Stroller with passive restraint arrangement
A stroller has at least one seat supported by a frame assembly. The seat has a seat back and a seat bottom. A traversing structure extends laterally across the seat, is spaced forward of a surface of the seat back, and is spaced upward of a surface of the seat bottom. A foot opening is positioned beneath the traversing structure, above the seat bottom, and between opposed and spaced apart side frame sections of the frame assembly. A passive restraint obstruction extends from a portion of the stroller into the foot opening and reduces a size of the foot opening. The obstruction creates a passive restraint to inhibit a child from fitting through the foot opening.
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1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention is directed to strollers, and more particularly to a stroller with a seating arrangement that provides a passive restraint feature for an occupant.
2. Description of Related Art
Strollers are well known in the art to include a seat with a seat bottom and a seat back. Such strollers are also well known to optionally include a tray, grab bar, or other structure that traverses laterally across the stroller seat. Such a tray or other structure is typically positioned above the seat bottom and forward of the seat back s that an occupant sits behind the structure and their legs extend forward beneath the structure.
In a typical stroller, both the front edge region of the seat bottom and the underside of the tray or other traversing structure have a relatively linear profile laterally across the width of the stroller. This creates a fairly consistent vertical gap between the underside of the traversing structure and the top side of the seat bottom near its forward edge.
Stroller seats are typically provided with a safety belt or harness for the purpose of restraining a child or infant in the seat. However, a child that is not properly restrained by the belt or harness can slide forward in the seat between the forward edge of the seat bottom and the underside of the traversing structure. A child can fall completely out of the stroller seat or become trapped part way forward in the seat, between the seat bottom and the tray or other structure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSObjects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following description in conjunction with the drawing figures, in which:
The strollers disclosed herein resolve or improve upon one or more of the problems noted above with previously known strollers. The disclosed strollers have a passive restraint configuration between a stroller seat bottom and a tray or other structure that laterally traverses the stroller above the seat bottom. The passive restraint configuration inhibits unintentional, forward pass-through of a child or infant between the seat bottom and the tray or other structure.
Turning now to the drawings,
The stroller 10 in the example of
Many strollers are provided with a traversing structure of some type that extends laterally side-to-side between the two frame side sections 12A and 12B. The configuration and purpose of the traversing structure can vary. The structure can be a simple planar surface, a tray with one or more recesses, a grab bar, or the like. In this example, the traversing structure is shown as a tray 30. The tray 30 is mounted to portions of the opposed frame side sections 12A and 12B and traverses the between the frame sections above the seat bottom and forward of the seat back. The tray 30 can be secured to the frame structure in any suitable manner at its opposed ends and can be fixed to, and optionally removably detachable from, the stroller. With the tray 30 or other structure in place, a foot opening or space 31 is created above the surface 24 of the seat bottom 20 and beneath the underside 32 of the tray 30.
The purpose of the obstruction 40 in this example is to reduce the size of any part of the foot opening 31 and/or alter the configuration of the foot opening 31 to create a passive restraint. That is, the obstruction 40 would be sized and positioned so that no part of the foot opening will be large enough to permit a child's body or head to pass or “submarine” between any part of the tray underside 32 and the upward facing surface 24 of the seat bottom 20. Testing and/or regulatory standards may be utilized to determine the precise configuration for the obstruction 40. However, the height and/or width of the taller foot opening regions 31A and 31B on either side of the obstruction 40 are to be sufficiently small in this example to provide the passive restraint function.
As will be evident to those having ordinary skill in the art, variations and modifications can be made to the disclosed examples of the passive restraint stroller configurations. Further, each example of a particular obstruction disclosed herein can be varied and modified in size, shape, and contour without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. In each example, the obstruction can be integrally molded or otherwise formed as a part of the component which carries the obstruction. For example, the obstruction shown in
The current ASTM standard for stroller foot openings specifies a test to be performed on all strollers that have a tray or grab bar that traverses the stroller above the seat. The current test standard specifies using a torso probe 70, as shown in
The passive restraint intent of the present invention, in one example, is to inhibit passage of both the torso probe 70 and the head probe 80 through the foot opening 31. The foot opening must still be able to function as intended by allowing an occupant's feet and legs to fit freely through the opening. Thus, the obstructions disclosed herein act as a full passive restraint prohibiting a child's torso from sliding between the tray and seat bottom of a stroller.
By way of example and turning again to
Using these same probe dimensions for the examples described herein, neither the 8 inch head probe 80 nor the rectangular torso probe 70 should be able to fit completely through either one of the foot opening regions 31A or 31B, or any portion of the foot opening 31 in order to perform the passive restraint function. As a result, if a child were to place both of their feet on one side of any of the disclosed obstructions, i.e., into either of the regions 31A or 31B of the foot opening 31, neither their torso nor their head would fit within that region between the tray and seat bottom. It is also certainly possible that a passive restraint could be constructed according to the teachings of the present that meets only the current standard. In other words, if the child's torso can fit through any part of the foot opening, then the head must also fit through the opening.
The disclosed obstructions creating the passive restraint examples described herein project into the foot opening between the tray and the seat bottom of a stroller. In these examples, the obstruction, whether on the tray, on the seat bottom, or both, is positioned generally relative to a side to side or lateral position, at the center of the foot opening 31. It is conceivable that one or more obstructions could be utilized that are not positioned on the lateral center and yet function as intended as a passive restraint in a stroller. Further, the orientation of the foot opening created between the traversing structure and the seat bottom is at least in a somewhat or generally vertical plane. The projections extend or project into the foot opening generally within the foot opening plane in the disclosed examples.
Although certain stroller and passive restraint examples have been described herein in accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure, the scope of coverage of this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all embodiments of the teachings of the disclosure that fairly fall within the scope of permissible equivalents.
Claims
1. A stroller comprising:
- at least one seat supported by a frame assembly, the seat having a seat back and a seat bottom;
- a traversing structure extending laterally across the seat, spaced forward of a surface of the seat back, and spaced upward of a surface of the seat bottom;
- a foot opening beneath the traversing structure, above the seat bottom, and between opposed, spaced apart side frame sections of the frame assembly; and
- a passive restraint obstruction including 1) a structure extending downward from a portion of the traversing structure into and reducing a size of the foot opening, and 2) a structure extending upward from the seat bottom, wherein the downward extending structure does not contact the upward extending structures,
- wherein the downwardly extending structure extends downwardly a first distance, and wherein the upwardly extending structure extends upwardly a second distance such that the first distance is not equal to the second distance.
2. (canceled)
3. (canceled)
4. (canceled)
5. The stroller according to claim 1, wherein the traversing structure is a tray.
6. The stroller according to claim 5, wherein the downward extending structure is a plastic component, integrally molded as a part of the traversing structure.
7. (canceled)
8. The stroller according to claim 1, wherein the downward extending structure is permanently connected to the traversing structure.
9. The stroller according to claim 4, wherein the upward extending structure is permanently connected to the seat bottom.
10. (canceled)
11. The stroller according to claim 1, wherein the second distance is greater than the first distance.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 29, 2005
Publication Date: Jul 5, 2007
Applicant: Graco Children's Products Inc. (Exton, PA)
Inventors: Devon Siesholtz (Boyertown, PA), Andrew Bowman (Chester Springs, PA)
Application Number: 11/321,707
International Classification: A47B 39/00 (20060101);