U.S. patent number 3,635,231 [Application Number 05/040,207] was granted by the patent office on 1972-01-18 for collapsible beach-umbrella.
Invention is credited to Dario Bernardi.
United States Patent |
3,635,231 |
Bernardi |
January 18, 1972 |
COLLAPSIBLE BEACH-UMBRELLA
Abstract
Collapsible beach-umbrella with a bearer structure for an
awninglike shade and at least one pole adapted to be fixed on the
ground for supporting said bearer structure, characterized in that
said bearer structure includes at least one roller shade unit
supported on said pole, at least one elongated bearer guide for
guiding and retaining said shade in stretched condition, at least
one of said bearer guides having one end thereof hingedly connected
with said roller-shade unit and having stop means retaining said
bearer guide in a cantileverwise extended position with respect to
said pole.
Inventors: |
Bernardi; Dario (Cattolica,
IT) |
Family
ID: |
11101850 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/040,207 |
Filed: |
May 25, 1970 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
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May 29, 1969 [IT] |
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1651 A/69 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
135/90; 135/904;
160/26; 135/903; 160/24 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E04H
15/28 (20130101); Y10S 135/903 (20130101); Y10S
135/904 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
E04H
15/28 (20060101); E04H 15/00 (20060101); E04f
010/06 () |
Field of
Search: |
;135/5R,5A,7.1
;160/24,26,31,33,377 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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429,082 |
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Jul 1911 |
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FR |
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934,546 |
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Oct 1955 |
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DT |
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Primary Examiner: Bell; J. Karl
Claims
I claim:
1. Collapsible beach-umbrella with a bearer structure for an
awninglike shade and at least one pole adapted to be fixed on the
ground for supporting said bearer structure, characterized in that
said bearer structure includes at least one roller-shade unit
supported on said pole, at least one elongated bearer guide for
guiding and retaining said shade in stretched condition, at least
one of said bearer guides having one end thereof hingedly connected
with said roller-shade unit and having stop means retaining said
bearer guide in a cantileverwise extended position with respect to
said pole.
2. Beach-umbrella according to claim 1, characterized in that said
roller-shade is an automatically winding-up roller-shade.
3. Beach-umbrella according to claim 1, characterized in that said
roller-shade unit has an elongated casing housing said roller-shade
in wound-up condition thereof and the beach-umbrella has at least
two poles supporting said casing at both ends thereof and at least
two bearer guides articulated cantileverwise on said roller-shade
unit.
4. Beach-umbrella according to claim 1, characterized in that said
roller-shade unit and said pole have common hinge means providing
mutual connection therebetween.
5. Beach-umbrella according to claim 4, characterized in that said
common hinge means between said pole and said roller-shade unit are
arranged in an intermediate position of said roller-shade unit.
6. Beach-umbrella according to claim 5, characterized in that said
pole is a composite pole having at least two pole sections
pivotably connected to each other.
7. Beach-umbrella according to claim 1, characterized in that said
elongated bearer guide comprises telescoping elements.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a collapsible beach-umbrella with a
bearer structure for an awninglike shade and at least one pole
adapted to be fixed on the ground for supporting said bearer
structure.
The conventional beach-umbrellas have a shade structure with
respect to which the supporting pole is arranged in a central
position. Such central position of the pole has the disadvantage
that, especially at midday, the shadow provided by the
beach-umbrella extends over the area where the pole is fixed on the
ground, so that only a limited portion of the shadow provided by
the umbrella may be used.
Furthermore, in collapsed condition of the known beach-umbrellas
the awning cloth has to be plied and therefore occupies substantial
space, so that the umbrella is cumbersome in such collapsed
conditions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to obviate the above disadvantages,
by providing a collapsible beach-umbrella, the pole of which could
be fixed on the ground in a position outside the shadow area
provided by the umbrella, in any daylight conditions.
Another object is to allow a rapid packaging of the awning cloth of
the beach-umbrella, such that in packaged conditions the awning
cloth occupies a reduced space.
A further object of the invention is to provide the possibility of
orientating the umbrella in a plurality of directions.
A still further object is to provide a beach-umbrella having a
completely collapsible structure.
According to the invention, these and other objects which will
appear more clearly from the detailed description which follows,
are attained by a collapsible beach-umbrella with a bearer
structure for an awninglike shade and at least one pole adapted to
be fixed on the ground for supporting said bearer structure,
characterized in that said bearer structure includes at least one
roller shade unit supported on said pole, at least one elongated
bearer guide for guiding and retaining said shade in stretched
condition, at least one of said bearer guides having one end
thereof hingedly connected with said roller shade unit and having
stop means retaining said bearer guide in a cantileverwise extended
position with respect to said pole.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
In the accompanying drawing,
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of one embodiment of the
collapsible beach-umbrella according to the invention in erected
position.
FIG. 2 shows a fragmented view, partially exploded, of detail;
FIG. 3 shows a perspective view from above o f a modified
embodiment of the beach-umbrella.
FIG. 4 shows a perspective view from above of a further modified
embodiment.
FIG. 5 shows a perspective view from above of an embodiment of the
beach-umbrella with a single pole;
FIG. 6 is a rear view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, partially
in section;
FIG. 7 is a rear view of a modified embodiment of a single-pole
beach-umbrella;
FIG. 8 is a rear view of a composite beach-umbrella.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
With reference to FIG. 1, the beach-umbrella shown comprises two
poles 1 and 2, which are fixed in known manner on the ground. The
upper ends of the poles 1 and 2 are connected by a roller-shade
unit 3 of per se known type, which is automatically wound-up by the
action of a loaded coil spring (not shown). The casing 4, which
houses the roller-shade unit is shown fragmented at its end for the
sake of clarity. The housing 4 may be fixed with its ends on the
top of the poles 1 and 2 and may be provided with the seats (not
shown) at its ends, in which the roller (not shown) of the
roller-shade unit 3 is rotatably supported in per se known manner.
The casing 4 may also be omitted and in such case the seats for the
roller of the roller-shade unit are provided at the top of the
poles 1 and 2. On the top of the poles 1 and 2 fork elements 10 and
11 are fixed, in which hinges 9 and 8 are provided, respectively
for bearer guides 5 and 6. The hinge axes of the hinges 8 and 9 are
preferably parallel to the poles 1 and 2 and allow rotation of the
bearer guides 5 and 6 in a plane transverse to the poles 1 and 2.
The bearer guides 5 and 6 have a channellike cross section or
C-like cross section with the open slots thereof turned towards
each other. The awning cloth 7 of the shade is provided at its
lateral borders with spaced slider elements 7a, which are guided
within the channellike bearer guides. The sliders 7a may be
replaced by a slightly ribbed rim. It will be understood that, in
its wound-up position, the front end 7b, in the form of a flap, is
positioned close to the top ends of the poles 1 and 2, beyond the
hinges 8 and 9, so that the bearer guides 5 and 6 may be freely
rotated about the hinges 8 and 9 and they may be thus disposed
parallel to the roller-shade unit. In such collapsed position, the
bearer guides 5 and 6 may be arranged in an overlapping
relationship. For the purpose the hinge 9 may be slightly offset
with respect to the hinge 8, i.e., the fork element 9, may be
slightly longer or shorter than the fork element 8. In this way the
overlapping allows a parallel arrangement of the guides 5 and 6 in
collapsed position of the beach-umbrella. It will be understood
that the sliders 7a or the ribbed rim of the awning cloth operate
as stop elements for a diverging rotation of the guides 5 and 6,
with respect to each other. The awning cloth 7 is advantageously
provided at its front end 7b, with a reinforcing rod 7c, which
prevents a mutually convergent rotation of the guides 5 and 6. In
this way, no additional stop formations are necessary at the hinges
8 and 9, so that, when the awning cloth is wound-up, the guides 5
and 6 may freely rotate about their hinges. However, in more bust
constructions stop formations (not shown) may be provided in the
hinges 8 and 9, preventing rotation of the guides 5 and 6 beyond an
angle of 90.degree.. It will be understood that the embodiment of
FIG. 1 may be provided with articulations allowing the tilting of
the guides 5 and 6 also in vertical planes.
It will be further understood that bearer guides similar to those 5
and 6 may extend in a direction opposite to the guides 5 and 6 on
the other side of the stop of the poles 1 and 2.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, the guides 5 and 6 may be made of
telescoping elements such as 18 and 19, so that the length of these
guides 5 and 6 may be extended at wish.
The embodiment of FIG. 3, shows a composite beach-umbrella of the
type shown in FIG. 1. It will be understood that the intermediate
bearer guides 5a and 6a have a double channel cross section opened
at both opposite sides thereof, so that a single-bearer guide may
serve for two contiguous awning clothes. The poles 1a and the
casings 4a may be of the same type as shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 shows a modification of the fork element 10a and hinge 9a,
from which it may be noted that the channel shape of the guides 5b
and 6b is assumed also by the fork elements 10a and 11a.
FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the beach-umbrella with a single pole
20. The bearer guides shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1, may be
replaced by a single central, detachable supporting rod, extending
cantileverwise with respect to the pole 20 and adapted to support
the awning cloth in its extended, cantileverwise position.
FIG. 6 shows an embodiment similar to that of FIG. 5 where the
connection between the pole 20 and the roller-shade unit is made by
a spherical or universal joint 12, which allows orientation of the
shade in a plurality of directions.
The embodiment of FIG. 7 is similar to that of FIG. 6, with the
exception of the hinge connection 21, between the roller-shade unit
and the pole 22 and with the exception of the pole 22. In fact, the
pole 22 has a bifurcated shape at the upper portion thereof and is
made of two sections pivotally connected with each other at 23, a
top screw 24 being provided to fix the relative position between
the two sections of pole 22. Furthermore, the hinge connection 21
has an axis perpendicular to the pole 22, so that the roller-shade
may be tilted in a vertical plane.
The embodiment of FIG. 8 shows a composite beach-umbrella made of
two single-pole umbrellas of the previously described type but
spaced from each other and having means suitable for mounting an
intermediate roller-shade, between the roller-shades 13 and 14 of
the single-pole beach-umbrellas 16 and 17.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the roller-shade unit,
may be replaced by a rod connecting the top of the poles 1 and 2 of
FIG. 1 and the channel-shaped guides 5 and 6 may be replaced by
simple rods. In this embodiment an awning cloth is used, provided
with a plurality of mutually spaced rings riding over the guides.
The rings may be slid along the guides, whereby stretching the
awning cloth when the rings are moved towards the free ends of the
guides such as 5 and 6 and folding it when the rings are slid in
the opposite direction.
The operation of the described embodiments are easily understood
from the description of their structure.
The poles are first fixed on the ground and then the bearer guides
are rotated in their extended position. The cover-shade is then
extracted and guided along the guides up to the end position
thereof. A stop catch may be provided at said free ends of the
guide, to retain the awning cloth in its open position.
The embodiment shown in FIG. 7, may be rotated at 23 about a
horizontal axis, so that the shade may be tilted up to the point in
which the front end of the shade reaches the ground and in this way
a wind-screen structure is obtained.
* * * * *