Article of seating furniture

Details Article of seating furniture Article of seating furniture

1999-12-16

2001-04-17

Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3624)

Chairs and seats

Having detachably interfitting parts or components; i.e.,...

Reexamination Certificate

active

06217120

ABSTRACT:

This invention relates to articles of seating furniture, such as chairs, love seats, and sofas, and more particularly to such furniture used in institutional environments.
Institutional seating, such as library chairs and sofas, advantageously have two characteristics in addition to comfort, namely, cost efficiency and the ability to withstand the rigors of use by the public. Furniture made of wood or metal is durable, but relatively expensive. In order to reduce the cost of seating furniture, it is desirable to employ a pressed composition wood product. Such products, sometimes called particleboard and fiberboard, comprise wood particles or wood fibers combined with a binder and subjected to extremely high pressure which bonds the mixture into a rigid board or panel. Such a composition product has adequate strength for utilization in making furniture. However, they lack one characteristic of natural wood, namely, resilience.
When furniture of the type to which the present invention relates is assembled, the parts are usually joined by suitable fasteners, such as screws or bolts. In use, the attachment points defined by the fasteners are subjected to large stresses when library patrons, or other users of institutional furniture, drop into the seats, sit on the arms of the furniture, or lean on the backs. When the furniture is made of natural wood, these stresses of the metal fastening hardware against the wood are absorbed by the wood and due to its natural resilience, the wood has the ability to bounce back and thereby accommodate rigorous use over a long period of time.
However, pressed composition wood products are relatively brittle, and thus do not have the ability of natural wood to absorb and rebound from stresses. Instead, such products tend to wear, even crumble, at the points where parts are fastened together. For example, bolt heads even when surrounded by individual washers tend to dig into the surface of the pressed composition products thereby chewing into the surface and, over time, wearing it away. As a consequence, the fastened joints soon become loose and the chair becomes wobbly.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome this problem by providing an article of seating furniture made in part of a pressed composition wood product, for the sake of cost efficiency, while at the same time employing a fastening arrangement able to perform in an institutional environment, over a long period of time, without loosening and thereby compromising the rigidity of the furniture.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3799611 (1974-03-01), Steinfeld
patent: 4616950 (1986-10-01), Morris
patent: 4828324 (1989-05-01), Putnam
patent: 5277476 (1994-01-01), Caldwell
patent: 5743672 (1998-04-01), Cline
patent: 5890767 (1999-04-01), Chang

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