GB2314512A - Baby bouncer mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

A baby bouncer mechanism 6 comprising: (i) a substantially rigid support member 40 including overhead suspension means for suspending the mechanism from an overhead fixing ; (ii) cantilever spring means 22, 21a, 21b mounted on the support member 40 and arranged generally transversely relative to the overhead suspension means and relative to the direction in which load is applied thereto in use; and (iii) attachment means at or adjacent respective remote ends of the cantilever spring means 22, 21a, 21b for suspending a harness 12 therefrom; wherein the support member 40 includes respective abutment surface portions 48a, 48b against which loading portions 24a, 24b of the respective cantilever arms 21a, 2lb come into progressive abutment as the cantilever arms 21a, 21b flex downwardly upon application of load via the harness 12.

Description

BABY BOUNCER MECHANISM This invention relates to a baby bouncer, that is to say an apparatus for supporting a baby or young child just above the ground in such a way that he or she may bounce up and down. More particularly, the invention relates to an improved bouncing mechanism for a baby bouncer.

A conventional baby bouncer apparatus comprises a substantially rigid, transversely oriented bar arranged for overhead suspension via a vertical tension spring, usually a helical spring, from for example a ceilingmounted hook, door lintel or the like. From each end of the transverse bar extend lines or cords which are connected to a harness or saddle in which the baby or small child is placed and secured. The weight of the baby exerts a load on the tension spring such that it is extended to a degree which allows the baby's feet to just touch the ground. Attainment of this condition is also dependent upon suitable selection of the height of suspension of the overall apparatus and also the resilience of the spring. Thus, when the baby is at rest, he or she is properly supported with his or her feet touching the ground, yet is able to exert positive downward force by bending his or her legs so as to extend the spring further, which will then react when that force is released by reducing in length and permitting upward movement, and thereafter bouncing of the baby. In addition to providing an enjoyable activity for the baby whilst being safely retained (i.e. incapable of crawling about with all the risks that involves), such a baby bouncer apparatus helps to develop the strength of the baby's legs, as well as general coordination in an upright position as a precursor to walking.

This conventional form of baby bouncer apparatus has associated with it several major problems, notably the permanence of the available overhead fixing and the long term inadequacy of a given vertical tension spring, especially in terms of its tendency to become weaker over time Related to both of the above problems is the further problem that the fixed average distance between the harness or saddle and the suspension fixing and also the fixed resilient force of a given tension spring restricts use of the apparatus with babies or young children of different heights or weights or with a given child as it grows.

With the object of alleviating some of these known problems, a further known baby bouncer apparatus is proposed as described in published European Patent application No. EP-A-0455165. In this disclosed apparatus, an elongate cantilever spring is suspended from a central point by a substantially rigid hook or the like, optionally via a substantially inextensible cable, from a free-standing/self-supporting frame which can be completely portable. As with the above conventional baby bouncer apparatus, a harness for holding the baby or young child is suspended by lines from each of the ends of the suspended cantilever spring, but now the bouncing behaviour of the baby is achieved through the resilience of the cantilever spring which is mounted substantially horizontally relative to the vertical direction in which the bouncing movement of the baby takes place. A transverse, substantially rigid arcuate support bar is provided beneath the cantilever spring, two prevent the end regions of the spring flexing to such an extent which might cause spring failure.

Whilst this more recent proposed baby bouncer apparatus is an improvement on the conventional design in some respects, it still suffers from various problems.

One particularly noticeable problem concerns the stability of the bouncing motion that occurs as the cantilever spring flexes under the cyclic application and removal of load resulting from the weight of the baby in the harness. Particularly in environments such as a room where there is intense activity such as music or television playing or where other children are active, it has been observed that the baby or child mounted in the apparatus often does not, as one might expect, bounce gently and steadily up and down only, but can become extremely active, making completely unpredictable and violent movements in almost any direction, especially twisting movements. One effect of this is that the apparatus is subjected to unexpected forces of different magnitudes and in varying directions, and this poses a safety hazard as regards the strength and stability of the apparatus and also as regards possible injury to the baby or child experiencing these extraordinary types of movement within the surrounding structure or frame of the apparatus. The latter can become a particularly worrying problem if for example there are protruding bolts, screws or exposed sharp edges against which the baby or child could experience some injury.

A further problem is that as the cantilever spring flexes against the supporting bar of the apparatus, anything between the spring and the bar may be trapped and crushed. This is clearly a safety hazard regard with respect to fingers or hands of other babies or children, as well as of adults.

Further, this more recent design of baby bouncer apparatus still suffers from the problem of having ideal utility with only one given height or weight of baby or child as a result mainly of substantially fixed resilient force exerted by the cantilever spring as it flexes under load.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved baby bouncer apparatus which embodies many if not all of the advantages of the improved known design of apparatus discussed above, yet provides for a much more stable bouncing motion, especially as regards reducing the tendency for the onset of unpredictable, uncontrolled and especially twisting types of movement referred to above even during high frequency bouncing, and also to remove or ameliorate the potential safety hazards discussed above. At the same time, the present invention seeks to provide a more versatile baby bouncer apparatus which can be used successfully with babies or children of differing weights or with a given baby or child as it grows, and which apparatus is still relatively simple and cheap to manufacture and uncomplicated in design.

Accordingly, in a first aspect the present invention provides a baby bouncer mechanism comprising: (i) a substantially rigid support member including overhead suspension means for suspending the mechanism from an overhead fixing; (ii) cantilever spring means mounted on the support member and arranged generally transversely relative to the overhead suspension means and relative to the direction in which load is applied thereto in use; and (iii) attachment means at or adjacent respective remote ends of the cantilever spring means for suspending a harness therefrom; wherein the cantilever spring means comprises a central anchor portion which is anchored to the support member and a pair of cantilever arms extending from either side of the anchor portion and carrying at or adjacent their remote ends the respective harness attachment means, and wherein the support member includes respective abutment surface portions against which loading portions of the respective cantilever arms come into progressive abutment as the cantilever arms flex downwardly upon application of load via the harness.

In a second aspect the present invention provides a complete baby bouncer apparatus, including a harness and a support structure, including the bouncing mechanism of the first aspect of the invention defined above.

By utilisation of the above defined novel spring arrangement in the context of a baby bouncer mechanism, it is possible to achieve, firstly, a bouncing motion which is more stable in terms of the characteristics discussed above in relation to the prior art than has hitherto been the case, and secondly, variable effective spring resilient spring force dependent upon the degree of flexure of the cantilever spring arms, this resulting from the progressive abutment of the loading portions of the respective cantilever spring arms against the respective abutment surface portions of the support member as the cantilever arms flex downwardly upon application of load via the harness.

In other words, as the cantilever spring arms flex downwardly under load, their effective length available for further resilient downward flexure decreases, thereby reducing the effective length of lever available for further downward flexure and increasing markedly the effective resilient spring force of the cantilever spring arms.

In preferred embodiments of the invention the cantilever spring means is formed as a unitary element with the central loop portion and the pair of cantilever arms being formed from the same length of resilient material. Thus, the spring means preferably takes the form of a single length of spring material, its central region being formed into a loop and the cantilever arms forming tangential extensions therefrom in generally opposite directions.

The resilient material from which the spring means is formed may for example be spring steel of a thickness sufficient to provide the desired degree of resilience, or more preferably is a heavy duty wire, especially for example a high-silicon wire such as that known as "music wire", which is a very high tensile and shear strength material with a characteristically smooth outer surface and which is formed by extrusion.

Because of this latter preferred material being available commercially typically in no more than diameters of four to five millimetres, in preferred practical embodiments of the invention, the spring means comprises two lengths of such music wire arranged in tandem, preferably with some kind of retaining means to unite them together at one or more points or regions along their length. In one preferred exemplary embodiment of this arrangement, the dual lengths of music wire are encased within a tight-fitting plastic (e.g. nylon) sheath, which has the additional advantage of providing protection against dirt or objects, e.g. a baby's small fingers, getting caught between the tandem spring wires during operation of the apparatus. The use of dual spring wires in tandem as the spring means also has the advantage that if for any reason the wire material fails, then there is an in-built safety mechanism in that only one of the wires is likely to fail at any given time.

The central loop portion of the spring means may be in the form of a short coil having a small number of windings, e.g. one, two or perhaps three or thereabouts. However, since only the tangential extensions to the coil are important as constituting the cantilever spring arms of the spring means, usually only a single coil winding, i.e. a single loop, will be sufficient and fulfil the necessary function.

The support member of the apparatus on which the spring means is mounted preferably takes the form of a mounting block which for example is formed as a solid plastics moulding in two halves which are united together by screws or similar fastening means with the spring means anchored between them.

The mounting block will generally comprise an upper portion providing the defined abutment surfaces against which the loading portions of the cantilever arms progressively come into abutment as they flex downwardly. The loading portions of the cantilever arms are typically the regions thereof remote from the arms' free ends carrying the harness attachment means, and in practice, when the central loop and the cantilever arms are formed from a unitary length of spring material, the loading portions may be defined as those portions intermediate the relatively straight cantilever arm portions proper and the central loop portion. Thus, the loading portions of the spring are characteristically arcuate, but with a gradually increasing radius of curvature going in the direction towards the respective cantilever arms' free ends.

Each respective abutment surface portion of the upper part of the preferred mounting block is preferably arcuate with a generally constant radius of curvature along its length, this radius of curvature being for example approximately the same as or similar to the minimum radius of curvature of the loading portions of the respective cantilever spring arms. It is possible, however, within the scope of the invention, for the respective abutment surface portions of the mounting block to be shaped differently, e.g.

with a non-linear or discontinuous surface profile.

A preferred form of the mounting block of the apparatus includes not only the above-mentioned upper portion providing the respective abutment surfaces for the loading portions of the cantilever spring arms, but further comprises a lower portion which securely anchors a lower section of the loop portion of the spring.

The operation of the spring arrangement of the apparatus of the invention will be described in further detail in connection with the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, which will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a baby bouncer apparatus including a preferred bouncer mechanism according to the invention; and Figure 2 is an enlarged part-sectional view from the front (with slight perspective) of the bouncer mechanism shown in Figure 1.

Referring firstly to Figure 1, baby bouncer apparatus 2 has a portable support frame 4 of substantially the same construction as that described and illustrated in EP-A-0455165, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, and so will not be described in further detail here. A bouncer mechanism 6 is suspended from a hook 8 attached to the support frame 4 via a substantially rigid strap 10 (which may alternatively be a line or chain). A harness, saddle or seat 12, the construction and fitting of which can be the same as that described in EP-A-0455165, is suspended from the bouncing mechanism 6 via cords or lines 14 attached by any suitable conventional means to each remote end of cantilever spring means 20.

Turning now to Figure 2 which shows the construction of the bouncing mechanism 6 in more detail, the cantilever spring means comprises a central loop portion 22 and a pair of cantilever arms 21a, 21b extending from either side of the loop portion 22 as tangential extensions thereof extending in generally opposite directions. The cantilever arm portions 21a, 21b and the loop portion 22 of the spring are formed from the same single length of spring material comprising twin heavy duty steel wire cores 30 tightly encased within a protective nylon or other plastics sheath 32. The wire cores 30 are made of commercially available heavy duty steel wire such as that known as "music wire". Preferably the twin wire cores lie side by side in a plane substantially parallel to the axis of the loop portion 22 of the spring.

Preferably in the normal unloaded state of the bouncing mechanism, the cantilever arm portions 21a, 21b of the spring each point slightly downwardly a few degrees (e.g. between 5 and 15 ) below the horizontal, as shown in Figure 1.

The spring means 21a, 21b, 22 are mounted in a mounting block 40 which forms the other main component of the bouncer mechanism 6. The mounting block 40 is moulded from any suitable plastics material, e.g.

nylon, polypropylene, and comprises two like halves which are manufactured separately and secured together e.g. by screws, bolts, adhesive or welding, during assembly of the apparatus. In the illustrated embodiment, the two halves of the mounting block are securable together by means of screws or bolts through holes 70, as shown in Figure 2.

The mounting block 40 comprises an upper portion 42 and a lower portion 44, and further includes a central hole or slit 66 through which passes the strap (or other element) 10 which is used to suspend the mechanism from the support frame of the apparatus. The upper portion 42 of the mounting block 40 is formed with an upper arcuate channel 52 which, in the assembled mounting block, is of sufficient transverse dimensions to amply accommodate the upper part of the spring means with room therewithin for flexural movement of the loading portions of the cantilever spring arms 21a, 21b. The lower portion 44 of the mounting block 40 is formed with a lower arcuate channel 54 which is of suitable transverse dimensions to accommodate the lower portion of the loop portion 22 of the spring means with a tight fit so that the loop portion 22 is tightly clamped therein to provide suitable anchoring of the spring when the two halves of the mounting block are assembled together.

The lower arcuate wall of the upper channel 52 in the mounting block 40 forms left-hand and right-hand abutment surface portions 48a, 48b, which are the surfaces against which loading portions 24a, 24b (respectively) of the left-hand and right-hand cantilever spring arms 21a, 21b(respectively) come into progressive abutment as the cantilever arms flex downwardly upon application of load via the harness.

As can be seen in Figure 2, the loading portions 24a, 24b of the cantilever arms 21a, 21b (respectively) are defined generally as the portions of the spring means which bridge the substantially straight extension sections of the cantilever arms and the central loop portion 22.

In use, when a baby or small child is placed in the harness of the apparatus, its weight causes a downward flexure of the cantilever arm extension portions 21a, 21b and this results in the respective loading portions 24a, 24b of the cantilever arms 21a, 21b coming into progressive abutment with the abutment surface portions 48a, 48b of the mounting block, as a result of which effective length of the cantilever arms available for further resilient downward flexure decreases. This increases the resulting stiffness (i.e. the resilient force) of the spring as such further progressive downward flexure occurs. Thus, the greater the downward flexure of the cantilever arms, the greater the resilient force exerted by the spring as a result of the effective fulcrum of each cantilever arm moving progressively along its length in a direction from its anchor point in the mounting block towards its remote free ends.

It is to be understood that the present invention has been described above by way of example only with reference to a specific exemplary preferred embodiment.

Many variations and modifications from that which has been specifically described and illustrated are possible within the scope of the invention, as will be readily apparent to persons skilled in the art.

As one example, the abutment surface portions of the mounting block may not be continuous, e.g. they may be discontinuous or may only be provided across a part or parts of the overall length limits of the upper part of the mounting block which correspond to the points of contact with the loading portions of the cantilever arms under minimum and maximum flexure.

Claims (8)

1. A baby bouncer mechanism comprising: (i) a substantially rigid support member including overhead suspension means for suspending the mechanism from an overhead fixing; (ii) cantilever spring means mounted on the support member and arranged generally transversely relative to the overhead suspension means and relative to the direction in which load is applied thereto in use; and (iii) attachment means at or adjacent respective remote ends of the cantilever spring means for suspending a harness therefrom; wherein the cantilever spring means comprises a central anchor portion which is anchored to the support member, and a pair of cantilever arms extending from either side of the anchor portion and carrying at or adjacent their remote ends the respective harness attachment means, and wherein the support member includes respective abutment surface portions against which loading portions of the respective cantilever arms come into progressive abutment as the cantilever arms flex downwardly upon application of load via the harness.

2. A baby bouncer mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the cantilever spring means is formed from a unitary length of spring material, its central region being formed into a loop to form said central anchor portion and the cantilever arms being formed by tangential extensions of the spring material from the central loop portion in generally opposite directions.

3. A baby bouncer mechanism according to claim 2, wherein the spring material of the cantilever spring means comprises dual lengths of music wire arranged in tandem and encased within a tight-fitting plastics sheath.

4. A baby bouncer mechanism according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the support member comprises a mounting block having an upper part and a lower part united together by fastening means with the central anchor portion of the cantilever spring means anchored between them, the upper part of the mounting block comprising the respective abutment surface portions against which the loading portions of the cantilever arms progressively come into abutment as they flex downwardly upon application of load.

5. A baby bouncer mechanism according to claim 4, wherein each respective abutment surface portion of the upper part of the mounting block is arcuate with a generally constant radius of curvature along its length.

6. A baby bouncer mechanism according to claim 4 or claim 5, wherein the lower part of the mounting block comprises means to further securely anchor the central anchor portion of the cantilever spring means.

7. A baby bouncer mechanism substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

8. A baby bouncer apparatus comprising a bouncing mechanism as claimed in any one of the preceding claims.