Patent Application
20060172861
The present invention relates to a small-size trampoline, and more particularly to a trampoline for small children that has a frame assembly providing enhanced structural strength and enabling largely reduced volume for economical packing when the trampoline is fully disassembled.
A trampoline is widely welcomed because it functions not only as an exerciser, but also an amusing game to provide a lot of fun. Trampolines developed in early stages are structured and dimensioned to produce a bouncing height suitable for adults only. For children to enjoy the fun of jumping on the trampoline, there are small-size trampolines particularly developed for children.
To protect children against accidents while jumping on the jumping bed 15, the four legs 11, 12, 13, 14 of the small-size trampoline 10 usually have a height H that is small but high enough to maintain the jumping bed 15 subjected to a downward force at a safe height from the floor.
Normally, to minimize the volume and cost for packing, storing, and transporting the small-size trampoline 10, the four legs 11, 12, 13, 14, the jumping bed 15, and the rail 16, which typically includes two collapsible sections, could be disassembled from one another. That is, the small-size trampoline 10 is shipped with all parts thereof fully disassembled and packed in a box as small as possible. Consumers are responsible for the assembling of the small-size trampoline 10 after they have purchased the same. However, since the four legs 11, 12, 13, 14 must have a sufficient height for children to use the small-size trampoline 10 safely, the packing box for the fully disassembled trampoline 10 would still has a considerably large volume and could not be reduced any further.
And, since the four legs 11, 12, 13, 14 are in contact with the floor at their free ends and provide oblique supports at only four corners of the small-size trampoline 10, the small-size trampoline 10 is structurally unstable and tends to move when a child bounces on the jumping bed 15.
To prevent children from accident or injury while bouncing on the jumping bed 15, the horizontal sections of the four legs 11, 12, 13, 14 are preferably covered with jacket tubes made of a foamed material. The jacket tubes are hollow tubes for manually putting on the horizontal sections of the legs 11, 12, 13, and 14 by forcefully pulling them through free ends of the leg sections one by one. It is time and labor consuming to do so.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a small-size trampoline that could be disassembled and packed in a much more flat and volume-reduced packing box to increase the quantity of trampolines in one shipment and save packing and transporting costs thereof.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a small-size trampoline that allows quick covering of a frame assembly thereof with jacket tubes.
To achieve the above and other objects, the small-size trampoline of the present invention includes a frame assembly to support a jumping bed at a required height. The frame assembly includes front and rear frames, two side frames, and front and rear transverse bars connected to and between the two side frames. The front and rear frames and the side frames are so shaped that they could be vertically connected together. Each of the front and rear frames and the side frames includes a horizontal main section of a predetermined length, on which two vertical leg sections are formed. When the front and rear frames and the side frames are vertically connected to one another at the leg sections, they together provide an overall height equal to the height required by the jumping bed.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the front and rear frames and the side frames are U-shaped and inverted U-shaped frames, respectively.
In a most preferred embodiment of the present invention, either the leg sections of the front and rear frames or those of the side frames have diameter-reduced free ends adapted to insert into bores at free ends of other leg sections to be vertically connected thereto.
The leg sections with the diameter-reduced free ends are internally provided with an elastically movable ball assembly each, and the other leg sections are correspondingly provided with through holes to engage with the ball assemblies.
The front and rear transverse bars and the horizontal main sections of the side frames together constitute a four-side frame needed to fixedly support the jumping bed on the small-size trampoline, and are covered with jacket tubes.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a rail is assembled to a front side of the frame assembly.
In another embodiment of the present invention most ideal for reducing the collapsed volume thereof, the front and rear frames include two separate inverted T-shaped units each, and the side frames are two inverted U-shaped frames.
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
Please refer to
The front and rear frames 21, 22 and the side frames 23, 24 are so shaped that they could be vertically connected to one another with the side frames 23, 24 located at an upper position. In the illustrated preferred embodiment, each of the front and the rear frame 21, 22 is a U-shaped frame having a horizontal main section of a predetermined length, two ends of which are upward bent to provide two first leg sections 211, 212 and 221, 222; and each of the two side frames 23, 24 is an inverted U-shaped frame having a horizontal main section of a predetermined length, two ends of which are downward bent to provide two second leg sections 231, 232 and 241, 242. The first leg-sections 211, 212 and 221, 222 have upward free ends adapted to detachably connect to downward free ends of the second leg sections 231, 231 and 241, 242 (for example, an upward free end 213 of the first leg section 211 of the front frame 21 is detachably connected to a downward free end 233 of the second leg section 231 of the side frame 23).
In the illustrated preferred embodiment, as an example, the downward free end 233 of the second leg section 231 of the side frame 23 is diameter-reduced for inserting into a bore at the upward free end 213 of the first leg section 211 of the front frame 21. An elastically movable ball assembly 234 is pre-mounted in the diameter-reduced downward free end 233 of the second leg section 231, and through holes 214 are correspondingly pre-formed on the upward free end 213 of the first leg section 211. When the downward free end 233 is inserted into the upward free end 213, the elastically movable ball assembly 234 is initially radially inward compressed and then springs into the through holes 214 to fixedly locate thereat and thereby quickly connects the second leg section 231 to the first leg section 211. It is understood the above-described manner of connection is only one of many available ways, and a person of ordinary skill in the art could obviously complete the same connection in other similar ways.
The front and the rear transverse bar 25, 26 are separately connected at two ends to positions on the horizontal main sections of the two side frames 23, 24 near the second leg sections 231, 241 and 232, 242. In the illustrated preferred embodiment, the front and the rear transverse bar 25, 26 are connected to the side frames 23, 24 by way of screwing bolts 235 through holes 236 formed on the side frames 23, 24 into threaded holes 237 formed at two ends of the transverse bars 25, 26. The front and the rear transverse bars 25, 26 and the horizontal main sections of the two side frames 23, 24 therefore constitute a four-side frame needed to support and stretch the jumping bed 30. As shown in the drawings, the front and the rear transverse bars 25, 26 and the horizontal main sections of the two side frames 23, 24 are separately covered with hollow jacket tubes 27.
With the above arrangements, the first leg sections 211, 212 and 221, 222 of the front and the rear frame 21, 22 may have a height Hi about one half of the height H of the conventional small-size trampoline 10. Similarly, the second leg sections 231, 232 and 241242 of the two side frames 23, 24 may have a height H2 about one half of the height H of the conventional small-size trampoline 10. Therefore, an overall height (H1+H2) of the fully assembled front and rear frames 21, 22 and side frames 23, 24 is close to or equal to the height H normally required to support the jumping bed of the small-size trampoline at a safe height.
As can be seen from
Since the frame assembly 20 consists of front and rear frames 21, 22 and side frames 23, 24 that have a height about only one half of that of the conventional small-size trampoline 10, and two straight transverse bars 25, 26, the small-size trampoline of the present invention in a fully disassembled state could be packed in a much more flat and small box for storage and transportation. For example, the number of packing boxes containing the fully disassembled small-size trampoline of the present invention that could be loaded in the same sized container is increased by 50% as compared to the conventional small-size trampoline 10. Meanwhile, since the front and the rear frame 21, 22 and the side frames 23, 24 have relatively shortened leg sections, and the front and the rear transverse bars 25, 26 are straight bars, the jacket tubes 27 could be more quickly and conveniently put on these parts to save time and labor. Moreover, in the illustrated preferred embodiment, it is the horizontal main sections of the front and rear frames 21, 22 of the frame assembly 20 that contact with the floor. This largely increases the structural strength of the whole trampoline to bear force applied thereon, making the trampoline more stable and reliable for use.
The present invention has been described with some preferred embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.
