1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to articles of luggage and more particularly to a garment bag that includes a detachable valet case and is mounted on wheels so that the entire article can be easily rolled across a supporting surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Garment bags have met with significant acceptance by travelers for many reasons, including their relatively light weight which makes carrying them easier, the ease of which they can be packed with clothes and other items, their flexibility to fit within certain otherwise confining spaces, an ability to carry them into the passenger compartment of commercial passenger aircraft, and others. One of the common disadvantages of garment bags is that it is difficult to confine small items such as shoes and cases for personal toiletry items within the garment bag. Many travelers, as a consequence, leave such smaller items loose in the garment bag or pack them in separate smaller suitcases. However, the necessity to use a separate smaller suitcase makes travelling more difficult because the smaller suitcase must also be carried and accounted for in addition to the garment bag.
Attempts have been made to make garment bags more useful as a single article of luggage. An invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,513 entitled "Garment Bag With Improved Packing Capability" which is of common ownership with the present application, describes an improved garment bag in which pocket-like enclosures are provided within the bag in which to pack a small number of relatively small items, such as shoes. Wardrobe luggage cases, which were commonly used many years ago, employed internal compartments in which certain small items could be packed and some of these internal compartments were even removeable after the wardrobe was opened. Wardrobes, however, fell into disfavor and remain in disfavor because they are basically very large, heavy, hard to handle and they have substantially rigid outer shells or walls. Wardrobes are usually more inconvenient for use than the present day large sized hard shelled suitcases.
Modern attempts have been made to attach garment bags and garment bag-like enclosures to small cases, such as small suitcases or attache cases. Usually these attempts involve wrapping the garment bag around the sides and bottom of the small case and attaching the ends of the garment bag at the handle of the small case. Other attempts include folding the garment bag-like enclosure in an accordion-like manner and connecting the garment bag enclosure to one side of the small case.
Until recently, the prior attempts at combining garment bags in small cases have all centered primarily around attempts to make the transportation of the two separate luggage articles more convenient. If any actual improvement in convenience has been obtained by such prior arrangements, the improvements in convenience seem somewhat insignificant since such arrangements do not seem to enjoy significant popularity among travelers. It would not appear that such prior attempts at combining garment bags and small cases have resulted in any significant improvements or advancements in making the luggage article more readily useable in a personal toiletry and clothing housing sense, as compared to that level of convenience which two separate luggage articles would themselves achieve.
Recently, however, significant improvements have been made in integrating the convenience in transportation features and the convenience of use features of a combination garment bag and packing case. U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,368 entitled "Combination Garment Bag and Packing Case Luggage Article", which is also of common ownership with the subject application, describes a garment bag including a conveniently deployable packing case which solves many of the previous shortcomings, but even this combination luggage lacks some desirable features available in other types of luggage such as the ability to roll the article of luggage across a supporting surface.
As a means of transportation, the incorporation of wheels into articles of luggage have met with much success and acceptance by the consuming public but it is difficult to incorporate wheels into garment bags due to the fact that the garment bags are made of flexible material which will not readily retain a consistent somewhat vertical orientation over supporting wheels. An attempt at incorporating wheels into a flexible walled piece of luggage is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,780 entitled "Fixture for Converting Luggage for Articulated Movement". As will be appreciated in that disclosure, the wheels are incorporated into end walls of the luggage but the luggage is permitted to articulate relative thereto so that the luggage can actually lean to one side or the other of the walls in which the wheels are mounted. This is felt to be an undesirable arrangement in that the article of luggage would appear to be unstable and easily tipped over which is inconveniencing at the least to the user of the luggage.
It is against this general background that the present invention has evolved.