Juvenile walker

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10499750-B2
Application number	US-201816141295-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 25, 2018
Priority date	Sep 27, 2017
Publication date	Dec 10, 2019
Grant date	Dec 10, 2019

Abstract

A juvenile holder such as a juvenile walker includes a seat and a rolling base. The seat supports a young child for movement with the rolling base.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A juvenile walker comprising
a rolling platform-elevation base adapted to roll on an underlying surface,
a child carrier including an elevated seat-support platform mounted on the rolling platform-elevation base and a rotatable seat mounted for rotation on the elevated seat-support platform about a vertical seat-rotation axis, and
a seat-rotation blocker including a movable bolt, a bolt-mover actuator, and a bolt mover coupled to the bolt-mover actuator and the movable bolt and supported for movement relative to the elevated seat-support platform,
wherein the movable bolt is arranged to be moved relative to the elevated seat-support platform in a first direction to extend into a bolt-receiver slot formed in the rotatable seat to assume a seat-locking position engaged to the rotatable seat to block rotation of the rotatable seat relative to the elevated seat-support platform about the vertical seat-rotation axis to establish a seat-blocking mode of the seat-rotation blocker and in an opposite second direction to exit the bolt-receiver slot formed in the rotatable seat to assume a seat-rotating position disengaged from the rotatable seat to allow the rotatable seat to rotate relative to the elevated seat-support platform about the vertical seat-rotation axis to establish a seat-rotating mode of the seat-rotation blocker, and
wherein the bolt mover is arranged to push the movable bolt automatically into the bolt-receiver slot formed in the rotatable seat when the rotatable seat is aligned in a predetermined position relative to the elevated seat-support platform and configured to withdraw the movable bolt from the bolt-receiver slot formed in the rotatable seat in response to movement of the bolt-mover actuator relative to the elevated seat-support platform about the vertical seat-rotation axis from a first actuator position associated with the seat-locking mode of the seat-rotation blocker to a second actuator position associated with the seat-rotating mode of the seat-rotation blocker.

2. The juvenile walker of claim 1 , wherein the bolt mover includes a bolt pusher configured to provide means for yieldably urging the movable bolt into the bolt-receiver slot formed in the rotatable seat automatically upon rotation of the rotatable seat about the vertical seat-rotation axis to the predetermined position while the bolt-mover actuator remains in the first actuator position associated with the seat-locking mode of the seat-rotation blocker.

3. The juvenile walker of claim 2 , wherein the elevated seat-support platform has a forward portion and an opposite rearward portion, the rotatable seat includes a seat back arranged to engage a back of a seated child seated in the rotatable seat during rotation of the rotatable seat about the vertical seat-rotation axis in sequence from a left-facing position first to a forward-facing position that is coextensive with the predetermined position to orient the seated child to face toward the forward portion of the elevated seat-support platform and then to a right-facing position, and the movable bolt is supported for movement on the elevated seat-support platform so that the movable bolt is able to extend into the bolt-receiver slot formed in the rotatable seat only when the rotatable seat is rotated about the vertical seat-rotation axis to assume the forward-facing position.

4. The juvenile walker of claim 3 , wherein the child carrier further includes a push handle coupled to the opposite rearward portion of the elevated seat-support platform and configured to be gripped by an operator for use in pushing the rolling platform-elevation base to roll on the underlying surface.

5. The juvenile walker of claim 2 , wherein the rotatable seat is mounted in an upwardly opening seat receiver formed in a central portion of the elevated seat-support platform to allow the rotatable seat to be rotated about the vertical seat-rotation axis when the seat-rotation blocker is placed in the seat-rotating mode in which the movable bolt is disengaged from the rotatable seat.

6. The juvenile walker of claim 5 , wherein the rotatable seat includes a frame, several wheels mounted for rotation in a hollow space provided in the frame during rotation of the rotatable seat about the vertical seat-rotation axis, and several elastic retainer tabs cantilevered to the frame and configured to mate with and ride on a tab-engaging rim edge included in the elevated seat-support platform during rotation of the rotatable seat about the vertical seat-rotation axis.

7. The juvenile walker of claim 2 , wherein the bolt-receiver slot of the rotatable seat is oriented to open radially outwardly away from the vertical seat-rotation axis during rotation of the rotatable seat about the vertical seat-rotation axis and the bolt pusher is configured to push a radially inwardly extending nose portion of the movable bolt toward the vertical seat-rotation axis and into the bolt-receiver slot automatically when the rotatable seat is rotated about the vertical seat-rotation axis to assume the predetermined position.

8. The juvenile walker of claim 7 , wherein the elevated seat-support platform is formed to include a pair of bolt-guide members that are arranged to lie in spaced-apart parallel relation to the one another to guide the movable bolt along a radially extending path toward and away from the vertical seat-rotation axis during movement of the movable bolt into and out of the bolt-receiver slot formed in the rotatable seat.

9. The juvenile walker of claim 2 , wherein the bolt pusher includes a spring arranged to interact between the movable bolt and the bolt-mover actuator to yieldably extend the movable bolt into the bolt-receiver slot formed in the rotatable seat automatically when the rotatable seat is rotated about the vertical seat-rotation axis to assume the predetermined position.

10. The juvenile walker of claim 9 , wherein the spring is located in a hollow chamber formed in the movable bolt and includes an outer end engaged to an outer actuator wall of the bolt-mover actuator and an inner end engaged to an inner wall of the movable bolt providing a boundary of the hollow chamber.

11. The juvenile walker of claim 10 , wherein the bolt pusher further includes a spring mount comprising an inner rod cantilevered to the inner wall of the movable bolt lie in the hollow chamber and to move with the movable bolt relative to the rotatable seat and an outer rod cantilevered to the outer wall of the bolt-mover actuator and arranged to engage the inner rod and wherein the spring is a coiled compression spring that is helically wound around the inner and outer rods of the spring mount.

12. The juvenile walker of claim 11 , wherein the bolt-mover actuator includes a motion-generator lever that is arranged to be gripped by a caregiver and moved by the caregiver relative to the elevated seat-support platform in a first direction to establish the seat-locking mode of the seat-rotation blocker and in an opposite second direction to establish the seat-rotating mode of the seat-rotation blocker and the bolt-mover actuator further includes a motion-transfer system including a cam that is coupled to the motion-generator lever to move therewith and a cam follower that is formed to include the outer actuator wall that engages the outer end of the spring included in the bolt pusher of the bolt mover and engaged to the cam and coupled to the bolt mover to transfer motion from the motion-generator lever to the bolt mover for application to the movable bolt via the bolt mover.

13. The juvenile walker of claim 10 , wherein the movable bolt further includes a side wall coupled to

Assignees

• Dorel Juvenile Group Inc

Inventors

• Mason Grant M
• Tomas Jorge

Classifications

• A47D1/002

  adjustable · CPC title

• A47D13/043 Primary

  Baby walkers with a seat · CPC title