METHOD AND APPARATUS OF CATCHING OBJECTS FALLING BEHIND AN ARTICLE OF FURNISHING

Abstract

A method comprising cutting a cradle to a desired length, positioning the cradle at a position between an article of furnishing and a wall and reachable without moving the article of furnishing, removing adhesive backing from the cradle, and affixing the cradle to the article of furnishing and the wall. An apparatus comprising a generally rectangular sheet having two lateral edges and two longitudinal edges and dimensions generally conforming to a gap between an article of furnishing and a wall, and a plurality of adhesive strips put on one surface of the sheet along the two longitudinal edges of the sheet.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of the earlier filing date of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/971,165, filed Sep. 10, 2007.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

An apparatus catches objects susceptible to fall behind an article of furnishing such as furniture or an appliance. More particularly, it catches objects susceptible to fall from the top of the article of furnishing before they fall to the floor behind the article of furnishing and between the wall and the article of furnishing or getting stuck between the wall and the article of furnishing.

2. Background

When an article of furnishing such as a piece of furniture or an appliance is placed against a wall, it is often the case that a gap is created between the back surface of an article of furnishing and the wall. Objects such as keys, coins, jewelries and pieces of clothing may be temporarily placed on the top surface of the article of furnishing for the convenience and objects like a picture frame and a desktop calendar may be placed on top of the article for an extended period of time. Those objects are vulnerable to fall from the top surface of the article of furnishing because they are often picked up or moved around on the top. When the objects fall behind the article of furnishing through the gap, the objects either land on the floor behind or below the article of furnishing or get stuck between the back surface of the article of furnishing and the wall. It is often very difficult to recover those objects in short time if possible at all. One may employ various tools to recover the objects, for example, a long stick or a ruler but there usually is not enough room to operate such a tool underneath or behind the article of furnishing. The article of furnishing may eventually have to be displaced to recover the objects. Displacing the article of furnishing will consume much time and physical strength and may also damage the article of furnishing or the floor.

Consequently, there is a need for an apparatus to catch the objects falling from the top surface of an article of furnishing and make those objects easily recoverable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,309 discloses a metal mesh basket as a catching device and U.S. Publication No. 20070134457 discloses a tubular body with a catching fin. There is, however, a further need of an apparatus that is relatively inexpensive to produce, causes no or minimal damage to the article of furnishing to be attached to and is adoptive to any shape of a wall or an article of furnishing with minimal effort.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a cradle.

FIG. 2 is a lateral side view of the cradle of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal bottom view of the cradle of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4a is a planar side view of the cradle of FIG. 1 attached between a wall and a desk.

FIG. 4b is a magnified view of the cradle of FIG. 1 attached as in FIG. 4a.

FIG. 4c is a planar side view of the cradle of FIG. 1 attached between a wall and a desk.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the cradle of FIG. 1 attached between a wall and a desk.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view the cradle of FIG. 1 attached to a wall and a washing machine.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of methods of installing a cradle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method and apparatus for catching objects behind an article of furnishing are described herein. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth such as specific materials, adhesives, articles of furnishing, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. It will be clear to one skilled in the art, however, that these specific details described herein need not be utilized to practice the embodiments. Further, specific embodiments are presented below and should be regarded only as illustrative. It is to be recognized that articles of furnishing in this description may include pieces of furniture such as a desk, a bookshelf and a dresser, appliances such a washing machine and a dryer or any large bodily objects that create gaps between a wall and them when they are placed against the wall.

In FIGS. 1-3, an embodiment of a cradle is illustrated. FIG. 1 illustrates cradle 100 bent to a U-shape which a lateral edge of cradle 100 is typically formed to when the cradle is affixed between a wall and an article of furnishing. Cradle 100 in FIGS. 2-3 is generally flat and is illustrative of a cradle when it is not affixed. FIG. 2 illustrates the planar side view of cradle 100. FIG. 3 illustrates the bottom view of cradle 100. In one embodiment, cradle 100 includes a flexible sheet 110 of, for example, a polymer (e.g., polypropylene) cloth (e.g., canvas), or paper with two surfaces, top surface 120 and bottom surface 130. Only bottom surface 130 is shown in FIG. 3. Adhesive strips 140 and 150 are coated on the portions of the back surface along both longitudinal edges of flexible sheet 110, as illustrated in FIGS. 1-3, and attaches flexible sheet 110 to a wall and an article of furnishing. Adhesive backings 141 and 151 are covering adhesive strips 140 and 150, respectively, and can be peeled off from adhesive strips 140 and 150 as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3 where it is shown that adhesive backings 141 and 151 are partially peeled off from adhesives strips 140 and 150. Adhesive strips 140 and 150 do not have to be continuous strips as illustrated FIGS. 1-3 as long as they can serve to affix the cradle 100 between a wall and an article of furnishing. For example, the adhesive substance may be coated on to the flexible sheet to make a series of short strips.

Flexible sheet 110 of cradle 100 may be produced in different dimensions and thicknesses to conform to different width of articles and different sizes of gap depths between an article of furnishing and a wall. For flexible sheet 110, a representative dimension is 4×36 inches and a representative thickness is about 0.5 to 3 mm. Flexible sheet 110 may be made of any material that allows flexibility and sufficient sturdiness to withstand the weight of fallen objects when made into a sheet form. A plastic material such as polypropylene may be used.

Adhesive strips 140 and 150 may be made from any conventional adhesive substances used to make conventional adhesive tapes. Such adhesive substances may be coated onto the flexible sheet directly and then covered by adhesive backings to be peeled off from the coated adhesive substances. Alternatively, a conventional double-sided adhesive tape having an adhesive backing on each side of the tape may be employed to make the adhesive strips. Leaving an adhesive backing on one side of the tape remain unpeeled, the tape on the peeled side may be applied to back surface 130 along the longitudinal edges of flexible sheet 110.

FIGS. 4a and 4b illustrate a planar side view of cradle 100 affixed between wall 410 and desk 420. FIG. 4b is a magnified view of cradle 100 in FIG. 4a. In FIG. 4b, one of the two longitudinal end portions onto which adhesive strip 150 is coated is affixed to the top portion of the back surface of desk 420 and the other longitudinal end portion onto which adhesive strip 140 is coated is affixed by adhesive strip 140 to a portion of wall 410 that horizontally faces the top portion of the back surface of desk 420 so that the lateral edge of flexible sheet 110 is formed to a U-shape and thereby cradle 100 is affixed between wall 410 and desk 420 and covers gab 430. Objects that may fall from the top surface of desk 420 will be caught by cradle 100 and remain on top surface 120 of flexible sheet 110. Cradle 100 may be removed from wall 410 and desk 420 by peeling off the longitudinal portions from wall 410 and desk 420 just like peeling off adhesive tape from an object which the tapes were applied to.

FIG. 4c illustrates a planar side view of cradle 100 affixed between wall 410 and desk 420 in an alternative way than the way cradle 100 is affixed in FIG. 4b. In FIG. 4c, the longitudinal end portion of flexible sheet 110 onto which adhesive strip 150 is coated is affixed to the back end portion of top surface of desk 420 instead of back surface of desk 420 which it is affixed to in FIG. 4a and the other longitudinal end portion of flexible sheet 110 on to which adhesive strip 140 is coated is affixed to a portion of wall 410 above the portion that it was attached to in FIG. 4b so that the lateral edge of flexible sheet 110 in FIG. 4c is formed to a slope downward from wall 410 to the top surface of desk 420. Cradle 100, affixed as illustrated in FIG. 4c, can catch an object falling from the top surface of desk 420 or have the object slide back to the top surface of desk 420 depending on how steep the slope of flexible sheet 110 is.

FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of the cradle and the desk of FIG. 4a. Cradle 100 extends the entire length, L 422, of the top panel of desk 420. Because cradle 100 extends the entire length, it is not necessary to add another length by attaching another cradle between wall 410 and desk 420.

FIG. 6 illustrates cradle 100 affixed between wall 510 and washing machine 520. Cradle 100 does not extend the entire width, W 522, of washing machine 520 (e.g., 24 inches). To cover the portion of the back side remaining uncovered, another cradle may be cut to the remaining width, W 524, and affixed to wall 510 and back surface of washing machine 520. Although it is not illustrated in FIG. 6, if the length, W 112, of cradle 100 is longer than the width, W 522, of washing machine 520, cradle 100 may be cut to the same length as the width, W 522, and attached to extend the entire and exact width of washing machine 520.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of a process to install a cradle between a wall and a piece of furnishing according to one embodiment of a cradle. At process block 702, a cradle is cut to a desired length if the desired length is shorter than the length of a cradle. A cradle can be cut to any length using a pair of scissors or any other cutting instrument. At process block 704, the cradle cut to the desired length at process block 702 is positioned between an article of furnishing and a wall at a desired position. As discussed above, the lateral edge of a cradle may be parallel to the floor or be formed to a slope between a wall and an article of furnishing depending on the need. At process block 706, the adhesive backings are removed from the cradle to expose the adhesive strips of the cradle. At process block 708, the cradle is affixed to the top portion of the back surface of the article of furnishing and to the desired portion of the wall. It is to be recognized that the steps in the process blocks can be accomplished in any order. For example, adhesive backings can be removed from a cradle before the cradle is affixed to the wall and the article of furnishing. It is also evident that the steps can be partially completed. For example, adhesive backings are partially removed from a cradle and then can be completely removed after the cradle is affixed by partially exposed adhesive strips.

In the preceding detailed description specific exemplary embodiments are described. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and change may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of embodiments as set forth in the claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

cutting a cradle to a desired length;

positioning the cradle at a position between an article of furnishing and a wall and reachable without moving the article of furnishing;

removing adhesive backing from the cradle; and

affixing the cradle to the article of furnishing and the wall.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising catching objects falling from the article of furnishing with the cradle.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising keeping objects on the article of furnishing with the cradle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the position is about 1 to 2 inches below the back edge of the top portion of the article of furnishing.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the position is a position where the cradle makes a slope with respect to the plane of the article of furnishing.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the cradle extends its length by connecting more cradles lengthwise.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the cradle comprises a sheet of a material comprising a plastic material.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the plastic material comprises polypropylene.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a generally rectangular sheet having two lateral edges and two longitudinal edges and dimensions generally conforming to a gap between an article of furnishing and a wall; and

a plurality of adhesive strips put on one surface of the sheet along the two longitudinal edges of the sheet.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the sheet is flexible.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the sheet is cuttable with a pair of scissors.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the sheet has thickness of about 0.5 to 3 mm, width about 4 inches and length about 36 inches.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the sheet extends by lengthwise connecting more sheets having the same dimensions as said dimensions.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising an adhesive backing covering the adhesive substance.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the sheet is made of a material comprising a plastic material.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the plastic material comprises polypropylene.

17. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the adhesive strips are continuous strips.

18. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the adhesive strips are intermittent strips.

19. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the adhesive strips are made of a material comprising conventional adhesive substances used to make conventional adhesive tapes.

20. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the adhesive strips comprises a double-sided adhesive tape.