US20080135365A1

US20080135365A1 - Foldable trolley luggage bag

Info

Publication number: US20080135365A1
Application number: US11/635,563
Authority: US
Inventors: Angela W. Han
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-12-08
Filing date: 2006-12-08
Publication date: 2008-06-12

Abstract

A foldable trolley luggage bag includes a bottom support, a reverse U-shaped telescoping handle, a coupling member, and a soft bag. The bottom support is provided at two lower rear ends with two wheels to enable easy pull or push of the luggage bag. The coupling member is fixed to a rear top of the bottom support, and two lower ends of the telescoping handle are turnably mounted in two guiding ways formed below two lateral ends of the coupling member. The soft bag is compressible and foldable, and is connected at an upper side to the telescoping handle and at a lower side to a top of the bottom support. Therefore, the whole telescoping handle may be pivotally turned about the coupling member between an upright and a horizontal position without being interfered by the soft bag.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a trolley luggage bag, and more particularly to a foldable trolley luggage bag that includes a coupling member, to which a telescoping handle is connected to be turnable between an upright position for use and a horizontal position for storage.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

People use a trolley luggage case to hold things, so as to carry the luggage with less effort. The trolley luggage case includes a rigid luggage case that is always maintained in a largest possible volume. Therefore, such trolley luggage case requires higher freight than generally soft luggage bags. The trolley luggage case also occupies a large storage space and causes confusion to the user.
There is a soft luggage bag equipped with a telescoping handle and wheels, so that it may be moved as a trolley. To properly support and accordingly prevent a lower side of the soft luggage bag from touching the ground when the soft luggage bag is being moved on wheels, a rigid supporting device must be detachably assembled to the wheels. U.S. Pat. No. 6,550,592 disclosed a collapsible bag with wheels and a bottom panel. When it is desired to fold and store the collapsible bag, the bottom panel must be removed from the bag and kept separately. In the event the bottom panel is carelessly lost, the collapsible bag is no longer conveniently movable on the wheels and the telescoping handle and the wheels fixedly connected to the collapsible bag become completely useless but to increase the weight of the luggage.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop a foldable trolley luggage bag that may be folded to largely reduce the storage room and the freight thereof, and enable convenient storage by a user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a foldable trolley luggage bag that may be folded into a smaller volume to reduce the room and freight needed to transport the luggage bag, and enable convenient storage by merchants and users.
To achieve the above and other objects, the foldable trolley luggage bag according to the present invention includes a bottom support, a reverse U-shaped telescoping handle, a coupling member, and a soft bag. The bottom support is provided at two lower rear ends with two wheels to enable easy pull or push of the luggage bag by a user. The coupling member is fixed to a rear top of the bottom support, and two lower ends of the telescoping handle are turnably mounted in two guiding ways formed below two lateral ends of the coupling member. The soft bag is compressible and foldable, and is connected at an upper side to the telescoping handle and at a lower side to a top of the bottom support. Therefore, the whole telescoping handle may be pivotally turned about the coupling member between an upright position for use and a horizontal position for storage without being interfered by the soft bag.
The bottom support provides the soft bag with a strong lower end that does not deform to undesirably touch the ground when the soft bag is stuffed with things.
To enable folding of the whole trolley luggage bag, the soft bag is made of a tough but compressive and foldable material.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 is an assembled perspective view of a foldable trolley luggage bag according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of FIG. 1 with a soft bag separated from a foldable carrying frame thereof;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the foldable carrying frame shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary and enlarged cutaway view showing the connection of a handle to a coupling member of the foldable carrying frame of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the foldable carrying frame of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view showing the whole foldable trolley luggage bag of FIG. 1 is in a fully folded state.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3. A foldable trolley luggage bag 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a soft bag 40 and a foldable carrying frame. The foldable carrying frame consists of a bottom support 10, a telescoping handle 20, and a coupling member 30.
The soft bag 40 is connected to and supported on the bottom support 10, so that a lower side of the soft bag 40 is well supported without becoming deformed to touch the ground. The bottom support 10 is provided at two lower rear ends with a wheel 11 each, and at two lower front ends with a fixed leg 12 each. With the two wheels 11 and the two legs 12, the whole foldable trolley luggage bag 1 may stably stand on the ground.
The telescoping handle 20 is a reverse U-shaped frame having an upper horizontal grip 21 and two parallel vertical hollow bars 22 downward extended from two ends of the horizontal grip 21. More specifically, two diametrically smaller inner tubes 23 are slidably received in the two vertical hollow bars 22 with two upper ends of the inner tubes 23 fixedly connected to two ends of the horizontal grip 21, so as to form a two-section telescoping handle 20. When the inner tubes 23 are slid out of the vertical hollow bars 22 to increase an overall length of the telescoping handle 20, the horizontal grip 21 is located at an elevated position for a user to conveniently and comfortably hold the grip 21 to pull or push the whole trolley luggage bag 1. On the other hand, when the inner tubes 23 are retracted into the vertical hollow bars 22, the overall length of the telescoping handle 20 is reduced to enable convenient storage of the whole trolley luggage bag 1. Alternatively, a middle tube (not shown) may be further telescopically fitted between the vertical hollow bar 22 and the inner tube 23 at each lateral side of the handle 20, so that the handle 20 becomes a three-section telescoping handle. Since the structure of a two- or three-section telescoping handle is known, it is not discussed in details herein.
The coupling member 30 connects the bottom support 10 to the telescoping handle 20. Please refer to FIGS. 3 and 4. The coupling member 30 is fixed to a rear top of the bottom support 10 to form a part of the bottom support 10, and is formed below each lateral end with a guiding way 31. The guiding way 31 has an upper opening 311 and a front opening 312 that communicate with each other. Lower ends of the two vertical hollow bars 22 of the telescoping handle 20 are separately extended into the two guiding ways 31 via the upper openings 311, and are transversely extended through by a horizontal pivot shaft 32 each in the guiding ways 31, such that the telescoping handle 20 is freely pivotally turnable about the two horizontal pivot shafts 32 between an upright and a horizontal position.
The soft bag 40 is compressible and foldable, and defines an inner space for holding things therein. The soft bag 40 has an upper side fixed to the telescoping handle 20, and a lower side fixed to the bottom support 10, so that the whole soft bag 40 is associated with the foldable carrying frame assembled from the bottom support 10, the telescoping handle 20, and the coupling member 30.
To use the foldable trolley luggage bag 1, first turn the telescoping handle 20 to the upright position, as shown in FIG. 1, so that the soft bag 40 is in a stretched state for holding things. When the telescoping handle 20 is in a fully extended state, a user may conveniently pull or push the whole trolley luggage bag 1 to move around easily. To store the foldable trolley luggage bag 1 when the same is not in use, simply telescope the inner tubes 23 and the vertical hollow bars 22 to shorten the overall length of the handle 20, and then turn the telescoped handle 20 to the horizontal position to reduce the space occupied by the trolley luggage bag 1, as shown in FIG. 6. Since the soft bag 40 is compressible and foldable, it does not interfere with the turning and folding of the telescoping handle 20.
Each of the two vertical hollow bars 22 is provided at the lower end with at least one elastically operable retaining pin 221. And, each of the guiding ways 31 of the coupling member 30 is provided on an inner surface of at least one sidewall thereof with a first recess hole 331 and a second recess hole 332. When the telescoping handle 20 is turned to the upright position, the elastic retaining pin 221 is engaged with the first recess hole 331 to thereby maintain the telescoping handle 20 in the upright position. And, when the telescoping handle 20 is turned to the horizontal position, the elastic retaining pin 221 is engaged with the second recess hole 332 to thereby maintain the telescoping handle 20 in the horizontal position.
Please refer to FIGS. 4 and 5. Each of the guiding ways 31 on the coupling member 30 is formed by fixedly mounting two blocks 33 on two oppositely spaced wall surfaces of a cavity 34 defined at each lateral end of the coupling member 30, such that a space defined between an inner end of the cavity 34 and the two blocks 33 forms the guiding way 31. That is, two corresponding inner wall surfaces of the two opposite blocks 33 form two opposite sidewalls of the guiding way 31. The horizontal pivot shaft 32 transversely extended through the lower end of each vertical hollow bar 22 of the telescoping handle 20 has two ends fixed to the two blocks 33 in each guiding way 31. Therefore the horizontal pivot shafts 32 are not visible from outside of the coupling member 30 to give the whole trolley luggage bag 1 a beautiful appearance.
The coupling member 30 may be directly bonded to the rear top of the bottom support 10, as shown in the illustrated preferred embodiment of the present invention. Alternatively, the coupling member 30 may be riveted or screwed to the bottom support 10 using rivets or bolts, respectively. Moreover, it is also possible to integrally form the coupling member 30 and the bottom support 10 during production through properly designed molds.
A mounting plate 24 is fixedly connected to the two vertical hollow bars 22 at a predetermined position. The mounting plate 24 is provided with two through holes 25, via which two rivets 26 may be downward extended into holes 41 correspondingly provided on the upper side of the soft bag 40, so that the upper side of the soft bag 40 is firmly connected to the mounting plate 24. The bottom support 10 is provided at predetermined positions with four through holes 13, via which rivets 14 may be upward extended into holes (not shown) correspondingly formed on the lower side of the soft bag 40, so that the lower side of the soft bag 40 is firmly connected to the bottom support 10.
In brief, the foldable trolley luggage bag 1 according to the present invention has a strong bottom support 10 to carry and support the soft bag 40, and a telescoping handle that may be extended or retracted to different length, and is turnable between an upright position for use and a horizontal position for storage. Therefore, the whole foldable trolley luggage bag 1 is a humanized design.

Claims

1. A foldable trolley luggage bag, comprising:

a bottom support being provided at two lower rear ends with two wheels;

a reverse U-shaped handle including an upper horizontal grip and two vertical hollow bars downward extended from two ends of said horizontal grip;

a coupling member being located on a rear top of said bottom support to form a part of said bottom support; said coupling member being formed below each lateral end with a guiding way that has communicable upper opening and front opening for receiving a lower end of one said vertical hollow bar of said telescoping handle therein, and a horizontal pivot shaft being provided in each of said guiding ways to transversely extend through said lower end of said vertical bar, such that said telescoping handle is freely turnable about said two horizontal pivot shafts between an upright and a horizontal position; and

a soft bag defining an inner space for holding things therein; and said soft bag being firmly connected at an upper side to said telescoping handle and at a lower side to a top of said bottom support.

2. The foldable trolley luggage bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein said coupling member is integrally formed with said bottom support.

3. The foldable trolley luggage bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said vertical hollow bars of said telescoping handle is provided at the lower end with at least one elastically operable retaining pin, and wherein each of said guiding ways of said coupling member is provided on an inner surface of at least one sidewall thereof with a first recess hole; whereby when said telescoping handle is turned to the upright position, said elastic retaining pin is engaged with said first recess hole to hold said telescoping handle to the upright position.

4. The foldable trolley luggage bag as claimed in claim 3, wherein each of said guiding ways of said coupling member is provided on an inner surface of at least one sidewall thereof with a second recess hole; whereby when said telescoping handle is turned to the horizontal position, said elastic retaining pin is engaged with said second recess hole to hold said telescoping handle to the horizontal position.

5. The foldable trolley luggage bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said guiding ways of said coupling member is formed by fixedly mounting two blocks on two oppositely spaced wall surfaces of a cavity defined at each lateral end of said coupling member, such that a space defined between an inner end of said cavity and said two blocks forms said guiding way, and two corresponding inner wall surfaces of said two opposite blocks form two sidewalls of said guiding way.

6. The foldable trolley luggage bag as claimed in claim 5, wherein said horizontal pivot shaft provided in each of said guiding ways has two ends fixed on the inner wall surfaces of said two blocks.

7. The foldable trolley luggage bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein said handle further includes a mounting plate fixedly connected to said two vertical hollow bars, and said soft bag is firmly connected at the upper side to said mounting plate.

8. The foldable trolley luggage bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bottom support further includes two legs provided at two lower front ends of said bottom support.

9. The foldable trolley luggage bag as claimed in claim 1, wherein said handle further includes two diametrically smaller inner tubes slidably received in said two vertical hollow bars with two upper ends of said inner tubes fixedly connected to two ends of the horizontal grip, so that said handle is a telescoping handle having an adjustable overall length.