DEVICE FOR MANUALLY ROLLING UP A CUSHION LIKE BODY

Abstract

Generally a cushion-like body, and specifically a pillow is manually rolled up and kept in a rolled up transport configuration by means of an enveloping device including a flexible sheet element extending in a longitudinal enveloping direction; an elongated stiffening portion connected to an end portion of the flexible element and extending transversely to the longitudinal enveloping direction; and a releasable hook and loop retaining assembly for connecting a free end portion of the flexible element to an intermediate portion of the flexible element itself.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National Stage filing under 35 U.S.C. 371 of PCT/IB2008/000445 and claims priority of Italian Patent Application No. TO2007A000162 filed Feb. 3, 2007, the subject matter of which applications is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to an enveloping device for rolling up a cushion-like body, specifically a pillow.

2. Background Art

Having one's own personal pillow available is often needed in case of travels or even short trips. Transporting the pillow in a extended condition, i.e. in a normal condition of use, is often uncomfortable and, in some cases, impossible because the pillow is intrinsically relatively cumbersome and, however, is unacceptable for hygienic reasons. On the other hand, however, manually folding or enveloping the pillow and keeping it in an enveloped or folded position may not be intuitive and may, in some cases, be particularly difficult due to the resistance opposed by the pillow, with the consequence that the pillow, once folded or enveloped, still displays large dimensions and above all shapes, in addition to external sizes which vary each time.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

It is the object of the present invention to make an enveloping device of a cushion-like body, which allows to simply and cost-effectively solve the aforesaid problems and, specifically, an enveloping device which allows to manually envelop the cushion-like body without requiring accessory members thus always obtaining a body of virtually constant geometry.

According to the present invention, an enveloping device for manually rolling up a cushion-like body is made; the device including a flexible sheet element extending in a longitudinal enveloping direction; an elongated continuous stiffening portion connected to an end portion of said flexible element and extending transversally to said longitudinal enveloping direction; and releasable retaining means for connecting an end portion of said elongated sheet element opposite to the one connected to said first continuous stiffening element to an intermediate portion of the elongated sheet element.

Moreover, the device defined above preferably includes a plurality of further continuous elongated stiffening portions distributed along said longitudinal enveloping direction and connected to corresponding intermediate portions of said flexible sheet element in positions transversal to said longitudinal enveloping direction.

Conveniently, the stiffening portions extend along corresponding essentially rectilinear directions parallel to each other and orthogonal to said enveloping direction and, conveniently, are defined by manually non-deformable ribs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures, which disclose a non-limitative embodiment thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the enveloping device according to the present invention with a cushion-like body in an undeformed condition or condition of use overlapping;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are sections taken along lines II-II and IU-III in FIG. 1, respectively;

FIG. 4 shows the device and the cushion-like body in FIG. 1 in an initial enveloping step; and

FIG. 5 shows the device and the cushion-like body in FIG. 1 in a final enveloping or

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

In FIGS. 1 and 5, numeral 1 indicates an enveloping device for manually rolling up a cushion-like body 2, conveniently a pillow.

The device 1 includes a flexible sheet element 3 extending in a longitudinal enveloping direction, indicated by numeral 4. Conveniently, the flexible sheet element 3 consists of two overlapped sheets 5 and 6 (FIGS. 2 and 3), which are made either of the same material or of different materials and, for example, of fabric, non-woven fabric, or plastic or synthetic material, or even leather, leatherette or the like. The sheets 5 and 6 are firmly connected together and, according to the material of which they are made, are at least partially joined by sewing, gluing or heat sealing.

In the embodiment described by way of example, the sheets 5 and 6 are connected together by means of a plurality of seams essentially orthogonal to the enveloping direction 4. Specifically, an end portion 7 of the elongated flexible sheet element 3 is folded back and sewn by means of a seam 8 to define an end pocket 9 extending orthogonally to direction 4. The sheets 5 and 6 are then joined together by a plurality of reciprocally parallel pairs of seams 10 distributed along the direction 4 and made on corresponding intermediate portions 11 of the flexible sheet element 3 orthogonally to the direction 4 to define corresponding intermediate pockets 13 parallel to the pocket 9. The end pocket 9 and the intermediate pockets 13 accommodate corresponding rectilinear tubular rods 15 and 16, which extend orthogonally to direction 4 from one side to the other of the flexible sheet element 3 and are made of metal material, conveniently aluminum alloys or other materials of comparable strength and weight, or of wood or plastic material or, even, of composite fiber materials. According to a variant (not shown), the rods 15 and 16 are solid or shaped rods. For example, the rod 15 is defined by a flat lamellar material stick having sides of approximately 30-35 mm and 5 mm. The rods 15 and 16 are, in any case, chosen from materials such as to display an essential non-deformability to the action exerted by the user's hands, for the reasons illustrated below.

According to a first variant (not shown), the rods 15 and 16 are either sewn or glued or even riveted directly onto an extended external surface 18 of the flexible sheet element 3. Alternatively, according to a further variant, the flexible sheet element 3 and the rods 15 and 16 form part of an integral body, e.g. made of molded thermoplastic material. Again with reference to FIG. 1, flexible quadrangular portions 19 of the aforesaid flexible sheet material 3 extend between the pockets 9 and 13, which are either smooth or ribbed and delimited by opposite extended side surfaces displaying printed and/or silk-screen printed, glued or even heat-engraved writings or drawings.

Again with reference to FIG. 1, on an internal surface 21 of the flexible sheet element 3 opposite to the surface 18, the cushion-like body 2 is set down before being rolled up and two or more references 23 (FIG. 1) are transferred and adapted to allow the positioning of the cushion-like body 2 in a predetermined reference position with possible written instructions or drawings for the enveloping operation inside. Preferably, the references 23 consist of lines traced on the surface 21 or of ridges protruding from the surface 21 itself or even of perforations on the internal sheet.

Again with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3, the device 1 further includes a releasable closing or retaining assembly of the cushion-like body 2 in a rolled up transport position. In the particular described example, the assembly 25 is of the hook and loop type and includes a strip of male Velcro® 26 arranged on the surface 21 and integrally connected to an end portion 27 of the flexible sheet element 3 opposite to the portion 7, and a strip of female Velcro® 28 (FIG. 3) arranged on the surface 18 of the flexible sheet element 3 and integrally connected to an intermediate portion 29 of the flexible sheet element 3 itself. The strip 28 displays a length L measured parallelly to the direction 4 which is greater than the width L1 of the strip 26 measured in the same direction 4.

According to a variant (not shown), the strip 28 is conveniently replaced by three strips of female Velcro of length L arranged parallelly to the enveloping direction 4 in reciprocally distanced transversal positions.

In use, the flexible sheet element 3 is laid on a surface, the surface 21 facing upwards, then the cushion-like body 2 is set down on the surface 21 within the references 23, in the enveloping direction 4, as shown in FIG. 1.

At this point, the portion 7 and the corresponding rod 15 are lifted, placed on top of an end portion 30 of the cushion-like body 2 and then forced against the portion 30 itself, as shown in FIG. 4. At this point, the rod 15, along with the portion 30 of the cushion-like body 2, are progressively rotated making them roll over the remaining part of the cushion-like body 2, progressively enveloping with a compressive action the cushion-like body 2 along with the flexible sheet element 3. The enveloping or rolling up of the cushion-like body 2 is facilitated by the presence of the rods 15 and 16 which, because they are essentially manually non-deformable, allow to keep the cushion-like body 2 in any rolled up position with one hand and to use the other hand to continue rolling up, without the cushion-like body 2 being arbitrarily deformed because the rods 15 and 16, along with the quadrangular portions 19, in practice define the generatrixes of a spiralled cylindrical generatrix body.

After the rolling up, the male Velcro strip 26 is overlapped on a portion of the female Velcro strip 28 thus keeping the formed cylindrical body in a firm transport position, shown in FIG. 5.

From the above, it is apparent that the described enveloping device 1 allows a user to easily and protectively transport his or her own personal pillow during travels or even short trips and to provide a dedicated, invariable space in one's baggage. The described device 1 indeed allows to manually envelop one's own pillow in an extremely easy and particularly rapid manner protecting it from external bodies with which it could come into contact during the transport. The above is essentially due to the presence of the flexible sheet element 3, which is enveloped about the pillow but, above all, to the presence of the stiffening ribs or bars 15,16, which allow to progressively roll up the pillow using the hands in sequence and to obtain, after the rolling up, an always rigorously cylindrical body of variable diameter only according to the exerted enveloping pressure and to the size of the cushion-like body.

From the above, it is further apparent that the features of device 1 and, specifically, the size of the closing assembly 25 allow the device 1 to adapt to cushion-like bodies of various thickness and the user to choose the maximum volume dimensions by exerting a more or less vigorous enveloping action.

Furthermore, using a flexible sheet element then allows to obtain an effective protection of the pillow from external bodies and thus transport in always optimal hygienic conditions.

Finally, from the above it is apparent that changes and variations may be made to the described device 1 without therefore departing from the scope of protection defined by the claims.

Specifically, the elongated sheet element may be made of material other than that shown by way of example, and the stiffening portions could also be different by geometry and material. Specifically, the stiffening portions could display a non-rectilinear pattern and form an angle other than ninety degrees with the enveloping direction. The number of stiffening portions could be different from that shown by way of example and the stiffening portions could be distributed in a different manner from that described. Specifically, the device 1 could be free from intermediate portions 16 and thus only include the appropriately dimensioned end portion 15.

Finally, the device 1 could be provided with external transport handles conveniently made of flexible sewn or glued or heat-sealed material according to the material of the flexible sheet element.

Claims

1. An enveloping device for manually rolling up a cushion-like body; the device including a flexible sheet element extending in a longitudinal enveloping direction; an elongated continuous stiffening portion connected to an end portion of said flexible element and extending transversally to said longitudinal enveloping direction; and releasable retaining means for connecting an end portion of said elongated sheet element opposite to the one connected at said continuous elongated stiffening portion to an intermediate portion of the elongated sheet element.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1, characterized in that it further includes a plurality of further continuous elongated stiffening portions distributed along said longitudinal enveloping direction and connected to corresponding intermediate portions of said flexible sheet element in positions transversal to said longitudinal enveloping direction.

3. A device as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that said further stiffening portions extend along corresponding substantially rectilinear directions parallel to each other and orthogonal to said enveloping direction.

4. A device as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that at least one of said elongated stiffening portions is defined by a manually non-deformable rib.

5. A device all as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that at least one of said elongated stiffening portions extends from one side to the other of said elongated sheet element.

6. A device as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that at least one of said elongated stiffening portions consists of an elongated body separated from said sheet element and inserted in an accommodation seat of said sheet element.

7. A device as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that said sheet element includes two overlapped sheets connected together; at least one of said elongated stiffening portions being interposed between said two overlapped sheets.

8. A device as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that at least one of said elongated stiffening portions consists of at least one tubular body.

9. A device as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that at least one of said elongated stiffening portions consists of a solid or shaped body.

10. A device as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that at least one of said elongated stiffening portions consists of a plastic material body firmly connected to said sheet material.

11. A device according to claim 10, characterized in that said sheet material and at least one of said stiffening portions form part of an integral body.

12. A device as set forth in claim 1, characterized in that it includes reference means for positioning said cushion-like body on said flexible sheet element in a predetermined position.

13. A device as set forth in claim 1, characterized in that said releasable retaining means include hook and loop connecting means.

14. A device according to claim 13, characterized in that said hook and loop connecting means include a first strip of connecting material associated to an end portion of said flexible sheet element opposite to the end portion carrying said stiffening portion, and at least one second strip of connecting material connected to an intermediate segment of said sheet material.

15. A device according to claim 14, characterized in that said second strip displays a size measured parallelly to the said enveloping direction larger than the size of said first strip measured in the same direction.

16. A device according to claim 15, characterized in that it includes three said second strips arranged parallel to each other and to said enveloping direction.