Chairs and seats – Movable bottom – Tiltable
Patent
1983-12-23
1985-10-15
McCall, James T.
Chairs and seats
Movable bottom
Tiltable
297322, 297329, 297353, A47C 102
Patent
active
045470170
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a sitting or reclining unit, hereinafter designated as a chair, in which the different elements and in particular the back rest and chair seat are pivoted to each other about parallel axes, thus enabling the user to change from a sitting position to a reclining position.
Articulated chairs are already known in which the two positions mentioned above as well as intermediate positions between these latter can be preselected by the user.
When the chair is in use and the user desires to change position, he or she is obliged to leave the chair in order to release the locking means which set the chair in its different positions, then to displace the chair seat and back rest to the new position chosen, and then to re-set the locking means in this position.
All these handling and re-setting operations are tedious for users.
In some chair designs, the user can modify the angle of slope of the back rest by actuating a lever or a control knob.
As the back rest is tilted towards the recumbent position, the center of gravity of the user's body acts in a favorable direction, thus facilitating displacement of the back rest towards this position. However, when the user desires to change from the recumbent position to the sitting position, he or she must necessarily rise in order to restore the back rest to an upright position by reason of the fact that the center of gravity of the user's body acts in an unfavorable direction.
The aim of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages of the designs mentioned in the foregoing by producing an articulated chair which ensures that the user is continuously permitted to modify the relative positions of the back rest and of the chair seat without being obliged to leave the chair, to lean forward or to exert considerable efforts.
The articulated chair contemplated by the invention comprises at least a back rest and a chair seat pivoted to each other about displaceable axis, the back rest being pivotally attached to a support along an axis parallel to the axis aforesaid. The back rest and the seat are continuously displaceable with respect to each other between a position in which the back rest is substantially vertical and the seat is substantially horizontal and a position in which the back rest and seat are substantially horizontal.
In accordance with a distinctive feature of the invention, at least the displacement of the chair seat is guided at the end opposite to the axis of pivotal attachment of said seat to the back rest along a curve so determined that, when the back rest and seat undergo a displacement between the two positions mentioned above, the center of gravity of the user's body moves away from a horizontal plane over a distance which is sufficiently short to ensure that the user can modify the relative position of the back rest and seat by exerting acceptable efforts on these latter without any need to rise from the chair.
Acceptable efforts are understood to mean in particular those which can be exerted by any persons including elderly persons and physically handicapped persons.
By virtue of the fact that the center of gravity of the user's body moves away from a horizontal plane only to a very slight extent, the user is thus in a condition which is very close to equilibrium in all relative positions of the back rest and of the seat. In consequence, the user need only exert a very light pressure on the seat or on the back rest in order to modify his or her position on the chair.
The chair in accordance with the invention thus ensures optimum comfort for the user.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the pivotal axis of the chair seat and the axis of pivotal attachment of the back rest to the seat as well as pivotal axis of the back rest are displaceable along guiding curves which are stationary with respect to the seat and so determined that the center of gravity of the chair user's body remains substantially in a horizontal plane in all the relative positions of said back rest and said seat.
In an arrangeme
REFERENCES:
patent: 2629425 (1953-02-01), James
patent: 2633181 (1953-03-01), Bell
patent: 3572829 (1971-03-01), Malitte
patent: 4251107 (1981-02-01), Sato
AMI
McCall James T.
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