Abstract:
A baby carriage includes a frame and a seat mounted onto the frame. The frame includes a support rack and a pair of handle sets coupled on the support rack. The handle sets have respectively an elevation set and a folding set connected through a flexible member. The elevation set can adjust the height of a handgrip located at the upper end of the handle set. The folding set has an elastic pin and is inserted into the support rack. Through a driving member located on the upper end of the handle set, the latching state between elastic pin and the support rack can be released to rapidly fold and retract the frame. Usability is therefore improved and the folded size can also be reduced.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a baby carriage and particularly to a baby carriage equipped with an elevation set and a folding set to improve usability and facilitate unfolding and folding. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     With increasing of life quality these days, families with a baby or small child usually purchase at least one baby carriage to carry the baby or child going out. While the baby carriage is a useful carrying tool, it is often bulky and becomes an annoying burden during outing. Hence many techniques have been proposed in prior art to improve the shortcoming of inconvenient folding and provide additional functions to enhance usability. 
     Applicant has submitted U.S. application Ser. No. 12/709,066 entitled “stroller” that has a folding control set operable single-handed to control an elastic pin of a folding driver held in a handle bar to incorporate with a front tube to allow the handle bar to slide along the front tube, and a rear tube coupled with the handle bar through a linking rack to perform folding or unfolding against the front tube through a coupling holder hinged thereon and functioning as a gravity center. 
     While the aforesaid technique provides the convenience of single-handed operation to achieve faster folding, the handle bar is a curved tube, and hence the stroller can only be folded by pushing the front and rear parts towards the center without shrinking the volume thereof after folding. Moreover, the elements such as the folding driver are held in the handle bar and are linked with each other through a flexible element. To maintain linkage as desired, the length of the handle bar is limited by that of the flexible element and cannot be adjusted. Such a design results in a constant height held by a user and is not ergonomic, so there is still room for improvement. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The primary object of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional stroller that has a handle bar with unadjustable length and bulky volume resulting in difficulty of storage after folding by providing an improved baby carriage that includes a handle set containing an elevation set and a folding set. The elevation set is provided to allow adjustment of the length of a handle to meet user&#39;s comfortable requirement. The folding set allows the baby carriage to be shrunk into a smaller size after folding. The baby carriage of the invention provides many advantages of adjustable height as desired and simple folded. 
     To achieve the foregoing object, the baby carriage of the invention includes a frame and a seat mounted onto the frame. The frame includes a support rack and a pair of handle sets coupled on the support rack. Each handle set includes a handgrip, an elevation set, a folding set, a flexible member and an outer sleeve. The handgrip has a coupling portion with a coupling hole formed thereon and a driving member coupled on the outer side. The driving member has a driving portion pulled by a user. The elevation set includes a driven member, an adjustment member, a driven bar and a coupling member. The driven member has an upper latch slot. The adjustment member has an insertion portion at one end with a passage run through by the driven member. The insertion portion is inserted into the coupling hole of the handgrip. The adjustment member has an adjustment knob at one side with a pressing portion protruded outside the adjustment member and pressed by the user. The driven bar has a transverse hole at an upper end corresponding to the adjustment knob and a diagonal slot at a lower end. The coupling member has a hollow tube run through by the driven bar and a fastening hole at the lower end corresponding to the diagonal slot to hold a positioning plate which has a lug. The coupling member has a winding portion at a distal end. The folding set includes a lower driving member, an upper driving member, an elastic pin and an elastic member. The lower driving member and the upper driving member have respectively a first pin hole and a second pin hole inserted by the elastic pin. The lower driving member further has a lower latch slot at an upper end. The elastic member is interposed between the lower driving member and the upper driving member to force the lower and upper driving members to return to corresponding positions. The flexible member is a rope set with one end fastened to the upper latch slot of the driven member and wound around the winding portion for one coil and another end fastened to the lower latch slot of the lower driving member. The outer sleeve is coupled on the outer sides of the elevation set and the folding set, and has a plurality of adjustment holes formed on a lower wall thereof and latched by the lug of the positioning plate. As the flexible member is a rope set including an inner rope confined in an outer tube, when the user presses the adjustment knob to release the latched condition of the positioning plate, the position of the coupling member can be adjusted and the lug of the positioning plate is latched in a selected adjustment hole. Moreover, the coil size of the flexible member wound on the winding portion can be enlarged or shrunk due to different positions of the adjustment hole. However, since the two distal ends of the inner rope are respectively fastened to the upper and lower latch slots, the coil size of the outer tube of the flexible member does not affect the fastening relationship with the inner rope. After the driving portion of the driving member is pulled by the user, the elastic pin of the folding set can be driven to release the fastening condition with the support rack. Then the support rack can be folded to shrink the size of the baby carriage. 
     By means of the construction set forth above, the invention can provide many advantages, notably: 
     1. The elevation set can adjust the handle set to an optimal elevation to meet ergonomic requirement and alleviate user&#39;s pains in the loins and back caused by unsuitable height of the baby carriage. 
     2. As the flexible member is a rope set coupled with the elevation set and folding set, the elevation of the handle of the baby carriage can be adjusted and the volume thereof also can be shrunk after folding to improve usability. 
     The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the invention. 
         FIG. 3A  is a perspective view of the frame of the invention. 
         FIG. 3B  is a fragmentary enlarged view of the front wheel set according to  FIG. 3A . 
         FIG. 4  is a rear perspective view of the frame of the invention. 
         FIG. 5A  is a front view of the frame of the invention. 
         FIG. 5B  is a sectional view taken on line  5 B- 5 B in  FIG. 5A . 
         FIG. 6  is an exploded view of the handle set and elevation set of the invention. 
         FIG. 7  is an exploded view of the folding set of the invention. 
         FIG. 8A  is a schematic view of the elevation set in a latched condition. 
         FIG. 8B  is a sectional view according to  FIG. 8A . 
         FIG. 9A  is a schematic view of the elevation set in a released condition. 
         FIG. 9B  is a sectional view according to  FIG. 9A . 
         FIG. 10A  is a sectional view of the folding set in a latched condition. 
         FIG. 10B  is a sectional view of the folding set in a released condition. 
         FIG. 11  is a sectional view of the handgrip of the invention. 
         FIG. 12  is another sectional view of the handgrip of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Please refer to  FIGS. 1 through 5B , the present invention provides a baby carriage that includes a frame  1  and a seat  2 . The frame  1  includes a support rack  3  and a pair of handle sets  4 . 
     The support rack  3  includes at least one holding member  31  with a front tube  32  fastened to a lower side and a rear tube  33  hinged on the lower side. The front tube  32  has an extension hole  321  near the middle portion and a retraction hole  322  close to a lower end which is coupled with a front wheel set  34 . The rear tube  33  has a lower end coupled with a rear wheel set  35 . The front wheel set  34  has a lateral wheel  341  at a front end axially perpendicular thereto. 
     Also referring to  FIGS. 6 through 9B , each handle set  4  is fastened to the holding member  31  of the support rack  3 , and includes a handgrip  5 , an elevation set  6 , a folding set  7 , a flexible member  8  and an outer sleeve  9 . The handgrip  5  has a coupling portion  51  with a coupling hole  511  and a first elongate slot  512  formed thereon. The coupling portion  51  is coupled with a driving member  52  on an outer side. The driving member  52  has a driving portion  521  protruded from one end thereof and pulled by a user, and a first through hole  522  on a lateral side corresponding to the first elongate slot  512 . 
     The elevation set  6  includes a driven member  61 , an adjustment member  62 , a driven bar  63  and a coupling member  64 . The driven member  61  has an upper latch slot  611  and a second through hole  612 . The adjustment member  62  has an insertion portion  621  at one end. The insertion portion  621  has a passage  622  run through by the driven member  61  and a second elongate slot  623  on a lateral side corresponding to the first elongate slot  512 . The insertion portion  621  is inserted into the coupling hole  511  of the coupling portion  51  and fastened to the first through hole  522  of the driving member  52  and the second through hole  612  of the driven member  61  via a fastening element (not shown in the drawings) such as a screw. Thereby when the driving portion  521  is pulled by a user, the driving member  52  and driven member  61  are moved within the first elongate slot  512 . The adjustment member  62  has an insertion hole  624  at a lower end inserted by the coupling member  64  and an adjustment knob  65  at one side. The adjustment knob  65  has a pressing portion  651  protruded outwards and pressed by the user, a longitudinal hole  652 , and an inclined surface  653  directing inwards at the upper end. The driven bar  63  has a transverse hole  631  and an inner inclined slot  632  at an upper end. The transverse hole  631  corresponds to the longitudinal hole  652  of the adjustment knob  65 . The inner inclined slot  632  is butted by the inclined surface  653  of the adjustment knob  65 . The driven bar  63  has a chamber  633  near the lower end and a diagonal slot  634  at the lower end. The chamber  633  holds an elastic element  635  such as a spring. The upper end of the coupling member  64  is inserted into the insertion hole  624  at the lower end of the adjustment member  62 . The coupling member  64  has a hollow tube  641  run through by the driven bar  63 . The hollow tube  641  has a latch hole  642  on one side corresponding to the chamber  633  and inserted by a latch member  643  which passes through the chamber  633  to retain the elastic element  635 . The coupling member  64  further has a fastening hole  644  at the lower end corresponding to the diagonal slot  634  to hold a positioning plate  66  which has a lug  661  and an aperture  662 . Through a retaining element (not shown in the drawings) running through the fastening hole  644 , the diagonal slot  634  and the aperture  662 , the positioning plate  66  can be slid and confined between the diagonal slot  634  and the fastening hole  644 . The coupling member  64  further has a winding portion  645  at a distal end. 
     The folding set  7  includes a lower driving member  71 , an upper driving member  72 , an elastic pin  73  and an elastic member  74 . The lower driving member  71  and the upper driving member  72  have respectively a first pin hole  711  and a second pin hole  721  that are corresponding to each other and inserted by the elastic pin  73 . The first pin hole  711  is located within a notch  712  with a slanted surface. The lower driving member  71  has a lower latch slot  713  at the upper end. The elastic pin  73  is inserted into the first pin hole  711 , and has a resilient element  731  such as a spring on the upper end, a pin  732  at the lower end, and a washer  733  near the middle portion of the pin  732  formed at a diameter greater than that of the pin  732 . The upper driving member  72  and lower driving member  71  can slide against each other. The elastic member  74  is a spring interposed between the lower and upper driving members  71  and  72  to force the lower and upper driving members  71  and  72  to return to their corresponding positions. 
     The flexible member  8  is a rope set with one end fastened to the upper latch slot  611  of the driven member  61  and wound on the winding portion  645  of the coupling member  64  for one coil and another end fastened to the lower latch slot  713  of the lower driving member  71 . 
     The outer sleeve  9  is coupled on the outer sides of the elevation set  6  and folding set  7  and coupled with a retaining bushing  91  at the upper end to butt against a lower edge of the adjustment member  62 . The outer sleeve  9  has a lower retaining element  92  (referring to  FIG. 5B ) at the lower end to cover the lower end of the upper driving member  72  to keep a selected distance between the elevation set  6  and the folding set  7  so that elements thereof can be protected to increase their lifespan. The outer sleeve  9  further has a plurality of adjustment holes  93  on the lower wall (referring to  FIG. 8B ) latched by the lug  661  of the positioning plate  66 . 
     Please refer to  FIGS. 8A through 9B . When adjusting the height of the handle is desired, the user presses the pressing portion  651  of the adjustment knob  65  to move inwards, and then the inclined surface  653  is butted against the inner inclined slot  632  of the driven bar  63  so that the driven bar  63  is moved along the inclined direction towards the handgrip  5 . Consequently, the positioning plate  66  originally retained at the diagonal slot  634  and the fastening hole  644  is moved inwards through the fastening hole  644  to release the latched condition of the lug  661  in the adjustment hole  93 . Then the pressing portion  651  is continuously pressed and the handgrip  5  is also pulled to adjust the position of the coupling member  64  and latch the lug  661  in a selected adjustment hole  93  to adjust the elevation as desired. When moving the coupling member  64  is desired, the diameter of the coil of the flexible member  8  wound on the winding portion  645  can be enlarged or shrunk due to different positions of the coupling member  64 . However, since the upper and lower ends of the inner rope of the flexible member  8  have respectively fastened to the driven member  61  and lower driving member  71 , folding movements of the invention are not affected. 
     Please refer to  FIGS. 3A ,  5 B,  10 A and  10 B. When the baby carriage of the invention is in an unfolding condition, the elastic pin  73  is inserted into the extension hole  321  of the front tube  32 . When folding the baby carriage is desired, the user pulls the driving portion  521  to drive the inner rope of the flexible member  8 , so that the lower driving member  71  fastened to the lower end of the flexible member  8  is drawn and moved upwards. Then the slanted surface of the notch  712  presses the pin  732  to retract inwards to release the latched condition with the support rack  3  so that the handle set  4  can slide downwards along the front tube  32 . When the pin  732  is latched in the retraction hole  322  of the front tube  32 , the two sides of the support rack  3  can be moved towards the middle through the lateral wheel  341  at the front end of the front wheel set  34  to shrink the baby carriage into a smaller size. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 11 and 12 , the handgrip  5  can also include a turning control knob  53  at one side with a latch member  531  and a plurality of turning holes  54  formed inside latched by the latch member  531  to form positioning. The user can press the turning control knob  53  to release the latched condition between the latch member  531  and the turning hole  54 , and then turn the handgrip  5  to mate another selected turning hole  54  and release the turning control knob  53  to return the handgrip  5  to the desired position for anchoring.