AU725808B2 - Children's playhouse - Google Patents

Description

1. 45540 HKS:PFB P/00/009 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR AN INVENTION

ENTITLED

Invention Title: CHILDREN'S PLAYHOUSE Name of Applicant: ROGER MARINO BURATTO Address for Service: COLLISON CO. 117 King William Street, Adelaide, S.A. 5000 The invention is described in the following statement le1 2 This invention relates to a playhouse for children.

The problem to which this invention is directed is to provide a playhouse that can be used by children and be of a size so that children can enter into and out from the house during play, while being structurally sufficient for the purpose and yet enabling very economic manufacture.

Conversely, the invention has for its object to provide the public with a useful alternative.

According to this invention, there is a playhouse for children comprising a structure constituted, at least in the main from sheets of cardboard, wherein 1 0 there is a front wall and a side wall formed from a first sheet of cardboard, a rear wall and a second side wall formed from a second sheet of cardboard, and at least one sheet of cardboard extending between two oppositely located walls and inter engaging with the said two oppositely located walls and .eee.i comprising a strip of cardboard formed to have a U shape in cross section and 1 5 secured to each wall by at least the legs of the U shape engaging with interference fit slots in an upper part of each respective wall.

In preference, at least one of the slots is open to the top edge of at least one of the walls so that the leg of the U shape of the strip of cardboard passes from the top of the wall into the slot.

In an alternative arrangement, in preference there is provided a slot the shape of which is a U shape which extends fully around the shape of the U shape so that the strip of cardboard of the shape can be inserted through the slot and provide an engagement preferably with interference fit in the said slot thereby.

In preference, a first front wall and side wall part is attached by having inter engaging parts cooperating with correspondingly positioned parts on the other rear wall side wall part.

In preference, there is a door comprised of a flap of the cardboard being cut so as to leave a connecting part to a door shape with a remaining shape of the cardboard in the front wall.

3 In preference, there is a window or windows comprising openings cut through the side wall of the first part and in preference there is a window comprising an opening cut through the side wall of the second part.

An advantage of the features described is that the front and side wall part can be of identical shape to the rear wall side wall part and as these comprise flat sheets of cardboard, they can be firstly manufactured by being cut from sheets of cardboard according to very conventional techniques currently existing and in respect of sheets of cardboard of a size that are currently easily available and economically provided.

1 0 Secondly, being comprised substantially of flat sheets of cardboard, these can be packed into a very economic space and can be sold at a price that is very competitive indeed with any other form of playhouse available to children.

Further, by reason of the economy of the construction, a playhouse of this type can be used for a period of some time by children and once becoming tattered, can simply be dismantled and discarded economically and environmentally sensitively and replaced with a new unit at very little cost.

By having the construction of a roof which has one or a plurality of U shape strips of cardboard having their legs engaging slots within a front and back wall (or side to side wall), provides stability to the construction and then furthermore can provide a structure having sufficient rigidity so that articles of modest weight can be suspended from a ceiling formed in this way.

Further, if the U shaped strips are supported to form the roof in such a way as to have gaps therebetween, these then allow for light and air to pass therethrough to assist in providing a brighter inner area for the playhouse.

In a further preferred form the invention can be said to reside in a pack for use in the construction of a play house.

In preference the pack has two sheets of cardboard to provide both front and a side wall in the one case and a rear and side wall in the other, and a joining strip adapted to engage with corresponding shapes in the respective walls to 3 0 provide for location of each strip to extend across between opposite walls.

4 The shape of each sheet in preference can be substantially identical and each can include a plurality of slots at an upper end to provide for interengagement with respective ends of bent strips of cardboard.

A number of variations can be envisaged within the broader concept.

For a better understanding of this invention it will now be described with relation to a preferred embodiment which shall be described with the assistance of drawings in which: FIG 1 is a plan view of a sheet of cardboard cut in accordance with the embodiment, 1 0 FIG 2 is a sequence showing a strip of cardboard being bent to form a strip of U shape in cross section, FIG 3 illustrates the arrangement for inserting the respective legs of the U shape into the uppermost open slots of a respective wall, FIG 4 is a perspective view of a playhouse when constructed, FIG 5 is a front elevation of the constructed playhouse, and FIG 5 is a sidfront elevation of the constructed playhouse, and ***FIG 6 is a side elevation of the constructed playhouse.

Referring to the embodiment in detail, FIG 1 is a plan view of a sheet of cardboard of which in accord with this embodiment there are two to make up the whole of the walls of the structure.

Accordingly this first part includes a front wall 1 and a side wall 2 which are cut from a single sheet of cardboard where the cardboard is of traditional corrugated cardboard type and the overall size of the sheet is in accord with standard size sheets available but as a guide, the door 3 is chosen so that it has a height that would allow the average five year old child to walk through without bending their head.

The front wall 1 has an upper peripheral shape at 4 having a central apex at and there being provided a plurality of uppermost open slots shown typically at 6.

Intermediate parts are cut such as shown at 7 to be lower than a part between respective slots shown typically at 8 to allow for the thickness of the cardboard to provide a substantially level surface after the arrangement is constructed.

Referring to the side wall, there are a plurality of windows shown typically at 9 comprising simply openings cut through the wall of the cardboard, and there are two flaps a side flap 10 and an uppermost flap 11.

The door 3 is formed as a door by having a cut formed along the edge 12 and around the top 13 but not then down the side shown at 14 which therefore acts 1 0 as a hinge.

A small flap is cut having cut sides at 15 and 16 to leave the flap 17 which allows for a hand access to assist in opening and closing the door.

99** S. As was previously explained, the part shown in FIG 1 is duplicated so that for construction of a completed playhouse in accord with the invention, there are 1 5 two such sheets cut in the same manner.

In order to join the top of both the front and therefore rear walls, there is provided a plurality of strips of cardboard as shown specifically in FIG 2 at 18 which are simply bent into a shape which can be described as being of Ushape so that as is shown in the drawing,, the article at 18 becomes a long 20 strip of cardboard with legs 19 and 20. Such legs 19 and 20 in this embodiment are at right angles to the cross piece at 21. The use of the Ushape then is to invert this so that the legs 19 and 20 are lowermost.

There are provided a plurality of these strips 18 and they fit into the respective slots at the top of the front and rear wall as is shown in FIG 3 the slots being selected in relation to the thickness of the cardboard so that the cardboard will engage into the slot with a reasonably tightly fitting interference fit.

This has the advantage then of anchoring the strip and of providing an arrangement which will physically hold more securely both the front and rear walls in appropriate juxta position and the respective flaps 10 and 11 can then 3 0 be used to interconnect so that these can either be directly glued or can be otherwise used to secure the respective edges together. In the event that the edges are glued then for storage, the U-shaped strips can be removed and the walls can be brought together by simply folding the walls as constructed about two opposite corners. This will then result in the font and side wall lying against the other side and rear wall as a flat assembly.

Finally from the construction shown, it will be seen from FIGS 5 and 6 how these go together to form an effective playhouse for the purpose.

The embodiment will be available as a pack for provision to a user and the pack will simply comprise the respective elements described with however the 1 0 sheets of cardboard having crease lines impressed at appropriate locations to provide for precise bending of the sheet at this location and thereby provide that the sheet is adapted for the purpose of the construction described.

Accordingly the sheets providing for the walls and the sheets providing for the upper joining strips can be cut to size and have crease lines impressed therein but otherwise be flat sheets of cardboard simply packed one sheet on S" top of the other.

From the description now given, it will be seen that this provides a very S: convenient and economical playhouse which can provide significant enjoyment at a very economical price.

It is economic because it can be made by simple cutting techniques from standard sizes of cardboard sheets and further, the sheets can be packed for transport in flat form and can be readily and easily constructed by even 00. :relatively young children which can of itself be an enjoyable task for the 0: children.

2 5 In use the construction can be modified by children relatively easily because it is cardboard and when play is concluded the elements can be disassembled and packed away in a compact manner, which is to say as flat elements.