US3002194A - Collapsible baby pot - Google Patents

Description

1961 SUZANNE BEDETTI NEE WUEST 3,002,194

COLLAPSIBLE BABY POT Filed Jan. 28, 1960 INVEN TQR suzflA/NE BEOETTI nee WUEST W43! 1mm United States Patent 3,002,194 COLLAPSIBLE BABY POT Suzanne Bedetti, ne Wuest, 27 Biserstrasse, St. Gallen, Switzerland Filed Jan. 28, B60, Ser. No. 5,176 Claims priority, application Switzerland Jan. 30, 1959 4 Claims. (Cl. 4111} The present invention relates to a collapsible baby pot of the type comprising a seat ring supported by a foldable frame and a bag serving as container. Baby pots of the described type have already been proposed for the purpose of meeting the problems and difficulties arising when travelling with babies. None of the known proposals, however, proved to be a success in actual practice, mainly because all proposed pots were heavy, unwieldy and also not sufficiently rigid, could not be set up without a certain amount of skill and appeared neither neat nor reliable.

It is an object of the invention to overcome the drawbacks mentioned above and to provide a really suitable sanitary baby pot adapted to be easily set up or stored away, even by children, and having a pleasing appearance.

According to the invention, in a baby pot of the type described the bag is secured by means of a seat ring to a foldable support which forms a unit closed in circumferential direction when in position of use.

The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings diagrammatically illustrating, by -way of example, two embodiments of the invention, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a view in elevation, partly drawn in section, of a first embodiment of the baby pot shown in position of use,

FIGURE 2 shows the baby pot illustrated in FIGURE 1, but in collapsed condition, and

FIGURE 3 shows a perspective view of a second embodiment.

According to FIGURE 1 the baby pot comprises a support 1 which is formed as a closed wall having the shape of the circumferential surface of a truncated cone. With its larger end the support 1 is placed on the floor or any other carrying surface when in position of use (FIGURE 1), while its top edge serves to support and simultaneously to centre a seat ring 2. The seat ring 2 comprises a rim 2' resting upon the top edge of the support 1, and a cylindrical portion 2" fitting into the opening of the support 1. The dimensions of the parts used are preferably selected so that the top edge of the support 1 snugly fits around the portion 2". By the selection of a suitable material the support 1 forms a sufiiciently resistant carrier capable of taking up the load of the seat ring 2. However, in accordance with the object of the invention, the material of the support 1 is sufliciently flexible to be folded so as to enable to collapse it in space-saving manner after the seat ring 2 has been removed, when the baby pot is not in use. FIGURE 2 shows how the support 1 can be folded to a flat state; it is, of course, possible to further fold the support by super-posing the two halves of it after having been folded to the shape of a segment shown in FIG- URE 2.

Materials from which the described or similar support can be made are suificiently known to experts. In this connection, it shall only be referred to the suitability, for example, of synthetic and natural rubber or of the various synthetic materials or plastics having sufficient stiffness and flexibility for the purpose described.

The shape of the support 1 can also be modified within Patented Oct. 3, 1961 "ice the scope of the invention. Particularly, the wall of the support 1 can be provided with stiffening or bracing members 3 in circumferentially spaced relationship, e.g. by vulcanizing or adhesively aflixing them to the material of the wall. These bracing members 3 may consist of a material which is not buckling under the load placed on the seat ring 2, for instance of hard rubber or hard plastics, or of metal plates or metal rods. These members increase the vertical stiffness of the support without impairing the collapsibility thereof. A modification of the support 1 may consist of a number of bracing members 3 connected to each other by means of strips of flexible material or by hinges or links. Finally, the wall of the support could be provided with recesses or assembled from individual parts which, of course, would form an annular unit closed in circumferential direction according to the invention.

The lower edge of the ring portion 2" is connected to the upper edge of a bag 4 in such manner that the ring 2 and the bag 4 form a unit. The bag 4 consists of thin, but watertight soft material and can easily collapse as evident from FIGURE 2. Synthetic rubber for example is suitable in combination with a seat ring also made a rubber having greater shore hardness; also lastics and the like may be used.

The bag 4 must not necessarily be permanently secured to the ring. FIGURE 3 shows a modification in which the bag is clamped between the ring 2 and the top edge of the support 1. In this modification preferably the bag 4 is used once only; it is made of cheap foil material and will be discarded after use.

When not in use, the baby pot is accommodated in a plastic container, after the individual parts have been folded up as shown in FIGURE 2. The support, however, could also be folded twice in order to be able to use a shorter plastic container. Finally, the seat ring together with the bag and the support could also be made from one piece of material, thus forming integral parts of a single unit.

I claim:

1. A collapsible baby pot comprising an annular support having the shape of a circumferentially closed truncated cone, said support being sufiiciently rigid in the direction of a generatrix of the cone to resist buckling under the weight of a user and being flexible for forming :folds parallel to a generatrix, a seat ring removably mounted on the upper edge of the smaller diameter of said cone-shaped annular support, and a container bag of flexible material depending from said upper edge and from said seat ring, said support being foldable to form a flat structure when the pot is not in use.

2. A collapsible baby pot as claimed in claim 1 in which said bag and seat ring are integral and said bag is suspended from said seat ring.

3. A collapsible baby pot as claimed in claim 1 in which said'container bag of flexible material has the upper edge portion thereof clamped between said upper edge of the annular support and said seat ring.

4. A collapsible baby pot as claimed in claim 1 in which the wall of said support has a plurality of circumferentially spaced bracing members which extend along the support member in the direction of a generatrix.

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,663,966 Ament et al. Mar. 27, 1928 2,801,426 Gorce et al. Aug. 6, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 548,607 Canada Nov. 12, 1957 908,090 France Aug. 13, 1945

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