Patent Application
20200214509
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The disclosure and prior art relates to liner assemblies and more particularly pertains to a new liner assembly for facile installation on, and removal from, a shower curtain rod.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a panel that has an upper section and a lower section. The upper section is arcuate and defines a channel that is shaped substantially complementarily to a shower curtain rod. The upper section is substantially rigid, while the lower section is flexible and substantially impermeable to water. A plurality of cutouts extends through the upper section from an edge of the upper section to the lower section to define a plurality of hooks. The hooks are configured to couple to the shower curtain rod so that the lower section is selectively positionable in an extended configuration, wherein the lower section is configured to cover an opening of a shower, and a compacted configuration wherein the lower section is configured for a user to enter and exit the shower.
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
A plurality of cutouts 20 extends through the upper section 14 from an edge 22 of the upper section 14 to the lower section 16 to define a plurality of hooks 24. The hooks 24 are configured to couple to the shower curtain rod so that the lower section 16 is selectively positionable in an extended configuration and a compacted configuration. In the extended configuration, the lower section 16 is configured to cover an opening of a shower. In the compacted configuration, the lower section 16 is configured for a user to enter and exit the shower.
Prior art shower curtain liners require a user to attach couplers to a liner and then attach the couplers to the shower curtain rod. One advantage of the present invention is the hooks 24 being integral to the panel 12 so that a user in not required to attach the hooks 24. Another advantage derives from the hooks 24 comprising plastic so that the hooks 24 readily slide along the shower curtain rod, facilitating opening and closing of the opening of the shower with the lower section 16.
As the upper section 14 and the lower section 16 comprise plastic, the assembly 10 is readily manufacturable using a variety of techniques well known to those skilled in the art of plastic manufacturing. For example, the hooks 24 could be heat welded to the lower section 16 so that the hooks 24 are integral to the lower section 16. Another approach to manufacturing the assembly 10 would be to treat the upper section 14 with a hardening agent and to mold the upper section 14 to form the channel 18. The cutouts 20 could then be cut from the upper section 14 to define the hooks 24.
The plurality of hooks 24 comprises from three to fifteen hooks 24. The plurality of hooks 24 may comprise from six to twelve hooks 24. The plurality of hooks 24 also may comprise nine hooks 24.
In use, the user simply couples the hooks 24 to the shower curtain rod to couple the panel 12 to the shower curtain rod. The lower section 16 is selectively positionable in the extended configuration to cover the opening of the shower and the compacted configuration for the user to enter and exit the shower.
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.
