NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to any reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Field of Invention

The present invention relates to automotive accessories, and more particularly to an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein the adjustable shaft comprises an adjustable positioning arrangement not only locking up the adjustable shaft at a desired length but also enhancing a strength of the adjustable shaft.

Description of Related Arts

A snow and ice removing tool for a vehicle to clean snow and ice from vehicles without scratching the paint, wherein the tool generally comprises a handle, an ice scraper coupled at one end of the handle, and a snow brush coupled at another end of the handle. The handle is generally constructed to have a length adjustable mechanism to selectively adjust a length of the handle. Conventionally, there are two types of length adjustable mechanism.

The first type of length adjustable mechanism is a detachable attaching mechanism, wherein the handle comprises two or more handle posts and one or more connectors. The handle posts are detachably couple with each other end-to-end via the connectors to selective adjust the length of the handle. Since the handle posts are identical, the lengths of the handle posts are the same. In other words, the overall length of the handle must be configured as the multiple of the handle posts, such that the length of the handle cannot be fine-adjusted according to the user preference. In addition, the size of the tool is difficult to store and carry when it is disassembled into multiple pieces.

Another type of length adjustable mechanism is a retractable mechanism, wherein the handle comprises an inner tube, an outer tube to slidably receive the inner tube, and a locker for locking the inner tube at the outer tube to retain the length of the handle. The advantage of such retractable mechanism is to enable the user to fine-adjust the length of the handle by the relative sliding movement between the inner and outer tubes. However, the handle has several drawbacks. The locker generally comprises a plurality of locking through holes spacedly formed along the inner tube and a locking head movably coupled at the outer tube to slidably insert into one of the locking through holes so as to lock up the inner and outer tubes with each other. Since the locking through holes are penetrated through the inner tube, the structural strength of the inner tube will be weakened, such that the inner tube will easily be bent or even broken during the ice and snow removing operation. Accordingly, the locking through holes are aligned in a row configuration along one side of the inner tube. It is impossible to form two or more rows of the locking through holes on the inner tube. It is worth mentioning that the length of the handle can be selectively fine-adjusted by increasing the number of the locking through holes. On the other hand, the structural strength of the inner tube will further be weakened. In addition, ice, snow, and dirt will enter into the interior of the inner tube through the locking through holes. It is difficult to clean or remove the dirt inside inner tube, and once the locking through hole is stuck, the inner and outer tubes cannot be locked by the locker. Currently, the inner tube does involve any reinforcing structure to strength of the inner tube.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The invention is advantageous in that it provides an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein the adjustable shaft comprises an adjustable positioning arrangement not only locking up a shaft member of the adjustable shaft at a desired length but also enhancing a strength of the adjustable shaft.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein a plurality of reinforcing ribs are spacedly indented on an inner handle frame of the adjustable shaft not only to reinforce a structure of the inner handle frame but also to serve as a locking groove for locking the relative sliding movement between the inner and outer handle frames of the adjustable shaft.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein each of the inner and outer handle frames further has a non-circular cross section to further enhance the strength of the adjustable shaft.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein the reinforcing ribs are non-through slots indented on the flat surface of the inner handle frame to prevent any ice, snow or dirt entering into the inner handle frame.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein the locking and unlocking operation of the adjustable shaft is easy and simple by pushing a push button to unlock the adjustable shaft for selectively adjusting the length thereof.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein a detachable handle frame is detachably coupled to the shaft member to further extend the length of the adjustable shaft.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, which is easily assembled to selectively adjust different length configurations and different functional configurations.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein the adjustable shaft is able to incorporate with any existing ice scraper and snow brush.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, which does not require to alter the original structural design of the existing tool for removing snow and ice on a vehicle, so as to minimize the manufacturing cost of the tool incorporating with the adjustable shaft.

Another advantage of the invention is to provide an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, wherein no expensive or complicated structure is required to employ in the present invention in order to achieve the above mentioned objects. Therefore, the present invention successfully provides an economic and efficient solution for selectively adjusting the length of the adjustable shaft and for enhancing the strength of the adjustable shaft.

Additional advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the description which follows, and may be realized by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particular point out in the appended claims.

According to the present invention, the foregoing and other objects and advantages are attained by an adjustable shaft for an ice scraper and a snow brush, comprising:

a shaft member comprising an inner handle frame and an outer handle frame slidably receiving said inner handle frame for coupling the ice scraper and the snow scraper at two ends of said shaft member, wherein said inner and outer handle frames are slid with each other to selectively adjust a length of said shaft member; and

an adjustable positioning arrangement which comprises a plurality of non-through reinforcing ribs spacedly indented on said inner handle frame to reinforce a structure of said inner handle frame, and a positioning member movably coupled at said outer handle frame to selectively engage with one of said reinforcing ribs so as to lock up a relative sliding movement between said inner and outer handle frames.

Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.

These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.

