Patent ID: 9016295
Filing Date: 2015-04-28
Classification: A45B

Abstract:
1. A device for raising an umbrella canopy with air pressure, the device comprising: an external pole having a base at which the external pole is sealed; a longitudinal slit in the external pole that communicates an interior of the external pole with an interior thereof; an internal pole received inside the external pole and having a sliding seal thereon that forms an air-tight seal between the internal and external poles at an area location between the base of the external pole and a lower end of the longitudinal slit, the internal pole and the sliding seal thereon being slidable up and down within the external pole; an air connection to the external pole for introduction of pumped air into the external pole at a location between the base of the external pole and the sliding seal on the internal pole; a carrier connected to the internal pole and extending through the longitudinal slit in the external pole to carry a base of the umbrella canopy that is slidably disposed along an exterior of the external pole for lifting of the umbrella canopy by pressurization of the external pole via the air connection in order to raise the carrier from a lowered position in contact with the lower end of the longitudinal slit to a raised position in contact with an opposing upper end of the longitudinal slit; and a longitudinal lubrication channel recessed into an exterior wall of the internal pole at an exterior surface thereof without passing through said exterior wall of the internal pole, the longitudinal lubrication channel extending upwardly from the sliding seal and being positioned to circumferentially align with both the carrier and the longitudinal slit and to axially reach the longitudinal slit in the external pole with the carrier in the raised position to enable lubrication of the sliding seal via the longitudinal slit and the lubrication channel with the carrier in the raised position; wherein an axial length of the longitudinal slit in the external pole is less than a longitudinal distance measured along the internal pole from the carrier to the sliding seal so that the sliding seal remains below the lower end of the longitudinal slit throughout a full range of movement of the carrier between the raised and lowered positions in the longitudinal slit, thereby maintaining the air-tight seal with the external pole at all times.