AU715334B2 - Shopping trolley - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 0:66 9

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: "SHOPPING TROLLEY" The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: THIS INVENTION relates to a shopping trolley.

The provision of shopping trolleys in stores is a considerable burden on store owners, yet the trolleys are a common source of complaint for shoppers.

The provision, collection and maintenance of trolleys is both capital and labour-intensive, while lost/stolen trolleys can result in financial losses running into tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars for store owners.

For shoppers, the search for a trolley which is easy to push, easy to load/unload and which runs true is almost like a search for the "holy grail".

In many cases, the existing shopping trolleys are bulky, and hard to push and steer. When the shopper reaches his/her car in the carpark, the packages in the trolley must be unpacked from the 15 trolley for transport home.

It would be advantageous to both the store owners and So the shoppers if the shoppers had their own trolleys, which could be used in the shops, for transporting packages to the shopper's car, and Sfrom the shopper's car to the kitchen.

Examples of collapsible trolleys are disclosed at, inter alia, FR 2680744 (OLIVEROS); DE 2933707 (RODRIGUEZ); DE 3737532 u '(HOFFMEISTER); WO 94/21506 (B B VENTURES, INC.); GB 2135942 (WILLIAMS) and FR 2658146 (CROCY).

3 While each of the trolleys disclosed therein have certain advantages over known shopping trolleys, they are generally expensive to manufacture and/or difficult to erect and fold.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a foldable shopping trolley which incorporates one or more foldable or collapsible baskets which can be releasably secured together.

It is a preferred object to provide such a trolley where the baskets can be separated from the frame and/or each other and carried, eg., from the car to the kitchen.

It is a further preferred object to provide such a trolley where the floors of the upper baskets can be folded or hinged to provide a full-depth trolley while in the store.

Other preferred objects will become apparent from the following description.

15 In one aspect, the present invention resides in a foldable shopping trolley, including: *aa.

a frame, supported on a plurality of wheels, at least one •of the wheels being steerable or a castor wheel; a a plurality of foldable or collapsible shopping baskets, adapted to be stacked in a column, releasably mountable on the frame; and carrying handles on the baskets to enable the baskets to be carried separately; wherein the frame includes: 4 a main frame, to support the baskets, hingedly mountable on a handle assembly and arranged to lie adjacent thereto when the trolley is folded and to extend substantially laterally therefrom when the trolley is in use; and a pair of posts hingedly mounted on the main frame and arranged to lie adjacent the main frame when the trolley is folded and to extend downwardly therefrom when the trolley is in use.

Preferably, a foldable or hingedly mounted floor in each basket enables the baskets to carry goods when separated or form a single container when stacked.

Preferably, a pair of castor wheels are provided on the handle assembly or the main frame to support the rear of the trolley; and a pair of castor wheels are provided on the posts to eo ~15 support the front of the trolley.

Preferably, link means interconnect the posts to the handle assembly to cause the post to move relative to the main frame *aa a.

*as the main frame is moved relative to the handle assembly.

oof Preferably, the link means incorporate a pair of links 20 hingedly connected together in an overlapping relationship, and stop, clip and/or catch means releasably lock the links together when the trolley is in use.

Preferably, the handle assembly includes bracket means to releasably support at least the uppermost of the baskets in the column.

Preferably, the ends of the baskets include hingedly connected panels to enable the baskets to be collapsed when the floor is hinged upwardly to a non-carrying position.

Preferably, when the baskets are stacked in the column, handles of one basket are nested with the corresponding handles of the basket immediately above it to releasably locate the baskets together in the column.

Preferably, locating means are provided on the panels of the basket, to engage the basket immediately above, to locate the baskets together in the column.

Preferably, the baskets are constructed from metal and/or plastics.

ooooo :i 15 Alternatively, the baskets are constructed from flexible o fabric.

•To enable the invention to be fully understood, preferred ~embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: S 20 FIG 1 shows the frame of the trolley erected for use and one of the baskets erected for use; SFIG 2 is a side view of the frame showing it folded for storage; 6 FIG 3 is a side view of the frame erected for use (the baskets being shown stacked in a column in dashed lines); FIG 4 is a perspective view of one of the baskets folded for storage; FIG 5 is a top plan view corresponding to FIG 4; FIG 6 is a perspective view of the basket erected, but with the floor in the non-carrying position; FIG 7 is a top plan view corresponding to FIG 6; FIG 8 is a perspective view showing the basket erected with the floor in the carrying position; FIG 9 is a top plan view corresponding to FIG 8; and FIGS 10 and 11 are perspective views of an alternative basket in the folded and erected configurations, respectively.

Referring to FIG 1, the frame 10 has a main frame 11 (of °°to° :i 15 substantially U-shape in plan) where the side rails 12, 13 are o:oo o o :connected by a front rail 14 and a rear rail to.

*ooA pair of brackets 16, 17 hingedly connect the side rails 12, 13 of the main frame 11 to the vertical stiles 18, 19 of the handle assembly 20 (of substantially inverted U-shape), the stiles being S 1 20 interconnected by a horizontal top handle bar 21.

While the main frame 11 and handle assembly 20 have been shown to be assembled from metal or plastics tubing, it will be readily apparent to the skilled addressee that they may be formed 7 from, eg., square section or L-section metal or plastic components.

A pair of castor wheels 22, 23 are provided at the lower ends of the stiles 18, 19 to support the rear of the trolley.

A similar pair of castor wheels 24, 25 are provided on posts 26, 27 hingedly connected to the main frame 11 (adjacent its forward end) via brackets 28, 29.

As shown in FIG 2, the posts 26, 27 lie adjacent to the side rails 12, 13 of the main frame 11 when the main frame is folded to lie adjacent to the handle assembly Link assemblies 30, 31 interconnect the stiles 18, 19 of the handle assembly 20 to the posts 26, 27 to cause the posts to be folded relative to the main frame 11 as the main frame is folded relative to the handle assembly Each link assembly 30, 31 has an upper link 32, 33 ooooo 15 hingedly connected (in an overlapping relationship) with a lower link ~34, 35; and loops 36, 37 and stops 38, 39 releasably lock the links 32, 34 and 33, 35 together to releasably retain the posts 26, 27 in i ~the transport position shown in FIGS 1 and 3.

00 A rail 40 interconnects the stiles 18, 19 of the handle assembly 20 and is provided with a pair of hook members 41 adapted to releasably engage the uppermost of the baskets in the column (see FIG 3).

Each basket 60 has a pair of mesh side panels 61, 62 interconnected by a pair of hinged panels 63, 64 and 65, 66 at respective ends.

Handles 67, 68 on the side panels 61, 62 are arranged so that the handles of one basket will nest within the handles of the basket immediately thereabove in the column stack.

Side members 69 extend above the height of the end panels 63-66 to assist in locating the superimposed basket 60 in the column or stack.

The floor of each basket comprises a pair of panels 71 hingedly connected to the side panels 61, 62, respectively, and stop means (in the form of upwardly-directed hooks) are provided on the end panels 63, 66 to enable the floor panels to extend substantially horizontally to support a load in the basket or to be folded up to lie adjacent the side panels so that two or more baskets 15 may be superimposed to form a single container.

During transport, the frame of the trolley 10 is folded as i shown in FIG 2 and the baskets 60 are folded as shown in FIGS 4 and At, eg., the supermarket, the frame is erected as shown in FIGS 1 and 3 and the baskets are erected and arranged in a stack as shown in FIG 3.

cr1All of the baskets may be erected as shown in FIGS 8 and 9. Alternatively, the lowermost basket may be erected as shown in FIGS 8 and 9 and the two upper baskets may be erected as shown in FIGS 6 and 7 to form a single container to receive the shopping packages.

With this arrangement, the shopper can do all his/her shopping and transport packages to his/her car in the carpark. Baskets can be unloaded and placed in the car and the trolley collapsed for transport.

At home, the trolley may be re-erected and used to transport the baskets, eg., to the kitchen. Alternatively, the trolley may be left folded in the car and the baskets carried by the shopper to the kitchen.

In the modified embodiment shown in FIGS 10 and 11, the baskets are provided in the forms of "bag-type" containers, eg., where mesh type side panels 81,82 are covered by a flexible fabric or ooeol plastics covering 83 which forms foldable end walls 84, 85 and floor 86 for the container.

Handles 87, 88 enable the container to be carried (and reinforced holes 89) at at least one end of the container 80 may be engaged by the hooks 41 on the rail 40 of the handle assembly 20 It will be readily apparent to the skilled addressee that the present invention provides a simple, yet effective foldable trolley (and basket system) which enables packages to be readily transported within a shop and from the shop to the home.

Various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiments described and illustrated without departing from the present invention.

Claims (12)

1. A foldable shopping trolley including: a frame, supported on a plurality of wheels, at least one of the wheels being steerable or a castor wheel; a plurality of foldable or collapsible shopping baskets, adapted to be stacked in a column, releasably mountable on the frame; and carrying handles on the baskets to enable the baskets to be carried separately; wherein the frame includes: a main frame, to support the baskets, hingedly mountable on a handle assembly and arranged to lie adjacent thereto when the trolley is folded and to extend substantially laterally .therefrom when the trolley is in use; and a pair of posts hingedly mounted on the main frame and 15 arranged to lie adjacent the main frame when the trolley is folded and to extend downwardly therefrom when the trolley is in use.

2. A trolley as claimed in Claim 1 wherein: a foldable or hingedly mounted floor in each basket S enables the baskets to carry goods when separated or form a single container when stacked.

3. A trolley as claimed in Claim 2 wherein: a pair of castor wheels are provided on the handle assembly or the main frame to support the rear of the trolley; and 12 a pair of castor wheels are provided on the posts to support the front of the trolley.

4. A trolley as claimed in Claim 3 wherein: link means interconnect the posts to the handle assembly to cause the posts to move relative to the main frame as the main frame is moved relative to the handle assembly.

A trolley as claimed in Claim 4 wherein: the link means incorporate a pair of links hingedly interconnected together in an overlapping relationship; and 0 stop, loop, clip and/or catch means releasably lock the links together when the trolley is in use.

6. A trolley as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 5 wherein: the handle assembly includes bracket means to releasably support at least the uppermost of the baskets in the *ee r a o o o o a o. S a f v o *r 15 column.

7. A trolley as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 6 wherein: the ends of the baskets include hingedly connected panels to enable the baskets to be collapsed when the floor is hinged upwardly to a non-carrying position.

8. A trolley as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7 wherein: when the baskets are stacked in the column, the handles of one basket are nested with the corresponding handles of the basket immediately above it to releasably locate the baskets together in the column.

9. A trolley as claimed in Claim 8, when appended to Claim 7, wherein: locating means on the panels of one basket engage the basket immediately above to locate the baskets together in the column.

A trolley as claimed in any one of Claims 7 to 9 wherein: the baskets are constructed from metal and/or plastics mesh material.

11. A trolley as claimed in Claim 1 wherein: the baskets are constructed from flexible fabric material.

12. A foldable shopping trolley substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 15 DATED this eleventh day of November 1999. a a.. a a a. a a *9* a a rr C* e a a LEITH ORIEL LINSON-SMITH By her Patent Attorneys FISHER ADAMS KELLY