Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a joint assembly for joining a loaded structure and a rotating structure, and particularly, to multi-function joint assembly making the loaded structure easily moving in the planar surface via the rotating structure.

Background of the Invention

As shown in Fig.7(a), it is known type of goods trolley Γ comprising a container l 'a, a handle l 'b and having the wheels l 'c fixed to the container l 'a of the trolley by the bolts I 'd. Such a type of the trolley was used commonly to transport the raw material, the accessories, the goods, the products in the manufactory, factory in the industry, in particular the auxiliary industry. In the case the work shop need to be clean-lembed and to be improve arrangement of the plane for production, this type of the trolley 1 ' has some prolems such as it is difficult to safety stack together due to the wheels l 'c fixed to the trolley 1 ' . If the trolleys were be stacked yet, it would have been displaced and collapsed easily.

Further shown in Fig.7(b), as known type of container 1 , for containing the material, the accessories, the goods, the product, to which the wheels 1 c fix for transporting on the plane of the work shop. Similar to the case of the goods trolley 1 ' above, in the case the work shop need to be clean-lembed and to be improve arrangement of the plane for production, this type of container 1 also has some problems such as it is difficult to safety stack together due to the wheels 1 c fixed to the container 1. If the container were be stacked yet, it would have been displaced and collapsed easily. Thus, there is a demand to provide a multifunction joint assembly to assemble/disassemble the wheels (the rolling struture) with the trolley or container (the loaded structure) promptly and easily so as to adapt to stack the loaded structures on the specific plane of the production workshop.

Summary of the invention

Therefore, the invention is made to solve the above problems and a primary object of the invention is to provide a multifunction joint assembly having a simple struture to assemble/disassemble its component members promptly and easily.

One further object of the invention is to provide a multifunction joint assembly having the structure made from a kind of the material which both secures the strength and is resilient so as to adapt to assemble/disassemble the component members.

To obtain the above objects, in one aspect, the invention provides the multifunction joint assembly having the structure comprising: a) the first member with a base portion attached to the cylinder portion projecting perpendicular to the base portion, the threaded hole formed coaxial to the cylinder portion and goes through two portions, both the base portion and the cylinder portion is made from the first material, and the shaped portion enclosing the cylinder portion of the base portion, the shaped portion having the male given cross-section and formed the certain converging cone angle away from the base portion, the shaped portion made from the second resilient material and different from the first material; b) the second member comprising: the edge portion attached to the housing portion projecting perpendicular to the edge portion, the housing portion with hole which is substantially circular and concentric with the housing portion, and both the edge portion and the housing portion are made from the first material, the edge portion fixed to the rolling struture, and the recess portion adapted to locate within the housing portion, the recess portion with the hole having the female given cross-section and formed the certain divergent cone angle away from the edge portion, the female cross-section and the cone angle of the recess portion are substantially similar and equal to the male cross-section and the cone angle of the shaped portion, respectively, the recess portion made from the second resilient material and different from the first material; and c) the threaded rod formed of the first material may be screwed with the threaded hole of the base portion of the first member so as to detachably connected it to the loaded structure.

Since the multifunction joint assembly having the above structure, in the state where the first member is attached to and located below the loaded structure by the threaded rod, the second member may be coupled to the first member by bringing the shaped portion of the first member into and tight contact with the recess portion on the second member or disassembled from the first member by applying the force to the edge portion of the second member thereby forming the multifunction joint assembly making the loaded structure be possible to assemble/disassemble promptly and easily to/from the edge portion attached the rolling struture.

According to the preferred embodiment, the male and female given cross-sections are polygon. These shape cause formation of the cross-section easily.

It is preferable that the above polygonal cross-section is regular polygon and the regular polygon is preferred one of the shapes of the regular triangle, square, hexagon or octagon.

According to an appropriate embodiment, the certain cone angle is set in a range of 1 to 5 degrees. Selection of the cone angle in this range caused assembling/disassembling the component members of the multifunction joint assembly will be performed promptly and easily by a relative small force.

It is preferable that the first material is metal and the second material is resilient plastic. Selection of the materials may reduce the manufacturing costs and assemble/disassemble the component members easily.

In one embodiment of the invention, the loaded structure is container. It is preferable that container is the demountable container. In the other embodiment, the loaded structure is the trolley or the lifting plate for the goods.

The rolling struture is preferred the wheel unit of the trolley. The wheel unit of the trolley is type which may be pivotable about the axis of the hole of the recess portion on the second member of the joint assembly.

Brief Description of the Drawings

According to one preferred embodiment of multifunction joint assembly of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the apended drawings below. It should note that the drawings are merly exemplary the invention and the invention are not limited to these, in which:

Fig. l is an exploded perspective view showing the multifunction joint assembly in one embodiment of the invention;

Fig.2(a), Fig.2(b) and Fig.2(c) are perspective view, cross-section view and plan view, respectively, showing the first member of the multifunction joint assembly;

Fig.3(a), Fig.3(b) and Fig.3(c) is perspective view, cross-section view and plan view, respectively, showing the second member of the multifunction joint assembly;

Fig.4(a), Fig.4(b) and Fig.4(c) is perspective view, cross-section view and plan view, respectively, showing the second member of the multifunction joint assembly fixed to the wheel unit of the trolley (the rolling struture); Fig.5 are the views showing the loaded structure fixed to the rolling struture by the multifunction joint assembly of the invention;

Fig.6(a) and Fig.6(b) are the views showing the loaded structures stacked while the wheel units of the trolley are disassembled from the structure; and

Fig.7(a) and Fig.7(b) are the views showing the loaded structures in prior art.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments

The multifunction joint assembly in one embodiment of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the apended drawings below.

As shown in Fig. l, the multifunction joint assembly 13 having the structure comprising: the first member 13a, the second member 13b and the threaded rod 13c.

As shown in Fig.2(a) and Fig.2(b), the first member 13a be configured comprising: the base portion 13al connected to the cylinder portion 13a2 projecting perpendicular to the base portion 13al , the threaded hole 13a3 formed coaxial to the cylinder portion 13a2 and through all of two portions 13al and 13a2, both the base portion 13al and the cylinder portion 13a2 is made from the metal material. The first member 13a also includes the shaped portion 13a4 enclosing the cylinder portion 13a2 of the base portion 13al , the shaped portion 13a4 having the given cross-section and formed the certain converging cone angle Al away from the base portion 13al, the shaped portion 13a4 is made from the resilient plastic.

As shown in Fig.3(a) and Fig.3(b), the second member 13b be configured comprising: the edge portion 13bl attached to the housing portion 13b2 projecting perpendicular to the edge portion 13bl, the housing portion 13b2 with the hole 13b3 which is substantially circular and concentric with the housing portion 13b2, both the edge portion 13bl and the housing portion 13b2 are made from the metal material. The second member 13b also includes the recess portion 13b4 adapted to location within the housing portion 13b2, the recess portion 13b4 provided with the hole 13b5 having the given cross-section and formed the certain divergent cone angle Bl away from the edge portion 13bl, the given cross-section and the cone angle B l of the recess portion 13b4 is substantial similar and equal to the given cross-section and the cone angle Al of the shaped portion 13a4, respectively, the recess portion 13b4 is made from the resilient plastic.

Also refer to Fig. l, the threaded rod 13c of the multifunction joint assembly 13 is made from metal. The threaded rod 13c is used to fix the component member 13a of the multifunction joint assembly 13 to the loaded structure (not shown).

In Figs. 1 to 6, with the multifunction joint assembly 13 having the above structure, in the state where the first member 13a is attached to and located below the loaded structure (see figure, it will be describled later) by the threaded rod 13c, the second member 13b may be assembled to the first member 13a by bringing the shaped portion 13a4 of the first member 13a into and tighten contact with the recess portion 13b4 on the second member 13b or disassembled from the first member 13a by applying the force to the edge portion 13bl of the second member 13b thereby forming the multifunction joint assembly 13 making the loaded structure be possible to assemble/disassemble promptly and easily to/from the edge portion 13bl attached the rolling struture 14.

According to the preferred embodiment, as shown in Fig.2(c) and Fig.3(c), the male given cross-section of the shaped portion 13a4 of the first member 13a and the male given cross-section of the recess portion 13b4 is substantially polygon. This shape cause formation of the cross-section easily, for example injection mold and mechanical machine. It is preferable that the polygonal cross-section of the first member 13a and the second member 13b is regular polygon. The regular polygon is preferred one of the shapes of the regular triangle, square, hexagon or octagon.

In an appropriate embodiment, as shown in Fig.2(b) and Fig.3(b), the certain cone angles Al and B l is set in a range of 1 to 5 degrees. Selection of the cone angles Al and B l in this range caused assembling/disassembling the component members 13a and 13b of the multifunction joint assembly 13 will be performed promptly and easily by a relative small force.

It is preferable that the first material is metal and the second material is resilient plastic. Selection of these materials may reduce the manufacture cost and may assemble/disassemble the component members 13a and 13b easily.

In one embodiment of the invention, as shown in Fig.5 (a) and Fig.5(b), the loaded structure is container 1. It is preferable that container 1 is the demountable container. In the other embodiment, the loaded structure is the trolley 1" (see Fig.6(a)) or the lifting plate for the goods (not shown).

As shown in Fig.4(a), Fig.4(b) and Fig.4(c), the rolling struture 14 is preferred the wheel unit of the trolley. The wheel unit 14 of the trolley is type which is secure or pivotable attached about the axis I-I of the hole 13b5 of the recess portion 13b4 on the second member 13b of the joint assembly 13.

The multifunction joint assembly having the above structure is merely exemplary the invention. It should note that, the invention is not limited to the above exemples, modifications and changes of the multifunction joint assembly as well as the material of which may be performed without departing from the scope of the invention as being defined by the appended claims.