U.S. patent application number 11/594201 was filed with the patent office on 2008-05-08 for shade orientating device for large-sized umbrella.
Invention is credited to Joen-Shen Ma.
Application Number | 20080105289 11/594201 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 39358697 |
Filed Date | 2008-05-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080105289 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Ma; Joen-Shen |
May 8, 2008 |
Shade orientating device for large-sized umbrella
Abstract
An umbrella includes a shade orientating device arranged between
upper and lower sections of a post. The upper section supports a
shade. The shade orientating device includes upper and lower
sleeves respectively fixed to upper and lower sections. A sphere is
attached to the upper sleeve and is rotatably received in the lower
sleeve. A bolt extends from an upper hemisphere of the sphere to
threadingly fix to the upper sleeve, while a plurality of dimples
is distributed on a surface of a lower hemisphere. A controller,
movably mounted to the lower sleeve, includes a pin engageable with
the dimples and the controller is movable to selectively bring the
pin into engagement with a selected one of the dimples thereby
fixing the upper central post section and thus the shade carried
thereby at a desired orientation with respect to the lower central
post section.
Inventors: |
Ma; Joen-Shen; (Taipei,
TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
ROSENBERG, KLEIN & LEE
3458 ELLICOTT CENTER DRIVE-SUITE 101
ELLICOTT CITY
MD
21043
US
|
Family ID: |
39358697 |
Appl. No.: |
11/594201 |
Filed: |
November 8, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
135/20.3 ;
135/20.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A45B 17/00 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
135/20.3 ;
135/20.1 |
International
Class: |
A45B 17/00 20060101
A45B017/00; A45B 11/00 20060101 A45B011/00 |
Claims
1. A shade orientating device adapted to adjust and control
inclination and orientation of a shade supported on a central post
of an umbrella, the central post being composed of upper and lower
sections, the shade orientating device comprising: a lower sleeve
mounted to the lower section of the central post, the lower sleeve
forming a socket; an upper sleeve mounted to the upper section of
the central post; a sphere rotatably received in the socket of the
lower sleeve, the sphere having upper and lower hemispherical
surfaces, a bolt extending from the upper hemispherical surface in
a radial direction and projecting out of the lower sleeve to
threadingly fix to the upper sleeve thereby connecting the upper
and lower sleeves together and thus connecting the upper and lower
sections of the central post to each other while allowing relative
rotation between the upper and lower sections, a plurality of
dimples distributed on the lower hemispherical surface; and a
controller movably mounted to the lower sleeve, the controller
comprising a pin that is selectively engageable with a selected one
of the dimples of the sphere in response to a first direction
movement of the controller to fix the upper and lower sleeves in
position with respect to each so s to set the upper section of the
central post in a desired orientation.
2. The shade orientating device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
lower sleeve forms an opening in communication with the socket for
the extension of the bolt of the sphere, the opening having a
diameter smaller than diameter of the sphere.
3. The shade orientating device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
controller is movably mounted on an outer surface of the lower
sleeve and comprise an extension projecting into the lower sleeve
through a slot defined in a wall of the lower sleeve and carrying
the pin at a position engageable with the dimples of the sphere, a
biasing element being connected to and applying a biasing force to
the extension of the controller to cause engagement of the pin with
the dimples.
4. The shade orientating device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
controller is accommodated in a cavity defined in and pivoted to
the lower sleeve, an end of the controller forming the pin at a
position engageable with the dimples of the sphere, a biasing
element rotatably basing the controller to have the pin engaging
the dimples.
5. The shade orientating device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
controller comprises a central section movably received in the
lower sleeve and two legs extending from opposite ends of the
central section and projecting beyond the lower sleeve, the central
section carrying the pin at a position engageable with the dimples
of the sphere, a biasing element biasing the central section to
have the pin engaging the dimples.
6. The shade orientating device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the
lower sleeve is concentrically rotatable about the lower section of
the central post and wherein a first threading is formed on an
inner surface of the lower sleeve, a disk received in the lower
sleeve and facing the sphere and carrying the pin at a position
engageable with the dimples of the sphere, the disk forming a
second threading along an outer circumference thereof to
threadingly engage the first threading for converting rotation of
the lower sleeve into axial movement of the disk toward/away from
the sphere and thus engaging/disengaging the pin with/from the
dimples, a biasing element arranged to apply a biasing force to the
disk.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention generally relates to a large-sized
umbrella having a post supporting a shade, and in particular to a
spherical joint based shade orientating device arranged between
upper and lower sections of the post to selectively orientate the
shade at any desired direction.
[0003] 2. The Related Arts
[0004] Shade orientating devices have been used in large-sized
umbrellas for controlling direction of inclination of the umbrella
to selectively shield against intense sun light or simply for
landscaping arrangement purposes.
[0005] The conventional shade orientating devices only allow the
umbrella to move in a single plane, such as east-westward plane or
north-southward plane. In other words, the shade can be inclined in
a direction toward for example east/west or north/south but not
both. This limits the capacity and performance of the large-sized
umbrella.
[0006] One way to overcome the drawback is manually rotating a
central post that supports the shade to point the inclined shade
toward any desired orientation. However, manually rotating the
central post may affect positioning of the umbrella on for example
the ground for the engagement between the central post and an
umbrella base that is positioned on the ground may be unexpectedly
broken or gets loosened. In addition, the operation of manually
rotating the central post is troublesome.
[0007] The present invention is made to overcome the drawbacks of
the conventional shade orientating device for large-sized
umbrellas.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide an
umbrella shade orientating device comprising a ball joint arranged
between upper and lower sections of a central post of the umbrella
to allow the upper central post section to rotate with respect to
the lower central post section and thus making the shade supported
by the upper central post section orientated toward any desired
direction thereby enhancing operability and convenience of use of
the large-sized umbrella.
[0009] To realize the above object, an umbrella provided by the
present invention comprises a shade orientating device arranged
between upper and lower sections of the central post of the
umbrella. The upper central post section supports a shade on an
upper end thereof. The shade orientating device comprises upper and
lower sleeves, a sphere attached to the upper sleeve and a
controller movably mounted to the lower sleeve. The lower sleeve
has a lower end fixed to an upper end of the lower central post
section, while the upper sleeve has an upper end fixed to a lower
end of the upper central post section. The lower sleeve forms a
socket in which the sphere is rotatably received. The sphere has
upper and lower hemispheres. A bolt extends in a radial direction
from the upper hemisphere, while a plurality of dimples is formed
and distributed on an outer surface of the lower hemisphere. The
bolt projects beyond the lower sleeve to threadingly fix to the
upper sleeve thereby connecting the upper and lower sections of the
central post together. The controller comprises a pin engageable
with the dimples and the controller is movable to selectively bring
the pin into engagement with a selected one of the dimples thereby
fixing the upper central post section and thus the shade carried
thereby at a desired orientation with respect to the lower central
post section.
[0010] The controller can be embodied in different forms, such as a
pivoted member that is rotatable with respect to the lower sleeve
to make the pin approaching or leaving the dimples, a slidable
member carrying the pin toward/away from the dimples, or a
screw-based rotation-to-axial translation converting mechanism.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] In order to clearly show and make better comprehension of
these and other features and advantages of the present invention,
the present invention will now be described by way of examples,
with reference to embodiments illustrated in the drawings, in
which:
[0012] FIG. 1 shows a side elevational view of a large-sized
umbrella in which a shade orientating device in accordance with the
present invention is embodied;
[0013] FIG. 2 shows an exploded view of the shade orientating
device in accordance with the present invention;
[0014] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the shade orientating
device illustrating a first embodiment thereof in an engaged
condition;
[0015] FIG. 4 is similar to FIG. 3 but showing the shade
orientating device of the first embodiment in a disengaged
condition;
[0016] FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the shade orientating
device illustrating a second embodiment thereof in an engaged
condition;
[0017] FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. 5 but showing the shade
orientating device of the second embodiment in a disengaged
condition;
[0018] FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the shade orientating
device illustrating a third embodiment thereof in an engaged
condition;
[0019] FIG. 8 is similar to FIG. 7 but showing the shade
orientating device of the third embodiment in a disengaged
condition;
[0020] FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the shade orientating
device illustrating a fourth embodiment thereof in an engaged
condition; and
[0021] FIG. 10 is similar to FIG. 9 but showing the shade
orientating device of the fourth embodiment in a disengaged
condition.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0022] With reference to the drawings and in particular to FIG. 1,
a large-sized umbrella, which is broadly designated with reference
numeral 10, is shown and comprises a central post supporting a
shade at a top end thereof. A shade orientating device constructed
in accordance with the present invention, generally designated with
reference numeral 20 in FIG. 1, is embodied in the umbrella 10. In
FIG. 1, the shade orientating device in accordance with the present
invention is particularly circled in FIG. 1 for easy identification
and is more clearly shown in FIG. 2 in exploded form.
[0023] As shown in FIG. 1, the central post of the umbrella 10 is
comprised of upper and lower sections 11, 12. The shade orientating
device 20 is arranged and connecting between the upper and lower
sections 11, 12 of the central post for selectively orientating the
shade 13 toward any desired direction and controlling the
inclination of the shade.
[0024] As shown in FIG. 2, the shade orientating device 20
comprises a sphere 21, a lower sleeve 24, an upper sleeve 26, and a
manually operable controller 30 movably mounted on the lower sleeve
24. A lower end of the lower sleeve 24 is fixed to an upper end of
the lower central post section 12 and an upper end of the upper
sleeve 26 is fixed to a lower end of the upper central post section
11. Although not shown in the drawings, a plurality of ribs is
movably attached to a crown mounted to the top end of the upper
central post section 11 to open/close the shade 13.
[0025] The sphere 21 has a spherical outer surface in which a
plurality of dimples 22 is formed. The dimples 22 are arranged
close to each other and are distributed, preferably in a uniform
manner, on a lower hemi-spherical portion of the spherical outer
surface. Further, a bolt-like threaded extension 23 is attached to
the outer surface of the sphere 21. The bolt 23 extends along a
radius of the sphere 21 that is opposite to the lower hemi-sphere
and is substantially normal to the "north pole" of the sphere
21.
[0026] The lower sleeve 24 forms a socket therein for receiving the
sphere 21 in a way to allow the sphere 21 to freely rotate with
respect to the lower sleeve 24. The sleeve 24 forms an opening 25
at the upper end thereof and the opening 25 has a diameter smaller
than the diameter of the sphere 21 so as to constrain the sphere 21
in the lower sleeve 24. The sphere 21 is arranged in such a manner
that the bolt 23 extends beyond the upper end of the lower sleeve
24 through the opening 25. The bolt 23 so extending beyond the
upper end of the lower sleeve 24 is threadingly engageable with the
lower end of the upper sleeve 26 to couple the lower and upper
sleeves 24, 26 together and thus connecting the upper and lower
sections 11, 12 together to form the central post.
[0027] The manually operable controller 30 comprises a pin 32
having an end selectively and receivingly engageable with the
dimples 22 of the sphere 21 to retain the upper sleeve 26 (and thus
the upper section 11 of the central post) in a selected, fixed
position with respect to he lower sleeve 24 (and thus the lower
section 12). By manually operating the controller 30 to release the
pin 32 from the dimple 22 of the sphere 21, the sphere 21 may
freely rotate with respect to the lower sleeve 24, whereby the
upper sleeve 26 that is threadingly fixed to the bolt 23 of the
sphere 21, as well as the upper section 11, is allowed to rotate
with the sphere 21 to thereby orientate the shade 13 supported on
the upper section 11 toward any desired direction. By engaging the
pin 32 with a selected one of the dimples 22 of the sphere 21, the
sphere 21 is fixed at the particular location and the orientation
of the shade 13 is fixed as well.
[0028] Different embodiments of the controller 30 will be further
descried with reference to the drawings. A first embodiment of the
catch 30 is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, which demonstrate engaged and
disengaged conditions between the pin 32 of the controller 30 and
the dimples 22 of the sphere 21, respectively.
[0029] As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the controller 30 is movably
mounted on the outside surface of the lower sleeve 24 and comprises
an extension 31 that projects into the lower sleeve 24 through a
guide slot 34 formed in the wall of the lower sleeve 24. The pin 32
is formed on the extension 31 and is arranged substantially under
the sphere 21 and pointing toward the lower hemi-sphere of the
sphere 21. A biasing element 33 is provided to bias the extension
31 in such a way to have the pin 32 physically contact the sphere
21 and thus engaging one of the dimples 22. In other words, the pin
32 is set in a normally engaged condition. This ensures safety of
operation and use of the umbrella.
[0030] An example of the biasing element 33 is a spring fixed
between the extension 31 and the lower sleeve 24 or the lower
section 12 of the central post.
[0031] To release the upper section 11 of the central post, as
shown in FIG. 4, the controller 30 is moved along the guide slot 34
in a direction against the biasing element 33 and by doing so, the
pin 32 is moved out of engagement from the dimple 22 thereby
releasing the upper sleeve 26 and the upper central post section 11
to allow for re-orientating of the shade 13 toward any desired
direction. Once the shade 13 is orientated at the desired
direction, by releasing the controller 30, the pin 32 of the
controller 30 is allowed to resume the normally engaged condition
under the spring force and the shade 13 is fixed in position
again.
[0032] A second embodiment of the controller is shown in FIGS. 5
and 6, which is designated with reference numeral 40 for
distinction. The controller 40 of the second embodiment is
accommodated in an open cavity 44 defined in the wall of the lower
sleeve 24 and is pivoted to the lower sleeve 24 by a pivot pin 41.
An end of the controller 40 that is close to and faces the dimples
22 of the sphere 21 forms a pin 42, which is selectively engageable
with the dimples 22. A biasing element 43, which in the embodiment
illustrated comprises a torsional spring, biases the controller 40
in such a way to set the pin 42 in a normally engaged condition
with the dimple 22 of the sphere 21.
[0033] To release the upper sleeve 26 and thus the upper section 11
of the central post, as shown in FIG. 6, the controller 30 is
depressed in a direction against the biasing element 43 and by
doing so, the pin 42 is moved out of engagement from the dimple 22
thereby releasing the upper sleeve 26 and the upper central post
section 11 to allow re-orientating of the shade 13 supported on the
upper central post section 11. Once the shade 13 is orientated at
the desired direction, by releasing the controller 40, the pin 42
of the controller 40 is allowed to resume the normally engaged
condition under the spring force and the shade 13 is fixed in
position again.
[0034] A third embodiment of the controller is shown in FIGS. 7 and
8, which is designated with reference numeral 50 for distinction.
The controller 50 of the third embodiment is a U-shaped member
having a central section 51 movably received in the lower sleeve 24
and forming a pin 52 pointing toward the lower hemisphere of the
sphere 21. A biasing element 53, which in the embodiment
illustrated comprises a spring, biases the central section 51 of
the controller 50 in such a direction to set the pin 52 in a
normally engaged condition with the dimples 22 of the sphere 21.
Two legs extend perpendicularly from opposite ends of the central
section 51 and project beyond the wall of the lower sleeve 24
through openings 54. The legs are in slidable engagement with outer
surface of the lower sleeve 24 for being manually moved along the
outer surface of the lower sleeve 24.
[0035] To release the upper sleeve 26 and thus the upper section 11
of the central post, as shown in FIG. 8, the controller 50 is
manually moved along the outer surface of the lower sleeve 24 in a
direction against the biasing element 53 and by doing so, the pin
52 is moved out of engagement from the dimple 22 thereby releasing
the upper sleeve 26 and the upper central post section 11 to allow
re-orientating of the shade 13 supported on the upper central post
section 11. Once the shade 13 is orientated at the desired
direction, by releasing the controller 50, the pin 52 of the
controller 50 is allowed to resume the normally engaged condition
under the spring force and the shade 13 is fixed in position
again.
[0036] A fourth embodiment of the controller is shown in FIGS. 9
and 10. In the embodiment illustrated, the lower sleeve, which is
designated with reference numeral 60, is concentrically rotatable
about the lower central post section 12. Threading 61 is formed on
an inside surface of the lower sleeve 60. The controller further
comprises a rotatable disk 62 received in the lower sleeve 60 and
forming a pin 63 pointing toward and thus engageable with the
dimples 22 of the sphere 21. The disk 62 has an outer cylindrical
surface on which threading is formed for engagement with the
threading 61 of the lower sleeve 60. By rotating the lower sleeve
60, the threading engagement between the lower sleeve 60 and the
disk 62 causes the disk 62 to move axially and thus approaching or
moving away from the sphere to cause engagement and disengagement
of the pin 63 with respect to the dimples 22 of the sphere 21. A
biasing element 64, such as a spring, is arranged to apply a
biasing force to the disk 62.
[0037] To release the upper sleeve 26 and thus the upper section 11
of the central post, as shown in FIG. 8, the lower sleeve 60 is
rotated in such a direction to cause the disk 62 to move away from
the sphere 21 and thus disengaging the pin 63 from the dimple 22.
By doing so, the pin 63 is moved out of engagement from the dimple
22 thereby releasing the upper sleeve 26 and the upper central post
section 11 to allow re-orientating of the shade 13 supported on the
upper central post section 11. Once the shade 13 is orientated at
the desired direction, by rotating the lower sleeve 60 is a
reversed direction to move the disk 62 toward the sphere 21, the
pin 62 re-engages the dimple 22 and the fixing the shade 13 in
position again.
[0038] Although the present invention has been described with
reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it is apparent to
those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications and
changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present
invention which is intended to be defined by the appended
claims.
* * * * *