Folding joint for bed bottom of infant playyard

Abstract

A bed bottom folding joint for an infant playyard has a support means located on the bed bottom. The support means includes one pair of tension bar sets and a folding joint. The folding joint has a pivotal connection seat to pivotally engage with the middle bars of the tension bar set so that two tension bar sets may be connected to form a support plane for the bed bottom. The folding joint has a trough, which has an opening pointing downwards to pivotally engage with the middle bars. A handle bar having a brake element located at one end may be wedged between a gap formed between the two middle bars to occupy the pivotal space located therebetween, to prevent the middle bars from folding. The handle bar may be turned to remove the brake element to free the pivotal space and to allow the middle bars to fold toward each other. Hence folding of the bed bottom structure may be simply controlled by moving the handle bar. The handle bar may also be fastened to a pulling band, which may be passed through the slits between the bed bottom board and mattress to allow users to pull the bed from above to indirectly trigger the handle bar for folding the bed bottom. The pivotal connection seat of the folding joint may be extended to make contact with the floor to support the weight of the bed bottom.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A bed bottom folding joint for an infant playyard for pivotally engaging bar elements located under a bed bottom of the infant playyard, comprising: 
 a pivotal connection seat having a trough with an opening pointing downwards, the trough being pivotally engaged with the bar elements; and    a handle bar pivotally engaging with the pivotal connection seat and being movable angularly between a first position and a second position, and having one end attached to a brake element such that the brake element is wedged between the bar elements in the trough when the handle bar is moved to the first position thereby to prevent the bar elements from folding; and the brake element being moved away between the bar elements when the handle bar is moved to the second position thereby to allow the bar elements folding towards one another.    
     
     
         2 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 1 , wherein the bar elements have respectively one end attached to a bucking pad, the bucking pads of the bar elements are spaced from each other at a distance to allow the brake element wedging therebetween smugly.  
     
     
         3 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 2 , wherein the bucking pad is formed by a block element which has a height greater than the diameter of the bar element.  
     
     
         4 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 2 , wherein the bucking pad is made of engineering plastics.  
     
     
         5 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 2 , wherein the bucking pad is made of a metal block.  
     
     
         6 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 1 , wherein the handle bar has an annular opening to allow users to grasp the handle bar with hands.  
     
     
         7 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 1 , wherein the handle bar is fastened to a pulling band which is passed through the bed bottom to allow users pulling from above the infant playyard to trigger the handle bar from the first position to the second position for folding the bed bottom of the infant playyard.  
     
     
         8 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 1 , wherein the brake element is formed by bending the one end of the handle bar.  
     
     
         9 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 2 , wherein the brake element is formed by bending the handle bar and has a brake end substantially matching a lower rim of the bucking pad.  
     
     
         10 . The bed bottom folding joint of  claim 1 , wherein the pivotal connection seat is extended to contact floor surface for supporting bed bottom weight of the infant polyyard.