WO1999055572A1

WO1999055572A1 - Infant stroller

Info

Publication number: WO1999055572A1
Application number: PCT/NL1999/000240
Authority: WO
Inventors: Alexander Hoogers
Original assignee: Pauw-Bedrijven Ijsselstein
Priority date: 1998-04-24
Filing date: 1999-04-26
Publication date: 1999-11-04
Also published as: AU3446199A; NL1008982C2

Abstract

Infant stroller which can be used as a pushchair. Said infant stroller is provided with a front set of wheels (11) that is rigidly mounted with respect to the seat (8). The rear wheels (17) are fixed to the seat surface of the seat (8) with the aid of hingeable legs (16). With this arrangement the construction is such that said hingeable legs (16) are able to fold away either frontwards or upwards into a storage position for fixing on the bicycle (2). The seat (8) is provided at the front above the seat surface with fixing means for fixing to the handlebars (3) of a bicycle (2).

Description

1

INFANT STROLLER

The present invention relates to an infantstroller according to the preamble of Claim 1.

An infantstroller of this type for use mounted on the rear of a bicycle is disclosed in US Patent 5 383 585. With this known buggy the front sets of wheels are a relatively short distance away from the seat, so that a pushchair moving fairly close to the ground is produced. The rear wheels are fixed to linearly telescopic legs which are movable with respect to the backrest. A telescopic handle is also present.

Further constructions for infantstrollers which can be fitted on the rear of the bicycle and can be used as a pushchair are disclosed in various other publications, such as US Patent 5 071 146 and French Patent 2 659 616.

Such infantstrollers all have the disadvantage that they make it appreciably more difficult for the cyclist to get on the bicycle and that it is difficult to control the child sitting in the chair while cycling. The aim of the present invention is to overcome these disadvantages and to provide an infantstroller that is easier to use, that does not impede the manoeuvrability of the bicycle and that makes it possible to supervise the child concerned.

This aim is achieved with an infantstroller as described above in that the seat is provided with fixing means for engaging on said bicycle and in that said movable legs are hingeably fixed to said seat in a plane perpendicular to the seat surface of said seat and which plane encompasses the direction of travel.

The invention is based on the insight of attaching the infantstroller, which can be converted to a pushchair, to the front of a bicycle and not to the rear. The particular structural measures described above are necessary for this purpose. In this way mounting the bicycle is facilitated because the cyclist always has his/her head facing the seat in which the child is sitting. This also promotes supervision, whilst the weight distribution on the bicycle is optimised, as a result of which control of the bicycle is improved.

Although the seat can be fixed to the bicycle in any way known from the prior art, such as to the frame, it is preferred that the seat is provided at the front, above the seat surface, with said fixing means for engaging on the handlebars of said bicycle.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, such a seat is a standard seat that can also be used for other applications. Such standard seats, without stroller, comply with international requirements and are frequently already provided with fixing means at the 2 front for fixing to other constructions. Such standard seats can be fixed by means of a standard locking mechanism to the frame of the infantstroller according to the present invention.

The legs to which the wheels or sets of wheels (swivel castors) are attached can be made to fold away by any means known from the prior art. According to a first advantageous embodiment, the legs located at the back to which the rear wheels are fixed are folded forwards while cycling. With this arrangement it is, on the one hand, possible that said legs and wheels are moved between the front legs and wheels and, on the other hand, it is possible that said rear legs and wheels are located on the outside of the front legs and wheels. The various features depend on the space available and the construction of the wheels. After all, if the wheels have been constructed as swivel castors, and in such a construction the wheels are frequently double, said wheels then take up a relatively large amount of space and there is insufficient space between the front legs, so that in such a case the rear legs swivel around the outside of the front legs. It is also conceivable to swivel the rear legs upwards to the rear, so that said legs are located close to the backrest of the seat. All such variants are considered to fall within the scope of the present invention.

According to a further advantageous embodiment, the backrest is provided with a telescopic handle. In the walking position this handle serves for pushing the pushchair and is in the position in which it has been slid out. In the cycling position said handle is pushed in and serves to protect the head of the child to be transported. Optionally, a protective plate can be fitted on the bracket to protect the head.

According to a further advantageous embodiment, the telescopic movement of such a bracket is coupled with the hinging movement of the rear legs of the pushchair. It is possible to perform a hinging tilting movement instead of a telescopic movement in order to provide the pushchair with a handle.

The invention also relates to a support construction for fitting to a bicycle, which construction is also provided with at least four wheels/sets of wheels so that the support construction can be used as part of a pushchair, wherein the wheels/sets of wheels which are at the front in the direction of travel are rigidly attached to the support construction and the rear wheels/sets of wheels are fitted on legs such that they are movable with respect to the support construction, wherein the support construction is provided with fixing means for fixing a bicycle seat thereto and wherein said movable legs are hingeably fixed to said 3 support construction in a plane perpendicular to the seat surface of said support construction and which plane encompasses the direction of travel. Such a support construction can be used in combination with a bicycle seat available on the market, so that such a bicycle seat, which is not provided with wheels, can subsequently be converted to a pushchair. The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to three embodiments.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of part of a bicycle provided with the stroller according to the invention;

Fig. 2 shows the stroller unfolded as a pushchair according to the invention; Fig. 3 shows a bottom view of part of the rear legs in the folded-in position as according to Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 4 shows the same bottom view, but in the position according to Fig. 2; Fig. 5 shows, diagrammatically, a further embodiment of the child's seat as a pushchair according to the invention, and Fig. 6 shows, diagrammatically, a third embodiment of the infantstroller according to the invention in the unfolded position and

Fig. 7 shows an infantstroller according to Fig. 6 fitted on a bicycle. In Fig. 1 an infantstroller is indicated by 1. This infantstroller has been fitted on a bicycle 2, only part of which is shown, provided with handlebars 3, steering column 4 and headlamp 5. The bicycle buggy consists of a seat and a frame.

The seat consists of a backrest 7 and a seat component 8. A set of front legs 9 extends from the seat component or the frame 6 located underneath/alongside the latter. Sets 11 of double wheels are fitted on the ends of said legs 9. Height-adjustable footrests for the child concerned are located halfway up said front legs 9. A guide, which is not shown, can be fitted between the front and rear legs, which guide can have been provided with locking means for fixing the sets of legs with respect to one another in the unfolded position and in the folded-in position.

The front legs 9 have been extended upwards and a bracket 12 has been mounted thereon, which bracket 12 provides for lateral fixing of the seat 1 with respect to the bicycle 2 by engaging on steering column 4. Furthermore, arm rests 13 have been fitted, which arm rests are joined via brackets 14 to the extension of the legs 9. These brackets 14 bear on the handlebars 3 during use. With the "C"-shaped construction of the brackets 14 which is shown, on the one hand simple insertion is facilitated and on the other hand unintentional 4 detachment is impeded.

The backrest 7 is provided with a handle 15, the height of which is adjustable, as can be seen from the diagrammatic arrow 21 in Fig. 2.

Hinged rear legs 16 have been fitted on the frame 6 at the rear. Single wheels 17 have been fitted on the free ends of said rear legs. As can be seen on comparing Figs. 1 and 2, the wheels 17 move not only to the rear but also outwards. In the position shown in Fig. 1, said wheels are located inside the front legs 9 and leave sufficient space for headlamp 5.

This outward movement of the wheels on unfolding is shown in more detail in Figs 3 and 4. It can be seen that the rear legs 16 are joined by a scissors construction 18 which determines the moving apart of the wheels 17 in a controlled manner. A locking construction 20, which is not shown in detail, is provided to fix both the swivel position of the wheels, that is to say folded up or folded to the rear, and the mutual spacing thereof, that is to say close to one another in the position in which they are folded forwards and remote from one another in the position in which they are folded to the rear, in both the folded-in and the unfolded position.

It will be understood that such a locking construction can operate either manually or automatically when moving the legs 16.

After cycling, the child's seat described above is first lifted from the bicycle, starting from the position shown in Fig. 1. No special measures are required for this other than lifting the seat and moving it to the rear away from the bicycle. During this operation the user must move the handlebars accurately through the free space at the front of the brackets 14. The rear legs 16 are then moved backwards while the wheels 17 move outwards. During this operation the position shown in Fig. 2 is produced. The rear legs are locked in this position using lock 20. The reverse operation results in the seat being able to be fixed easily to the bicycle again. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that the infantstroller can easily be used on men's bicycles, so that use with ladies' bicycles will constitute no problem at all. Moreover, there is no impediment to existing components, such as headlamp and handlebars, so that the user is able to cycle unimpeded. It will be understood that the invention is not restricted to bicycles but can also be used with any other construction provided with handlebars. A variant of the invention is shown highly diagrammatically in Fig. 5. The infantstroller according to the embodiment in Fig. 5 is indicated in its entirety by 31 and, like the previous embodiment, has fixed front legs 9 provided with sets of wheels 11. At the rear the rear legs are indicated by 32 and in the construction shown these can be folded up in the cycling 5 position. The wheels are constructed as double swivel castors and are indicated by 33.

A further infantstroller according to the invention is shown in Fig. 6. This infantstroller is indicated in its entirety by 41 and consists of a frame 42 on which a seat 43, shown in dotted lines, can be fixed using standard fixings. This seat is a standard seat that is used for other purposes and is readily available commercially. The front part of the frame 42 is essentially unchanged compared with the previous variants. Arm 44 is somewhat curved and, like the previous variants, has wheels 11 at the end. The wheels can be constructed as swivel castors. There are modifications at the rear of the frame 42. The rear arm is indicated by 45. In this embodiment, as can be seen on comparing Figs 6 and 7, in the folded-in position the arm does not move beyond arm 44 and the wheels 17 likewise do not move beyond wheels 11. Wheels 17 can, incidentally, be lockable, so that a braking action is provided. Arm 45 is hingeably fixed to frame 42 with the aid of hinge 46. A guide 47 is fitted, which is of hinged construction. A pin 49, which is joined to arm 45, moves in said guide. A lock 48 is provided at the end, which lock ensures that in the position shown in Fig. 6 arm 45 is not able to move back, that is to say wheels 11 and 17 are in a fixed position with respect to one another. Such a locking construction is indicated, likewise diagrammatically, by 54, by means of which arm 45 is locked in the front position with respect to arm 44 (Fig. 7).

It can be seen from Fig. 7 that part of the fixing 52, indicated by 52, in which the pins 51 of the seat 43 can be inserted, is mounted on the handlebars 53. Instead of these variants it is also possible to construct the rear legs such that they can be swivelled forwards, as in Figs. 6 and 7, the legs then being located on the outside of the front legs 9, as a result of which wider wheels (sets of wheels) can be used. Such a variant and other modifications obvious to a person skilled in the art fall within the scope of the present application, as described in the appended Claims.

Claims

6Claims

1. Infantstroller (1, 31, 41), provided with fixing means (12, 14) for fitting on a bicycle (2), which can be used as a pushchair, comprising a seat and a frame having at least four wheels/sets of wheels (11, 17, 33), the wheels/sets of wheels (11) which are at the front in the direction of travel being rigidly fixed to the frame and the rear wheels/sets of wheels (17, 33) being fitted on legs (16, 32, 45) such that they are movable with respect to the seat, characterised in that the seat is provided with fixing means (12, 14) for engaging on the bicycle and in that said movable legs (16, 32, 45) are hingeably fixed to said seat in a plane perpendicular to the seat surface of said seat and which plane encompasses the direction of travel.

2. Infantstroller according to Claim 1, wherein the seat is provided at the front above the seat surface (8) with said fixing means for engaging on the handlebars of said bicycle.

3. Infantstroller according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein said legs (16) are hingeably mounted in the sense of moving the wheels/sets of wheels connected thereto towards one another or away from one another.

4. Infantstroller according to one of the preceding claims, wherein said legs (16, 45) are hingeable between a rear travel position of the pushchair and a front storage position on the bicycle.

5. Infantstroller according to one of Claims 1 - 3, wherein said legs (32) are hingeable between a front travel position of said pushchair and a folded-up storage position on the bicycle.

6. Infantstroller according to one of the preceding claims, wherein a height- adjustable handle (15) is fitted close to the backrest (7) of the seat.

7. Infantstroller according to Claim 5, wherein the movement of the handle is coupled with the movement of said movable legs.

8. Support construction provided with at least four wheels/sets of wheels so that the support construction can be used as part of a pushchair, wherein the wheels/sets of wheels which are at the front in the direction of travel are rigidly attached to the support construction and the rear wheels/sets of wheels are fitted on legs such that they are movable with respect to the support construction, characterised in that the support construction is provided with fixing means for fixing a seat thereto and in that said movable legs are hingeably fixed to said 7 support construction in a plane perpendicular to the seat surface of said support construction and which plane encompasses the direction of travel.