WO2001002071A1

WO2001002071A1 - Dynamic game for children

Info

Publication number: WO2001002071A1
Application number: PCT/FR2000/001786
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jean-Luc Sandoz; Françoise MULLER-DUCHENE
Original assignee: Sandoz Jean Luc; Muller Duchene Francoise
Priority date: 1999-06-30
Filing date: 2000-06-27
Publication date: 2001-01-11
Also published as: DE60017905T2; FR2796304A1; EP1189668B1; FR2796304B1; EP1189668A1; AU5992200A; US20020091002A1; ATE288309T1; DE60017905D1

Abstract

The invention concerns a dynamic game for children consisting of a cylinder (1) open at its ends and capable of rotating about its longitudinal central axis (X). The invention is characterised in that: the cylindrical body (1) consists of parallel slats (6); the slats (6) are maintained in place by two peripheral rings (8) fixed on their outer surface and supporting a continuous raceway (10); the diameter of the cylinder (1) is such that the user should be lying down; the pairs of support rollers (4) are positioned such that they form between them an angle of at least 120° relative to the cylinder centre; the support frame (2) for the cylinder (1) consists of two fixed rings (12) supporting the guide rollers (4) pressed against the two raceways (10) provided at the cylinder periphery.

Description

DYNAMIC GAME FOR CHILDREN

Technical area

The present invention relates to the field of games for children, and more particularly dynamic type games, such as those which equip playgrounds in urban areas which, to date, are essentially constituted by swings, turnstiles, very often criticized. for the risks they entail and which are subject to very strict safety standards.

The invention relates to a new type of dynamic game, usable both in public places and privately and this, by very young children, and which eliminates practically all risks during its use while being very attractive.

Previous techniques Among the techniques proposed to date, it has been proposed for a very long time, as is apparent in particular from US Pat. , whose rotation is communicated by a user placed inside said cage which is in the form of a cylinder.

In the embodiment described in the aforementioned US patent, the assembly is in the form of a cylinder rotating around a central axis, the user walking inside the cylinder and thus causing it to rotate. A seat is arranged laterally, which therefore allows a second child to be associated with the game, said seat then being driven simultaneously with the rotation of the cage.

However, such a design presents certain risks for children, since the one who drives the cage and who is disposed inside it, is exposed to the public outside the game since the side face is open to allow the access. Likewise, the child carried by the seat is not protected and there may be risks of falling during rotation, in particular depending on the rotation speed which cannot be controlled, and the jolts which can happen.

The second solution described in French patent 2,464,732, in which the rotating cylinder is no longer carried by a fixed central axis, but supported by external rollers, is more attractive but requires a significant effort to cause the rotation of the drum by the user who is disposed inside, taking into account in particular that it comprises two pairs of carrier rollers which are arranged on the side and on the other side of the vertical plane passing through the axis of the cylinder while being at a short distance from said vertical plane.

Such a design of the support rollers in the lower part therefore requires a force greater than the weight of the spool for there to be entrainment and can therefore be animated only if the user is standing inside the cylinder.

Statement of the invention

The invention relates to a new type of dynamic game which not only presents great security for the user, a child in particular, and the animation of which can be carried out almost instantaneously, without significant physical effort on the part of said user.

In general, the new dynamic play in accordance with the invention is of the type constituted by a cylinder open at its ends and able to rotate about its longitudinal central axis, said cylinder being mounted on a support frame comprising two pairs of rollers carriers arranged in planes perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder and axially separated, the rollers of each pair of rollers being arranged on either side of the vertical plane passing through the axis of the cylinder, and it is characterized in that: - The cylindrical body is made up of parallel slats, a void remaining between two consecutive slats;

- Said slats are held in position by means of two peripheral rings fixed on their external face, positioned slightly back from each end of the cylinder, and supporting a continuous peripheral raceway;

- The diameter of the drum is limited, so that the user is in a lying position inside the cylinder and not standing as in the previous solutions;

- the pairs of support rollers are spaced from each other so that they are positioned at an angle of at least 120 ° relative to the center of the cylinder (while of course being less than 180 °) , a third pair of bearings being provided in the upper part in the vertical plane passing through the axis of the cylinder;

- The support frame for said cylinder consists of two fixed rings supporting the guide rollers in abutment against the two raceways provided at the periphery of the drum, these rings being carried by uprights arranged laterally relative to the cylinder.

In accordance with the invention, the cylinder therefore forms a "cradle" inside which the child is stretched out, said cylinder possibly being either horizontal or preferably slightly inclined, and forming an angle that can reach up to a maximum of 10 ° relative to the horizontal, but which is preferably of the order of 5 to 7 ° in order to avoid any natural sliding of the user.

Furthermore, the inside diameter of the cylinder will advantageously be between 50 cm and 75 cm, which invites the child to go inside while lying down.

Once inside, the child remains in bed or, possibly, if he is flexible and not too fat, can be in a sitting position and, by the very fact of the design of said set, as soon as he performs a movement, the coil oscillates in a pendulum motion and cradles the child to find the point of equilibrium.

Consequently, unlike previous solutions, such a game only causes rocking, its complete rotation can only be caused by an external action.

Optionally, the fixed peripheral rings which constitute the frame can support decorative elements, for example giving the whole an external appearance of an animal, making the game even more attractive.

It can also be envisaged to mount on these peripheral rings parallel slats, spaced from one another and which are therefore fixed around the cylindrical body. In such a case, these slats may possibly be of a different color to the movable cylindrical body making it possible to obtain a mixture of colors during the rotation of the latter. Brief description of the drawings

The invention and the advantages which it brings will however be better understood thanks to the example of embodiment which follows given by way of nonlimiting indication, and which is illustrated by the appended diagrams in which:

- The figurel is a general side view of the whole of a game produced in accordance with the invention;

- Figure 2 is a general end view along F of Figure 1 showing the general structure of such a game; - Figure 3 is a detailed sectional view showing how the drum is held on the fixed frame and the structure of the supports allowing its rotation;

_ FIG. 4 schematically illustrates, in section, the structure and the positioning of two consecutive slats forming the drum of the game according to the invention:

_ Figure 5a is a diagram illustrating the reasons for positioning at 120 ° relative to the center of the support rollers compared to a positioning produced in accordance with the prior art as illustrated in Figure 5b and corresponding to the state of the art constituted by FR-A-2 464 732. _ Figure 6 is a side view showing a toy according to the invention equipped with a decorative element;

_ Figure 7 is a perspective view illustrating a variant in which the movable cylinder is surrounded by a second cylinder mounted fixed on the support assembly and also consisting of slats spaced from each other.

Referring to Figures 1,2 and 3 attached, the game according to the invention is of the type constituted by a cylinder, designated by the general reference (1), open at its ends and able to rotate around its longitudinal axis XX .

Said cylinder is mounted on a support frame, designated by the general reference (2), the structure of which, according to the invention, will be detailed later.

The support frame comprises two pairs of rollers, designated by the same reference (4), arranged in planes perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder and axially separated, the rollers of each pair being arranged on either side of the vertical plane passing through said cylinder.

Furthermore, a third roller (5) is, for its part, disposed in the upper part in the vertical plane passing through the axis of the cylinder.

According to the invention, the cylindrical body (1) consists of slats, designated by the same reference (6), parallel to each other, a vacuum remaining between said slats.

FIG. 4 illustrates the structure of each slat (6), the cross section of which, in one embodiment, is, expressed in millimeters, 55 x 25, the length being equal to 1600 mm.

On the corners and ends which can be in contact with the user, a rounded chamfer (7) is made, with a radius equal to or greater than 3 mm, and this for the purpose of safety for users. Furthermore, the spacing (e) between two consecutive slats (6) is generally between 25 and 30 mm.

These slats (6) are held together by means of two peripheral rings (8) constituted by a steel plate (see FIG. 3), positioned slightly behind the end edge (9) of the slats (6).

These peripheral rings support a raceway (10) constituted in the present case by a curved tube, for example of diameter 50 mm, welded on a base (11) fixed itself to the ring (8).

The diameter of the drum (1) is, for its part limited to a value between 50 and 75 cm, so that the user is preferably in a lying position inside the cylinder and not standing as in the solutions earlier.

Possibly, it could be envisaged that the user is in a seated position. According to the illustrated embodiment, the internal diameter of the cylinder is of the order of 675 mm, the slats having a thickness of 25 mm. For such a drum, when the slats used have a width of 55 mm, the drum therefore consists of 26 slats spaced from each other by about 27.8mm.

The pairs of support bearings (4) are spaced from each other so that they are positioned at an angle of 120 ° relative to the center of the cylinder.

To ensure the positioning and the maintenance of the cylinder, the support frame is, as can be seen more particularly from FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, consisting of two identical sets, designated by the general reference (C) in FIG. 1 and shown more in detail in the section shown in Figure 3.

Each assembly (C) consists of a fixed crown (12) supporting the holding and guiding rollers (4) and the roller (5) provided in the upper part in the vertical plane.

These rollers are mounted on the crowns (12) by means of an axis (15), around which they can rotate freely by means of bearings (14). These rollers which can be made of any suitable material - plastic, metal - have a peripheral structure such that they have a groove (15) which bears against the surface of the raceways (10) fixed at the periphery of the drum . A protective cover (20) forms a housing which completely surrounds the system for holding and guiding the drum.

To ensure perfect stability, the crowns (12) are supported by four uprights (M), two per crowns, and which are arranged laterally.

The uprights (M) can either be of the same height, which makes it possible to have a cylinder (1) which is positioned horizontally, or, as can be seen in FIG. 1, have a different length making it possible to obtain a slight inclination by relative to the horizontal, inclination in general of the order of 5 to 7 °.

Preferably, as said before, the slats are made of wood, which is a good thermal insulator, has a pleasant feel and gives good sensations for the child and which, moreover, prevents the whole from being too cold in winter or too hot in summer.

As the type of wood, we will use species that resist exposure to the outside, for example oak or an exotic wood such as teak or iroko.

Optionally, less resistant woods could be used by subjecting them beforehand to a “cross-linking” type heat treatment increasing their durability.

The particular functioning of the game in accordance with the invention is the particular effect caused by any movement of a child placed in a lying position inside the cylinder, namely that the latter oscillates by following a pendulum movement of the "swinging" type. can be explained as follows by referring to Figures 5a and 5b, Figure 5a illustrating the result obtained when using a game according to the invention, and Figure 5b the result which would be obtained from lessons from FR-A-2 464 732 and assuming that this assembly is implemented by a person not standing inside the cylinder as suggested by this patent, but being in the extended position.

Compared to the prior art, the essential difference therefore resides in the characteristic according to which the support rollers (4) form an angle of 120 ° relative to the center of the cylinder, whereas in the prior art as it emerges from Patent cited above, the support rollers are certainly arranged on either side of the vertical plane passing through the center, but near the latter.

The movement is generated as a result of the displacement of the internal mass of the coil.

By displacement, the linear mass has an eccentric shape compared to the previous equilibrium, and the coil turns to find a new equilibrium. Balance is reached when the general mass has the same force on the supporting rollers (4). However, in accordance with the invention, the force necessary for the movement of the coil is lower when the rollers are moved apart. In fact, it is necessary to observe the decomposition of the force on the rollers, with a component perpendicular to the wheel (normal N) and a tangential component (T) on the tangent of the rollers. It is the force on this tangent which generates the rotational movement relative to the axis of the coil.

Referring to Figures 5a and 5b attached, when an equilibrium force F moves inside the coil to become F ' _l3 the forces on the casters become different and the caster on the side of the displacement of the force receives a excess force which breaks down into N and T. It is noted that for the same displacement of the force in the coil, the force T generating the moment of rotation is much greater on the system according to the invention than on the system according to the prior art.

Consequently, with such a design, in which the support frame is designed so that the lower rollers form a maximum angle, it is possible to cause the cylinder to swing from any minute movements of the child who is lying down. inside the drum.

It should also be noted that such a design in which the drum is held in the vicinity of its ends by two peripheral rings, the cages corresponding to these rings make it possible to serve as supports for complementary decorative elements, such as that shown in FIG. 6, for example giving the whole an external appearance of an animal making the game even more attractive.

FIG. 7 illustrates a variant produced according to the invention in which the cylindrical body (1) consisting of slats is surrounded by a second cylinder (13), also consisting of slats but mounted fixed around the first cylinder, for example on the crowns constituting the support frame for the cylinder (1). The slats of this cylinder (13) can be of a different color from the slats (1). Consequently, during the rotation of the cylinder (1) inside this fixed cylinder (11), effects of color mixing are obtained. Of course, the invention is not limited to the concrete embodiment described above, but it covers all the variants produced in the same spirit.

Claims

REVENDTCATTONS

1 / Dynamic game for children of the type constituted by a cylinder (1) open at its ends and able to rotate around its longitudinal central axis (X), said cylinder (1) being mounted on a support frame (2) comprising two pairs rollers (4) arranged in planes perpendicular to the axis of the cylinder and separated axially, the rollers of each pair being arranged on either side of the vertical plane passing through the axis of the cylinder, characterized in that:

- The cylindrical body (1) consists of parallel slats (6), a vacuum remaining between two consecutive slats;

- Said slats (6) are held in position by means of two peripheral rings (8) fixed on their external face, positioned slightly back from each end (9) of the cylinder, and supporting a continuous peripheral raceway (10); - The diameter of the cylinder (1) is limited, so that the user is in a lying position inside the cylinder and not standing as in the previous solutions;

- the pairs of support rollers (4) are spaced from each other so that they are positioned at an angle of at least 120 ° relative to the center of the cylinder, a third pair of rollers (5 ) being provided in the upper part in the vertical plane passing through the axis of the cylinder;

- the support frame (2) for said cylinder (1) consists of two fixed rings (12) supporting the guide rollers (4) bearing against the two raceways (10) provided at the periphery of the drum, these rings being carried by uprights (M) arranged laterally relative to the cylinder (1).

2 / dynamic game according to claim 1, characterized in that the cylinder is positioned horizontally relative to the ground.

3 / dynamic game according to claim 1, characterized in that the cylinder is mounted on the support at an angle to the horizontal, preferably less than 10 ° angle. 4 / dynamic game according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the two peripheral rings (12) serve as support for complementary decorative elements giving for example the whole an external appearance of an animal making the game even more attractive.

5 / dynamic play according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a second cylinder (13), also consisting of slats spaced from each other fixedly mounted on the support frame of the movable drum (1), surrounds this latest.