BABY SEAT COMPARTMENT CONSTRUCTION FOR SHOPPING CART

COMPARTIMENT PORTE-BEBE POUR CHARIOT DE MAGASINAGE

English Abstract

A collapsible baby seat compartment for a shopping cart is described. The improvement resides in that the back rest of the baby seat compartment is provided with abutment projections which project sideways in the plane of the back rest and extend over a top edge of the side walls of the product containment basket of the shopping cart. These projections prevent the back rest from collapsing inside the basket when the shopping cart is nested by another shopping cart and they also automatically maintain the baby seat compartment in a usable form when not nested by another shopping cart. Accordingly, the user does not need to reset the baby seat compartment each time a shopping cart is pulled from a nested group of shopping carts.

French Abstract

Compartiment de siège porte-bébé escamotable pour un chariot d'achat. L'amélioration réside dans le fait que le dossier du compartiment de siège porte-bébé est muni de saillies de butée qui se projettent latéralement dans le plan du dossier et s'étendent au-dessus d'un bord supérieur des parois latérales du panier porte-produit du chariot d'achat. Ces saillies empêchent le dossier de se replier à l'intérieur du panier lorsque le chariot d'achat est imbriqué dans un autre chariot d'achat et elles maintiennent également automatiquement le compartiment de siège porte-bébé dans une forme utilisable lorsque le chariot n'est pas imbriqué dans un autre chariot d'achat. L'utilisateur n'a donc pas besoin de remettre le compartiment porte-bébé en place chaque fois qu'un chariot d'achat est sorti d'une imbrication avec un groupe de chariots d'achat.

Claims

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CLAIMS:
1. A collapsible baby seat compartment for a
shopping cart, said compartment being comprised by a rear
gate having leg holes and constituting a back wall of a
product containment basket of said shopping cart, said
rear gate being hinged at a top end, a seat frame
hingedly connected at one end to a bottom end of said
rear gate, a backrest hingedly connected at a lower end
to an opposed end of said seat frame; a pair of link arms
each hingedly connected by fixed hinge connections at one
end adjacent an upper edge of said rear gate, said pair
of link arms being hingedly connected by fixed hinge
connections at an opposed end to said backrest at a
position intermediate an outer edge of said backrest and
said lower end thereof and spaced above said lower end of
said backrest by a predetermined distance; and abutment
means projecting outwardly from opposed ends of said
outer edge of said backrest in an unrestricted manner and
over a straight top edge of a respective side wall of
said basket to prevent said backrest from collapsing
inside said basket when said shopping cart is being
nested by another shopping cart through said rear gate
and to automatically maintain said baby seat compartment
in a usable form when not nested by another shopping
cart, said abutment means being freely displaced
outwardly of said straight top edge to prevent
malfunction of the collapsing of said backrest towards
said rear gate when said rear gate is displaced inwardly
and upwards when nested by said another shopping cart.
2. A collapsible baby seat compartment as claimed
in claim 1 wherein said baby seat compartment is
constructed of welded wire rods.
3. A collapsible baby seat compartment as claimed
in claim 2 wherein said abutment means is a horizontal

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wire rod section secured to said backrest and projecting
outwardly from said opposed ends of said outer edge of
said backrest.
4. A collapsible baby seat compartment as claimed
in claim 3 wherein said horizontal wire rod section has a
curved extremity to form a hook end.
5. A collapsible baby seat compartment as claimed
in claim 3 wherein said seat frame is hingedly connected
to said rear gate by a looped rod end of opposed
transverse rods of said seat frame looped about a bottom
rod at a bottom end of said rear gate.
6. A collapsible baby seat compartment as claimed
in claim 5 wherein said backrest is hingedly connected to
said seat frame by an opposed looped rod end of said
opposed transverse rods of said seat frame looped about a
lower rod of said backrest.
7. A collapsible baby seat compartment as claimed
in claim 2 wherein said link arms are each straight wire
rods having opposed looped ends connected respectively to
a horizontal rod of said rear gate and to a horizontal
rod of said backrest, said link arms being disposed a
predetermined distance above said seat frame.

Description

CA 02210416 2005-02-15
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BABY SEAT COMPARTMENT CONSTRUCTION
FOR SHOPPING CART
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a collapsible baby
seat compartment for a shopping cart and wherein the
compartment is maintained in a usable condition when a
shopping cart is pulled from its nested position.
l0
BACKGROUND ART
Various constructions of baby seat compartments for
shopping carts are known. However, when shopping carts
are nested, the baby seat compartment which usually
consists of a rear gate, a peat platform and a backrest
which are hinged together by pivot connections and link
rods, collapse upon each other during nesting. Shopping
carts are nested from the rear gate, and the rear gate is
pushed inwardly and upwardly of the product carrying
basket of the shopping cart and this causes the elements
of the baby seat compartment. to collapse while hinging
upwardly. When a shopping cart is removed from a nested
assembly, the collapsed baby seat compartment falls
within the basket and is maintained in a substantially
collapsed condition. It is then necessary for the user
to pull the backrest away from the rear gate to place the
baby seat compartment in a usable form. This sometimes
make it difficult for certain people to determine how to
reset the baby seat compartment, particularly when they
are carrying an infant in one arm and are using a single
hand to try and reset the compartment. Further, the
folded element may cause injury to the fingers of the
user. It is also noted t=hat with certain type of
shopping carts, it is desirable that the baby seat
compartment fold within the shopping basket whereby to

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provide a larger usable space in the basket. However,
with other types of shopping carts, it is desirable that
the baby seat compartment be maintained in a usable
condition for the placement of an infant or food stuff
within the compartment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a feature of the present invention to provide
a collapsible baby seat compartment which substantially
overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantage of the prior
art and which is automatically maintained in a usable
condition after shopping carts are unnested.
Another feature of the present invention is to
provide a collapsible baby seat compartment which will
collapse when nested with another shopping cart and which
will automatically reset to a usable condition when
denested.
According to the above features, for a broad
aspect, the present invention provides a collapsible baby
seat compartment for a shopping cart . The compartment is
comprised by a rear gate having leg holes and
constituting a complete back wall of a product
containment basket of the shopping cart. The rear gate is
hinged at a top end. A seat frame is hingedly connected
at one end to a bottom end of the rear gate . A backrest
is hingedly connected at a lower end to an opposed end of
the seat frame. A pair of link arms are each hingedly
connected by fixed hinge connections at one end adjacent
an upper edge of the rear gate and hingedly connected by
fixed hinge connections at an opposed end to the backrest
at a position intermediate an outer edge of the backrest
and the lower end thereof and spaced above the lower end
of the backrest by a predetermined distance. Abutment
means project outwardly from opposed ends of the outer
edge of the backrest in an unrestricted manner and over a

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straight top edge of a respective side wall of the basket
to prevent the backrest from collapsing inside the basket
when the shopping cart is being nested by another
shopping cart through the rear gate and to automatically
maintain the baby seat compartment in a usable form when
not nested by another shopping cart, the abutment means
is freely displaced outwardly of the straight top edge to
prevent malfunction of the collapsing of the backrest
towards the rear gate when the rear gate is displaced
inwardly and upwards when nested by another shopping
cart.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be
described with reference to the accompanying drawings in
which:
FIG.' 1 is a perspective view showing the
construction of the collapsible baby seat compartment of
the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a simplified fragmented view as shown in
the improvement in a construction of the backrest of the
baby seat compartment and its association with a side
wall of a product carrying basket of a shopping cart to
which the baby seat compartment is secured to;
FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the position of
the baby seat compartment in its usable form;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing how the rear
gate, the seat frame and the backrest collapse during
nesting;
FIG 5. is a side view showing the collapsible baby
seat compartment in its collapsed form when a shopping
cart is nested by another shopping cart;
FIG. 6A is a schematic view showing the
construction of a baby seat compartment of the prior art;
and

CA 02210416 2004-07-27
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FIG. 6B is a schematic view showing the baby
seat compartment of the prior art in a collapsed
condition and positioned inside the product containment
basket.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to Figure 1, there is shown
generally at 10 the construction of the baby seat
to compartment of the present invention and associated with
a product containment basket 11 of a shopping cart. As
shown, the baby seat compartment is mounted in a rear
portion of the product containment basket 11. The baby
seat compartment is comprised of a rear gate 12 which is
u5 hingedly connected at a top end by hinge connection 13 to
a top horizontal rod 14 bridging the top edge of the
basket 11 at a rear end thereof. A pair of leg holes 15
are provided in the rear gate 12 as is customary.
A seat frame 16 is hingedly connected at one
2o end or at a front end by a looped rod end 17 of opposed
transverse rods 9 and to a bottom rod 18 or a rod
adj acent the bottom end of the rear gate . A backrest 19
is hingedly connected at a lower end to a lower rod 20 by
an opposed looped end 17' of the seat frame. A pair of
25 link arms 21, formed by a straight wire rod, is also
hingedly connected between the rear gate 12 and the
backrest 19 at a predetermined distance above the seat
frame 16. As herein shown, each link arm 21 is connected
at a rear end by a looped rod end 22 to a horizontal rod
30 23 of the rear gate and at opposed end by looped rod end
22' to a horizontal rod 24 of the backrest.
Referring now to Fig. 2, it can be seen that
the backrest 19 is provided with opposed abutment means
in the form of projecting arms 25 which is constituted by
35 a horizontal rod 26 which is curved at its extremity 25'
to form a rounded end extending beyond the outer side

CA 02210416 2004-07-27
edge rod 27 of the backrest 19 and secured to the
backrest at a top end thereof. This projecting arm 25
projects outwardly to opposed sides of the backrest in
the plane thereof and beyond the side wall 28 of the
s basket 11 so that the projecting arm 25 will rest on the
top end rod 29 of the basket side wall 28. Accordingly,
the backrest cannot collapse inside the product
containment basket 11.
As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the baby seat
to compartment when nested by another cart, herein
represented by cart 31 being nested with cart 30, the
product carrying basket 11' of the cart 31 will enter
into the shopping cart 30 from the rear gate 12 of a
cart. As the basket 11' of the nesting cart 31 pushes
15 onto the rear gate 12, the rear gate 12 will swing inside
the basket in the direction of arrow 32 and the seat
frame 16, the backrest 19 and the link arms 21 will start
collapsing in a fashion as illustrated in Fig. 4. When
the basket 11' of the nesting cart 31 is nested to its
2o full extent, as illustrated in Fig. 5, the baby seat
compartment is in its fully collapsed condition and rests
on top of the basket 11' of the nesting cart 31. As the
nesting cart 31 is pulled out of its nested condition,
the baby seat compartment will start descending into the
2s basket 11, but the abutment projecting arms 25 will rest
on the end rod 29 of the basket side wall 28 to arrest
the descent of the backrest 19. The rear gate will
continue to collapse until it assumes its usable position
as shown in Fig. 3 and forming the rear wall of the baby
3o seat compartment and the product carrying basket.
Accordingly, with the baby seat compartment of the
present invention, it can be seen that the compartment is
always maintained in a usable condition by the projecting
arms 25 which are connected to the top end of the
35 backrest, in that when the basket is liberated from its

CA 02210416 2005-02-15
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nested condition, the baby sEat compartment automatically
assumes a condition of use.
Figs. 6A and 6B illustrate the conventional
baby seat compartment of the type of shopping carts to
which the present invention has been adapted. With such
conventional shopping carts, the baby seat compartment 40
is comprised of a rear gate 41, a seat frame 42 and a
backrest 43 hingedly interconnected in a similar fashion
as that previously described with relation to the baby
l0 seat compartment 10 of the present invention but the
backrest is of different construction. However, as can
be seen in Fig. 6B, the backrest 43 collapses inside the
product carrying basket 44 after it has been nested with
the nested cart pulled out. It is therefore necessary
for the user to pull on the top end portion 43' of the
backrest in the direction of arrow 45, in order to
reposition the baby seat compartment to assume its state
as shown in Fig. 6A. This has been found to be a
disadvantage as some users have found it difficult to
2o reposition the collapsed frame to a usable state. The
collapsible frames have been hazardous to the fingers of
a user due to the fact that the fingers sometimes will
get caught between displaceable elements of the
compartment. Furthermore, when the backrest is pulled in
the direction of arrow 45, the weight of the hinged
components causes the rear gate 41 to automatically
displace itself in a direction of arrow 46 towards the
plane of the back wall of the basket 44. Usually, when a
user is trying to position the collapsed frame in a
usable condition, it is holding a child in the other arm
and this may also cause some hazard to the child. These
disadvantages in the prior art have existed for several
years until resolved by the present invention as
described and claimed herein.

CA 02210416 1997-07-14
It is within the ambit of the present invention
to cover any obvious modifications of the preferred
embodiment described herein, provided such
modifications fall within the scope of the appended
claims.

Representative Drawing