US20020185898A1

US20020185898A1 - Multi-functional seat shield

Info

Publication number: US20020185898A1
Application number: US09/880,835
Authority: US
Inventors: Dennis Smith
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-06-12
Filing date: 2001-06-12
Publication date: 2002-12-12

Abstract

A multi-functional seat shield includes a cover sheet adapted for fully covering on a body contacting surface a seat, a holding sheet, which is overlappedly extended from the cover sheet having a receiving opening wherein a holding chamber is provided between the cover sheet and the holding sheet and communicated with the receiving opening. An elastic unit is mounted along a surrounding edge of the receiving opening for retaining the cover sheet on the seat. A pocket sheet, extended from an upper edge of the cover sheet, is adapted for holding the cover sheet in position when the cover sheet is folded in a roll form. Therefore, the multi-functional seat shield is adapted for not only protecting the seat but also using as an outdoor ground pad when the cover sheet is laid on the ground.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to vehicle accessories, and more particularly to a multi-functional seat shield which not only is detachably covering on a car seat so as to prevent the car seat from being polluted, but also can be used as an outdoor ground pad.

2. Description of Related Arts

How to prevent the wet and dirty body or sportswear from polluting the expensive leather made or fabric made car seat becomes a common headache to every sportman. The body sweats will permeate into the leather or fabric of the seat and cause non-repairable damages gradually. Besides, it is very difficult and expensive to clean the stains and dirt on the seats. Therefore, all drivers would try their best to avoid getting their seats dirty.

However, there are still a lot of circumstances that may pollute the car seats, such as:

1. When a day or a cat is required to be carried in the vehicle.

2. Your child passenger may spill on the seats.

3. Your beachwear may carry a lot of sand from the beach.

4. When you carry your sporting accessories, such as ratchets, clubs, baseball bats, golf shoes, roller blades, gameballs, and etc., on the seats.

5. You do not allow taking a shower to clean your sweat body before driving home.

6. When you need to drive in a rainy day or snowy day.

Somebody may bring a towel or a sheet of PVC or Nylon fabric in the trunk for covering the car seat when required. It is unpractical because it is very difficult to keep the covering towel or fabric sheet to remain in position and may cause uncomfortable feeling to the driver or passengers. Moreover, the covering sheet or towel itself may get dirty before being used to cover the seat.

Besides, a fabric made seat cover is used for covering the car seat so as to avoid the car seat from getting dirty. Conventionally, the seat cover comprises a front cover and a back cover to define a cavity therebetween wherein an opening is provided on the back cover. The seat cover further comprises an elastic strap mounted along the surrounding edge of the opening so as to hold the seat cover on the car seat in position. However, the seat cover cannot be retained on the car seat by the elastic strap, especially when adjusting the inclined position of the car seat. Therefore, the seat cover is easily to misalign with or even detach from the car seat such that lose the protection purpose of the cover seat.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

A main object of the present invention is to provide a multi-functional seat shield which not only is adapted for protecting a seat by detachably covering its contact surfaces, but also can be used as an outdoor ground pad when it is not used on the seat.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-functional seat shield which comprises an elastic unit constructed into different sections for controlling different portions of the seat shield, so as to retain the seat shield on the seat in position.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-functional seat shield which is easy to fold up for storage and unfold for use. Moreover, in the folding up operation of the seat shield, the dirty surface of the seat shield is wrapped up so as to prevent the dirty surface thereof contacting with a seat.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multi-functional seat shield wherein the seat shield is normally folded inside a storage pocket to avoid getting dirty before used on the seat.

Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a multi-functional seat shield, which comprises:

a cover sheet having a head portion and a tail portion adapted for fully covering on a body contacting surface of a back support and a seat support of a seat respectively;

a holding sheet, which is overlappedly extended from the cover sheet, having a seat portion, a back portion, and two side neck portions extended between the seat portion and the back portion, wherein a holding chamber is provided between the cover sheet and the holding sheet, the holding sheet further having a receiving opening formed between the seat portion, back portion, and neck portion for communicating with the holding chamber;

an elastic unit, mounted along a surrounding edge of the receiving opening, comprising a seat retaining element mounted on the seat portion of the holding sheet for retaining the tail portion of the cover sheet on the seat support of the seat, a back retaining element mounted on the back portion of the holding sheet for retaining the head portion of the cover sheet on the back support of the seat, and two support elements mounted on the two side neck portions of the holding sheet respectively for tightly holding the seat retaining element and the back retaining element together so as to securely hold the cover sheet on the seat; and

a pocket sheet, extended from an upper edge of the cover sheet, adapted for holding the cover sheet in position when the cover sheet is folded in a roll form.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a rear perspective view of a multi-functional seat shield according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0023]
FIG. 1B is a perspective view of the multi-functional seat shield according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0024]
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the multi-functional seat shield in a folded position according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0025]
FIG. 3 illustrates an alternative mode of a pocket sheet of the multi-functional seat shield according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0026]
FIG. 4 is a front perspective view of the multi-functional seat shield mounted on a seat according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0027]
FIG. 5 is a rear perspective view of the multi-functional seat shield mounted on the seat according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. [0028]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B of the drawings, a multi-functional seat shield according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated, wherein the multi-functional seat shield is adapted for detachably covering on a seat or the like, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. Accordingly, the [0029] seat 10 generally comprises a seat support 11 and a back support 12 inclinedly and adjustably extended from the seat support 11. Moreover, the seat 10 further has a body contacting surface that a driver or a passenger normally in contact with the seat 10 when he or she sits thereon.
The multi-functional seat shield comprises a cover sheet [0030] 20 a holding sheet 30, an elastic unit 40 for retaining the cover sheet 20 on the seat 10 in position, and a pocket sheet 50.
The [0031] cover sheet 20 has a head portion 21 and a tail portion 22 adapted for fully covering on the body contacting surface of the back support 12 and the seat support 11 of the seat 10 respectively.
The [0032] holding sheet 30, which is overlappedly extended from the cover sheet 20, having a seat portion 31, a back portion 32, and two side neck portions 33 extended between the seat portion 31 and the back portion 32, wherein a holding chamber 34 is provided between the cover sheet 20 and the holding sheet 30. The holding sheet 30 further has a receiving opening 35 formed between the seat portion 31, the back portion 32, and the two side neck portions 33 for communicating with the holding chamber 34.
The [0033] elastic unit 40, mounted along a surrounding edge of the receiving opening 35, comprises a seat retaining element 41 mounted on the seat portion 31 of the holding sheet 30 for retaining the tail portion 22 of the cover sheet 20 on the seat support 11 of the seat 10, a back retaining element 42 mounted on the back portion 32 of the holding sheet 30 for retaining the head portion 21 of the cover sheet 20 on the back support 12 of the seat 10, and two support elements 43 mounted on the two neck portions 33 of the holding sheet 30 respectively for tightly holding the seat retaining element 41 and back retaining element 42 together so as to securely hold the cover sheet 20 on the seat 10.
The [0034] pocket sheet 50 is extended from an upper edge of the cover sheet 20 and adapted for holding the cover sheet 20 in position when the cover sheet 20 is folded in a rolling manner, as shown in FIG. 2.
According to the preferred embodiment, the [0035] cover sheet 20 and the holding sheet 30 are preferred to be made of waterproof or even thermo-proof material such as Nylon fabric, Neoprene, or plastic fabric with waterproof urethane coating. Therefore, when the cover sheet 20 covers the body contacting surface of the seat 10 and the holding sheet 30 covers most of the rear surface of the seat 10, the body contacting surface of the seat 10 is sealed and protected from directly contacting with the user's wet or dirty body and clothing.
As shown in FIG. 1, the receiving [0036] opening 35 is formed in double-W shape so as to define the seat retaining element 41 of the elastic unit 40 into a C-shape form, the back retaining element 42 into a C-shape form, and the two support elements 43 into arc-shape forms. Each arc-shaped support element 43 of the elastic unit 40 is extended between two end portions of the seat retaining element 41 and the back retaining element 42 of the elastic unit 40 respectively and functions for securely retaining the seat retaining element 41 and back retaining element 42 of the elastic unit 40 together and tightly holding the cover sheet 20 on the seat 10.
According to the preferred embodiment, the [0037] seat retaining element 41, back retaining element 42, and the two support elements 43 of the elastic unit 40 are four elastic bands respectively affixed by double stitching along the surrounding edge of the receiving opening 35, wherein the elastic unit 40 is adapted for applying an urging pressure along the receiving opening 35 so as to hold the head portion 21 and the tail portion 22 of the cover sheet 20 on the seat 10 in position, as shown in FIG. 5.
It is worth to mention that the tensions of the [0038] head portion 21 and the tail portion 22 of the cover sheet 20 are respectively controlled by the seat retaining element 41 and back retaining element 42 individually. Thus, when adjusting an inclined angle between the seat support 11 and the back support 12, the two support elements 43 are self-stretched to fit the inclined position of the seat 10 so as to prevent the seat retaining element 41 and the back retaining element 42 from being misshapen to distort the shape of the cover sheet 20.
The [0039] pocket sheet 50 can be also made of waterproof materials as the cover sheet 20. The pocket sheet 50, having a first side 51 and a second side 52, connected to the cover sheet 20 edge to edge, such that the pocket sheet 50 can be hanged down at the top of the back support 12 of the seat 10 as shown in FIG. 4. Moreover, the multi-functional seat shield further comprises at least a first fastener 53 provided on the first side 51 of the pocket sheet 50 and at least a corresponding second fastener 54 provided on the second side 52 of the pocket sheet 50 in such a manner that the pocket sheet 50 is capable of fittedly wrapping the cover sheet 20 when rolling up from the tail portion 22 to the head portion 21 thereof and securely packing by attaching the first fastener 53 to the second fastener 54.
The first and [0040] second fasteners 53, 54 are a pair of hoop and loop fasteners wherein the first fastener 53 is affixed by stitching at an upper central portion of the first side 51 of the pocket sheet 50 and the second fastener 54 is affixed by stitching at a lower central portion of the second side 52 of the pocket sheet 50. So, the cover sheet 20′ is normally folded up and covered by the pocket sheet 50 to avoid the cover sheet 20′ getting dirty before it is used on the seat 10.
The multi-functional seat shield further comprises a pair of reinforcing [0041] members 60 spacedly provided at a lower seat portion 31 of the holding sheet 30 at an interior of the holding chamber 34 wherein the reinforcing members 60 are adapted for reinforcing the seat portion 31 of the holding sheet 30 fittedly mounted on the seat support 11 of the seat 10. Accordingly, the two reinforcing members 60 are two elastic bands affixed by double stitching to the seat portion 31 of the holding sheet 30, so as to apply urging pressure on the seat portion 31 of the holding sheet 30.
FIG. 3 illustrates an alternative mode of the [0042] pocket sheet 50′ which comprises a storage pocket 55′ formed on the first side 51′ of the pocket sheet 50′ wherein a pocket opening 551′ is defined at a lower edge of the pocket sheet 50′ for receiving the cover sheet 20′ in a rolled form. Therefore, after using the multi-functional seat shield, the dirt on the cover sheet 20′ will be wrapped up and received in the storage pocket 55′, so as to prevent the seat 10′ being polluted by the dirt after the cover sheet 20′ is folded up. It is worth to mention that the first fastener 53′ is provided on storage pocket 55′ which is formed on the first side 51′ of the pocket sheet 50′ so as to enclose the pocket opening 551′ by attaching the second fastener 54′ to the first fastener 53′.
In view of above, the multi-functional seat shield of the present invention is capable of protecting of a car seat but also can be used as an outdoor ground pad when the cover sheet is laid on the ground, as shown in FIG. 1A. The multi-seat shield is easy to fold up for storage and unfold for use. Besides, the cover sheet is rolled up and covered by the pocket sheet so as to avoid getting dirty before usage and the seat getting dirty after the use of the cover sheet. [0043]

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A multi-functional seat shield, which comprises:

a holding sheet, which is overlappedly extended from said cover sheet, having a seat portion, a back portion, and two side neck portions extended between said seat portion and said back portion, wherein a holding chamber is provided between said cover sheet and said holding sheet, said holding sheet further having a receiving opening formed between said seat portion, said back portion, and said neck portions for communicating with said holding chamber; and

an elastic unit, mounted along a surrounding edge of said receiving opening, comprising a seat retaining element mounted on said seat portion of said holding sheet for retaining said tail portion of said cover sheet on said seat support of said seat, a back retaining element mounted on said back portion of said holding sheet for retaining said head portion of said cover sheet on said back support of said seat, and two support elements mounted on said two side neck portions of said holding sheet respectively for tightly holding said seat retaining element and said back retaining element together so as to securely hold said cover sheet on said seat.

2. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 1, further comprises a pocket sheet, extended from an upper edge of said cover sheet, having a first side and a second side adapted for holding said cover sheet in position when said cover sheet is folded in a roll form.

3. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 1, wherein said receiving opening is formed in double-W shape so as to define said seat retaining element of said elastic unit into a C-shape form, said back retaining element into a C-shape form, and said two support elements into arc-shape forms, wherein each arc-shaped support element is extended between two end portions of said seat retaining element and said back retaining element respectively.

4. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 2, wherein said receiving opening is formed in double-W shape so as to define said seat retaining element of said elastic unit into a C-shape form, said back retaining element into a C-shape form, and said two support elements into arc-shape forms, wherein each arc-shaped support element is extended between two end portions of said seat retaining element and said back retaining element respectively.

5. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 2, wherein said seat retaining element, said back retaining element, and said two support elements of said elastic unit are four elastic bands respectively affixed by double stitching along said surrounding edge of said receiving opening, wherein said elastic unit is adapted for applying an urging pressure along said receiving opening so as to hold said head portion and said tail portion of said cover sheet on said seat in position.

6. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 3, wherein said seat retaining element, said back retaining element, and said two support elements of said elastic unit are four elastic bands respectively affixed by double stitching along said surrounding edge of said receiving opening, wherein said elastic unit is adapted for applying an urging pressure along said receiving opening so as to hold said head portion and said tail portion of said cover sheet on said seat in position.

7. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 4, wherein said seat retaining element, said back retaining element, and said two support elements of said elastic unit are four elastic bands respectively affixed by double stitching along said surrounding edge of said receiving opening, wherein said elastic unit is adapted for applying an urging pressure along said receiving opening so as to hold said head portion and said tail portion of said cover sheet on said seat in position.

8. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 2, further comprising at least a first fastener provided on said first side of said pocket sheet and at least a corresponding second fastener provided on said second side of said pocket sheet in such a manner that said pocket sheet is capable of fittedly wrapping said cover sheet when rolling up from said tail portion to said head portion thereof and securely packing by attaching said first fastener to said second fastener.

9. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 4, further comprising at least a first fastener provided on said first side of said pocket sheet and at least a corresponding second fastener provided on said second side of said pocket sheet in such a manner that said pocket sheet is capable of fittedly wrapping said cover sheet when rolling up from said tail portion to said head portion thereof and securely packing by attaching said first fastener to said second fastener.

10. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 7, further comprising at least a first fastener provided on said first side of said pocket sheet and at least a corresponding second fastener provided on said second side of said pocket sheet in such a manner that said pocket sheet is capable of fittedly wrapping said cover sheet when rolling up from said tail portion to said head portion thereof and securely packing by attaching said first fastener to said second fastener.

11. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 10, wherein said first and second fasteners are a pair of hoop and loop fasteners wherein said first fastener is affixed by stitching at an upper central portion of said first side of said pocket sheet and said second fastener is affixed by stitching at a lower central portion of said second side of said pocket sheet.

12. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 2, wherein said pocket sheet further comprises a storage pocket formed on said first side thereof wherein a pocket opening is defined at a lower edge of said pocket sheet for receiving said cover sheet when said cover sheet is folded in said rolled form.

13. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 4, wherein said pocket sheet further comprises a storage pocket formed on said first side thereof wherein a pocket opening is defined at a lower edge of said pocket sheet for receiving said cover sheet when said cover sheet is folded in said rolled form.

14. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 7, wherein said pocket sheet further comprises a storage pocket formed on said first side thereof wherein a pocket opening is defined at a lower edge of said pocket sheet for receiving said cover sheet when said cover sheet is folded in said rolled form.

15. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 10, wherein said pocket sheet further comprises a storage pocket formed on said first side thereof wherein a pocket opening is defined at a lower edge of said pocket sheet for receiving said cover sheet when said cover sheet is folded in said rolled form.

16. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 11, wherein said pocket sheet further comprises a storage pocket formed on said first side thereof wherein a pocket opening is defined at a lower edge of said pocket sheet for receiving said cover sheet when said cover sheet is folded in said rolled form.

17. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 4, further comprising a pair of reinforcing members spacedly provided on said seat portion of said holding sheet at an interior of said holding chamber wherein said reinforcing members are adapted for reinforcing said seat portion of said holding sheet fittedly mounted on said seat support of said seat.

18. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 7, further comprising a pair of reinforcing members spacedly provided on said seat portion of said holding sheet at an interior of said holding chamber wherein said reinforcing members are adapted for reinforcing said seat portion of said holding sheet fittedly mounted on said seat support of said seat.

19. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 10, further comprising a pair of reinforcing members spacedly provided on said seat portion of said holding sheet at an interior of said holding chamber wherein said reinforcing members are adapted for reinforcing said seat portion of said holding sheet fittedly mounted on said seat support of said seat.

20. A multi-functional seat shield, as recited in claim 11, further comprising a pair of reinforcing members spacedly provided on said seat portion of said holding sheet at an interior of said holding chamber wherein said reinforcing members are adapted for reinforcing said seat portion of said holding sheet fittedly mounted on said seat support of said seat.