Abstract:
A partition system for office or room includes a first and second partition wall, a pivot mechanism connected between the partition walls and a glide set mounted on the bottom of the partition walls. The pivot mechanism can allow the partition walls to relatively rotate. The glide set is composed of a pair of inverted vee feet and a support mechanism. The feet have flexibility for matching uneven surface. The support mechanism can rotate the feet to be parallel with the partition wall for easy storage.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Technical Field 
         [0002]    The invention relates to combinative partitions for partitioning a room. 
         [0003]    2. Related Art 
         [0004]    To effectively use limited space of a room, partitions are usually adopted by general users. A conventional partition system, as can be seen in  FIG. 10 , is composed of at least a first partition wall  10  and a second partition wall  11  connecting with each other. Usually, there is a pivot (not shown) disposed between the partition walls  10 ,  11 . The pivot can allow the partition walls  10 ,  11  to rotate to form a desired angle. Additionally, the partition walls  10 ,  11  are separately provided with glide sets  12  for facilitating moving of the partition walls  10 ,  11 . 
         [0005]    In the abovementioned prior art, because the partition walls  10 ,  11  are provided with glide sets  12 , the partition walls  10 ,  11  are hard to be firm positioned when they have been moved to a desired position. Even though the glide sets  12  are additionally provided with brakes, the positioning effect is not still good enough because the heavy weight of the partition walls  10 ,  11 . Furthermore, while the partition walls  10 ,  11  are moving, the user must give care to operation of the brakes. A desired angle of the partition walls  10 ,  11  is not easy to be positioned, and the operation is inconvenient. 
         [0006]    The glide set  12  shown in  FIG. 10  includes a mounting plate  120  parallel to the partition walls  10 ,  11 , a support frame  121  under the mounting plate  120  and wheels  122  under the support frame  121 . A spring  123  is provided between the mounting plate  120  and the support frame  121 . The spring  123  is used for matching uneven surfaces on which the partition walls  10 ,  11  stand. The support frame  121  must have a certain height because it has to cooperate with the spring  123 . On the other side, two ends of the support frame  121  protrude from the partition walls  10 ,  11 , so they become barriers to the people walking near the partition walls  10 ,  11 . Furthermore, the mounting plate  120  is perpendicular to the support frame  121 , its occupying space is very uneconomical for package and delivery. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    A primary object of the invention is rotation of the partition walls is independent of the glide set. Thus the operation of rotating the partition walls is very convenient without any other action. 
         [0008]    A secondary object of the invention is not to make feet of the partition walls become a barrier by lowering the height of the feet. 
         [0009]    Another object of the invention is to reduce the occupying space by rotating the feet. 
         [0010]    To accomplish the above objects, the invention includes a first and second partition wall, a pivot mechanism connected between the partition walls and a glide set mounted on the bottom of the partition walls. The pivot mechanism can allow the partition walls to relatively rotate. The glide set is composed of a pair of inverted vee feet and a support mechanism. The feet have flexibility for matching uneven surface. The support mechanism can rotate the feet to be parallel with the partition wall for easy storage. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the partition system according to the invention; 
           [0012]      FIG. 1-1  is a partially perspective view of the first partition wall for showing the hollow sticks; 
           [0013]      FIG. 1-2  is a partially perspective view of the second partition wall for showing the hollow sticks; 
           [0014]      FIG. 1-3  shows a rotating status of the two partition walls; 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  shows the connection of the pivot mechanism and partition walls; 
           [0016]      FIG. 3  shows an exploded view of the pivot mechanism; 
           [0017]      FIG. 4  shows an assembled view of the pivot mechanism; 
           [0018]      FIG. 5  shows the action of the pivot mechanism; 
           [0019]      FIG. 6  shows an exploded view of the glide set; 
           [0020]      FIG. 7  shows an assembled view of the glide set; 
           [0021]      FIG. 8  shows a partially sectional view of the glide set; 
           [0022]      FIG. 9-1  shows a top plan view of the mounting plate and the feet in a perpendicular arrangement; 
           [0023]      FIG. 9-2  shows a side plan view of  FIG. 9-1 ; 
           [0024]      FIG. 9-3  shows a top plan view of the mounting plate and the feet in a parallel arrangement; 
           [0025]      FIG. 9-4  shows a side plan view of  FIG. 9-3 ; and 
           [0026]      FIG. 10  shows a partition system of prior art. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0027]    As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the partition system of the present invention least includes a first partition wall  20 , a second partition wall  21  and a pivot mechanism  3  connected between the partition walls  20 ,  21 . The pivot mechanism  3  is composed of a first pivot plate  30 , a second pivot plate  31  and a pivot shaft  32 . Each of the pivot plates  30 ,  31  has a connecting portion  301 ,  311  fixed on the top or bottom  201 ,  211  of the partition walls  20 ,  21  and a pivoting portion  302 ,  312  passed through by the pivot shaft  32 . 
         [0028]    Please refer to  FIGS. 1-1  and  1 - 2 , a first hollow stick  203  and a second hollow stick  213  are longitudinally provided on lateral edges  202 ,  212  of the first and second partition wall  20 ,  21 , respectively. Normally, the two hollow sticks  203 ,  213  press to each other. As shown in  FIG. 1-3 , when the first partition wall  20  make a relative rotation against the second partition wall  21  to change its position, the first partition  20  can obtain effective support to smoothly rotate by mutual press of the hollow sticks  203 ,  213 . 
         [0029]    Referring to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the pivoting portions  302 ,  312  of the pivot plates  30 ,  31  overlap. The center of each of the pivoting portions  302 ,  312  has a pivot hole  303 ,  313  for being passed through by the pivot shaft  32 . A plurality of positioning holes  304  in a round arrangement are provided around the pivot hole  303  of the first pivot plate  30 . A plurality of positioning troughs  314  corresponding to the positioning holes  304  are provided on the second pivot plate  31 . A rolling ball  33  is placed in each of the positioning holes  304 . A portion of the rolling ball  33  is exposed out of the positioning hole  304 . A pressing plate  34  is passed through by the pivot shaft  32  for pressing the exposed portion of the rolling ball  33  to prevent the rolling ball  33  from falling off. A positioning effect can be obtained when the rolling ball  33  embeds the positioning trough  314 . The pressing plate  34  is provided with threadlike holes  340  in a radial arrangement. The threadlike holes  30  are used for increasing flexibility of the pressing plate  34  and irrelative to the rolling balls  33 . 
         [0030]    Referring to  FIG. 5 , when a user wants to move the second partition wall  21 , he or she must exert force to overcome the resistance from the rolling balls  33  pressed by the pressing plate  34 . The second partition wall  21  can rotate about the pivot shaft  32  when the rolling balls  33  swerve from the original positioning troughs until they embed next positioning troughs  314 . During the moving, the pressing plate  34  is temporarily deformed by the rolling balls  33  swerving from positioning troughs  314 . The deformation of the pressing plate  34  forms additional pressure to the rolling balls  33 . 
         [0031]    Referring to  FIGS. 6-8 , the bottoms of the first and second partition walls  20 ,  21  are provided with glide sets  4 . Each of the glide sets  4  is composed of a mounting plate  40 , a support mechanism  5  and a pair of feet separately carrying wheels  410 ,  420 . 
         [0032]    The mounting plate  40  is used for connecting the glide sets  4  on the bottom of the partition walls  20 ,  21 . The mounting plate  40  is provided with two inserting holes  401 ,  402 . 
         [0033]    The support mechanism  5  includes a frame  50 , a spring coil  51  and screw rod  52 . There is a through hole  501 , which is passed through by the screw rod  52 , in the frame  50 . One end of the screw rod  52  is fixed between the two inserting holes  401 ,  402 . The spring coil  51  is put around the screw rod  52 . The outer end of the screw rod  52  is terminated by a nut  53 . The spring coil  51  is limited between the nut  53  and the frame. The frame  50  has two parallel and corresponding wings  502 ,  503  and a bridge connecting therebetween. Two inserting pins  504 ,  505  corresponding to the inserting holes  401 ,  402  extend from the bridge. 
         [0034]    One end of each the feet  41 ,  42  connect with one of the wheels  410 ,  420 . The other ends  411 ,  421  of the feet  41 ,  42  are pivotedly connected between the wings  502 ,  503  by bolts  43 ,  44 . The paired feet  41 ,  42  are of an inverted vee shape and capable of swinging about the bolt  43 ,  44 . An extending spring  45  is provided between the paired feet  41 ,  42  for exerting inward force. This makes the paired feet  41 ,  42  has flexibility when the wheels  410 ,  420  contact with the ground. In other words, the flexible structure can compensate uneven ground. 
         [0035]    Referring to  FIG. 9-1 , to stably support the partition walls  20 ,  21 , the paired feet  41 ,  42  are perpendicular to the mounting plate  40 . When a user wants to store or deliver the partition system, the mounting plate  40  will be parallel to the feet  41 ,  42  if the user upward pulls the mounting plate  40  with the screw rod  52  and then rotates. The inserting pins  504 ,  505  insert the inserting holes  401 ,  402  again because of the returning force of the spring coil  51  as shown in  FIGS. 9-3 ,  9 - 4 . Therefore, the occupying space of the partition system can be reduced. 
         [0036]    It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above embodiment has been described by way of example only and not in any limitative sense, and that various alterations and modifications are possible without departure from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.