US20050005961A1

US20050005961A1 - One touch leisure tent having a connection link easily separated from and attached to its pole

Info

Publication number: US20050005961A1
Application number: US10/497,877
Authority: US
Inventors: Jaechul Chang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2001-12-05
Filing date: 2002-12-05
Publication date: 2005-01-13
Also published as: AU2002365795A1; EP1463865A1; CN1617968A; CA2469675A1; EP1463865A4; WO2003048485A1

Abstract

A one-touch tent is disclosed which can be folded and unfolded by one touch. In this tent, the folding of the pole segments is necessarily required, and in this folding or unfolding procedure, the occurrence of a disorder is excluded in the present invention. Further, the lengths of the poles can be adjusted, and the coupling between the poles and tent cloth becomes easy. Further, a special bag is provided for protecting the tent cloth from being damaged when carrying it.

Description

BACKGROUND ART

The present invention relates to a one-touch tent in which a plurality of foldable poles are connected to an upper connection hub in a radiative form, another plurality of pole segments are connected to a lower connection hub, the two sets of the pole segments are foldably connected to each other, and the tent can be folded and unfolded in one-touch form upon pushing up the lower connection hub like an umbrella. Particularly, the present invention relates to a one-touch tent in which a tent cloth is attached to the inside of the radiatively arranged poles in an easy manner, the stitches of sewing during the coupling of the tent cloth do not allow any intrusion of water during raining, any damages of connection devices due to the twisting of the poles are prevented, the lengths of the poles can be adjusted in accordance with the stature of the user, and the tent cloth is unitized with the tent poles so as to prevent any damages of the tent cloth during a transportation of the tent.

DISCUSSION OF RELATED ART

Generally, one-touch tents are folded and unfolded like an umbrella. That is, a plurality of foldable poles are connected to a connection hub in a radiative form, a plurality of upper pole segments of the poles are connected to a plurality of lower pole segments, the lower pole segments are detachably coupled to the upper pole segments, and the tent can be folded and unfolded in one-touch form upon up pushing up the lower connection hub like an umbrella Thus the tent can be installed on the ground.
Accordingly, the poles as the frame of the tent are disposed within the tent cloth, and therefore, it is not easy to instal and uninstall the tent Further, if a fly is installed to shield the sunbeams or water drops, an additional work is required, and therefore, the one-touch feature of the tent is faded. That is, the fly is aimed at shielding the ultraviolet rays, raindrops and dew as a cover, and therefore, its original purpose is not achieved.
In an attempt to solve this problem, the poles are coupled to the outside of the tent cloth, and for this purpose, sleeves are formed on the tent cloth so as to insert the poles into the sleeves. Thus the tent cloth is disposed on the inside of the poles. In this case, however, the insertion of the poles is confronted with the flowing problem. That is, supporting poles are connected to the upper connection hub, and movable poles are connected to the supporting poles, while the movable poles are also connected to the lower connection hub. Accordingly, it becomes impossible to insert the supporting poles into the sleeves.
Therefore, the lower connection hub and the movable poles are eliminated; the foldable supporting poles are foldably connected to only the upper connection hub, and then, are inserted into sleeves of the fly. Further, the connection devices of the supporting poles are provided with the supporting and folding functions. Therefore, the plurality of the supporting poles are unfolded one by one, and thus, the fly tent cloth is disposed on the inside of the poles.
However, this structure has the following problems. That is, the inner tent is connected to the fly tent through rings or the like, and the folding and unfolding of the fly tent become difficult because the inner tent is engaged. Further, the supporting poles can be unfolded by holding the connection devices one by one by both hands, and therefore, one single person can hardly install the tent. Further, the sleeves which are sewed to the outside of the fly tent are respectively provided with the connection devices so as to make the supporting poles folded, and the connection devices have a considerable width. Therefore, the supporting poles have no holding portions, with the result that the fly tent tends to drop down.
Recently, in order to solve this problem, an elastic strap is provided to each of the sleeves in such a manner that the elastic straps would be connected to the joints of the poles. Thus the sleeves are made not to drop down.
However, this structure has the following problem. That is, the formation of the elastic straps on the sleeves is difficult, and if the poles are broken, the repair is difficult.
Further, if the poles are to be folded, the ends of the poles have to be coupled to the connection devices, and coupling pins pass through the connection devices and the poles to secure them.
In order to carry out this task, a through-hole has to be formed in each of the poles and connection devices, and then, the coupling pins are inserted into the through holes. Further, an additional work has to be carried out so that the coupling pins would not depart from their positions. As a result, economy is aggravated due to the complicated working procedure.
Therefore, recently, the connection devices are directly formed on the ends of the poles through an injection molding process by using a plastic material. Here, when carrying out the injection molding, the molding material is filled into the mutually corresponding through holes, so that the filled material would serve the function of pins.
In this case, however, if the injection-molded pin is tubular, it cannot be larger than the perforated hole and the thickness of the pole. Further, cracks are liable to be formed when perforating, and therefore, the injection-molded pin cannot be sufficiently large. Further, this molded pin is easily broken due to the rotation of the poles.
This one-touch tent includes: a plurality of supporting poles deflected around the upper connection hub upon installing the tent; and a plurality of supporting poles supported on the ground. Therefore, any adjustments of the lengths of the poles are impossible, and the height of the tent is fixed as much as the lengths of the poles. Accordingly, a person of a high stature is not convenient to use the tent.
Further, this one-touch tent is usually such that the tent cloth and the poles are unitized, and therefore, if the tent is accommodated within a bag, the tent cloth is liable to be damaged.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is intended to overcome the above described disadvantages of the conventional techniques.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide a one-touch teat in which hooking links are formed on the outside of the tent cloth so as to make it easy to couple the tent cloth to the poles when coupling the tent cloth to the tent poles.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a one-touch tent in which the hooking links are made smaller than the outside diameter of the joints of the poles so as to prevent the dropping of the hooking links and to facilitate the unfolding of the one-touch tent.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a one-touch tent in which each of the supporting poles includes a supporting pole segment and an adjustable pole segment (the latter entering into the former) so as to make it possible to adjust the lengths of the supporting poles arbitrarily by user, thereby adjusting the height of the tent.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a one-touch tent in which holes are formed in the pole segments in the triangular or rectangular positions so as to disperse any external violent forces, thereby protecting the tent from any fall-down upon encountering violent external forces.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a one-touch tent in which elastic stuffs are attached on both of the side insides of a bag to prevent any damage of the tent cloth when the ten is accommodated within the bag.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ATTACHED DRAWINGS

The above objects and other advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail the preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the attached drawings in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates the tent cloth coupled to the umbrella type tent poles;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the supporting pole segment is coupled to the adjusting tube;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the supporting pole segment coupled to the connection device;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the injection-molded pin formed within the coupling hole;
FIG. 5 schematically illustrates one example of the hooking link;
FIG. 6 schematically illustrates the actuations of the hooking link;
FIG. 7 illustrates another example of the hooking link;
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the bag for accommodating the one-touch tent;
FIG. 9 is a sectional view of another example of the elastic layer of the bag;
FIG. 10 is also a sectional view of another example of the elastic layer of the bag;
FIG. 11 schematically illustrates the constitution of the poles of the one-touch tent;
FIG. 12 schematically illustrates the folded state of the one-touch tent;
FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the conventional tent in which the tent cloth is disposed within the poles;
FIG. 14 illustrates a part of the inner tent;
FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the conventional pole coupled to the connection device;
FIG. 16 is a sectional view of the molded pin of FIG. 15; and
FIG. 17 illustrates the procedure of the unfolding of the conventional one-touch tent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail referring to the attached drawings.
The elements which are same in their functions and constitutions will be assigned with the same reference codes throughout the drawings.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 11, the one-touch tent according to the present invention can be folded and unfolded like an umbrella. A plurality of movable pole segments 21 are connected to an upper connection hub 10 in a radiative form. A plurality of supporting pole segments 11 which are folded respectively through connection devices 12 are respectively foldably connected to the movable pole segments 21. The plurality of the movable pole segments 21 are also foldably connected to a lower connection hub 20. Therefore, if the lower connection hub 20 is pushed up, then it is detachably coupled to the upper connection hub 10, and therefore, the one-touch tent can be unfolded or folded like an umbrella. A tent cloth 30 which is disposed within the plurality of the supporting pole segments 11 (the segments 11 being foldable through the connection devices 12) is provided with a plurality of hooking links 32, and each of the hooking links 32 has a closing/opening means 31. The tent cloth 30 is connected to the plurality of the supporting pole segments through the plurality of the hooking links 32. Each of the supporting pole segments 11 which are respectively folded through the plurality of the connection devices 12 has three or four coupling holes 13. The molding material is filled into the coupling holes 13 to form molding material pins 15 so as to unitize the supporting pole segment 11 to the connectional device 12. Each of the supporting pole segments 11 is inserted into each of adjusting tubes 16, and the one of adjusting holes 17 of the adjusting tube 16 is matched with an adjusting hole 17 a of the supporting pole segment 11, so that a securing pin can be inserted into the both holes 17 and 17 a, thereby making it possible to adjust the height of the tent. The one-touch tent can be accommodated within a bag 40 after folding up the tent, and the bag 40 has an elastic material layer 43 on each of the side insides. A zipper is formed on the bag as an opening/closing means.
The elastic layer extends down to the bottom 42 of the bag 40, thereby improving the shock-absorbing effect.
As shown in FIG. 8, the zipper is formed on the top of the bag 40 to form an opening means 43 a, and the elastic layers 43 are made of any sewable material because it will be enough if they can protect the tent from damages.
The elastic layers 43 may be made to cover the entire side insides of the bag 40, or their covering area may be reduced, because the pole segments of the tent should be gathered to the lower position within the bag 40 owing to their self-gravity.
However, the materials of the elastic layer 43 may be variable, because the layer can be attached by means other than sewing, such as rivet or the like.
The adjusting tubes 16 form the lowermost parts of the tent frame, and therefore, each of them has a plurality of height-adjusting holes 17. In an alternative form, the supporting pole segment 11 is provided with a supporting protuberance 19 a which is supported by an elastic member 19. In this case, the adjusting protuberance 19 a is mated into one of the height adjusting holes 17, thereby adjusting the height of the tent.
Meanwhile, the tent cloth 30 has a sufficient height, and therefore, it can satisfy even the case where the adjusting tube 16 is adjusted to the highest degree. However, if the adjusting tube 16 is adjusted to a low degree, then the tent cloth is folded as much as the extra length.
In the case where the supporting pole segment 11 is extended, the tent cloth is not made loose, because so many hooking links 32 are provided on each of the supporting pole segments 11.
Further, the coupling holes 13 which are perforated in the supporting pole segment 11 to unitize the segment 11 to the connection device 12 are not positioned on the same level but irregularly positioned, thereby reinforcing the unitizing strength. Further, during the injection molding, a cork 14 is inserted into the supporting pole segment 11, so that the molding material would occupy only a limited portion within the supporting pole segment 11.
Meanwhile, the hooking link 32 has an inside diameter larger than the outside diameter of the supporting pole segment 11 and smaller than the outside diameter of the connection device 12. Therefore, the hooking links 32 which are fitted to the supporting pole segments 11 do not drop down along the supporting pole segments.
The hooking link 32 includes: a coupling part 34 connected to a hanging strap 33, the hanging strap 33 being sew-attached to the tent cloth 30; a gently curved face 35 for a tender engagement with the supporting pole segment 11; a reinforcing rim 36 for reinforcing the gently curved face 35; and an engaging hook 37 for securing an opening/closing means 31. Thus usefulness of the hooking links 32 is improved. Further, on the inner or entire face of the gently curved face 35 which receives the supporting pole segment 11, there is formed a coating layer 38 for preventing any scratch on the surface of the supporting pole segment 11.
In another alternative form, the opening/closing means 31 is eliminated in the hooking link 32, and instead, a linking ring 32 a is provided, and here a reinforcing rim 36 a is provided on the outside of the linking ring 32 a to support it. The reinforcing rim 36 a is provided singly or plurally so as to firmly reinforce the engagement The mouth of the linking ring 32 a is wide, and the linking ring 32 a becomes narrow coming to its rear, and therefore, once inserted, it does not easily depart.
The hanging strap 33 is sewed onto the tent cloth, and therefore, there may be leakages of water, i.e., intrusion water. Therefore, a tape is attached on the sewed part, but if it is insufficient, then a waterproof thread is used, thereby solving the problem.
Therefore, if the one-touch tent is installed, there may be possibly flexible loose movements between the hooking links and the supporting pole segments, but the hooking links do not drop down along the supporting pole segments, because the inside diameter of the hooking link is smaller than the outside diameter of the connection device. If the height of the tent is to be adjusted, it can be easily done by adjusting the adjusting tube. Further, any external forces are dispersed between the supporting pole segments and the connection devices, and therefore, the connection devices do not depart.
Thus the tent cloth and the pole segments are unitizingly coupled together, and when the tent is folded up and carried accommodated within the bag, any damages of the tent cloth do not occur owing to the elastic layers of the side insides of the bag. Further, rainwater cannot intrude through sewed threads, because a waterproof thread is used in sewing the hooking links to the tent cloth.
According to the present invention as described above, the tent cloth and the pole segments can be easily coupled together by means of the hooking links. Further, the tent is resistant against a strong wind, and the frame (consisting of the pole segments) can be easily disassembled, with the result that the repair is convenient. Any rainwater cannot intrude through the sewed part, and the height of the tent can be easily adjusted. When the tent is folded up and carried accommodated within the bag, any damages of the tent cloth and the poles are prevented. Further, when the poles are twisted, any departure of the pole segments do not occur.

Claims

1. A one-touch tent comprising:

a plurality of supporting pole segments connected to an upper connection hub in a radiatory form to be folded/unfolded like an umbrella, each of the supporting pole segments being foldable through a connection device;

a plurality of movable pole segments connected respectively to the plurality of the supporting pole segments, and foldably connected to a lower connection hub in a radiatory form; and

the lower connection hub being elastically coupled to the upper connection hub so as to make the one-touch tent folded/unfolded upon pushing up the lower connection hub like an umbrella; and

a plurality of hooking links formed on an outside of tent cloth correspondingly to each of the supporting pole segments so as to be secured to the supporting pole segments respectively.

2. A one-touch tent comprising:

a plurality of supporting pole segments connected to an upper connection hub in a radiators form to be folded/unfolded like an umbrella, each of the supporting pole segments being foldable through a connection device;

a plurality of movable pole segments connected respectively to the plurality of the supporting pole segments, and foldably connected to a lower connection hub in a radiative radiators form; and

a plurality of coupling holes formed in each of the plurality of the supporting pole segments in triangular or rectangular directions to make a molding material filled into the holes so as to form molding-material pins at regular intervals, and so as to secure the supporting pole segments unitized to the connection devices.

3. A one-touch tent comprising:

a plurality of adjusting tubes having a plurality of adjusting holes in each of them, and an adjusting hole of each of the supporting pole segments being matched to one of the plurality of adjusting holes of the adjusting tube; and

a plurality of securing pins, each of them being inserted into each of the matched holes and.

4. A one-touch tent comprising:

a plurality of movable pole segments connected respectively to the plurality of the supporting pole segments, and foldably connected to a lower connection hub in a radiators form;

elastic layers formed on both of side insides of a bag for accommodating the tent folded, the bag having a zipper for closing/opening the bag.

5. The one-touch tent as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hooking link has an opening/closing means, and includes: a coupling part connected to a hanging strap, the hanging strap being sew-attached to the tent cloth; and a gently curved face for a light engagement with the supporting pole segment.

6. The one-touch tent as claimed in claim 2, wherein the coupling holes of the pole segment for being connected to the connection device are positioned irregularly positionally.

7. The one-touch tent as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein an elastic coating layer is formed on a face of the hooking link to be contacted to the pole segment.

8. The one-touch tent as claimed in claim 3, wherein a supporting protuberance is formed on the supporting pole segment to be supported by an elastic member so as to adjust a height of the adjusting tube by being inserted into a match between the adjusting holes in each of the adjusting tubes and the adjusting holes of each of the supporting pole segments.

9. The one-touch tent as claimed in claim 4, wherein the elastic layers of the bag extend down to a bottom of the bag.