Patent ID: 8931496
Filing Date: 2015-01-13
Classification: A45B

Abstract:
1. An improved umbrella system comprising, canopy, stick, notch, and runner, wherein improvements comprise: a medially expanding frame, said frame providing means for extending the circumference of the canopy from a retracted position substantially proximate to, and medially situated adjacent to, an umbrella stick, expanding in a curvilinear substantially radial manner to a fully deployed configuration wherein said canopy, supported by said medially expanding frame, assumes a downwardly concave configuration, distal ends of the medially expanding frame, when fully extended, being situated on a plane perpendicular to the umbrella stick that is substantially lower than the plane perpendicular to said stick located at a vertical elevation substantially equal to that of the umbrella runner when said runner is fixed at its fully deployed upper location along said stick, said medially expanding frame comprising a plurality of linkage sets arrayed radially around a central axis coincidental with the major axis of said umbrella stick, said linkage sets comprising a plurality of individual links in the form of a lazy-tong, providing means to extend said distal ends of the frame to fully deployed positions relative to said stick, each link in said linkages being ordered in a progression of paired sets, each set having an upper and a lower member, following a sequence of said sets progressing from the set substantially adjacent to said stick then, set by set, progressing to link sets located further removed from the stick toward the most distal set of links in any given linkage, relative lengths between interior and distal ends of said links, tallied in said orderly sequence of upper to lower from the set more proximate to said stick, to an adjacent less proximate set, and further progressing to the most distal set of links, the relative length between interior and distal pivot points of said links progressively decreasing in magnitude, in a similar manner, relative distances between the interior and medial pivot points of the links in said sequence also decreasing continuously, each linkage set not having any extended individual element projecting substantially beyond conjoined distal ends of its outmost pair of links, said distal pair of links having distal ends with curved surfaces whose radii are substantially greater than the maximum transverse dimension of elongated frame elements, thereby providing safety means.