Patent Publication Number: US-6339856-B1

Title: Playyard with height adjustable feature

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of Invention 
     The present invention relates to collapsible playyards and more particularly to a playyard with height adjustable feature. 
     2. Related Art 
     Conventionally, a playyard is a safe confined space for children to play or sleep therein. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,811,437, 4,985,948, 5163,191, 5,697,111, and 5,727,265 each discloses a design related to such playyard wherein Nos. 4,811,437, 5,697,111, and 5,727,256 each further discloses a collapsible playyard. Such playyards generally have two positions, i.e., an extended operating position and a collapsed position when not in use. 
     A conventional collapsible playyard as shown in FIGS. 1-3 generally comprises a frame and a soft fabric linen enclosed sides and bottom wherein frame includes an upper frame member, a lower frame member, and a plurality of vertically extending rails. One or more latches are provided on upper frame member and lower frame member respectively so as to collapse playyard for saving storing space when not in use (see FIG. 3 specifically). It is seen that the length and width are reduced. However, the height of playyard remains the same as prior to folding. As evident from above, efforts are still required to solve the problem of height not reduced after collapsed. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a collapsible playyard wherein one or more latches are provided on upper frame member, lower frame member, and vertically extending rail of the frame respectively wherein vertically extending rail further consists of a support tube and a sliding tube slidable in the support tube. Tubes are releasably attached together by a locking device, thereby achieving the purpose of reducing height in addition to the reduction of width and length after collapsed. 
     Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a prior art collapsible playyard; 
     FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 with fabric removed to reveal the frame; 
     FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the collapse of the prior art playyard shown in FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of a collapsible playyard of the present invention with fabric removed to reveal the frame; 
     FIG. 5 is an exploded view illustrating vertically extending rail and latch of a vertically extending rail; 
     FIGS. 6A and 6B are sectional views taken along line VI—VI of FIG. 4 showing a locked and a released positions of the latch respectively; 
     FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the collapse of playyard shown in FIG. 4 wherein vertically extending railshave collapsed to a minimum height; 
     FIG. 8 is a perspective view of an alternate embodiment of frame of the present invention; 
     FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing the collapse of frame shown in FIG. 8; and 
     FIGS. 10A and 10B are longitudinal sectional views of an alternate embodiment of locking device respectively. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a playyard with height adjustable feature constructed in accordance with the present invention comprising a frame  10  including an upper frame member  11 , a lower frame member  12 , and a plurality of of vertically extending rails  13  wherein upper frame member  11  consists of two side rails  111  and two cross rails  112 , and lower frame member  12  consists of two diagonal rails  121  and  122 . Adjacent side rail  111 , cross rail  112 , and vertically extending rail  13  as well as adjacent diagonal rail  122  (or  121 ) and vertically extending rail  13  are attached together by brackets  113  and  123  respectively so as to form a complete frame. 
     Latch  114  is generally hinged in the central section of side rail  111  and latch  124  is generally hinged in the intersection of diagonal rail  121  and  122  respectively. By the provision of latches  114  and  124 , each side rail  111  and diagonal rail  121  and  122  may extend to a straight member in an operating position and fold in a collapsed position so as to reduce length and width of frame. The latches  114  and  124  employed to collapse side rail and diagonal rail  121  and  122  are prior art members and thus their description is omitted herein for the sake of brevity. 
     The primary aspect of the invention is to design a playyard with height adjustable feature and thus a locking device  20  is provided. Locking device  20  functions as releasably attaching sliding tube  131  and support tube  132  of vertically extending rail  13  together and further sliding tube  131  is capable of retracting into support tube  132  a predetermined distance so as to reduce height of frame. 
     Referring to FIGS. 5,  6 A, and  6 B, locking device  20  comprises a bracket  21 , an engaging means  22 , and an actuation means  23  releasably attached to bracket  21 . Engaging means  22  is provided in the sliding tube  131  having a V-shaped resilient member  221  with two round ends  222  and  222 ′. Round ends  222  and  222 ′ are penetrated through apertures  1311  of sliding tube  131  and holes  1322  of support tube  132  by the exapansion of biased V-shaped resilient member  221  to engage sliding tube  131  and support tube  132 . 
     Bracket  21  has a bore  211  for sleeving on support tube  132 . Further, support tube  132  is sleeved on sliding tube  131 . A bolt  24  is threaded through bracket  21  until being in contact with top portion of support tube  132  so as to fasten bracket  21  to support tube  132 . 
     An arcuate recess  212  is provided on the outer surface of bracket  21  having two holes  213  and  213 ′ on either end of arcuate recess  212  corresponding to holes  1321  and  1321 ′ respectively. Actuation means  23  has a resilient actuation body  231  and two protrusions  232  and  232 ′ on the inside of either end. Actuation means  23  is mounted on arcuate recess  212  with protrusions  232  and  232 ′ inserted into the corresponding holes  213  and  213 ′ to be in contact with round ends  222  and  222 ′. It is seen that the contact points of protrusions  232  and  232 ′ with round ends  222  and  222 ′ are in the hole  213  and  213 ′ as shown in FIG.  6 A. As a result, sliding tube  131  and support tube  132  are locked in the bracket  21 . However, protrusions  232  and  232 ′ will apply a force on round ends  222  and  222 ′ if a force is exerted on protrusions  232  and  232 ′, for example, by a hand simultaneously. As such, round ends  222  and  222 ′ are completely received within the apertures  1311  of sliding tube  131  if such force is sufficient as shown in FIG.  6 B. Accordingly, sliding tube  131  is unlocked so as to be capable of moving down a predetermined distance relative to the support tube  132  by pressing vertically extending rail  13  from top end thereof. 
     By utilizing this, vertically extending rail  13  may extend to a maximum height when sliding tube  131  is extended up from support tube  132  a predetermined distance as shown in FIG. 4 or collapse to a minimum height when sliding tube  131  is retracted into support tube  132  the same distance as shown in FIG.  7 . For achieving such collapsing purpose, a pair of engaging means  22  and  22 ′ are required to be provided in the sliding tube  131  as shown in FIG.  4 . That is, vertically extending rail  13  is extended to the maximum height when sliding tube  131  and support tube  132  are secured by the lower engaging means  22 , while vertically extending rail  13  is retracted to the minimum height when sliding tube  131  and support tube  132  are secured by the higher engaging means  22 ′. 
     Only two latches  114  are provided on either side rail  111  and as such only two sides can be folded as shown in FIG.  7 . However, such reduction in length is not enough. Thus, in an alternate embodiment of frame of the present invention, additional two latches  114 ′ are provided on either cross rail  112  as shown in FIG.  8 . With such arrangement, a more compact space is achieved when frame is folded as shown in FIG.  9 . 
     Referring to FIGS. 10A and 10B, there is shown an alternate embodiment of locking device respectively. In this embodiment, locking device  20  comprises a resilient member  25  enclosing support tube  131  at one end and a sleeve member  26  securing resilient member  25  to sliding tube  132  wherein resilient member  25  includes a plurality of projecting ridges  252  and  252 ′ protruded from the surface, an elongate recess  253  formed between projecting ridges  252  and  252 ′, and a plurality of internal threads  251  each formed between two adjacent ridges  252  as well as between two adjacent ridges  252 ′. Resilient member  25  is threadly secured to internal threads  261  on the inner surface of sleeve member  26 . 
     With such arrangement, ridge  252  and  252 ′ are forced to contract when sleeve member  26  is threaded up because the bore of sleeve member  26  is tapered to the lower end as shown in FIG.  10 B. Further, the friction between ridges  252  and  252 ′ and sliding tube  132  will refrain sliding tube  132  from moving with respect to support tube  131  and thus locking sliding tube  132  in support tube  131 . To the contrary, ridges  252  and  252 ′ are returned to their original uncompressed shapes when sleeve member  26  is threaded down to cause the above friction to decrease to a predetermined minimum value or completely diminished as shown in FIG.  10 A. At this point, sliding tube  132  may move relative to support tube  131  in order to change height of the vertically extending rail  13 . 
     Note that internal thread  251  may be a double-groove thread or a triple-groove thread. Further, sleeve member  26  is designed to be quickly engaged with or disengaged from resilient member  25 . 
     The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.