Patent Publication Number: US-6666224-B2

Title: Beach umbrella with lamps

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a beach umbrella with lamps, and more particularly, to one, of which the lamps take various forms and can be secured in proper position without possibility of moving or falling off or badly affecting the appearance of the umbrella. 
     Beach umbrellas are widely used not only on the beach to provide shade from the direct light of the sun but also on other outdoor recreational places, such as the areas for the spectators of a sport and outdoor coffee shops, such that people sitting under them can be protected from the sun and rain. 
     Beach umbrellas usually include a shank, several ribs radially spread out from the upper end of the shank, spreaders, which are pivoted to the middle portions of the ribs at the outer ends and pivoted to a slidable ring at the inner ends, and a canopy secured to the ribs. 
     Such beach umbrellas are not needed, and usually folded when there is no enough light or illumination lest the places under the canopy become too dark. However, it needs much additional labor to fold these umbrellas on an outdoor coffee shop where usually many such umbrellas are used. And, the dust on the canopies is likely to fall down to dirt the tables placed under the umbrellas when the umbrellas are folded. To avoid the above mentioned trouble, the umbrellas are not folded, but additional lamps are placed besides, or hung on, the umbrellas for the customers to see clearly with sufficient light; this approach also needs additional labor and therefore isn&#39;t ideal, and the lamps hung on the umbrellas would badly affect the look of the umbrella. In addition, because some beach umbrellas used on an outdoor coffee shop are fixed, and can&#39;t be moved away, the umbrellas would affect the look of the places for the worse when they are in the folded position. 
     To deal with the above problem, referring to FIGS. 9,  10  and  11 , a beach umbrella with lamps is provided, which includes a shank  51 , ribs and spreaders  52  radially spread out from the shank  51  and lamps  54 . The ribs and spreaders  52  each has a receiving trench  53  on the lower side; the receiving trench  53  has a C-shaped section, i.e. the lower opening of the trench  53  is narrower than the other part of the trench  53 . Several of the lamps  54  are connected to a wire  541  and received in one of the trenches  53  such that the same won&#39;t fall off the trenches  53  easily. And, because the lamps  54  are hidden in the trenches  53 , the drawback of the lamps showing to badly affect the look of the umbrella is eliminated. 
     However, the umbrella is still found to have drawbacks as follows: 
     1. There is still a possibility that the lamps  54  fall out of the trenches  53 , especially when the umbrella is being stretched on folded, because the lamps  54  are not firmly fixed to the ribs and spreaders  52 . 
     2. The trenches  53  can only receive lamps of the same size, therefore lamps of different sizes can&#39;t be used on such umbrella, i.e. the use of the umbrella is very limited. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Therefore, it is a main object of the present invention to provide a beach umbrella with lamps, of which the lamps can be secured in position without possibility of falling off. It is another object of the present invention to make the beach umbrella in such a manner that lamps of various shapes and sizes can be fitted thereto. 
     The beach umbrella of the present invention includes a shank, several ribs and spreaders, and lamps connected to branches of wires like the conventional one. The ribs each has a receiving trench lengthwise formed thereon, and several through holes communicating with the trench. The branches of the wires are each passed through a respective one of the through holes with the lamps and the wires being positioned on opposing sides of the ribs. When the receiving trenches are formed on the bottoms of the ribs, the lamps can be further hidden in the trenches. When the receiving trenches are formed on the upper sides of the ribs, the wires are hidden along the trenches with the lamps be positioned below the ribs. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     This invention will be better understood by referring to the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the beach umbrella with lamps of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of the beach umbrella of the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is a fragmentary section view of the beach umbrella of the present invention. 
     FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the rib according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 5 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of the beach umbrella of the second embodiment. 
     FIG. 6 is a fragmentary section view of the umbrella of the second embodiment. 
     FIG. 7 is a plan view of the umbrella of the second embodiment. 
     FIG. 8 is another plan view of the umbrella of the second embodiment. 
     FIG. 9 is an exploded perspective view of the conventional beach umbrella. 
     FIG. 10 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of the beach umbrella in FIG.  9 . 
     FIG. 11 is a sectional view of the rib of the beach umbrella in FIG.  9 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a beach umbrella of the present invention includes a shank  1 , several ribs  2 , which are pivoted to the upper end of the shank  1  from the inner ends and radially spread out, and spreaders (not numbered), which are pivoted to the ribs  2  and a movable ring, and lamps  4 . 
     The ribs  2  each has a receiving trench  3  lengthwise formed on the bottom, several through holes  21  formed on the upper side to communicate with the receiving trench  3 , and a gap  22 , which is formed at the outer end portion thereof, and communicates with the trench  3 . Several of the lamps  4  are connected to a wire  41 , and passed through a respective one of the through holes  21  of one of the ribs  2  with the wires  41  being positioned on the rib  2 . The lamps  4  are further securely hidden in the receiving trench  3  as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4; the outer end of the wire  41  is passed into the gap  3  with received in the trench  3 . 
     Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, a rib  2  of an umbrella according to a second embodiment of the present invention includes a receiving trench  3  lengthwise formed on the upper side thereof, several through holes  21  formed on the bottom to communicate with the trench  3  and a gap  22 , which is formed at the outer end, and also communicates with the trench  3 . A wire  41  having several branches is hidden in the receiving trench  3  with the branches being passed through a respective one of the through holes  21 , and with the outer end portion of the wire  41  being secured in the gap  22 . The outer ends, and the branches of the wire  41  are further each connected to a lamp  42  placed just below the rib  2 , as shown in FIG.  6 . Thus, the beach umbrella has the lamps fitted to the ribs thereof. And, the user can decide the number of lamps to be fitted to the ribs according to the needs, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. 
     From the above description, it can be easily understood that the beach umbrella with lamps of the present invention has the following desirable features: 
     1. Because most part of the weight of the lamps is supported by the wire held on the ribs, and only little part of the weight is held by the receiving trench (the first embodiment), the lamps can&#39;t possibly fall down, and are much leas likely to fall off than those of the conventional umbrella when the umbrella is being folded or stretched. And, the lamps are desirably spaced out by the through holes. 
     2. The umbrella of the second embodiment allows lamps of various shapes and sizes to be securely fitted to, therefore it can be decorated with different lamps to suit various events.