US20100273389A1

US20100273389A1 - Collapsible PINATA

Info

Publication number: US20100273389A1
Application number: US12/427,753
Authority: US
Inventors: Wu Wei Sui; Wu Li Ling
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2009-04-22
Filing date: 2009-04-22
Publication date: 2010-10-28

Abstract

The present invention discloses a collapsible piñata, it comprises a first panel, a second panel and a strip-shaped enclosure board that connects the first panel with the second panel so as to form a closed integral body, an opening hole is provided on the first panel or second panel; the enclosure board is a collapsible flexible board or flexible membrane; inside the enclosure board, the upper portion and the lower portion between the first panel and second panel are respectively provided with an upper supporting plate and a lower supporting plate, the one ends of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate corresponding to the second panel are respectively movably connected to the upper portion and the lower portion of the second panel, the middle sections of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate are respectively connected to the upper portion and the lower portion of the first panel by means of an elastic cord, moreover, the one ends of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate corresponding to the first panel are respectively connected with a pulling rope extending outside of the opening hole. During packaging or before transportation of the product according to the present invention, what is needed is merely pulling the upper and lower supporting plates into the state of being collapsed, then both panels being superimposed one upon another. Thus, the thickness of piñata becomes the combined thickness of the both panels and the upper supporting plate (or the lower supporting plate) in a state of being superimposed together. Compared with the current skill, the transportation volume is greatly reduced, thus the cost of transportation is lowered, so that the market competitive power of the product is enhanced.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an article for entertainment made of paper, in particular, a PIÑATA (wherein the Chinese translation for the product thereof is “
”) used in the celebration of festivals and birthdays in European and American countries.
In Europe or America, PIÑATA is a type of popular article for entertainment used in festival celebrations, family reunions or birthday parties. The use of piñata (the Chinese translation thereof is “
”) has had over one hundred years of history in Europe and America.
A piñata (the Chinese translation thereof is “
”) is formed into various-shaped products mainly using cardboard or paper. During usage, candy, small toys or other small articles are put inside the piñata through an opening hole. Then the piñata is hung, and a participant, while holding a stick in hand, beats the piñata in turn, until the piñata is broken, thus bringing about a festive atmosphere throughout the celebrating activities for festivals or birthdays.
At present, many kinds of piñata sold in the western world markets are produced and exported from China. The problem with the conventional sold piñatas in the market is, the size of individual piñata is large, leading to relatively high costs for packaging and transportation. For example, in the case of a conventional piñata presently for sale, the occupied volume of one piñata is typically 0.02-0.04 cubic meters, therefore, only a few of these piñatas could be accommodated within one 40-feet container. Since the piñata occupies a relatively large space, the size of which can not be compressed during transportation, takes on considerable amount of space and may increase the following costs:
1) Cost of packaging: the product volume is large, so the packaging cost is high;
2) Domestic freight: the relatively large size of the product occupies significant amount of space within the container, thus one container could only accommodate not so many products. Therefore, the freight cost is high when the domestic shipping charge is apportioned among the individual products.
3) International freight: the international freight cost is high. The cost of freight is one important factor for consideration in international trade.
4) Storage cost: the trader has to prepare a relatively large warehouse each time a batch of products are purchased.
5) Marketplace cost: the product with a large volume would occupy a large space in the marketplace.
6) Distribution cost: for the traders who currently use mail as a popular means to delivery the products, the product in big size wanted incur a higher cost for mailing.
Therefore, the size of the piñata becomes a predominant factor affecting the cost of the product.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the present invention is to provide a piñata, having a much compressed volume during transportation so as to reduce the transportation cost, and thereby lowering the overall cost of the product.
The technical aspect of the present invention is as follows: a collapsible piñata, comprising a first panel, a second panel and a strip-shaped enclosure board that connects the first panel to the second panel so as to form a closed integral body, an opening hole is provided on the first panel or second panel; the enclosure board is a collapsible plank or a sheet of soft membrane; inside which the upper portion and the lower portion between the first panel and second panel are provided with an upper supporting plate and a lower supporting plate, respectively, the one ends of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate corresponding to the second panel are respectively movably connected to the upper portion and the lower portion of the second panel, the middle sections of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate are respectively connected to the upper portion and the lower portion of the first panel by means of an elastic cord, moreover, the one ends of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate corresponding to the first panel are respectively connected with a pulling rope extending outside of the opening hole.
The piñata further provides a flexible enclosure holding pocket that is supportably provided at the lower side of the lower supporting plate, both ends of this flexible enclosure pocket respectively can be extended to connect with the corresponding sides of the first panel and second panel.
The portions of both ends of the flexible enclosure pocket being connected with the corresponding sides of the first panel and second panel are positioned above the lower supporting plate, so as to form an accommodating space, the bottom surface of which is configured by the flexible enclosure pocket and the lower supporting plate.
The outer surfaces of the first panel, second panel and the enclosure board are adhesively provided with soft textured ornaments or thinner, hard textured ornaments.
The first panel and/or second panel are/is provided with prefabricated breakable dotted lines.
The upper portions of the first panel and second panel are penetratingly provided with a tie for suspension.
By adopting the solution, in the collapsible piñata according to the present invention, between both panels, a closed integral body is surrounded through a flexible strip-shaped enclosure board, the upper and lower supporting plates are respectively horizontally supported at the upper and lower portions between the first panel and the second panel by means of an elastic cord, the spacing between both panels is maintained by the upper and lower supporting plates, and the upper and lower supporting plates may be collapsed by means of a pulling rope. Therefore, for packaging or transportation, what is needed is the belt to collapse the upper and lower supporting plates into the state of being collapsed, then both panels being superimposed together. Thus, the thickness of piñata becomes the combined thickness of the both panels and the upper supporting plate (or the lower supporting plate) in a state of being superimposed together. Compared with the current skills, the packaged volume of the product occupied within the container is greatly reduced, thus the cost of transportation is lowered, as well as the cost of product, so that the market competitive power of the product is enhanced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an overall structural illustration of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is the structural illustration of the present invention with the enclosure board removed;

FIG. 3 is the structural illustration of the present invention with the enclosure board and flexible enclosure pocket removed;

FIG. 4 is a half-collapsed state view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a full-collapsed state view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is the structural illustration of the left panel.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A collapsible piñata according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises a left panel 1 and a right panel 2 with a profiled shape, the peripheries of the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 are adhesively connected so as to form a closed integral body by means of a strip-shaped enclosure board 3 made of a collapsible flexible board or flexible membrane; the outer surfaces of the left panel 1, the right panel 2, and the enclosure board 3 are adhesively provided with soft textured ornaments or thin, and hard textured ornaments, so as to render the exterior profile of the product to be more three-dimensional, visually appealing and more colorful. The right panel 2 is provided with an opening hole 21 thereon, and the opening hole 21 is provided with a movable cover flap 22. The upper portions of the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 are penetratingly provided with a tie 12 for suspension.
As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, inside the strip-shaped enclosure board 3, the upper portion and the lower portion in between the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 are provided with an upper supporting plate 4 and a lower supporting plate 5 respectively; the one ends of the upper supporting plate 4 and the lower supporting plate 5 corresponding to the right panel 2 are adhesively connected to the upper portion and the lower portion of the right panel 2, respectively, by means of a flexible membrane, so that the upper supporting plate 4 and the lower supporting plate 5 are respectively capable of sliding along the right panel 2 through this flexible membrane; the middle portions of the upper supporting plate 4 and the lower supporting plate 5 are connected to the upper portion and the lower portion of the left panel 1, respectively, by means of a plurality of elastic cords 6 and 7. Moreover, the elastic cord 6 is guided to the corresponding position on the upper portion of the left panel 1 via the upper side of the upper supporting plate 4, and the elastic cord 7 is guided to the corresponding position on the lower portion of the left panel 1 via the lower side of the lower supporting plate 5. The adjoining locations at which the elastic cords 6, 7 are connected to the upper and lower portions of the left panel 1 are respectively flush with those adjoining locations at which the upper supporting plate 4 and the lower supporting plate 5 are adhesively connected to the right panel 2. The upper supporting plate 4 and the lower supporting plate 5 are respectively connected with a plurality of pulling ropes 8 and 9; one end of the pulling rope 8 is connected to the middle section on the one end of the upper supporting plate 4 corresponding to the left panel 1, and the other end of the pulling rope 8 is led out of the opening hole 21 and fixed at the movable cover flap 22. Similarly, one end of the pulling rope 9 is connected to the middle section on the one end of the lower supporting plate 5 corresponding to the left panel 1, and the other end of the pulling rope 9 is also led out of the opening hole 21 and fixed at the movable cover flap 22. The lower side of the lower supporting plate 5 is adhesively connected and cushioned with a flexible enclosure holding pocket 51, which is of the same width as the lower supporting plate 5; both ends of the flexible enclosure holding pocket 51 respectively extends up to being connected with the corresponding sides of the left panel 1 and the right panel 2; moreover, those portions of both ends of the flexible enclosure holding pocket 51 being connected with the corresponding sides of the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 are located above the lower supporting plate 5.
According to the collapsible piñata of the present invention, a closed integral body is enclosed by means of the flexible enclosure board 3 between the left panel 1 and the right panel 2; the upper and lower supporting plates 4 and 5 are respectively horizontally supported at the upper and lower portions between the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 by using the elastic cords 6 and 7, and the spacing between the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 is maintained by means of the upper and lower supporting plates 4 and 5, so as to form an accommodating space 10, comprising of a bottom section of which being configured by the lower supporting plate 5 and the flexible enclosure holding pocket 51, and a side wall of which being configured by the left panel 1, the right panel 2, and the enclosure board 3.
Prior to being put into use, for the sake of transportation and storage, the piñata should be collapsed to reduce its size, in this case, what is needed is merely to pull the rope 8 and 9 respectively, as shown in FIG. 4, so as to pull the free end of the upper supporting plate 4 downwards, and to pull the free end of the lower supporting plate 5 upwards, respectively, so that the upper supporting plate 4 and the lower supporting plate 5 are brought into a collapsed state, then the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 are superimposed one upon another, thus the entire piñata is then collapsed into a flattened configuration (as shown in FIG. 5), leading to the volume thereof being remarkably compressed.
Upon being used by the consumer, the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 are pulled outwards respectively, the free end of the upper supporting plate 4 being pulled by the elastic cord 6 is lifted upwards to being horizontally supported between the upper portions of the left panel 1 and the right panel 2, the free end of the lower supporting plate 5 being pulled by the elastic cord 7 is drawn downwards to being horizontally supported between the lower portions of the left panel 1 and the right panel 2, thus the accommodating space 10 is set up again, ready for use after putting the small articles like candy, toys into the accommodating space 10 through the opening hole 21.
To render the left panel 1 and the right panel 2 easier to break upon beating, breakable dotted lines (the dotted lines on the left panel as shown in FIG. 6) have been prefabricated on the left panel 1 and the right panel 2, respectively.
According to the collapsible piñata of the present invention, during packaging or before transportation, what is needed is merely pulling the upper and lower supporting plates 4 and 5 into the state of being collapsed through the pulling ropes 8 and 9, and then the left and right panels 1 and 2 being superimposed one upon another. Thus, the thickness of piñata becomes the combined thickness of the left and right panels 1 and 2, and the upper supporting plate 4 (or the lower supporting plate 5) in a state of being superimposed together. Compared with the current skill, the transportation volume is greatly reduced, thus the cost of transportation is lowered, so that the market competitive power of the product is enhanced.

Claims

1. A collapsible piñata, characterized in that, it comprises a first panel, a second panel and a strip-shaped enclosure board that connects the first panel with the second panel so as to form a closed integral body, an opening hole is provided on the first panel or second panel; the enclosure board is a collapsible flexible board or flexible membrane; inside the enclosure board, the upper portion and the lower portion between the first panel and second panel are respectively provided with an upper supporting plate and a lower supporting plate, the one ends of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate corresponding to the second panel are respectively movably connected to the upper portion and the lower portion of the second panel, the middle sections of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate are respectively connected to the upper portion and the lower portion of the first panel by means of an elastic cord, moreover, the one end of the upper supporting plate and lower supporting plate corresponding to the first panel are respectively connected with a pulling rope extending outside of the opening hole.

2. The piñata according to claim 1, characterized in that, it further comprises a flexible enclosure holding pocket that is provided at the lower side of the lower supporting plate, both ends of this flexible enclosure holding pocket respectively extending up to being connected with the corresponding sides of the first panel and second panel.

3. The piñata according to claim 2, characterized in that, the portions of both ends of the flexible enclosure pocket being connected with the corresponding sides of the first panel and second panel are positioned above the above said lower supporting plate, so as to form an accommodating space, the bottom surface of which is being configured by the flexible enclosure holding pocket and the lower supporting plate.

4. The piñata according to claim 1, characterized in that, the outer surfaces of the first panel, second panel and the enclosure board are adhesively provided with soft textured ornaments or thin, and hard textured ornaments.

5. The piñata according to claim 1, characterized in that, the first panel and/or second panel are/is provided with prefabricated breakable dotted lines.

6. The piñata according to claim 1, characterized in that, the upper portions of the first panel and second panel are penetratingly provided with a tie for suspension.