The invention concerns a canopy for baby cots or child's beds, where the canopy hangs down from the ceiling or hangs over a sky rod on the outside of the head and side panels of the cod or child's bed, where the head and side panels are built from a rectangular frame with in between vertical bars or pins at equidistant intervals, in which the canopy is mostly made of a light net or lace curtain.

A canopy has the function to offer a baby or child safety and hangs as a covering over a cot or child's bed. In popular speech it is also called a mosquito net. A mosquito net though serves to keep insects away. The shape of a canopy is tapering, of which the narrow top can be hanged from the ceiling or on a sky rod by means of a hook. The remaining fabric of the canopy hangs down at both sides and head side on the outside of the cot or child's bed.

Described canopy is well known, but is dangerous as such because a baby or child lying in the cot or child's bed can pull the fabric of the canopy towards him/herself through the bars or pins of the cot or child's bed. The baby or the child could become entangled when he or she has pulled the fabric through the bars or pins and subsequently holds on to the fabric and would start turning around with her/his body. Then the baby or child could suffocate.

Known from patent literature is the American patent US D605,869S, titeld: "Baby Cot with Canopy", from inventors: Hakan BERGKVIST (SE) and Lisen ELMBERG (SE). This known invention has the afore mentioned disadvantage, that no provisions have been made to prevent pulling the fabric through the bars of pins of the cot. Cots with canopies as available in the trade have the same drawbacks.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved or modified safe canopy or net for cots or child's beds, which do not have the mentioned disadvantages and which design and construction can be put on the market in an economically responsible manner.

For this purpose the canopy for cots or child's beds according to the invention is further developed or modified in such an inventive way, characterised in that for protection against suffocation of the baby, who can pull the light net fabric of mentioned canopy into the cot, mentioned canopy at equidistant intervals is provided with long bending stiff elements, which are attached to insertion elements at the canopy.

The advantage is that the baby or child cannot or hardly pull the fabric or the material of the canopy into the cot or child's bed. Therefore, there is no more danger for suffocation.

Furthermore, the canopy according to the invention is developed in such a way that mentioned long bending stiff elements are elongated vertically applied bending stiff elements with a length larger than the vertical height of the head and side panels of the cot or the child's bed.

The advantage is that the elongated vertically applied bending stiff elements behave as a beam on two supporting positions with executed on it a roughly in the middle concentrated load, so that sufficient mechanical strength can be obtained by mechanical calculation. This determines the dimension of the cross section and the material used for the elongated bending stiff elements.

Then the canopy according to the invention is developed in such a way that the heart-to-heart distance of mentioned equidistant intervals of the elongated vertically applied bending stiff elements lies between 50 mm and 150 mm, preferably circa 75 mm.

The advantage is, that the load executed by the baby or the child is spread over a pair of elongated vertically applied bending stiff elements, by which the load on one elongated vertically applied bending stiff element will be about half.

Furthermore can be stated that applying the bending stiff elements in a different direction than the direction of the bars or pins of the cot or child's bed is not useful when trying to provide for a more effective solution of the problem.

The invention is further described hereinafter, according to a preferred embodiment, by way of example only, by way of accompanying drawings, in which;

• figure 1 shows an elevation or view in oblique projection of the canopy with bending stiff elements with baby cot or child's bed according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;
• figure 2 shows an elevation in oblique projection of the bending stiff elements of figure 1; and
• figure 3 shows an oblique projection of a sky rod for erection of the canopy according to the invention.

In figure 1 an elevation in oblique projection is shown of canopy 1 with elongated bending stiff elements 2 in elongated stitched on bags 3 on the fabric of the canopy 1, according to the invention. The canopy 1 hangs across the head and side panels 4 of the cot or child's bed 5. De indicated side panels 4 are provided with bars or pins 6. The height h2 of the elongated bending stiff elements 2 is larger than the height h1 of mentioned side panels 4 (e.g. h2 > 1,2 h1). The canopy 1 is supported by a sky bar, which is not shown. The heart-to-heart distance X of the elongated vertical bending stiff elements 3 lies between 50 mm and 150 mm, preferably circa 75 mm. The material of the elongated vertical bending stiff elements 3 can consist of wood, plastic, glass fibre, carbon or plexiglass.

In figure 2 an elevation in oblique projection is shown of the elongated bending stiff elements 2 in the elongated stitched on bags 3. On top, the elongated stitched on bags 3 are provided with a lock-up provision 7 as an extension of the elongated stitched on bags 3.

In figure 3 the sky bar 10 with cuppling 13 is fixed with a screw 14 into a tube 11, which is placed on a flooring 8 and is fixed under a pair of bed legs 12. So, the sky bar 10 can still be adjusted by screw 13 in vertical sense and fixed by screw 14.

Finally, it has to be emphasized that above a preferred embodiment of the invention has been described and that further modifications and such are possible without leaving the scope of this patent specification.