CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention is illustrated by an air beam supported tent structure 100 having a tent fly cover 102 supported by a plurality of air beam support legs 104connected one to another at their upper ends and with each said support leg having an integrated air beam support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30 formed at the lower distal end of each said support leg and with each said pocket assembly sized to receive, cooperate, and retain a selected weight bag 110 (selectively filled with a selected weight medium of water, sand, steel shot, lead shot, or other pourable weight material) or formed metal weight plate or other heavy object to anchor the leg relative to the underlaying ground surface or other underlaying surface upon which each said lower distal end is placed. See FIG. 5.
The present invention is an improvement over other anchoring systems that use guy lines attached to laterally displaced ground stakes or external sand bags or other external weights attached to the exterior of the tent structure or air beam support legs. The present invention provides a cleaner more attractive profile to anchored air beam support legs than can be achieved with prior art anchoring systems that often use exterior weights attached to the exterior of the air beam support leg.
The present invention provides an anchored air beam structure that is less likely to exhibit a human tripping hazard that often is exhibited by other anchoring systems that often use guy lines with stakes or sandbags or other ballast objects attached externally to the air beam structure.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A principal objective of the invention is to provide a tent structure manufacturer or an air beam structure manufacturer or other structural air beam user with an improved structural air beam support leg including an anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30 that is internal to each said air beam support leg used in a structure that is simple to use, less hazardous to users by reducing a potential tripping hazard, low-maintenance, and reliable.
Additional and various other objects and advantages attained by the invention will become more apparent as the specification is read and the accompanying figures are reviewed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a structural air beam support leg 6 including an anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly showing the components of the pocket assembly and by reference lines indicating the spatial relationships between and among the shown components to be attached one to another;
FIG. 2 is a partially exploded view of the air beam support leg shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a side view of an arced tubular air beam support leg 60 including an anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30;
FIG. 4 is a side view of an full-arched tubular air beam support leg 80 including two anchoring weight baffle pocket assemblies 30;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an air beam supported tent structure 100 having a tent fly cover 102 and a plurality of arced air beam support legs 104 each said support leg having an arced upper tubular outer sheath 64 and having an anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30;
FIG. 6 is a partial, exploded plan view of the structural air beam support leg shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 showing the components of the pocket assembly and by reference lines indicating the spatial relationships between and among the shown components to be attached one to another (a conformable air cell bladder is not shown);
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a weight bag 110 showing an access port 112 for allowing the placement of a pourable weight ballast material such as water, gravel, sand, steel shot, lead shot, or other selected material into the bag for containment and retention within the bag by means of an access port closure 114 that can be a threaded cap, snap-on cap, or other suitable closure device or closure means;
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a shaped weight 116 that could be a barbell weight plate or other suitable solid weight ballast object sized or selected of a size to fit within a pocket assembly;
FIG. 9 is a partial, simplified view of the support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30 shown partially open and showing a flexible lower leg conformable baffle 32 positioned axially upward away from a lower leg pocket zipper 42 toward an uninflated flexible conformable air cell bladder 14 thereby providing a larger interior volume to the pocket assembly to receive a selected internal weight bag 110 positioned to be inserted into the pocket assembly against the lower leg baffle 32 before the pocket zipper is closed to retain the weight bag within the pocket assembly (zipper sliders and slider pull tabs not shown);
FIG. 10 is a simplified partial, side view of the pocket assembly shown in FIG. 9 partially closed and enclosing within the pocket assembly the weight bag;
FIG. 11 is a simplified partial, side view of the pocket assembly shown in FIG. 10 closed and enclosing within the pocket assembly the weight bag and showing the uninflated air cell bladder;
FIG. 12 is a simplified partial, side view of the pocket assembly shown in FIG. 10 and showing the inflated air cell bladder expanded and pushing the conformable lower leg baffle downward toward the enclosed weight bag;
FIG. 13 is a simplified partial, side view of the pocket assembly partially open and showing the conformable baffle 32 extended downward by the inflated and expanded bladder 14;
FIG. 14 is a partial, perspective view of the support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30 shown open and showing a conformable lower leg baffle 32 positioned axially upward away from a lower leg pocket zipper 42 that provides an interior volume to the pocket assembly to receive a selected internal weight bag 110 positioned to be inserted into the pocket assembly and against the conformable lower leg baffle comprising the cap panel 34 joined to the baffle panel 32 before the pocket zipper is closed to retain the weight bag within the pocket assembly;
FIG. 15 is a partial, side view of the support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly and the inserted weight bag both shown in FIG. 14 with the pocket zipper 42 ready to be closed;
FIG. 16 is a partial, partially cutaway side view of the support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly shown in FIG. 15 with the pocket zipper closed and the weight bag enclosed within the assembly and showing a support leg spine zipper 20 partially opened and showing an inflatable air cell bladder 14 that when inflated pushes outward against the inside surfaces of the outer sheath and pushes downward against the conformable leg baffle and conforms the baffle closely to the weight bag below the baffle that is contained in the pocket assembly or pushes the baffle down fully to fill the pocket assembly if no weight bag or other weight object is present in the pocket assembly;
FIG. 17 is a partial, side view of the support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly shown in FIG. 16 with the pocket zipper and the spine zipper both closed;
FIG. 18 is a partial, side view of the support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly and the enclosed weight bag shown in FIG. 16 with the pocket zipper closed showing an air cell inflation port 16 and an inflation port closure 18 attached by a lanyard;
FIG. 19 is a partial, side view of the support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly shown in FIG. 16 with the pocket zipper closed and showing a small portion of the weight bag 110 visible between the two pocket zipper sliders 43;
FIG. 20 is an bottom view of the flexible high-friction pad 54 encircled by an edge piping 56 and showing potential stitching lines by use of dashed lines;
FIG. 21 is a partial, perspective view of the pocket assembly shown in FIG. 16 with the spine zipper 20 open to show the interior of the pocket assembly above the conformable lower leg baffle wall 36 and the conformable lower leg baffle cap panel 34 and showing the leg baffle in an upward position away from the pocket zipper 42 (the air cell bladder is not shown);
FIG. 22 is a partial, perspective view of the pocket assembly shown in FIG. 21 with the spine zipper open to show the interior of the pocket assembly above the leg baffle and showing the air-cell bladder 14 adjacent the baffle cap panel 34;
FIG. 23 is a partial, perspective view of the support leg anchoring weight ballast conformal baffle pocket assembly 30 shown open and showing a conformable lower leg baffle positioned axially downward away from the lower leg panel 12 that will result in a smaller empty interior volume to the pocket assembly when no weight bag or other object is inserted into the pocket assembly; and
FIG. 24 is a partial, perspective view of the support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30 shown partially open and showing a lower leg baffle 32 above a conformal weight bag 110.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIGS. 1 to 24, the present invention is a novel structural air beam support leg including an anchoring weight preferably conformal baffle pocket assembly 30 that internally receives and retains a weight bag 110 or other weight material within a reversibly closable pocket to anchor said support leg to the ground or the underlaying surface upon which the support leg rests without having to use external guy lines and ground stakes together or ground stakes to tie-down straps or external to the air beam weight bags or external anchors.
By illustration, the elements of the invention are in one embodiment, an air beam support leg anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30 for incorporation into the distal lower ends of air beam support legs 104, or 6, or 60, or 80 of an air beam supported tent structure 100 or other air beam supported structure that can have a flexible fabric tent fly cover 102 or other covering or banner or flag or other object retained to the tent structure by a plurality of tent fly cover retention straps 106 connecting to said support legs or other connecting means appropriate with respect to the respective structural air beam embodiment; said tent structure having one or more air beam support legs 104, each said support leg comprising a generally tubular shaped flexible non-elastic outer sheath 64 or 10 or 86 (made of PVC supported industrial fabric or polyurethane supported industrial fabric or other suitable sheet material) that encircles and encloses within said leg an air cell bladder 14 (see FIGS. 1, 2, 9 to 13, 16, and 22) preferably made of a flexible elastic sheet material that receives and retains an inflating gas (air or other suitable inflating gas) through an air cell bladder inflation port 16 to inflate said bladder and fill the interior of said leg, said bladder when inflated presses outward against the interior surfaces of the leg and presses outward and against the interior of the outer sheath and outward and against an internal baffle 32 preferably defined by a baffle cap panel 34 joined to a baffle panel 36 and the bladder places the outer sheath and the baffle in tension and the leg becomes more rigid and capable of supporting the support leg and any supported tent structure or other load and urges the baffle away from the upper end of the outer sheath and toward the lower distal end of the support leg; said baffle pocket assembly is incorporated as the lower distal portion of each said support leg; each said leg anchoring weight pocket assembly 30 comprises:
- a lower air beam leg panel 12 that forms a generally tubular lower portion of the support leg, a lower leg baffle 32 preferably having a lower leg baffle wall 36 attached to a lower leg baffle cap panel 34 is located and attached within the lower portion of the leg panel that bridges generally transversely across and between a selected position located towards the lower distal end of the leg panel; preferably each support leg has a support leg spine zipper 20 attached along the spine of the leg to allow access to the interior of the leg and to the enclosed air bladder; a generally rectangular lower leg zippered weight pocket upper wall panel 38 attached to the generally horizontal lower edge of the outer sheath lower end portion 12;
- an outer sheath hinge panel 40 attached between said pocket upper wall panel and a generally rectangular lower leg pocket lower wall panel 44;
- a lower leg pocket zipper 42 (or reversible closure means such as snaps or hook and loop closures or other suitable closure means) is attached between said pocket upper wall panel and said pocket lower wall panel;
- a lower leg air beam lower end panel 46 attached to said lower wall panel to close the distal end of the support leg;
- said baffle, said hinge panel, said pocket upper wall panel, said pocket zipper, said pocket lower wall panel, and said air beam lower end panel defining a flexible weight (ballast) receiving and retaining pocket within the lower portion of said support leg;
- also preferably there are a plurality of lower leg base D-ring straps 48 attached to the outside bottom surface of the lower end panel;
- also preferably there is a lower leg support base wear pad 50 attached to the outside bottom surface of the lower end panel;
- also preferably a length of base wear pad edge piping 52 is attached to cover the outer perimeter of the base wear pad;
- also preferably a flexible high-friction pad 54 is attached to the bottom surface of the wear pad; a length of flexible edge piping 56 can be attached to cover the outer perimeter of the flexible high-friction pad.
Preferably the weight receiving and retaining pocket is sized to receive, retain, and cooperate with a selected weight bag 110 preferably having a weight bag access port 112 to receive a weight or other weighty material and having an access port closure 114 or a selected shaped weight plate 116 or other ballast object within the pocket assembly. The bladder has an air cell bladder inflation port 16 for inflating and deflating the bladder and the port has a suitable inflation port closure 18.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a straight tubular air beam 6 comprises an air beam upper end panel 8 connected to the upper end of a generally straight upper tubular outer sheath 10, said outer sheath is hollow and has a generally vertical outer sheath lower end portion 12, said end portion preferably has an inflation port aperture 13 there through; a conformable air cell bladder 14 received and retained within said outer sheath with said bladder sized to conform and fill when inflated the interior volume of said outer sheath (the tubular air beam), an air cell bladder inflation port 16 is connected to and communicates into and out of said bladder and is preferably mounted through said outer sheath inflation port aperture; preferably an inflation port closure 18 is provided to close the inflation port, said port closure can be a threaded cap; preferably an outer sheath spine zipper 20 equipped with at least one spine zipper slider 22 and associated slider pull tab 24; said spine zipper is preferably mounted longitudinally in said outer sheath to allow access through said outer sheath and into the interior of said tubular air beam; an air beam anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30 (elements 32 to 46) is attached to the lower distal end of said lower end portion; preferably a transverse flexible conformable baffle 32 is mounted within said lower end portion to separate the air cell bladder from the weight bag or other objects placed in said pocket assembly, preferably said baffle comprises a baffle cap panel 34 attached to a baffle wall panel 36 (see FIGS. 1, 6, 14, and 21 to 23); a pocket upper wall panel 38 is attached to the lower edge of said lower end portion and to a flexible outer sheath hinge panel 40, said hinge panel preferably attached to said upper wall panel and to the two ends of a pocket zipper 42 equipped with at least one pocket zipper slider 43 and associated slider pull tab, said zipper upper longitudinal half attached along the lower edge of said upper wall panel and said zipper lower longitudinal half attached along the upper edge of a pocket lower wall panel 44; an beam lower end panel 46 attached to said lower wall panel along the lower edged of said lower wall panel; preferably a plurality of lower leg base D-ring straps 48 attached to lower portions of said air beam; (D-ring straps securement stitching 49 can be used to attach said D-ring straps); preferably a lower leg support base wear pad 50 is attached to and beneath said lower end panel; a length of optional base wear pad edge piping 52 can be attached to the edge of said wear pad; preferably a flexible high-friction pad 54 is attached below said lower end panel and said wear panel if present in said support leg; and a length of optional high-friction pad edge piping 56 can be attached to the edge of said high-friction pad.
An arced tubular air beam 60 comprises an air beam upper end panel 62 attached to an arced upper tubular outer sheath 64 having a generally vertical outer sheath lower end portion 12, a conformable air cell bladder is received and retained within said tubular outer sheath sized to conform and fill when inflated the interior volume of said tubular air beam, said air cell bladder having an air cell bladder inflation port 16 preferably equipped with an inflation port closure 18; preferably an outer sheath spine zipper 66 having at least one spine zipper slider 68 and associated slider pull tab 70 is mounted longitudinally in said outer sheath to allow access through said sheath into the interior of said arced tubular air beam; an air beam anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly 30 attached to the distal end of said lower end portion. See FIGS. 3 and 5.
Referring to FIG. 4, a full-arched tubular air beam 80 comprises a full-arched upper tubular outer sheath 84, two generally vertical outer sheath lower end portions 12, a conformable air cell bladder is received and retained within said tubular outer sheath sized to conform and fill when inflated the interior volume of said full-arched tubular air beam, an air cell bladder inflation port 16 preferably equipped with an inflation port closure 18 is connected to and communicates into and out of said bladder and preferably an outer sheath spine zipper 86 having at least one spine zipper slider 88 and associated slider pull tab 88 is mounted longitudinally in said outer sheath to allow access through said sheath into the interior of said arced tubular air beam; and two air beam anchoring weight baffle pocket assemblies 30 attached respectively to the distal end of each said lower end portion.
Referring to FIG. 5, an air beam supported tent structure 100 comprises a plurality of arced air beam support legs 104 (60) with each said support leg having an anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly connected and radially distributed one to another at their upper ends; a tent fly cover 102 preferably attached over said support legs; preferably a plurality of tent fly cover retention straps 106 attached to said fly cover and connecting said fly cover to respective portions of support legs; said support legs joined one to another at their respective upper ends by attaching means such as adhesive used between abutting portions of said upper ends to join said abutting portions, a plurality of connecting panels attached to and among said upper ends, one or more connecting straps attached to and among said upper ends, or other attaching means known in the art to attach said upper ends one to another.
Preferably a flexible, conformable internal weight bag 110 is available for use with each embodiment of the anchoring weight baffle pocket assembly, said weight bag having a weight bag access port 112 and an associated access port closure 114 (a threaded cap or other suitable closure means that permit selected access into and from said bad; said bag being water and air tight when closed by the closure. Alternatively, a shaped weight plate 116 such as a barbell weight plate suitably sized to fit within and to be retained within said pocket assembly can be used with the pocket assembly.
In place of a conformable baffle, a static flexible but non stretchable baffle could be used with the invention, but with less utility than available with a conformable baffle 32.
A majority of the fabic components of the invention are preferably made from a flexible nonelastic PVC coated flexible fabric material. The air-cell bladder can be made from flexibe polyurethane sheet material or other suitable flexible inflating gas impervious material. Means of joining or attaching of elements of the invention one to another preferably may include welding, hot air welding, RF welding, adhesive, stitching, or connecting straps, or other connecting means known in the art.
The preceding description and exposition of a preferred embodiment of the invention is presented for purposes of illustration and enabling disclosure. It is neither intended to be exhaustive nor to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications or variations in the invention in light of the above teachings that are obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art are considered within the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted to the breath to which they are fairly, legitimately and equitably entitled.
