachable to the downward engagement 20 on a respective article of luggage 16. Each of the plurality of engagements 12 comprises a panel 22 that is coupled to an outer surface 24 of the outer wall 14 of the respective article of luggage 16. The panel 22 is positioned on the first lateral side 26 of the outer wall 14 and the panel 22 has an exposed surface 28 with respect to the outer surface 24 of the outer wall 14 of the respective article of luggage 16.
Each of the engagements 12 includes a leg 30 that is coupled to and extends away from the exposed surface 28 of the panel 22. The leg 30 is oriented to extend along a line that is oriented parallel to a top side 32 of the outer wall 14 of the article of luggage 16. The leg 30 of the downward engagement 20 is positioned closer to the top side 32 of the outer wall 14 than a bottom side 34 of the outer wall 14 of the article of luggage 16. Conversely, the leg 30 of the upward engagement 18 is positioned closer to the bottom side 34 of the outer wall 14 than the top side 32 of the outer wall 14 of the article of luggage 16.
Each of the engagements 12 includes a foot 36 that is coupled to and extends perpendicularly away from the leg 30. The foot 36 is spaced from the panel 22 having the foot 36 lying on a plane that is coplanar with the exposed surface 28 of the panel 22. The foot 36 defines a space 38 between the foot 36 and the panel 22. Moreover, the leg 30 of the upward engagements 18 has a depth that is greater than a depth of the leg 30 of the downward engagements 20. In this way the space 38 in the upward engagements 18 is large enough to accommodate the foot 36 of the downward engagements 20.
The foot 36 has a distal end 40 with respect to the leg 30, and the foot 36 has and a first surface 42 and a second surface 44. The first surface 42 is directed toward the exposed surface 28 of the panel 22 and the distal end 40 slopes downwardly between the second surface 44 and the first surface 42. The foot 36 on the upward engagements 18 is directed toward the top side 32 of the outer wall 14 of the article of luggage 16. The foot 36 on the downward engagements 20 is directed toward the bottom side 34 of the outer wall 14 of the article of luggage 16. The foot 36 of the downward engagement 20 on one of the articles of luggage 16 slides into the space 38 between the foot 36 and the panel 22 of the upward engagement 18 on an adjacent one of the articles of luggage 16. In this way the articles of luggage 16 are attached together.
In use, the downward engagement 20 on a selected article of luggage 16 is attached to the upward engagement 18 on a respective article of luggage 16. In this way the selected article of luggage 16 can be transported on the respective article of luggage 16 when the respective article of luggage 16 is rolled on its rollers. Thus, the user can transport multiple articles of luggage 16 with one hand while moving through airport security, customs or other necessary portals during air travel.
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.
