Collapsible wind and/or sunshade screen

#The present invention refers to a collapsible wind and/or sunshade screen. In particular it relates to such a screen of an easily portable make which is handy to take along on excursions to the country side, either when hitch-hiking or skiing, on a car trip or with any other vehicle etc. It is a primary demand that such a collapsible screen be of low weight and great stability, as well as easy to handle when taken along, in opening up or shutting up after being used, and, if so desired, it should be readily fixed to any foundation, such as the ground proper, ice and snow, or the like. Furthermore, it should require as little space as possible. These demands are in all essential parts fulfilled by the screen in accordance with the invention.

#Briefly stated, the screen in accordance with the invention includes a screen sheet and a stand supporting the sheet. The stand includes a hub and a pair of outer ribs and an intermediary rib kept together at one end at the hub. The ribs are pivotly carried by the hub on axles in parallel relationship and at least approximately perpendicular to the portion of the screen sheet adjacent the hub. The screen includes means interconnected between the outer ribs and the intermediary rib for releasably maintaining the sheet in a fixed stretched condition.

#An embodiment of the wind and/or sunshade screen according to the invention is, by way of example, described hereinafter with reference to the annexed drawings, in which

#FIGS. 1a and 1b are diagrammatic front views of two variations of the screen, and

#FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate the screen in a lateral and a top view, respectively.

#The collapsible wind and/or sunshade screen as shown in FIG. 1a consists of a screen sheet of textile fabric, plastic foil or any other suitable material and a stand supporting the same and being made up by a number of approximately radially extending ribs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 joined at their inner ends by a hub 7, and attached at their other outer end, and optionally also at one or several intermediary points, to the screen sheet 1 in a preferably removable manner. The ribs are made to swing to and fro about axles arranged at their inner ends, the axles being parallel inter se and at least approximately perpendicular to the portion of the screen adjacent to the hub or to a plane tangential to said portion.

#The screen sheet 1 is kept in extended position by means of a stretching and fixing means comprising two bracing rods 8, 9 clamped in between the central rib 4 and each one of the two outer ribs 2, 6, and in this way together with the extended screen sheet 1 maintaining the ribs 2-6 in their stretched-out position.

#The bracing rods 8, 9, are, at their lower end by means of a runner or guide shoe 10, pivotally and slidably connected with the ribs 2, 6 and at their other end by means of another runner or guide shoe 11 both pivotally and slidably connected with the central rib 4. The movement of the runners 10 away from one another along the ribs 2, 6 is limited by stops disposed on said ribs, and the runner 11 is in turn, suitably by means of a lock or hook, fixable in its lowermost position at the rib 4. When shutting up the screen said lock or hook is released and the runner 11 displaced upwards along the rib 4 while simultaneously the runners 10 are displaced towards one another along the ribs 2, 6, so that all ribs can be folded together.