Play structure safety device
View Patent ↗Many family homes, school and municipal parks have play structures for children. Typically these playground play structures have ladders. In the case of family homes in particular, toddlers typically enjoy climbing the ladders but then are stuck at the top and in danger of falling off the ladder. In order to prevent toddlers from climbing the ladder of the play structures when unattended by an adult, and ultimately preventing injury, an invention that prevents the ladder from being climbed by a toddler is presented here.
1. A play structure arrangement comprising:
a play structure;
a ladder operatively connected to said play structure having a plurality of rungs, each connected between at least two rigid stringers, said ladder and said plurality of rungs having a front side and back side;
a safety sheet device formed of flexible polymer material removably connected to said ladder, said safety sheet device having a first side and second side and two opposite attachment ends, said first side and said second side having a length extending between said two opposite attachment ends, said length at least extends between said plurality of rungs and a width of said first side and said second side extending between said at least two rigid stringers; and
wherein said length of said safety sheet device extends across the front side of said plurality of rungs, wraps around at least two of said plurality of rungs and extends across the back side of said plurality of rungs allowing said two opposite attachment ends to overlap and removably connect together using fasteners at a connection area.
2. The play structure of claim 1 wherein said safety sheet device has a plurality of flutes molded into said safety sheet device to create flexation points.
3. The play structure of claim 1 wherein said safety sheet device comprises one or more polymers selected from the group comprising:
polyurethane foam, polyamides, polyesters, neoprene, nitrile rubber, styrenes, and vinyl.
4. The play structure of claim 1 wherein said fasteners are hook and loop type fasteners connected to said first side and said second side of said safety sheet device and are arranged to create said connection area of the first side and second side of the safety sheet device when the safety sheet device is connected to the ladder, wherein said fasteners have an area size that provides adjustment of said overlap area to cover different size ladders and ladders having different amounts of space between said plurality of rungs.