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United States Patent |
6,012,753 |
Ordoyne , et al. |
January 11, 2000 |
Pet barrier for installation in a vehicle with removable headrests
Abstract
A portable pet barrier for temporary installation in an automotive vehicle,
the vehicle having seating arrangements which feature removable headrests. The
barrier is intended to restrict the movement of medium to large sized pets, for
example, dogs, to portions of the vehicle not occupied by the driver or
passengers. Typically, the barrier is installed across the backrest of the rear
seating of a sport utility vehicle (SUV), minivan, or station wagon to confine
the pet to the rear luggage/cargo portion of the vehicle. Without using tools or
making threaded adjustments, installation of the barrier entails the engagement
of two or more slidable bolts with coaxially aligned headrest sockets, the
sockets becoming available for use after removal of the headrests. Inserted into
headrest sockets and frictionally in contact with the resilient, compliant
obstructive panel of the barrier, the bolts fasten and maintain position of the
barrier across the top of the vehicle backrest.
Inventors: |
Ordoyne; William K. (840 Huckleberry
La., Gretna, LA 70056); Martinez; Nash A. (3349 Jason La., Gretna,
LA 70056) |
Appl. No.: |
225110 |
Filed: |
January 4, 1999 |
Current U.S. Class: |
296/24.2; 119/496; 296/24.1;
297/391 |
Intern'l Class: |
B60P 003/04; A01K 001/02; B60R
027/00 |
Field of Search: |
296/24.2,24.1,37.16
119/496,510,516,519,523 297/391 |
References Cited [Referenced
By]
U.S. Patent Documents
D326076 |
May., 1992 |
Wiese. |
|
D393622 |
Apr., 1998 |
Goertzen. |
|
2982579 |
May., 1961 |
Greenwald |
296/24. |
3534998 |
Oct., 1970 |
Johnson et al. |
296/24. |
4546728 |
Oct., 1985 |
May |
119/496. |
4854364 |
Aug., 1989 |
Junker. |
|
5165754 |
Nov., 1992 |
Louys. |
|
5768826 |
Jun., 1998 |
Wilcher et al. |
|
5768827 |
Jun., 1998 |
Hackett. |
|
Foreign Patent Documents |
2206548 |
Jan., 1989 |
GB |
296/24. |
Primary
Examiner: Dayoan; D. Glenn
Assistant Examiner: Engle; Patricia
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Stanford, Jr.; George E.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A portable pet barrier for installation
in an automotive vehicle having a seating arrangement including removable
headrests, the barrier comprising:
a panel formed as a grating from a
material selected from a group consisting of polycarbonates, plexiglass, and
plastics, said panel, mounted atop the seating arrangement, forming a barrier
for preventing a pet initially placed in a desired, first location of the
vehicle from subsequently entering a prohibited, second location of the vehicle
by moving over and across the top of the seating arrangement, wherein the
seating arrangement has a plurality of headrest assemblies, each assembly
including a removable headrest and at least one headrest socket remaining in the
seating arrangement after removal of the headrest;
means for engaging
and affixing said panel atop the seating arrangement, engaging said panel with
at least two headrest sockets remaining after removal of the headrests; and
means connected to said panel for guiding, aligning and positioning said
means for engaging and affixing coaxially with at least two headrest sockets,
for positioning said panel vertically atop the seating arrangement.
2. A
portable pet barrier for installation in an automotive vehicle having a seating
arrangement including removable headrests, the barrier comprising:
a
panel forming a barrier for preventing a pet initially placed in a desired,
first location of the vehicle from subsequently entering a prohibited, second
location of the vehicle by moving over and across the top of the seating
arrangement, wherein the seating arrangement has a plurality of headrest
assemblies, each assembly including a removable headrest and at least one
headrest socket remaining in the seating arrangement after removal of the
headrest;
a plurality of slidable, engagement bolts for frictional
engagement with said panel and vehicle headrest sockets for affixing said panel
atop the backrest of a seating arrangement having at least two removable
headrests, for providing a pet barrier in an automobile; and
means
connected to said panel for guiding, aligning and positioning said engagement
bolts for engagement with at least two headrest sockets remaining after
headrests have been removed, for positioning said panel vertically atop the
seating arrangement.
3. A pet barrier as recited in claim 2, wherein
said panel is a trapezoidal grating formed from a plurality of horizontal
longitudinal members, spaced apart from each other, the spacing between said
members supported and maintained by a plurality of transverse members, one of
each said transverse members attached to each end of said plurality of
horizontal longitudinal members, wherein said plurality of longitudinal members
includes a top longitudinal member and a bottom longitudinal member, said bottom
member being longer than said top member.
4. A pet barrier as recited in
claim 3, wherein said panel is an open trapezoidal grating formed from three
horizontal longitudinal members, a top longitudinal member, a middle
longitudinal member and a bottom longitudinal member, all spaced apart from each
other, the spacing between said members maintained by two transverse members,
one of each said transverse members attached to each end of said horizontal
longitudinal members.
5. A pet barrier as recited in claim 3, wherein
said panel is formed from a material selected from a group consisting of
polycarbonates, plexiglass, and plastics.
6. A pet barrier as recited in
claim 3, wherein said panel is formed from a material selected from a group
consisting of wood, non-ferrous metal, and ferrous metal.
7. A pet
barrier as recited in claim 3, wherein said means for guiding, aligning and
positioning said engagement bolts comprises a plurality of panel engagement
guides formed within said panel and extending in a vertical plane from the top
surface of said top longitudinal member through said panel to the bottom surface
of said bottom longitudinal member, said engagement guides providing concentric
alignment with at least two vehicle headrest sockets atop the backrest of the
seating arrangement, allowing alignment for urging said bolts engagably into the
headrest sockets.
8. A pet barrier as recited in claim 3, wherein said
means for guiding and positioning said bolts comprises a plurality of apertures
formed as sleeves, said sleeves positioned in each of said longitudinal members,
said apertures providing concentric frictional alignment for urging said bolts
engagably into the headrest sockets.
9. A pet barrier as recited in
claim 7, wherein said engagement guides are apertures molded within said panel,
said apertures selected from a group consisting of all round apertures, all slot
apertures, and a combination of round and slot apertures.
10. A pet
barrier as recited in claim 2, wherein said panel is formed from a single sheet
of material selected from a group consisting of optically transmissive high
impact polycarbonates and bullet proof glass, for providing maximum protection
from pets which may be capable of activities dangerous to other occupants of the
vehicle, said panel including at least one orifice allowing ventilation through
said panel.
11. A pet barrier for an automobile having removable
headrests, said barrier comprising:
a panel forming a barrier for
preventing a pet initially placed in a desired, first location of the vehicle
from subsequently entering a prohibited, second location of the vehicle by
moving over and across the top of a seating arrangement, wherein the seating
arrangement has a plurality of headrest assemblies, each assembly including a
removable headrest and at least one headrest socket remaining in the seating
arrangement after removal of headrests, wherein said panel includes a plurality
of horizontal, longitudinal structural members, including a top horizontal,
longitudinal structural member and a bottom horizontal, longitudinal structural
member, said panel further including at least one transverse structural member,
said transverse member connected to each said longitudinal member, supporting
and maintaining a fixed, parallel spacing between and among said longitudinal
members;
a plurality of slidable, engagement bolts for frictional
engagement with said panel and vehicle headrest sockets for affixing said panel
atop the backrest of a seating arrangement having a plurality of removable
headrests, for providing a pet barrier in an automobile; and
a plurality
of panel engagement guides formed within each said horizontal, longitudinal
structural member of said panel and extending in a vertical plane from the top
surface of said top longitudinal member through each said longitudinal member to
the bottom surface of said bottom longitudinal member, said engagement guides
providing concentric alignment with at least two vehicle headrest sockets atop
the backrest of the seating arrangement, for guiding, aligning and positioning
said engagement bolts, such alignment facilitating urging thereupon said bolts
into headrest sockets remaining after headrests have been removed, for
positioning said panel vertically atop the seating arrangement.
12. A
pet barrier as recited in claim 11, wherein said panel is formed from a material
selected from the group consisting of polycarbonates, plexiglass, and plastics.
13. A pet barrier, as recited in claim 12, wherein said panel engagement
guides are apertures formed within said plurality of longitudinal members of
said panel, said apertures selected from a group consisting of all round
apertures, all slot apertures, and a combination of round and slot apertures.
14. A pet barrier, as recited in claim 13, wherein said panel is formed
as a trapezoid grating, said bottom longitudinal member longer in length than
said top longitudinal member.
15. A pet barrier, as recited in claim 14,
wherein said engagement bolts are formed from a material selected from a group
consisting of ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, polycarbonates, and plastics.
Description
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present
invention concerns generally a pet barrier for installation in a vehicle. In
particular, the present invention is directed to a pet barrier for automotive
vehicles, wherein such vehicles include seating arrangements having backrests
with removable headrests. For example, the present invention provides a portable
barrier for the temporary containment of pets in the luggage/cargo portion of
station wagons, vans, sport utility vehicles (SUV), and like enclosed vehicles,
which have rear seat headrest assemblies included in a seating arrangement and
where the headrests are readily removable therefrom. The installed barrier
prevents the contained pet from climbing, leaping, or otherwise moving forward
from the luggage/cargo portion and into the seating portions of the vehicle,
which may be occupied by a driver or passengers.
2. Description of
Related Art
Often there is a reoccurring need to transport medium to
large pets, such as dogs, in an automotive vehicle, either the pet owner's
vehicle or a vehicle owned by someone else. This need presents a continuing
problem confronting these pet owners as to a simple, effective method for
temporarily containing or restricting the pets during transportation, without
having the pet either disrupt the driver and passengers or soil or damage the
seating portions of the vehicle.
In many situations, cages and
restraining straps are unsuitable due to space limitations in the vehicle,
expense of a cage, or time and effort required to install and remove the cage or
restraining straps. Some examples of non-cage, non-strap solutions to the
problem are a portable barrier to prevent the pet from exiting the vehicle
through an open window and an adjustable barrier mounted from floor to ceiling,
extending transversely across the width of the vehicle. The examples entail
adjustment of tubular structural members to form the pet barrier. U.S. Pat. No.
4,854,364 "PET BARRIER FOR CAR WINDOW INSTALLATION", U.S. Pat. No. D 326,076
"ANIMAL BARRIER FOR VEHICLES", and U.S. Pat. No. D 393,622 "VEHICLE SAFETY
BARRIER FOR PETS" are incorporated herein by reference respectively for purposes
of indicating the background of the present invention or illustrating the mature
state of the art for constraining pets in vehicles without the use of cages or
restraining straps.
A need exists for a simple, portable barrier that
will restrict medium to large size pets to a particular portion of a vehicle,
generally the rearmost portion of the vehicle.
SUMMARY
An object
of the present invention is to provide a restrictive panel for installation
across the top of a seating arrangement of a vehicle, for preventing a pet from
moving across the top of the seating arrangement from an initial desired
placement of the pet to a subsequent undesired location within the vehicle,
wherein the seating arrangement features removable headrests and the panel is
attached to the seating arrangement by utilizing the headrest sockets remaining
in the seating arrangement after the headrests have been removed. Another object
of the invention is to provide a pet barrier for installation in headrest
sockets, for restricting the movement of a pet to a certain portion of a
specialty vehicle, particularly the luggage/cargo portion of a SUV, van, or
station wagon that has removable headrests for ready installation of the
barrier. A further object of the invention is to minimize adjustments necessary
to install and utilize the pet barrier. Another object of the invention is low
cost and portability of the pet barrier.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE
DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a pet barrier
according to the present invention for installation in a vehicle having
removable headrests. In this figure, the panel forming the barrier is a
trapezoid grating having three horizontal, longitudinal structural members and
two transverse structural members. Two engagement bolts are also shown. The
engagement guides, formed in all three longitudinal members, have round
apertures.
FIG. 2 is a rear view of an embodiment of a pet barrier
according to the present invention for installation in a vehicle having
removable headrests, depicted in position of use in such a vehicle. Both the
outer shell of the vehicle and the seating arrangement containing the receiving
sockets for the headrests are shown in phantom lines for illustrative purposes
only and neither form any part of the claimed invention. Portions of the
headrest receiving sockets, although not part of the claimed invention, are
shown as solid or hidden lines, depending upon their visibility to an occupant
of the vehicles, to demonstrate their significance to the invention.
FIG. 3 is a front elevation view of an embodiment of the present
invention, showing one of the slidable, engagement bolts lowered for engagement
with a headrest socket, a second slidable, engagement bolt retracted for ease in
removal of the pet barrier from the vehicle. The pet barrier engagement guides
are shown as hidden lines.
FIG. 4 is a top plan view of an embodiment of
the present invention, showing the barrier engagement guides, featuring a round
aperture, as they appear in the top longitudinal structure member.
FIG.
5 is an enlarged sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention,
illustrating a slidable engagement bolt in extended position for engaging a
headrest socket and thereby affixing the invention to the vehicle.
FIG.
6 is an enlarged sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention,
illustrating a slidable engagement bolt in retracted position for detaching the
invention from a headrest socket, permitting removal of the invention from the
vehicle.
FIG. 7 is an enlarged, partial view of the top longitudinal
structural member, demonstrating some of the various compliant engagement guide
aperture shapes and patterns that could be employed, uniformly spaced round,
uniformly spaced slot, and a combination of uniformly spaced round and slot.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
In a perspective view,
FIG. 1 depicts a portable pet barrier according to the present invention. The
barrier includes an obstructive panel 20 that has a plurality of horizontal,
longitudinal structural members, including a top longitudinal structural member
22, a middle longitudinal structural member 24, and a bottom longitudinal
structural member 26. Panel 20 also has a right transverse structural member 28
connected to the right end of each of the plurality of longitudinal structural
members and a left transverse structural member 29 connected to the left end of
each of the plurality of longitudinal structural members. To maximize the
barrier effectiveness of the panel 20 by conforming to the greatest extent
possible to the interior contour of the vehicle, top member 22 may be shorter
than middle member 24, and middle member 24 may be shorter than bottom member
26. In the preferred embodiment, the longitudinal and transverse structural
members are configured to form a trapezoidal grating.
In the preferred
embodiment of the present invention, panel 20 is formed from a single molding or
casting of a resilient, compliant plastic material, such as polyurethane or
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used with a suitable plasticizer; however, other
plastic materials, such as polyethylene, polystyrene, polycarbonate, or like
plastic materials can also be used. The material used to fabricate Panel 20 may
feature optical properties extending from transparent to opaque. Panel 20 could
alternatively be constructed or formed from separate plastic or metal pieces.
Panel 20 can be molded to fit specific vehicles or molded in several sizes to
approximately fit those vehicles.
In special situations where the pet
could be potentially dangerous to other occupants of the vehicle, panel 20 could
be fabricated from a single sheet of optically transmissive high impact
polycarbonates or bulletproof glass. In this special case, one or more holes
could be formed in the sheet to provide adequate ventilation between different
portions of the vehicle.
Panel 20 is attached to the vehicle by a
plurality of slidable engagement bolts 40. The slidable engagement bolts 40,
fabricated from either metal or plastic, are held in placement for engaging the
headrest sockets 61 by a plurality of compliant engagement guides 50. Although
the guides 50 could be drilled or otherwise formed after molding the panel 20,
the engagement guides 50 preferably are molded in all longitudinal structural
members, each individual guide molded coaxially in all of the longitudinal
structural members. In the preferred embodiment, panel 20 is molded from a
compliant plastic material such that although the engagement bolts 40 are in
direct contact with compliant engagement guides 50, the compliant properties of
panel 20 and associated guides 50 permit the bolts 40 to be manipulated by hand.
As illustrated in FIG. 7, the apertures of the engagement guides 50 may be
round, slot, or a combination of round and slot, serving to properly align
engagement bolts 40 with respective headrest sockets 61 available when the
headrests have been removed.
A typical installation of the present
invention in a vehicle is illustrated in FIG. 2 where panel 20 is attached to
the vehicle seating arrangement 60 (not claimed in the present invention) of a
vehicle. This seating arrangement is typically the rear seating arrangement of a
van, sport utility vehicle (SUV), or station wagon, where the seating separates
the luggage/cargo area from the passenger area. Seating arrangement 60 includes
a plurality of vehicle headrest guides 61 (not claimed in the present
invention), which remain after the headrests have been removed. The headrest
guides normally position and maintain the headrests.
Installation of the
present invention in a vehicle is simple. First, the headrests are removed from
vehicle seating arrangement 60, leaving two or more vehicle headrest sockets 61
remaining at the top of the seating arrangement, i.e. the top of the backrest.
Second, the obstructive panel 20 is positioned vertically over the headrest
sockets 61 and positioned so that at least two of the headrest sockets 61 are
aligned with at least two of the engagement guides 50. Next, the panel 20 is
rotated approximately 90 degrees to a horizontal position and at least two
slidable engagement bolts 40 are inserted completely into the engagement guides
50 in alignment with headrest sockets 61. The bolts 40 pass through bottom
longitudinal structure member 26 and middle longitudinal structure member 24 and
into top longitudinal structure member 22. The engagement bolts 50 are now
totally retracted within panel 20 and held in place by compliant friction. Next,
while maintaining alignment, panel 20 is rotated back to a vertical position.
Finally, with panel 20 held in vertical position, the engagement bolts 50 are
urged by hand manipulation to extend into and engage the headrest sockets 61,
thereby attaching the portable pet barrier to the top of the seating
arrangement.
To remove the portable pet barrier from the vehicle, the
order of steps is reversed and the two headrests replaced in their customary
position.
FIG. 3 shows the pet barrier with obstruction panel 20
receiving two engagement bolts 40. One of the bolts is extended for engagement
with a headrest socket; the other bolt is shown retracted for removal of the
portable pet barrier from the vehicle. A plurality of engagement guides 50 are
provided for aligning the bolts 40 with at least two of the headrest sockets.
FIG. 3 also includes sectional view 5--5 and sectional view 6--6.
FIG. 4
is a top view of the pet barrier showing top longitudinal structural member 22,
right transverse structural member 28, left transverse structural member 29, and
the plurality of engagement guides 50. The guides 50 are uniformly spaced with
respect to each other and may be round, slot, or a combination of round and slot
to insure that at least two of the headrest sockets are in alignment with any
two of the engagement guides.
The present invention is primarily
intended for use in vehicles whose headrests are removable and where each of the
headrests is attached to a seat by use of two round headrest sockets.
FIG. 5, an enlarged view of section 5--5, depicts one of the engagement
bolts 40 extended to engage a headrest socket. FIG. 6, an enlarged view of
section 6--6, shows another of the engagement bolts 40, withdrawn within the
body of panel 20, permitting easy removable of the pet barrier from the headrest
socket incorporated in the seating arrangement of the vehicle.
Although
only a few exemplary embodiments of the invention have been described in detail
above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications
are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the
novel teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such
modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as
defined in the following claims. In the claims, means-plus-functions clauses are
intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited
functions and not only structural equivalents but also equivalent structures.
* * * * *
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