DE1130562B - Self-closing umbrella with one-hand operation - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to an automatically closing umbrella with one-hand operation Open by placing the tip of the stick on the ground and pushing the handle down towards you on the tip of the stick, made of a two-part telescopic stick, hinged to the lower part of the stick for the roof poles hinged to the upper part of the stick, and also a spring that the stick parts at open the open roof and seek to close the roof, and finally one of There is a hand-releasable lock for locking the nested stick parts. With such Schinnen there is a difficulty in designing the nib so that it is really capable of that To close the roof completely. If one uses the well-known, used in many types of construction, The coil spring stored inside the stick, which tries to push the stick parts apart, then are there are limits to the dimensioning of the spring force. One is the one to accommodate the spring in the hollow Limited space available on the 1st floor. On the other hand, the spring force must not increase so much that the completely tense position of the roof can only be achieved with unreasonable physical exertion can be reached. It is true that one can muster a relatively large amount of force if the Open the umbrella by placing the tip of the stick on the ground and pressing down the umbrella handle will. However, if the spring tension to be overcome is not relatively small, then it can happen that the tip of the umbrella bores into the ground, which may not have a hard coating. If one adheres to the limits drawn for these reasons in the dimensioning of the spring force, then there is a risk that the spring will not close the roof completely after the lock has been triggered able, so the umbrella comes to rest in a position in which it cannot be carried.

The invention is based on the object of overcoming this difficulty. You need a solution based on the spring characteristic. According to the invention, the struts of the umbrella consist in a manner known per se of leaf springs, two of which are connected by brackets which alternate in their spacing from the inner strut joints. These struts, consisting of leaf springs, generate tangentially directed tensile forces between the struts when they are stretched and have a force-displacement characteristic that changes from a relatively large amount of force in the vicinity of the closed position to a relatively small amount in the open position of the roof. Such an automatically closing umbrella
with one-hand operation

Applicant:

Dipl.-Ing. Heinrich Wüster,
Imst, Tyrol (Austria)

Representative: Dr.-Ing. G. Eichenberg

and Dipl.-Ing. H. Sauerland, patent attorneys,

Düsseldorf, Cecilienallee 76

Claimed priority:
Great Britain February 14, 1956 (No. 4664)

Dipl.-Ing. Heinrich Wüster, Imst, Tyrol (Austria), has been named as the inventor

Characteristic is in contrast to the characteristic of the well-known coil springs stored in the stock, which starts at a value close to zero with the umbrella closed and reaches its maximum value in reached the open position of the roof.

Since the spring force in the umbrella according to the invention has its greatest value near the closed position of the roof, it is able to properly close the roof and keep it closed. Included can use the entire energy that is necessary to open the umbrella, i.e. to tension the spring, may even be less than the energy required to tension a stick stored in a stick Have to spend spring with the opposite characteristic.

Struts made of leaf springs, two of which are connected by brackets that are spaced apart by The inner strut joints alternate as so-called star forks when they close automatically Umbrellas known, but only in those umbrellas that are operated in the usual way by moving a Can be opened by hand along the stick. However, this type of handling now has an effect the characteristics of the so-called star forks are unfavorable. Because the spring continues the movement of the The slide shows a particularly high resistance when, at the beginning of the opening, the Hand attacking the slide is able to apply particularly little force. This lack of star forks

209 607/16

does not appear in the screen according to the invention.

The drawing illustrates an embodiment of the invention, namely shows

Fig. 1 is a view of the open umbrella, partially in section,

2 shows a longitudinal section through part of the stick on an enlarged scale,

FIG. 3 shows a view of the opened screen from below, FIG. 4 shows a view of the closed screen, and FIG Fig. 5 is a spring diagram.

The screen shown consists of two telescopic stick parts 1 and 2, of which the upper one carries an umbrella crown 3 and a tip 5 serving to articulate the roof poles 4, while another crown 6 is attached to the lower one, in which struts at 6 a? are articulated. The struts 7 have a rectangular cross-section that is approximately upright when the umbrella is open and are made of spring steel. Two adjacent struts Ta and Ib are connected to one another by brackets Ic and Td. The bracket 7 c are close to the joints 4 α, with which the struts are connected to the roof poles 4, while the bracket 7 d are arranged in the vicinity of the joints 6 a . Brackets 7c alternate with brackets 7 <2 along the circumference.

If the screen is closed, the individual struts Ta and Ib lie close to one another and run almost in a straight line. If the screen is opened, a bend occurs as a result of the connection through the bracket 7 c and Id , so that the struts assume the shape shown in FIG. In this position, they generate spring moments that are aimed at closing the canopy.

Near the umbrella handle 8 sitting on the lower stick part 2, a leaf spring 10 is attached at 9 in the interior of part 2, which has an outwardly protruding release button 11 and has the shape of a pawl 10 α at the free end. The pawl 10 a engages in the position which the pole parts assume when the umbrella is open according to FIG. 1, in a latching opening 12 in the wall of the upper pole part 1.

If the umbrella is to be opened, the handle 8 is grasped with one hand, the tip 5 is placed on a firm surface, such as the floor, and the stick parts are pressed together. As a result, the roof is opened under bending of the resilient struts 7 α and 7Zj until the pawl 10 α falls into the catch 12 and the stick parts are mutually locked in the position according to FIG. If the umbrella is to be closed, the pawl 10 is triggered with a finger of the hand holding the handle 8 by pressing the button 11 so that the roof closes automatically by the energy stored in the tensioned springs la and 76.

The peculiarity of the screen, which is important for the invention, lies in the spring characteristic shown in FIG. There, the spring force P acting on the stick parts is plotted over the relative displacement s of the stick parts. The position of the closed umbrella is assigned to the value s = ο. The fully drawn curve illustrates the force that is generated by the resilient struts Ta and Tb of the drawn screen along the path s. For comparison, the characteristic of a helical spring mounted inside the stick is shown in broken lines. In order to create comparable conditions, it is assumed that both springs store the same potential energy when the umbrella is fully open. The areas under the curves are therefore identical to one another in FIG.

The diagram shows that in the umbrella according to the invention, the spring force acting on the stick parts already accepts a considerable amount in the immediate vicinity of the closed position, which is no longer significantly exceeded in the course of the opening movement and which is still in the left half of the diagram from steadily to a maximum or at least close to Value falling at zero. From this it follows that the spring when closing its greatest force shortly before reaching the closed position and therefore the umbrella closes and closed with certainty holds. It is therefore not even necessary to keep the stick in the extended position to be locked by a lock, as has happened so far with screens of the type in question.

In contrast, when using a spring stored in a stick, the force begins with a relative low amount that increases steadily in the course of opening to its maximum value when fully open To reach umbrella. Although the spring stores the same energy by assumption, it is but .not able to properly close the umbrella and keep it closed.

The diagram does not take into account the additional tension resulting from the fabric cover Spring effect, which is superimposed on the spring force in the last phase of the opening movement. Also in the fully drawn characteristic is superior to this relationship. Because by the drop in the spring force when approaching the open position, the effort required to tension the fabric cover is increased at least partially balanced.

Claims (1)

PATENT CLAIM: Automatically closing umbrella with one-hand operation when opening by placing the tip of the stick on the ground and pressing the handle down towards the tip of the stick, consisting of a two-part telescopic stick, struts hinged to the lower stick part for the roof poles hinged to the upper stick part, a spring that holds the stick part to push apart with the roof open and to close the roof, and a manually releasable lock for locking the nested Stockteüe, characterized in that the struts (7) consist in a known manner of leaf springs (7 α, Tb) , each of which two are connected by brackets (7 c, Td) , which alternate in their distances from the inner strut joints. Considered publications:
German Patent No. 211038;
British Patent No. 489129;
U.S. Patent No. 1680,090;
Swiss patent specification No. 262 689. 1 sheet of drawings © 209 607/16 5.62