Abstract:
A portable and foldable children&#39;s bed which converts from a closed rectangular traveling structure with wheels, a travel handle and feet, into a child retaining structure that functions as children&#39;s bed, bassinet or alternatively a playard or a playpen for small children. The bed contains a hinged compartment, a flip top, which is used for storage of children&#39;s equipment.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This patent application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/025,591, entitled “Foldable and Portable Children&#39;s bed” filed on Jul. 17, 2014. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    This invention relates generally to child care products, and, more particularly, to foldable and portable children&#39;s bed, foldable and portable playard assemblies, that is reconfigurable between a children&#39;s bed mode and a portable case mode, and methods to use foldable and portable children&#39;s beds and playards. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    There are many portable children&#39;s playards that are known in the art. Conventional children&#39;s beds and playards are typically relatively bulky and usually hard to travel with. There is a need for a foldable and portable children&#39;s bed that can be used for easy travelling, eliminating the need to add additional packaging to prevent breakage and making it easy to travel with the bed with various carriers. The collapsible children&#39;s beds and playards that exist are relatively complicated and are of an excessive complexity when it comes to unfolding and folding them back. There is a need for a foldable children&#39;s bed, that is light, long lasting, cost efficient, and that will extract easily and fast to an open mode and fold back easily and fast to a travelling mode. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    The present invention relates to a portable and foldable children&#39;s bed that is collapsed from a child retaining structure where a child can play and sleep to a portable device in a form of a suitcase that can be easily carried around with a help of wheels, similarly to a travel suitcase. 
         [0005]    A children&#39;s bed is comprised of a set of collapsible hinges, a set of collapsible floor supporters and two end walls, whereas the walls of the bed which are constructed and formed out of a stiff enough material that will not hurt the child when he will come in contact with it and are flexible enough to support the child against it, said walls are supported by feet and two pair of wheels, while the upper set of collapsible hinges and the two floor boards that collapse into a portable structure, using a mechanism that locks when two links aligned with one another and unlocks to allow them to pivot with respect to one another, when a set of two floor boards which are separated in the middle by a slit but connected together by flexible joints, allow the boards to fold and be conjugated to the en walls of the bed, in the closed position, and also are used as a basis and a floor for the bed as well as a playing ground for a child that holds the bed&#39;s mattress, in the opened position. 
         [0006]    In addition, the children&#39;s bed has a flipping top, which is the dome of the bed in its folded position, flips backwards and contains space for storage as well as a basis for a handle which moves up and down and can be used to pull the closed bed as a luggage while the dome can be used as a storage compartment for children&#39;s equipment selected from the group consisting of milk bottles, pacifiers, diapers and other useful equipment for traveling with a child. 
         [0007]    There is a method of operating the portable and foldable children&#39;s bed which is comprised of pressing the button and releasing the clip, and rotating the dome, pulling the right side of the bed in a horizontal direction, completing the rotate of the dome, pulling the left side of the bed in a horizontal position, pulling up the upper set of hinges up to lock the mechanism automatically in its place, pulling the bottom floor that will be used as a basis and hold the mattress, to lock the mechanism automatically in place. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a foldable and portable children&#39;s bed when the bed is ready for usage in as unfolded position. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a view of the unfolded foldable and portable children&#39;s bed from the bottom. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view of the foldable and portable children&#39;s bed in a semi-folded position. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the foldable and portable children&#39;s bed from the top in a folded position. 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  is as exploded view of a locking hinge. 
           [0013]      FIG. 6  is a perspective view of the locking hinge. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0014]    A convertible infant&#39;s enclosure, comprising a housing, said housing having two end walls attachable together to form as enclosure, a folding bed—forming mechanism between said walls, said mechanism comprising of a pair of rail-forming linkages on each of two opposite sides of a bed formed by said mechanism, each of said linkages forming an upper rail when said mechanism is unfolded, each of said linkages comprising first and second lings pivoted at one end to one of said end walls, said links being secured to one another by a locking hinge which holds said first and second links together in a linear structure when fully extended, and allows said links to pivot relative to one another when folding up to storage of said bed in said housing. The bed is significant by its light weight and by its ability to unfold in a single shot, letting the user exploit a fast and convenient way to unfold the structure. 
         [0015]      FIG. 1-4  provide and example of foldable and portable children&#39;s bed which is assembled in the way of the invention.  FIG. 5-6  provide an example of the locking hinge which is one of the components of the bed. The illustrations  FIG. 1 - FIG. 4  provide various positions of the invention. 
         [0016]      FIG. 1  provides a front perspective view of a foldable and portable children&#39;s bed when the bed is ready for usage in an unfolded position. The structure has four wheels  2 , which allow the feed to be transported easily from place to place. Those wheels are attached to the structure by an attaching piece  4 . The end wall  6 , has a two stripes  8  on the sides, which are connecting the end walls to side walls. Two side walls are comprised of a soft clear material  43  and are connected to two top rail-forming linkages  22  and the bottom floor  40  with an attaching materials, such as but not limited to velcro, glue or other attaching materials. 
         [0017]    The flipping top  16  connects to the housing by clip fasteners  10 , that are attached by strips  14 . The clip fasteners  10  are located on the end walls of the construction  10  and on the ends of the strips  14 . The flipping top has storage space inside for various products that can fit in. In addition there is an extracting handle  12 , that is connected to the flipping top and is being extracted and extended from inside of the flipping top. 
         [0018]    The rail-forming linkages  22  are connecting the two side walls  43  to end walls  6  and  34  through corner connectors  28 . The corner connectors  28  connect the walls and form four corners of the enclosure  20 . 
         [0019]    The rail-forming linkages are connected by a connecting mechanism named locking hinge  24  which will be described in detail in  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 . The mechanism is being released and the rail-forming linkages are being collapsed downwards by a push of a button  26 . Parallelly, the floor  40  is being collapsed upwards from the middle part by pulling a flexible handle  44  up and allowing the two parts of the floor  40  which are connected by a bottom connector underneath the floor  42  to collapse upwards. This can be seen in details in  FIG. 3 . Two mattresses  41  are located on top of the collapsible floor  40  and complete a soft enclosure. The mattresses  41  are easily collapsed along with the floor  40 . 
         [0020]    The bed&#39;s standing legs  38  allow the bed to stand still and securely in place, elevating the bed and not allowing the wheels  2  to touch the ground, unless the structure is tilted to the side in a closed position that can be seen in  FIG. 4 . 
         [0021]      FIG. 2  provides a bottom view of a foldable and portable children&#39;s bed when the bed is ready for usage in an unfolded position. In addition to the already described pieces of the bed this view allows to see the bottom connector of the bed  42  which are connecting two parts of the floor  40  with two parallel rails  50  and  54 . The connector  42  allows the floor to collapse upwards when necessary and form a portable enclosure. 
         [0022]      FIG. 3  provides a front perspective view of a foldable and portable children&#39;s bed when the bed is in a semi-folded position. This drawing shows how the rail-forming linkages collapse downwards when a user pushes the button  26  and the locking hinge  24  makes the rail forming linkages fold inside. Similarly, a flexible handle  44  pulls the bottom connector  42  and collapses the two parts of the floor  40  upwards and parallel to the rail-forming linkages  22 . 
         [0023]    The flipping top  16  which is attached to the housing by clip fasteners  10  and strips  14 , can be seen in this drawing from a different angle. 
         [0024]      FIG. 4  provides a front perspective view of a foldable and portable children&#39;s bed when the bed is in a closed position completely collapsed into a suitcase mode and ready to move and transfer from place to place. An extracting handle  12  can be extracted from the flipping top  16  to allow the user to drag the bed by tilting it to the side and using the wheels  2 . 
         [0025]      FIG. 5  provides an exploded view of the locking hinge  24  which connects the rail-forming linkages. The hinge is constructed by two side walls  116  and  114  which are connecting by two circled connectors  112  located on each side wall. 
         [0026]    Two gear wheels with cogs  102  and  108  have a spring  106  between them which if pressed allow two other side gear wheels  104  to move and to rotate the rail-forming linkages  100 . The rotation is possible through pressing the button  26  which presses the spring  106  and makes the gearing wheel  102  fit side gearing wheels and begin simultaneous rotation of the side gearing wheels and the rail-form linkages. A button piece  120  allows the gearing wheel to connect gearing wheels together when the button is pressed. 
         [0027]      FIG. 6  provides a perspective view of the locking hinge  24 . The button  26  can be pressed from the outside by a user which will allow rotation of the rail-forming linkages  100 . The two side walls of the hinge  114  and  116  are closed together and the side gear wheels  104  which are connected to the rail-forming linkages  100  allow easy rotation.