GB2165022A - Electro-mechanical apparatus, e.g. a motor driven toy - Google Patents

Abstract

Electro-mechanical apparatus having a plurality of peripheral work stations (2, 3) and a power source (7) for these work stations located at a central station (8). A transmission is located at the central station (8) for selectively coupling the power source (7) to drive respective work stations (2, 3). The transmission has respective power take-up gears (14, 15) which are linked to the respective work stations (2, 3). The power source (7) comprises an electric motor with an output shaft on which is mounted an output drive gear (18). Locating means (82, 101) locate the power source (7) at the central station (8) in a manner to allow the power source (7) to be manually shifted to bring the output drive gear (18) into driving contact with a selected one of the take-up gears (14, 15). The apparatus is preferably embodied as a motor driven toy such as toy garage/petrol station in which the peripheral work stations are different toy versions of respective garage/petrol station operations such as a car wash, a vehicle service ramp, a lock up garage and a petrol pump. The power source may take the form of a simulated gear shift lever.

Description

SPECIFICATION Electro-mechanical apparatus This invention relates to electro-mechanical apparatus. More particularly, though not necessarily exclusively, the invention is concerned with motordriven toys.

Over the years the toy industry has known many examples of motor-driven toys. Some have been successful and have enjoyed a long popular life, as for example, the electric train set, but many have enjoyed only a brief period of popularity and then faded from public notice. We believe that a principal reason for this has been the fact that historically such toys have suffered from the drawback that there was a very limited choice of operations which the toy could perform, as a result of which children quickly lost interest in the toy. Even the most successful of the motor-driven toys, namely the electric train set, had a choice only of going forward or backward and at a variable speed. The success of the electric train set lay in the opportunity by means of track design to allow a child to use his or her imagination in running a railway system.

As we shall explain in more detail below, we have now devised an arrangement whereby a single toy can perform a plurality of quite different operations. In so doing, we have devised an original transmission in which power is taken off to a plurality of work stations in a manner which is a complete departure from conventionai power takeoff arrangements. We believe, therefore, that the invention, though particularly valuable in the field of motor-driven toys will have a utility far beyond that field.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided electro-mechanical apparatus comprising: a plurality of peripheral work stations, a power source therefor located at a central station, and a transmission located at said central station for selectively coupling said power source to drive respective said work stations; the transmission comprising respective power take-up gears linked to the respective work stations; and the power source comprising an electric motor with an output shaft on which is mouhted an output drive gear, and a locating means for locating said power source at said central station in a manner to allow said power source to be manually shifted to bring said output drive gear into driving contact with a selective one of said take-up gears.

It will be seen that the power take-off system provided in effect by the present invention differs wholly from the conventional approach in that in this case the respective power take-up gears are mounted in stationary positions while the power source is moveable to make the selected contact between an output drive gear and a selected said take-up gear.

Particularly in the case of a motor-driven toy, the electric motor is suitably a miniature electric motor and may be mounted in a unit consisting of or comprising a handle or the like adapted to be manually gripped for selectively moving the power source so as to bring the output drive gear into contact with selected said take-up gears. We shall describe below a motor driven toy in the form of a garage/petrol station in which the peripheral work stations may comprise toy versions of respective garage operations such as a petrol pump, a car wash, a lock-up garage, a car park barrier, and a ramp, and in this case, consistent with the motoring flavour of the toy, the power source may be provided with an elongate gear shift lever similar to that of a motor car moveable by the child to select which garage operation is to be driven.In the preferred embodiment, the motor is battery driven, and the batteries may conveniently be located in the gear shift stick.

The invention is not limited to toy garages. The man skilled in the toy art will readily conceive of other environments in which a plurality of operations may be desired to be performed. Examples would be a toy work bench or a toy kitchen.

The invention is hereinafter more particularly described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a front elevational view of an embodiment of electro-mechanical apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention and in the form of a toy garage/petrol station; Figure 2 is a top plan view of the toy of Fig 1; Figure 3 is part sectional view as seen in the direction of the arrows A-A in Fig 2; Figure 4 is a partial sectional view as seen in the direction of the arrows B-B in Fig 1; Figure 5 is a partial sectional view as seen in the direction of the arrows C-C in Fig 1; Figure 6 is front elevational view of the self contained power source of the toy of Figs 1 to 5; Figure 7 is a side elevational view of the power source of Fig 6 as seen from the left in that Figure;; Figure 8 is a top plan view of the power source of Figs 6 and 7; Figure 9 is a longitudinal sectional view as seen in the direction of the arrows D-D in Fig 6; and Figure 10 is cross-sectional view as seen in the direction of the arrows E-E in Fig 9.

Referring first to Figs 1-3 of the accompanying drawings, there is shown an embodiment of an electro-mechanical apparatus in the nature of a motor-driven toy, here in the form of a garage/petrol station 1. A plurality of peripheral work stations, which here comprise a simulated petrol pump 2, a simulated car-wash 3, a raiseable barrier 4, a simulated service ramp 5 and a raiseable door 6 for a simulated lock-up garage, are driven from a single power source 7 located at a central station 8. Each peripheral work station is linked to the central station 8 through respective shafts 9, 10, 11, 12 mounted for rotation in bearings effectively provided by apertures in a base 13 of the toy. Coupled to the end of each shaft at the central station 8 is a respective bevel gear 14, 15, 16 and 17 (of which only bevel gears 14 and 15 are illustrated in Fig 3).

As will be explained in more detail hereinbelow, power source 7 is adapted to be manually shifted to bring an output drive gear 18 thereof into driv ing contact with a selected one of the gears 14, 15, 16 and 17. The said gears 14, 15, 16 and 17 thus function as respective power take-off gears linked to the respective peripheral work stations and forming part of a transmission including the drive gear 18.

It will be seen that the power take-off system so provided comprises power take-up gears 14, 15, 16 and 17 which are mounted in stationary positions while the power source 7 is moveable to make selected contact between its output drive gear 18 and a selected one of said take-up gears.

The base of the toy is effectively formed of two parts, namely a base proper 13 and a plate 19 which overlies the lower base 13, between which plate 19 and base 13 are located the respective shafts 9, 10, 11 and 12. As will be explained in more detail below, the plate 19 serves additionally as a retaining plate for the power source 7 at central station 8.

Thus, it will be seen from Fig 3 that power takeup shaft 9 for petrol pump 2 lies between base 13 and plate 19 running effectively in bearings defined at edges or meeting points between these members. The power take-up bevel gear 14 is mounted at one end of the shaft 9 while a spur gear 20 is mounted at the other end where it is adapted to make meshed contact with counter display gear 21 of the petrol pump 2. The housing of the petrol pump is formed of front and rear plastics parts 22 and 23 which are a press fit together and are received in an appropriate well 24 of the base 13. As will be best seen in Fig 3, counter display gear 21 comprises a circular disc 25 integrally moulded on the rear face of the disc meshed on its radially outer surface for meshed contact with spur gear 20.Counter display gear 21 includes integral forward and rearward pivots 28 and 29 received in corresponding sockets 30 and 31 on the internal faces of the forward and rearward parts 22 and 23 respectively of the petrol pump housing. The front face of disc 25 bears numbers to provide a digital display simulating the filling of a petrol tank with petrol from a pump, front part 22 of the petrol pump housing having a window aperture 32 through which digits on the front face of disc 25 are visible. Counter display gear 21 has a counter weight 33 which enables the displayed digits to be returned to 0. As best shown in Figs 1 and 2, the petrol pump includes a simulated nozzle 34 and hose 35.Nozzle 34 is adapted to be received in an aperture formed in the side of the petrol pump housing and, when so seated, the distal end of petrol pump nozzle 34 engages with a disengaging link 36 (Fig 1) pivotably mounted at 37. Referring again to Fig 3, it will be seen that socket 30 in the front part 22 of the petrol pump housing is dimensioned substantially greater than the corresponding pivot 28 to be received therein. Pivoting of disengaging link 36 will bring that link into engagement with counter display gear 21 so as to lift pivot 28 in socket 30 so as to disengage flange 27 from spur gear 20 and enable the counter display gear to rotate under the influence of gravity on its counter weight 33 to bring the visible display through the window 32 back to 0.Thus, for a child to simulate the filling of a petrol tank of a toy car using the pump 2 in the illustrated toy, nozzle 34 is removed from its seat in the housing aperture and made as if to fill the petrol tank of a model car.

Drive gear 18 is brought into engagement with take-up gear 14 and power applied so as to rotate the counter display in the petrol pump. Gears 18 and 14 are disengaged when a child believes that the model car's petrol tank has been sufficiently filled. Reinsertion of nozzle 34 in its seating aperture in the petrol pump housing then returns the counter display to 0. It is believed that the construction and operation of this simulated petrol pump is novel per se.

As is perhaps best shown in Fig 2, the toy garage/petrol station is separable into several components for packing, etc, comprising a main component consisting of the base 13 and parts mounted thereon; a secondary component 37 interengagable with the base 13 via engagement means 38 on the left side of the base 13 as shown in the orientation of Figs 1 and 2; and two further components 39 and 40 similarly engagable with the first component via interengaging means 38 on the right side of the toy as seen in the orientation of Figs 1 and 2. It will be seen that these components define two road ways for model cars through the toy.The first such road way comprises an entrance ramp 41 defined by component 39, a manually raiseable barrier 42 being provided across the opening to entrance ramp 41, and a central road way 43 past lock-up 6, petrol pump 2 and service ramp 5 to an exit ramp 44 defined on component 37. Component 40 comprises a long ramp 45 supported by means of a leg 46, so providing the entrance to the second road way of the toy. As will be seen from Fig 1, this road way brings a model toy car to an upper level where it passes a manually raiseable entrance barrier 47 and may then pass along an upper road way 48, and then down an inclined ramp 49 supported by a leg 50 and being formed as part of component 37 or interengagable therewith by means of interengaging means 38 as shown.

Referring again to Figure 3, it will be seen that power take-up shaft 10 for the car-wash 3 similarly lies between base 13 and plate 19 running effectively in bearings defined at edges or meeting points between these members. The power take-up bevel gear 15 is mounted at one end of the shaft 10 while a second bevel gear 51 is mounted at the other end in engagement with a similar bevel gear 52 at one end of auxiliary power take-up shaft 53, the other end of which has a spur gear 54 formed with an integral axially extending key 55 received in a corresponding socket 56 in one end of one of two car-wash bobbins 57. As is shown in the part sectional view of Fig 3, the bobbin 57 is formed in two parts interfitted together and mounting an annual cylindrical body of foam 58. Upper end member 59 of the bobbin 57 is integrally formed with a pivot 60 received in a socket 61 of an outer housing 62 for car-wash 3, which outer housing straddles the road way Power is transmitted from spur gear 54 though a gear train 63 to a similar spur gear 64 associated with the second bobbin of the simulated car-wash, the construction of which is otherwise similar to the first such bobbin.

Thus it will be seen that the car-wash 3 may operated by bringing drive gear 18 into engagement with power take-up bevel gear 15 to rotate the respective bobbins and associated foam cylinders in opposite senses, the gear train 63 having an even number of gears. The arrangement is such that if a child pushes a toy car into the nip between the two car-wash rollers, they will carry the car through the car-wash, and the car will travel as far as barrier 4.

Power take-up shaft 12 has power take-up bevel gear 17 (not shown) at one end and a spur gear 65 (Figure 4) at its other end. Spur gear 65 is in mesh with lifting gear 66 which is meshed on one side at 67 and mounted for rotation on a shaft 68. The other side of lifting gear 66 carries a follower 69 which engages with a slide 70 forming part of the service ramp 5. Engagement of drive gear 18 with take-up gear 17 will turn lifting gear 66 to raise follower 69, so lifting slide 70 until follower 69 reaches the upper dead centre position shown in Figure 4, whereafter continued rotation results in the slide 70 and service ramp 5 being lowered.

As also shown in Figure 4, service ramp 5 includes a finger 71 adapted to cam against a depending actuating member 72 integral with raiseable barrier 4. It will be seen that as service ramp 5 is lifted, barrier 4 is raised by being pivoted about its pivot 73. Lowering of service ramp 5 will result in the barrier 4 being returned to its original position closing off the exit road way from carwash 3. It will be seen that barrier 4 includes a barrier flap 74 hingedly mounted on barrier 4 at 75 and adapted to be pushed out of the way as the car is pushed down the exit road way past the raised barrier 4.

The remaining power take-up shaft 11 has power take-up bevel gear 16 (not illustrated) mounted at one end and a cam wheel 76 (Fig 5) mounted adjacent one internal wall of lock-up 6. Cam 77 is integrally moulded on wheel 76 and is engaged by one end of a slidable follower 78. Follower 78 is adapted to slide longitudinally in guides 79 mounted on or integral with the adjacent wall of the lock-up. Distal end 80 of slidable follower 78 is adapted to engage with the inner-surface 81 of a raiseable garage door for the lock-up. Follower 78 is freely slidable in guides 79 or spring biased to its lowermost position so that, as the wheel 76 rotates, the garage door is first raised and then lowered.

We shall now describe the construction of power source 7 with reference to Figs 6-10 of the accompanying drawings. The power source, believed novel perse is self contained including both motor and battery. As will be seen from the side elevational views of Figs 6 and 7, the power sources includes a motor housing 100 from which the bevel drive gear 18 and a locating tab 101 (for a purpose to be explained below) protrude at the lower end, and a battery housing 102 having a knob 103 at its upper end. The battery housing 102 and knob 103 have the general configuration of a gear stick. The top surface of the knob 103 suitably carries arrows and numbers identifying all the different operations capable for being performed in the toy by manipulating the gear lever in the identified directions, as will be further explained below.The battery housing 102 and motor housing 100 are separated by concave shroud plate 104.

Referring now to Fig 9, a miniature electric motor 105 is mounted within the housing 100 and coupled by reduction gearing 106 to drive gear 18.

Battery driven miniature electric motors suitable for our purpose are readily available, as for example from Mabuchi Motor Co of Japan. Mounted on the output shaft 107 of motor 105 is a spur gear 108 in mesh with a first integral spur/worm gear combination 109 which is in mesh with a second integral spur/worm gear combination 110, the worm gear of which is in mesh with a spur gear 111 integrally moulded with bevel gear 18. The spur gear 111/bevel gear 18 combination includes integral axles 112 and 113 respectively received in sockets formed in an interior wall of the housing and in an inner surface of locating tab 101. The locating tab 101 is effectively connected to motor housing 100 by a cage or spider 114 through the openings of which bevel gear 18 is visible.

Batteries such as 115 are accommodated in the battery housing 102 defined by the gear stick, access to the interior of the battery housing for insertion or removal of batteries being provided by removing the knob 103 which is keyed to the exterior of the battery housing and is slidable therealong. A spring 116 is mounted at the lower interior end of battery housing 102 extending through an opening into the motor housing 100 and making electrical contact with one terminal of motor 105.

The motor circuit is completed via the battery, contact plate 117 for the positive pole of the battery, plate 117 being mounted on the interior end surface of knob 103, and a switch contact strip 118 extending the length of the battery housing 102 into the motor housing 100 and into contact with the other terminal of 105. The housings 100 an 102 and the knob 103 are all formed of a plastics material, and it will be noted that there is a gap between positive contact plate 177 and switch contact strip 118. In order to complete the motor circuit to cause the drive gear 18 to turn, the user must press down the knob 103 against the bias of spring 116 sufficient to bring positive contact plate 117 into electrical engagement with switch contact strip 118.

Figs 1 and 3 show power source 7 mounted in position in the toy. Locating tab 101 is received in a corresponding slot in a tab receiving member 82 affixed to base 13. The motor housing 100 is hidden from view within an outer case 83 which can conveniently take the form of a simulated petrol station kiosk through the roof 84 of which the gear stick 102 and knob 103 protrude. The kiosk roof 84 of casing 83 has an opening 85, the configuration of which defines a gate for the gear stick lever 102.

The locating slot defined in tab receiving member 82 is configured to allow such movement. It will also be noted that the shroud plate 104 cams against the edge of opening 85 and effectively closes the opening against the ingress of dirt and the insertion of childrens' fingers.

Thus, a child wishing to put one of the garage operations into effect selects the appropriate said operation by manually shifting the gear lever in the appropriate direction identified by the marking on the knob 103 to bring drive gear 18 into mesh with the appropriate power take-up gear associated with the particular garage operation, and then presses down on the gear stick knob 103 to complete the motor circuit to drive the appropriate garage operation.

In this particular toy in which the operations of a garage or petrol station are carried out in the peripheral work stations, the manually shiftable operating mechanism completes the motoring theme by taking the configuration of a gear stick. Persons skilled in this art will readily appreciate that the teachings of the present invention are equally applicable to other forms of toy. Other examples which will readily suggest themselves would be a toy work bench or toy kitchen. In these cases, the central power source will be coupled to some other form of handle more applicable to the particular form of toy and manually shiftable to engage an output drive gear of the power source with a selected take-up gear linked to the peripheral work station for whichever selected operation is desired.

Claims (16)

1. Electro-mechanicai apparatus comprising: a plurality of peripheral work stations, a power source therefor located at a central station, and a transmission located at said central station for selectively coupling the said power source to drive respective said work stations; the transmission comprising respective power take-up gears linked to the respective work stations; and the power source comprising an electric motor with an output shaft on which is mounted an output drive gear, and locating means for locating said power source at said central station in a manner to allow said power source to be manually shifted to bring said output drive gear into driving contact with a selected one of said take-up gears.

2. Electro-mechanical apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein said electric motor is mounted in a unit consisting of or comprising a handle or the like adapted to be manually gripped for selectively moving the power source so as to bring the output drive gear into contact with selective take-up gears.

3. Electro-mechanical apparatus according to Claim 2, wherein said electric motor is battery driven, one or more batteries for operatively driving said motor being located in said unit for movement with said motor.

4. Electro-mechanical apparatus according to Claim 3, wherein said one or more batteries is (are) located within said handle, the axes of said one or more batteries and said handle extending substantially in the same longitudinal direction, and said handle having a distal end portion including an electrically conductive region internally thereof, which distal end portion is slidable in said longitudinal direction relative to the remainder of said unit between first and second relative positions in which said distal end portion respectively makes and breaks a battery circuit for said motor.

5. Electro-mechanical apparatus according to any preceding Claim, wherein said locating means comprises a protrusion formed on said power source or on parts manually shiftable with said power source and a co-operating socket or the like allowing said power source to be pivotally movable with said protrusion located in said socket or the like between positions in which said output drive gear is respectively in driving contact with different ones of said take-up gears, said output drive gear and each of said take-up gear being bevel gears.

6. A motor-driven toy comprising: a plurality of peripheral work stations, a power source therefor located at a central station, and a transmission located at said central station for selectively coupling the said power source to drive respective said work stations; the transmission comprising respective power take-up gears linked to the respective work stations; and the power source comprising an electric motor with an output shaft on which is mounted an output drive gear, the electric motor being mounted in a unit consisting of or comprising a handle or the like adapted to be manually gripped, and the power source being provided with locating means for locating the power source at said central station so as to allow said handle or the like to be manipulated for selectively moving the power source so as to bring the output drive gear into driving contact with a selected one of said take-up gears.

7. A toy according to Claim 6 in the form of a toy garage/petrol station in which the peripheral work stations comprise different toy versions of respective garage/petrol station operations.

8. A toy according to claim 7, wherein said handle is formed as a gear shift lever, the central station including a gate in which the gear stick is movable, the configuration of said gate defining the respective manipulations required to bring the output drive gear into driving contact with a selected one of the take-up gears to drive a selected simulated garage/petrol station operation at a selected work station.

9. A toy according to any of Claims 6, 7 or 8 wherein said power source is self-contained, the motor being battery driven, one or more batteries for operatively driving the motor being located in the unit for movement with the motor.

10. A toy according to both Claims 8 and 9, wherein said one or more batteries is (are) located within said gear stick handle, the axes of said one or more batteries and said gear stick handle extending substantially in the same longitudinal direction, and said gear stick handle having a distal end portion in the form of a simulated gear stick knob and including an electrically conductive region internally thereof, said gear stick knob being slidable in the said longitudinal direction relative to the remainder of said gear stick handle between first and second relative positions of said knob and said gear stick handle in which the knob respectively makes and breaks a battery circuit for the motor.

11. A toy according to Claim 7 or any claim appendant thereto, wherein one said peripheral work station comprises a simulated car wash in the form of a pair of bobbins each mounting a cylindrical body of plastics foam material, said bobbins being geared together so as to rotate in opposite senses to each other and being linked by a power take-off shaft and gear transmission coupled to one said take-up gear at said central station.

12. A toy according to Claim 7 or any claim appendant thereto, wherein one said peripheral work station comprises a simulated vehicle service ramp comprising a platform and lifting gear therefor, the lifting gear being coupled to one of said take-up gears at said central station by means of a take-off shaft and gear transmission, said lifting gear including a cam follower adapted to engage said platform so as continually to raise and then to lower said platform until the said motor is stopped or said lifting gear is disengaged from said motor by disengagement of said output drive gear from the respective take-up gear.

13. A toy according to Claim 7 or any claim appendant thereto, wherein one said peripheral work station comprises a simulated lock-up garage having a garage door pivoted along its upper edge and means coupled to one said take-up gear at said central work station for raising said door and for allowing said door to lower, the arrangement being such that there is an absence of a positive interconnection between said door and the respective said take-up gear so that said door is prevented from being positively closed against a child's finger.

14. A toy according to Claim 7 or any claim appendant thereto, wherein one said peripheral work station comprises a simulated petrol pump including a petrol pump housing having a window, digital display means visible through said window to simulate the progressive filling of a petrol tank with petrol from said pump, said digital display means comprising a counter display gear rotatable about its axis and bearing digits on its face, said counter display gear being coupled to one said take-up gear at said central station by means of a gear and shaft take-off transmission, said simulated petrol pump including a petrol pump nozzle receivable in an opening in the side of said petrol pump and being adapted when so received to disengage said counter display gear from said transmission, and said counter display gear being provided with a counter weight, which counter weight is effective to rotate said counter display gear to bring the digit 0 to said window when said counter display gear is disengaged from said transmission.

15. Electro-mechanical apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

16. A motor driven toy substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.