Abstract:
A steering wheel tray is used on a steering wheel to support a horizontal tray that can be used to take notes coming over the cell phone. Of course, the driver could not be driving at this time. The tray consists of a plate that is attached to the surface of the steering wheel by upper spring loaded hooks that engage the rim of the steering wheel. At the bottom of the plate there is attached a tray that can be moved into a forward position toward the driver by way of a ratchet hinge.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     (none)  
       STATEMENT REGARDING FED SPONSORED R &amp; D  
       [0002]     (none)  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     The invention is directed to a useful device in a vehicle. In a vehicle, when parked, there is normally no provision made to perform certain tasks when sitting in a driver&#39;s seat, such as, taking notes while talking on a cell phone, operating a flat top computer or even while eating. Any of these tasks are extremely cumbersome or impossible to perform because of a lack of support.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     To alleviate the above noted problems, the inventive concept involves a tray that may be attached to the steering wheel of a vehicle. The tray has a background plate which will be located flat against the steering wheel, it has hooks that hook over the circle of the steering wheel and at the bottom the plate will have a hinge to which is attached a platform tray which then is useful for performing certain tasks on the tray similar to a surface of a table only somewhat smaller. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0005]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the steering wheel tray in an opened position;  
         [0006]      FIG. 2  is a side view of the steering wheel tray in a closed position;  
         [0007]      FIGS. 3A-3E  illustrate a sequence of opening of the steering wheel tray;  
         [0008]      FIG. 4  shows a perspective side view of the steering wheel tray in more detail;  
         [0009]      FIG. 5  is a side view of the steering wheel tray including the elements;  
         [0010]      FIG. 6  is a rear view of the plate which is attached to the plane of the steering wheel including an arresting mechanism;  
         [0011]      FIG. 7  is an illustration of an open view of the tray mounted on the steering wheel including a holding clip;  
         [0012]      FIG. 8A  shows a ratchet mechanism for holding the tray in a predetermined horizontal position;  
         [0013]      FIG. 8B  illustrates the ratchet elements used in  FIG. 8A ;  
         [0014]      FIG. 9  shows a different ratchet mechanism to adjust the horizontal position of the tray on the steering wheel in a disengaged position;  
         [0015]      FIG. 10  illustrates the ratchet mechanism of  FIG. 9  in an engaged position. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0016]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the steering wheel tray including a back plate  1  which will overly the plane of the steering wheel. The plate  1  is held in place by spring loaded hook supports  3  and  4 , which will be further described below. The back plate  1  supports a tray  2  by way of a ratchet hinge (described below) to extend toward a person sitting in the driver&#39;s side of the vehicle who can then take advantage of the inventive concept of the invention.  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  shows a side view of the steering wheel tray wherein the same reference call outs are being used as were in  FIG. 1 . The back of the steering wheel plate  1  shows a hook channel  5  which will receive the spring loaded hook supports  3  and  4 , as will be explained below.  
         [0018]      FIGS. 3A-3E  illustrate the sequence of the steering wheel tray during its opening cycle and supported during its use as shown at  7 . In order to orient the steering wheel tray in its proper location a steering wheel S is shown relative to a dash assembly D.  
         [0019]      FIG. 4  is a side view of the steering wheel tray in more detail. Again the same reference characters have been used to identify the same elements as were identified in previous Figs. The hinge between the plate  1  and the tray  2  is again shown at  6  including a ratchet mechanism shown below. The ratchet mechanism  8  contains the spring loaded hooks  3  and  4 . Included in this side view is a sliding locking arm extension  9  which locks the upper hook elements in a proper height adjustment. (explained below) Include in this view is a clip  10  which will hold papers and other items in a vertical position on the plate  1  on the plane of the steering wheel circumference.  
         [0020]      FIG. 5  shows the steering wheel tray in a side view. Again the same reference characters have been used as in previous Figs. and no further explanations should be necessary.  
         [0021]      FIG. 6  is a rear view of the plate  1  that is attached to a steering wheel surface. It can now be seen that the spring loaded hooks  3  and  4  are contained in a sliding locking arm extension  9  which in turn can be sliding within the ratchet mechanism  8 . The sliding arm extension has spring loaded ratchets  12  thereon, which when moved into a proper location, will ratchet or lock into the ratchet openings  13  in the ratchet mechanism box  8 . The spring loaded ratchet can be disengaged by simple finger pressure to be freed of any engagement with the ratchet openings  13  in the ratchet box  8 . In this manner, the spring loaded hooks can be moved to a different position to accommodate a different sized steering wheel or to adjust the lower tray to different position as is desired by the operator depending on the task to be performed.  
         [0022]      FIG. 7  is a perspective view of the steering wheel tray illustrating a ratchet mechanism to hold the bottom tray  2  in a certain position relative to the plate resting on a surface of the steering wheel. This is highly desirable because in many instances the pitch or inclination of the wheel surface is different from others. The ratchet hinge  6  can be adjusted into many different positions and can be released by a ratchet release mechanism (explained below to assume a different position. It should be noted that the lower edge of the tray  2  has an upstanding edge  2   a  to prevent any items from sliding off from the tray  2 .  
         [0023]      FIG. 8A  shows a ratchet mechanism to adjust the tray  2  into different horizontal positions depending on the pitch of the steering wheel. To this end, the hinge  6  has a continuing rod  6   a  extending there through. The rod  6 A has at one end thereof a push button  16  to push the rod  6 A against a bias of the spring  16 . In this position, the exterior male ratchet elements  18  are removed from the interior female ratchet elements  17  to thereby allow the horizontal tray  2  to be moved into any desired horizontal position. Upon the release of the push button  15 , the bias of the spring  16  will move the exterior ratchet elements  18  to within the interior ratchet elements  17  to thereby lock the tray  2  in an adjusted and desired position.  
         [0024]      FIG. 8B  illustrates the exterior  18  and interior  17  ratchet mechanism useful in adjusting the horizontal positions of the tray  2 .  
         [0025]      FIG. 9  illustrates a different ratchet mechanism form that was used in  FIG. 8 . The hinge  6  again has a continuing rod  6 A extending through the hinge. This embodiment again has a push button  26  which, when activated, exerts pressure against the spring  25  at an opposite end of the hinge  6 . The hinge  6  has stationary plates  28  mounted therein. The stationary plates  28  are opposed by movable plates  29  which have opposing ratchet teeth  29 A embedded therein. The ratchet teeth are also embedded in the stationary plates  28  at  28 A.  FIG. 9  shows the ratchet teeth  28 A and  29 A disengaged from each other because the push button  26  is pushed against the bias of the spring  25 , whereby the stationary plates  28 , which are mounted on the interior of the hinge housing  6 A, and the movable plates  29 , which are mounted on the hinge rod  27 , are separated from each other. As soon as the bias of the spring  25  is released, the plates  28  and  29  move toward and engage each other, the horizontal tray  2  will lock into its predetermined position. A mere push of the button  26  will change the position of the tray  2  relative to the backup plate  1  on the steering wheel.  
         [0026]      FIG. 10  illustrates the elements depicted in  FIG. 9  but the bias of the spring  25  has exerted its force to engage the the ratchet plates  28  and  29  with each other to thereby lock the tray  2  in place relative to the steering wheel plate  1   
         [0027]     In view of all of the above it can now be seen that a convenient tray system has been developed that can be used on a steering wheel of a vehicle to accommodate various activities when not in the process of driving.