Barrier with panels sliding parallel
AssigneeCarlson Pet Products, Inc.
InventorsMark A. Flannery, Porter R. Million
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A barrier employed to keep children and/or pets in or out of certain areas in the house. The barrier includes four panels. Two main panels slide parallel to each other to lengthen or shorten the barrier as a whole. Two side panels stabilize the main panels and extend to the front and rear faces of the main panels to provide a self-supporting in-house barrier. Each of the panels includes a wooden frame. The wood lends less weight, less sharp edges, and more pleasing aesthetics than, for example, a metal gate.
Claims20
An in-house residential barrier employed to keep children or pets in or out of certain areas in the house, comprising:
- a) a first panel comprising a first rectangular wood frame and a first metal grid within the first rectangular wood frame, with the first panel being disposed in a first plane;
- b) a second panel comprising a second rectangular wood frame and a second metal grid within the second rectangular wood frame, with the second panel being disposed in a second plane, with the first and second panels being engaged to each other and being slideable relative to each other in parallel fashion;
- c) a third panel comprising a third rectangular wood frame and a third metal grid within the third rectangular frame, with the third panel being engaged to the first panel at a right angle;
- d) a fourth panel comprising a fourth rectangular wood frame and a fourth metal grid within the fourth rectangular wood frame, with the fourth panel being engaged to the second panel at a right angle;
- and
- e) wherein each of the third and fourth panels includes a bottom horizontally extending frame member that is one-piece and integral, with said bottom horizontally extending frame member cutting through each of the first and second planes in which said first and second panels reside such that said bottom horizontally extending frame member extends to a front and back of each of the first and second panels.
An in-house residential barrier employed to keep children or pets in or out of certain areas in the house, comprising:
- a) a first panel comprising a first rectangular wood frame and a first metal grid within the first rectangular wood frame;
- b) a second panel comprising a second rectangular wood frame and a second metal grid within the second rectangular wood frame, with the first and second panels being engaged to each other and being slideable relative to each other in parallel fashion;
- c) wherein the first rectangular wood frame includes a first inner edge and wherein said second rectangular wood frame includes a second inner edge, wherein the first inner edge includes a first channel, wherein said second inner edge includes a second channel, wherein said first grid is received in said first channel, and wherein said second grid is received in said second channel.
An in-house residential barrier employed to keep children or pets in or out of certain areas in the house, comprising:
- a) a first panel comprising a first rectangular frame and a first grid within the first rectangular frame;
- b) a second panel comprising a second rectangular frame and a second grid within the second rectangular frame, with the first and second panels being engaged to each other and being slideable relative to each other in parallel fashion;
- and
- c) a connector between the first and second panels, with the connector including a base, with the base traversing each of the first and second panels, with the base being fixedly connected to one of the first and second panels and including a lip for confronting the other of the first and second panels that slides within the lip, with the connector further including a swinging clamp pivotally connected to the base and engagable to said panel that slides within the lip to fix said first and second panels relative to each other in a nonsliding fashion.
A locking mechanism for permitting first and second objects to slide by each other and for fixing the first and second objects together in a nonsliding fashion, with the locking mechanism comprising:
- a) a base for being fixed to the first object;
- b) a lip for confronting the second object, with the lip being engaged to the base;
- and
- c) a swinging element having first and second ends, with the first end being pivotally connected to the base on a first axis, with the second end having a roller on a second axis, with the first and second axis being parallel, whereby the swinging element swings to an unlocked position in which the first and second objects can slide by each other, whereby the swinging element swings to a locked position in which the roller engages the second object and in which the first and second objects are fixed together in a nonsliding fashion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.