WO2002096740A1

WO2002096740A1 - Safety device for baby carriage

Info

Publication number: WO2002096740A1
Application number: PCT/SE2002/000793
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sören OHLSON
Original assignee: Inno Vita Group Aktiebolag
Priority date: 2001-05-29
Filing date: 2002-04-24
Publication date: 2002-12-05
Also published as: EP1397282A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a safety device for a baby carriage, a baby carriage (1) comprising a number of wheels (10) and a handle part (11) being provided with a safety arrangement (2, 3, 4, 5) that on activation locks a wheel (10) so that the baby carriage (1) is thereby prevented from rolling freely, said safety arrangement comprising an activating organ (2) that is intended to interact with a release device (4), which in the inactivated state is fixed detachably to the activating organ (2), due to which the safety arrangement is in a non-activated state, and that on influencing of said release device (4) exceeding a certain force, this is released from the activating device (2), due to which the safety arrangement is activated and said wheel (10) is locked.

Description

SAFETY DEVICE FOR BABY CARRIAGE

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a safety device for a baby carriage, a baby carriage comprising a number of wheels and a handle part being provided with a safety arrangement that on activation locks one wheel so that the baby carriage is thereby prevented from rolling freely.

PRIOR ART Child safety and child protection devices have acquired an ever greater focus in our society. Thus there are now well-developed safety and protection devices for children in virtually all fields. However, baby carriages are an area in which no substantial improvements have been introduced from the safety point of view. The same sort of designs are being used in principle today as have been used for several decades. Above all, there are safety shortcomings with regard to the ability of baby carriages to roll away out of control, e.g. if the person wheeling the carriage trips and falls. There is thus a risk that the baby will be injured, e.g. by the baby carriage being hit by a car or the carriage rolling away out of control down a slope, due to the fact that baby carriages are not normally equipped with any safe braking system.

It is certainly known to provide baby carriages with a so-called"dead man's handle", in which case a spring-loaded device must be held in with the hand to release a brake mechanism, so that the carriage will roll. A solution of this kind has the great disadvantage that it is hard work to wheel the carriage, since a brake mechanism must be held in all the time. As a consequence of this, no safety device of this kind has found any proper application in the market.

A safe and cost-effective safety device to facilitate safer handling of baby carriages is thus lacking.

BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to eliminate or at least rninimize the aforementioned problems, which is achieved by a safety device for a baby carriage, a baby carriage comprising a number of wheels and a handle part being provided with a safety arrangement that on activation locks a wheel so that the baby carriage is thereby prevented from rolling freely, said safety arrangement comprising an activating organ that is intended to interact with a release device, which in the inactivated state is fixed detachably on the activating organ, due to which the safety arrangement is in the non-activated position, and that in the event of influencing of said release device exceeding a certain force, this is detached from the activating organ, due to which the safety arrangement is activated and said wheel is locked.

According to further aspects of the invention, it is the case that:

— said release device comprises a flexible element that is provided with a holding part intended to be held by the person pushing the carriage, said holding part preferably comprising an eye, preferably for fixing of said release device around a wrist,

- said flexible part at an end opposing said holding part is connected to a spacer provided with a slot,

- said safety arrangement comprises a cable element that extends between an activating organ and a stop organ, a cable running inside said cable element being acted upon by a spring force in the direction of the stop organ,

— a lock pin is disposed axially displaceably inside a casing on said stop organ, which lock pin is connected to one end of said cable,

- an elastic organ is disposed in said casing and in interaction with said lock pin, to act on the lock pin with a spring force in an axial direction directed towards the extension of the cable,

— a collar organ is arranged at the end of the cable element that is disposed on the activating organ, which collar organ is intended to interact with said spacer in such a way that the lock pin remains positioned in a non-locking position when said collar is adjacent to one end of said spacer, - said collar organ is disposed on a rod-shaped device that is fixed, preferably by means of screws, on one end of said cable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DIAGRAMS

The invention will be explained below with reference to the enclosed figures, in which:

Fig. 1 shows diagrammatically a baby carriage provided with a preferred safety device according to the invention, Fig. 2 shows in cross-section a preferred activating organ forming part of a protection device or safety device according to the invention, Fig. 3 shows the principles of a stop organ forming part of a safety device according to the invention, Fig. 4 shows a preferred detailed solution of a stop organ according to the invention, and Fig. 5 shows diagrammatically a baby carriage provided with a modified safety device according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Fig. 1 shows a baby carriage 1, diagrammatically and without a baby carriage insert. The baby carriage consists of a frame, suitably collapsible, that comprises a handle part 11. At the bottom by the frame are four wheels 10. Located by the handle part is an activating organ 2 forming part of a safety device that also comprises a cable part 3, a stop organ 5 and a release device 4. The cable element 3 extends between the activating organ 2 and the stop organ 5, which is located adjacent to one of the wheels 10.

Fig. 2 shows that the activating organ 2 consists of a first base part 20 that interacts with a detachable part 21. These two parts 20 and 21 are fixed to one another by just one screw 22 such that the handle part 11 can be fixed in a recess 25 that runs between both stated parts 20, 21. The cable element 3, as conventionally, consists of a cable sheath 37 and a cable 30. One end of the cable sheath 37 is fixed in the base part 20, while the cable 30 continues into a cavity 23. Located inside this cavity is a rod-shaped body 31 that is connected to the cable 3 by means of a stop screw 34. The stop screw 34 is accessible through a slot 24 located inside the base part 20. The rod-shaped body 31 projects through an opening 26 at the top through the activating organ 2 and is provided at its end with a collar organ 35 that is fixed by means of a screw 36, which is threaded into one end of the rod-shaped body 31. Sandwiched between the collar 35 and the upper surface 27 of the activating organ 2 is a spacer 42 that forms part of the release device 4. The spacer 42 is sleeve-shaped (with an inner cavity) and provided with a slot 43, the width of which is sufficiently large to be able to insert the rod-shaped body 31 through the slot 43. According to a preferred embodiment, preferably all, at least the majority of the components, are executed in plastic, which gives a certain elasticity. It is the case here that the slot 43 is preferably slightly smaller than the diameter of the rod-shaped body 31 , so that it snaps into position around the body 31. Thus a certain minimum force will be required to free the release device 4, i.e. the spacer 42 from the body 31. In certain applications it is however entirely sufficient with the spring force that is exerted by the collar organ 35 thanks to the spring force that acts in the cable 30. This spring force is best achieved in that the lock pin 54 in the stop organ 5 is spring-tensioned, as shown in Fig. 4. Here the stop organ 5 is shown in a fastened position on a frame part of the baby carriage 1 by one of the wheels 10. It is evident that the stop organ 5 consists of an upper 50 and a lower half 51 that are appropriately screwed tight around the frame part. Located inside the lower half 51 is a cavity 56, in which the inner part of the lock pin 54 is situated displaceably. In addition, this lock pin 54 is provided with a spring organ 55, suitably a helical spring that exerts a suitable spring force against the lock pin that will push this into a locking position, i.e. so that the outer part of the lock pin 54 projects between the spokes 10A of the wheel 10. The lock pin 54 is connected at its inner end to the cable 30 that runs inside the cable sheath 37 and is thus connected to the organ collar 35. The lock pin 54 will thus be displaced when the collar organ 35 is displaced. The lock pin 54 is of such a length that when the spacer 42 is positioned by the activating organ 2 (so that the collar 35 lies adjacent to the spacer 42), the end of the lock pin will not project between the spokes 10A in the wheel 10. If on the other hand the spacer, i.e. the release device 4, is removed, the force from the spring 55 that acts on the lock pin 54 will move the collar organ 35 until this reaches the upper surface 27 of the activating organ 2, the lock pin 54 being displaced at the same time into its locking position.

The invention functions as follows. When using the baby carriage, the user connects the line 40 to him/herself, at best by threading a hand through the eye 41 so that the line 4 is secured by the wrist. If the user should then trip or otherwise lose his/her grip on the handle part 11 of the carriage, the line 40 will act on the spacer 42 to pull it out of position, whereupon the collar organ 35 is released and the lock pin 54 is displaced to its locking position. The baby carriage 1 will accordingly be stopped, meaning that a possible accident is avoided.

Fig. 5 shows a modified embodiment according to the invention. A significant difference in relation to what has been described above is that the activating organ 2 is disposed at the bottom of the baby carriage, close to the wheel 10 and by the actual stop organ 5. Thus no cable is required according to this embodiment. Instead, the release device 4 consists only of a long line 49, which runs inside a number of rings 48, which are fastened to the baby carriage frame at suitable points, including along the handle part 11, to lead the line from the activating organ 2 up towards the handle part 11, where the eye for the end of the line 49 is arranged in a suitable manner. This embodiment otherwise functions entirely according to the above principles.

According to a modification of the invention, the mechanical release organ 4 can be replaced by electronics, with some type of wireless transmission being used. The principle of this modification is based on the fact that an activating organ is provided in communication with, at best directly by, the stop organ 5, which activating organ can be actuated electronically. Interacting with the activating organ 2 is a sensor that detects wirelessly the distance (e.g. by being activated at a certain threshold value with regard to the signal strength) between the person wheeling the baby carriage and the sensor. A number of different alternatives are possible. One example is the use of transponder elements, which can be made extremely small (pin-sized) and can therefore easily be fastened to a suitable point on clothing or another suitable possession for the user of the baby carriage. Alternatively, it can consist of an existing (or retrofitted) transmitter unit incorporated into a watch, mobile telephone or other battery-driven unit that one normally always carries with one. It is thus possible to program software to either detect a specific signal selected in advance that is transmitted by a component enclosed in a type of packet solutiori'or to adapt the software belatedly to use the signals that are normally always transmitted by a suitable unit that the user already possesses, e.g. a mobile telephone. The advantage of this'^vireless release mechanisni'is that there is no extra factor for the user to think about on activating the brake mechanism. In addition, it takes up no space in itself. The software in the activating organ can control a solenoid, for example, such that as soon as the user is at a critical distance from the baby carriage, the solenoid is activated, whereupon locking engages.

The invention is not restricted to what has been described above but can be varied in the scope of the following claims. Thus it is perceived, for example, that many types of construction material other than plastic are suitable for producing the device, such as aluminium steel, for example, composite material etc. Furthermore, it is perceived that more than one stop organ 5 can be provided by providing more than one cable element 3. It is also perceived that many types of attachment devices other than an eye 41 can be used to fasten the flexible element to a user, e.g. a snap hook that can be locked firmly to a suitable article of clothing or can also be used optionally for arranging an eye around e.g. the wrist. It is also perceived that the various organs 2, 5 that are fastened to the baby carriage 1 can be fastened in many alternative ways to that shown, e.g. by means of some type of hose clips. Furthermore, it is perceived that locking can be achieved by means other than a lock pin 54 that interacts with the spokes, the lock pin 54 can be exchanged for example for a friction device that interacts directly with the actual wheel 10 instead of with the spokes.

Claims

1. Safety device for a baby carriage, a baby carriage (1) comprising a number of wheels (10) and a handle part (11) being provided with a safety arrangement (2, 3, 4, 5) that on activation locks a wheel (10) so that the baby carriage (1) is thereby prevented from rolling freely, characterized in that said safety arrangement comprises an activating organ (2) that is intended to interact with a release device (4), which in the inactivated state is fixed detachably to the activating organ (2), due to which the safety arrangement is in a non-activated state, and that on influencing of said release device (4) exceeding a certain force, this is released from the activating device (2), due to which the safety arrangement is activated and said wheel (10) is locked.

2. Safety device according to claim 1, characterized in that said release device (4) comprises a flexible element (40) that is provided with a holding part (41) intended to be held by the person wheeling the carriage, said holding part preferably comprising an eye (41), preferably for fixing said release device (4) around a wrist.

3. Safety device according to claim 2, characterized in that said flexible part (40) is connected at an end opposite to said holding part (41) to a spacer (42) provided with a slot (43).

4. Safety device according to claim 1, characterized in that said safety arrangement comprises a cable element (3) that extends between an activating organ (2) and a stop organ (5), a cable (30) ranning inside said cable element (3) being acted on by a spring force in the direction of the stop organ (5).

5. Safety device according to claim 4, characterized in that a lock pin (51) is disposed axially displaceably inside a casing (151, 152) of said stop organ (5), which lock pin (51) is connected to one end of said cable (30).

6. Safety device according to claim 5, characterized in that an elastic organ (55) is provided on said casing (50, 51) and in interaction with said lock pin (51) to act on the lock pin (51) with a spring force in an axial direction directed towards the extension of the cable (30). Safety device according to claim 5, characterized in that a collar organ (35) is provided at the end of the cable element (30) that is disposed by the activating organ (2), which collar organ (35) is intended to interact with said spacer (42) such that the lock pin (51) is positioned in a non-locking position when said collar (35) is adjacent to one end of said spacer (42).

Safety device from claim 7, characterized in that said collar organ (35) is disposed on a rod-shaped device (31), which is fixed, preferably by means of a screw (34), to one end of said cable (30).