1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to apparatuses and fixtures for animal play areas. More particularly, the present invention relates to an easily set-up and stored animal play area for small pets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many small animals can make enjoyable pets within the home. However unlike dogs and cats, not all pets may be given free roam of the house. Small animals like gerbils, hamsters, rats, guinea pigs, ferrets, and the like are typically kept in an enclosure or pen. The pens take many forms, but typically provide a feeding area and living quarters for the animal. While they permit viewing the animals, such pens do not allow ready access by the pet owners or their children to play with and interact with the animals.
Many pet owners seek to provide an area for exercise of their pets and some seek to allow the pet to be free from the caged environment. When the animal is removed from the pen, it must be supervised or be within a confined area. Some pet owners do not allow the pets to be out of their cage for fear of injury, or even death, to a small animal that roams at will. There is also the risk the animal will quickly run off through any small cubbyhole when the pet owners is distracted, taking up residence in the space available and possibly eventually escaping outdoors.
Many animal play enclosures have been used to restrict the pets movement, while providing access to the animal. Simple cardboard boxes are sometimes used, but the pet may easily climb out a straight walled box. With reference to the figures in which like numerals represent like elements throughout,
As depicted in
According, it would be advantageous to provide a rapidly set-up animal play enclosure for small pets. The enclosure would have sidewalls which would preclude climbing and escape by the pets but which would allow ready viewing and interaction with the animal. Such an enclosure would also incorporate a bottom to protect the surfaces of the home. The enclosure would present a pleasing design and color for both the pet and the homeowner. Finally, the enclosure could be readily cleaned and stored in a compact space. It is to such an animal play area apparatus and method that the present invention is directed.
The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention which, in one aspect, is a pet play enclosure for use with small pets. The play are includes a textile side wall, and a spring support structure. The textile side wall forms a cylinder having an upper edge and an opposing base edge. The spring support structure comprising a spring element, the spring element configured to urge the textile side wall into a taught and expanded position. The enclosure is configured to move from a first compressed position to a second expanded position upon the urging of the spring element.
In another aspect, the pet play enclosure may have a cylindrical textile awning, the textile awning having an awning bottom edge and an awning top edge. The bottom edge of the textile awning is affixed to the upper edge of the textile side wall. The spring support structure includes a spring element configured to urge the textile awning into a taught and expanded position. The textile awning is thus configured to move from a first compressed position to a second expanded position upon the urging of the spring element. The cylindrical textile awning may have a tapered diameter such that the diameter at the textile awning upper edge is less than the diameter at the textile awning lower edge.
In another aspect of the present invention, the spring element of the spring support structure has a spring spar in the form of a coil spring. The spring spar is constrained within pockets sewn into the textile side walls and is constrained from fully expanding by the textile sidewall.
In another aspect of the present invention, the spring element of the spring support structure comprises a plurality of spring spars spaced about the periphery of the textile side wall. The plurality of spring spars are constrained within pockets sewn into the textile side walls and are constrained from fully expanding by the textile sidewall.
In another aspect of the present invention, the spring element of the spring support structure comprises at least one spring spar in the form of a tapered coil spring. The at least one spring spar is constrained within pockets sewn into the textile awning and is constrained from fully expanding by the textile awning.
In other alternative aspects of the present invention, the enclosure includes a textile bottom affixed across the base edge of the textile side wall. The textile awning is made from a polyvinylchloride coated textile. The textile bottom is made from a urethane coated polyester.
In yet another alternative aspect of the present invention, the enclosure may be held in the first compressed position by a restraint for shipping and storage. The enclosure will pop-up to the second expanded position upon release of the restraint. The enclosure may be held in a first compressed position by a restraint and is configured to be twisted and coiled into a third collapsed position from the first compressed position. The enclosure may be held in the third collapsed position for shipping and storage by the storage packaging. The enclosure will return to the first compressed position upon twisting of the coils open. The enclosure will then pop-up to the second expanded position upon release of the restraint.
In another alternative aspect, the present invention provides a method of rapidly assembling or setting-up a pet play enclosure. The pet play enclosure includes a textile side wall, a textile bottom, and a spring support structure. The textile side wall forms a cylinder having an upper edge and an opposing base edge. The enclosure including a cylindrical textile awning having a bottom edge and a top edge and having a tapered diameter such that the diameter at the textile awning upper edge is less than the diameter at the textile awning lower edge. The bottom edge of the textile awning is affixed to the upper edge of the textile side wall. The spring support structure includes a spring element, the spring element configured to urge the textile side wall and textile awning from a first compressed position to a second expanded position. The enclosure is first held in a compressed position by a restraint for shipping and storage. The set-up or assembly method includes the release of the restraint, wherein the enclosure will pop-up to the second expanded position and be ready for use.
These and other aspects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the following drawings. As would be obvious to one skilled in the art, many variations and modifications of the invention may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.
The pop-up animal play area of the present invention provides an easily set-up and stored animal play enclosure for a small animal or pet, such as a gerbil, hamster, rat, guinea pig, ferret, or the like. The enclosure provides a sidewall with an overhanging lip or awning which precludes escape of the pets out of the enclosure. The enclosure can be readily stored by compressing the structure into a flat, thin ring assembly. Moreover, the enclosure structure may be further collapsed by twisting and coiling the assembly to form a smaller diameter package.
As depicted in
In one exemplary embodiment for small animals, the enclosure has a diameter of 36 inches, and a side wall 310 expanded height of 9 inches. The tapered awning extends 3 inches above the side wall 310 and tapers inward to a final diameter of 30 inches. This results in an enclosure 300 with a total height of 12 inches and an opening of 30 inches for viewing and interaction with the pet. Enclosures of other diameters and heights may be constructed for the range of pet sizes using the same techniques disclosed herein.
The side wall 310, awning 320, and bottom 330 of the enclosure are fabricated using 600 denier polyester. Denier polyester is a high strength, durable, scratch resistant textile which is readily available in a variety of colors. Product graphics may be applied to the polyester fabric by printing or hot transfer processes. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the side wall, awning, and bottom of the enclosure 300 may be formed of any flexible and durable textile including those synthetic textiles made from polyesters, acrylics, nylons, polyurethanes, polyactides or any combination thereof. The side wall, awning, and bottom of the enclosure 300 may also be formed of natural textiles made from, cotton, wool, hemp or other plant fibres, or any combination of natural and synthetic textiles. In other alternative embodiments, a flexible plastic film or metal foil may also be used to form the enclosure side wall, awning, or bottom.
The flexible spring steel support structure of the animal play enclosure 300 is depicted in
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the base hoop 410, spring spar 420, and awning upper hoop 440 of the support structure may be formed by a single piece of spring steel wound with a varying diameter and pitch. The spring steel is wound to a free length longer than the combined height of the side wall 310 and awning 320. When restrained and compressed by the textile of the sidewall 310 and awning 320, the spring spar 420, base hoop 410, and awning upper hoop 440 of the support structure urges the sidewall 310 and awning 320 into a taught, expanded position. The spring spar 420 is still restrained in a partially compressed position even when the sidewall 310 and awning 320 are stretched taught. The partially compressed spring spar 420 provides a pre-load force which must be overcome before the sidewall 310 or awning 320 will begin to collapse. The spring spar is designed to achieve a pre-load force suitable for the weight of the pet of interest. With a suitable pre-load, a pet will not collapse the side wall 310 of the enclosure 300 if it attempts to climb up it. In this embodiment, the flexible support structure is a single spring having both a straight and tapered portions.
An alternative embodiment of the flexible support structure of the animal play enclosure 300 is depicted in
In the embodiments above, the material of the hoops 410, 440, 510, 520, and spring spars 420 and 530 is spring steel rod having a thin round or rectangular cross section. As may be appreciated by those skilled in the arts, other elastic materials may be used to form the support structure such as other metals and metal alloys, plastics, fiberglass or carbon rods, or other spring materials as are known to those skilled in the art.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, multiple spring elements extend upward from the base hoop and around the periphery of the enclosure 300. A plurality of spring spars 420 may be employed to increase the force required to compress the assembly. In this embodiment, multiple small diameter spring spars 420 are utilized to maintain a highly flexible structure while still supplying the necessary expansion force to the enclosure side walls 310 and awning 320. The spring spars are evenly spaced around the base hoop 410, and provide more distributed support to the enclosure side wall 310 and awning 320. The plurality of spring spars 420 also results in a more uniform force required to collapse the enclosure 300 into a compressed state. Each of the plurality of spring spars 420 may extend from the side wall 310 and into the awning 320 as depicted in the embodiment of
The spring spars may be rigidly fixed to or formed integral with the base hoop. In an alternative embodiment, the spring spars are in sliding engagement with the base hoop and may slide around the base hoop as the enclosure is compressed and folded for storage. In another alternative embodiment, the spring spars are not affixed to the base hoop and are constrained within pockets sewn within the enclosure textile walls. In yet another alternative embodiment and as similar to the spring spar 420 engagement with the base hoop 410, the spring spars may be fixed too, in sliding engagement with, or free from the awing upper hoop 440.
As also depicted in
As further depicted in
As may be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the twisting and coiling of the enclosure articulated above is similar to other elastic rings wherein the cross-sectional shape of the ring results in the ring cross-section having a substantially larger section modulus about the plane of the ring as compared to along the center axis 430 of the ring. In these structures, the section modulus about an axis passing thru the centroid of a cross-section of the ring, perpendicular to the central axis 430 is substantially larger than the sectional modulus about an axis also passing thru the centroid of a cross-section, but parallel to the central axis of the ring. A common example of such a flexible ring structure is a band-saw blade. A band-saw blade has a relatively large section modulus resulting from the width of the metal blade, the section modulus would be calculated about an axis perpendicular to the centerline 430 in
In the same manner as a band-saw blade above, the compressed enclosure 300 of
The effective cross-section 900 of the support structure of the compressed enclosure 300 is depicted as a rectangle in
While there has been shown a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that certain changes may be made in the forms and arrangement of the elements of the apparatus and steps of the method for a pop-up animal play area without departing from the underlying spirit and scope of the invention.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/193,479, filed on Dec. 3, 2008, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61193479 | Dec 2008 | US |