Carrying Handle

Abstract

A flexible handle is provided for attachment to large containers, such as picnic chests, baskets, luggage, and the like, in the form of a strap having snap fasteners at either end to connect to the container, and a relatively stiff medial portion as a hand grip.

Description

This invention relates to handles and it is more particularly concerned with handles for carrying containers of various kinds, such as picnic chests, baskets, luggage, and the like.

Conventional handles for such objects are relatively rigid in construction and in the means for attaching them to the containers to be carried. Consequently, when manually carrying the containers while walking, an effect is produced similar to that of an automobile without springs traveling over an uneven surface.

It is known that a person, while walking, raises and lowers the center of gravity of his body relative to the ground in rhythm with his gait. To the same extent, he will raise and lower an object held in the hand while walking. This requires an expenditure of work each time the body is raised which is essentially not recovered when the body falls after each rise. In fact additional work is expended on impact of the foot against the ground when the body falls in each cycle of rise and fall. When the body is rigidly connected to a heavy object, such as by a rigid handle held in the hand, the required amount of work is increased in proportion to the additional weight carried.

An object of the present invention is to ameliorate this condition, to achieve a degree of impact absorption and salvage a part of the work expended in walking under such circumstances.

Another object is the provision of a resiliently flexible handle which functions on the order of automobile shock absorbers.

A further object is the provision of a flexible handle for a container which permits the hand to be oriented naturally while grasping the handle and with a uniform distribution of weight over the gripping fingers in any convenient position, such as when walking up hill or down hill.

A still further object is the provision of means for simply and readily attaching such a handle to a container to be carried.

A still further object is the provision of such a handle which is fabricated of a plastic material.

These and still further objects, advantages and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description considered together with the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of a fragmentary portion of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a portion of the embodiment of FIG. 1 with the handle moved from a vertical to a horizontal position.

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the handle, apart from the container, in relation to the snap engagable connectors, one being shown engaged and the other being shown disengaged.

FIG. 5 is a view along the line 5-5 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of an end portion of the handle.

FIG. 7 is an elevational view of the link which engages the end portion of the handle.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view along the line 8-8 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view along the line 9-9 of FIG. 8.

Referring with more particularity to the drawing, in which like numerals designate like parts, the embodiment is illustrated in relation to a conventional form of picnic chest 11, having sidewalls 12 and 13, end walls 14 and 15, a bottom wall 16, and a removable cover or lid 17 at the top. The chest may be made of any suitable material, such as heat insulating foamed polystyrene.

Instead of the conventional rigid type of carrying handle, there is provided a resiliently flexible handle 18 of a plastic material, such as high density polyethylene resin, pressed to the shape shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4 with rounded corners 19 and 20 adapted to fit around the corners 21 and 22, respectively, of the chest when the handle is in its horizontal position, as shown in FIG. 3.

The ends of the handle 18 are provided with arrowhead bosses 23, 24 for snap engaging resilient detents or holder elements 25, 26, respectively, at the end of inverted T-shaped links 27 and 28. These links are adapted to fit correspondingly inverted T-shaped recesses 29 (only one shown) in bosses 31, 32 on the end walls 14 and 15, respectively.

A medial portion 33 of the handle 18 is thickened to form a relatively rigid hand grip.

The cover or lid 17 is provided with notches 34 and 35 opposite the handle in its vertical position, which register with the handle when the container is being carried and thus tend to prevent the lid from becoming disengaged.

Claims

We claim:

1. A carrying handle for a container comprising a strip of resiliently flexible material, wall anchors pivotally connected to the ends of the strip, bosses carried by the container, said bosses having recesses, said anchors being slidably held in said recesses.

2. The subject matter of claim 1 in which a medial portion of the strip is relatively rigid to provide a hand grip.

3. The subject matter of claim 1 in which the ends of the strip are pivotally connected to the anchors by means of snap fasteners.

4. The subject matter of claim 1 in which the anchors and recesses are of inverted T-shape.

5. The subject matter of claim 1 in which the strip is pivotally connected to the anchors by snap fasteners.

6. The subject matter of claim 1 in which the strip is of a high density plastic material.

7. The subject matter of claim 6 in which the plastic material is high density polyethylene resin.

8. The subject matter of claim 1 in which the strip is preshaped to fit in the horizontal position, around the corners of a container to which it may be attached.

9. A one-piece carrying handle for a container having spaced sidewalls, spaced end walls, and in which the spacing of the end walls are substantially greater than that of the sidewalls comprising an elongated relatively flat and wide plastic strip of material resiliently flexible vertically in its normal operative position, means for pivotally attaching the ends of the strip to the end walls, respectively, of the container with the strip bent in the shape of an arch greater in length than one-half the perimeter of the top of the container, an integral medial portion of the strip being relatively rigid to provide a hand grip.