Beds – Mattress – Having innerspring-type core
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-21
2004-04-20
Trettel, Michael F. (Department: 3673)
Beds
Mattress
Having innerspring-type core
C005S253000, C005S258000, C005S719000, C005S264100, C005S731000, C005S726000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06721981
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates generally to a body support apparatus, that is, an apparatus suitable for supporting at least part of a living human being. In particular the invention relates to a bed, but also has application to chairs and other apparatus for supporting a person, or part of a person (for example, just their legs).
Beds of the prior art commonly comprise a mattress that supports the body, the mattress conforming, at least to a limited extent, to the shape of the person lying on the bed. A purpose of the mattress is to provide comfort by supporting the body, whilst avoiding having parts of the body in contact with the mattress being exposed to points of high pressure. Conventional mattresses have certain disadvantages however.
One such disadvantage is that dust and other matter can accumulate within the mattress thereby providing a suitable environment for dust mites to live in. (There has been evidence to suggest a link between the presence of dust mites within mattresses and the provocation of asthma attacks in those susceptible to such attacks.) Furthermore, conventional mattresses are generally heavy, generally difficult to clean and can be expensive to replace.
There are beds of the prior art such as, for example, water beds that do not require the provision of a conventional mattress, thereby avoiding at least some of the above-mentioned disadvantages associates with such mattresses. Water beds however suffer from other disadvantages. For example, water beds can leak. Also water beds suffer from the undesirable effects of “ballooning”, that is, when one region of the bed is depressed another region rises owing to the volume of water being substantially constant and “wave motion”, where the surface of the bed can continue to move owing to wave-like motion of the water in the bed. Both ballooning and wave motion can reduce the comfort of the user or users of the bed.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to provide a bed which does not require a conventional mattress and which also does not suffer from at least some of the above-mentioned disadvantages associated with water beds. One such attempt is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,933. U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,933 discloses a bed comprising an array of vertically arranged dowels, which are able to move vertically, and which define a body supporting surface. The bottoms of the dowels interact with a flexible fluid chamber and downward pressure exerted on the chamber by any of the dowels is transmitted via the fluid to the other dowels and additionally to a pressure counterbalance that is displaceable by the fluid according to the fluid pressure. The bed of U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,933 whilst reducing the ballooning effect found in water beds still suffers from at least some of the other above-mentioned disadvantages associated with water beds.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a body support apparatus that mitigates at least some of the above-mentioned disadvantages associated with the body support apparatuses of the prior art.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a body support apparatus comprising
a support surface defined by support members, each support member being mounted for movement in a direction substantially normal to the support surface, wherein
at least a multiplicity of the support members are so arranged that movement of any one of those support members in a direction substantially normal to the support surface and beyond a threshold distance relative to an adjacent support member causes movement in substantially the same direction of said adjacent support member, there being substantially no movement of said adjacent support member caused by the movement of said any one of those support members when the distance of relative movement is below the threshold distance and
a plurality of said multiplicity of support members are resiliently urged towards an unloaded position.
The body support apparatus can be used without the provision of a thick mattress and yet without prejudicing comfort, because the support surface defined by the support members conforms substantially to the shape of the body of the user, by means of the combined effects of the resiliently movable support members and the way in which the multiplicity of support members move in relation to each other.
Furthermore the body support apparatus need not rely on water or other fluids to make the apparatus comfortable to use and so the apparatus need not be prone to leaks of such fluids. Also the apparatus can easily be configured so that movement of one support member in one direction does not cause movement of another support member in an opposite direction. Thus the apparatus need not suffer from the affects of “ballooning”. Moreover, since a support member must move more than a threshold distance in order to cause movement of an adjacent support member “wave motion” can be reduced, if not eliminated. Also the apparatus when used as a bed by two people need not suffer from the “roll together” effect (where the weight of one person causes the support surface to incline towards that person to such an extent that the support surface in the region of the second person becomes inclined and urges, by gravity, the second person towards the first person, causing the two people to “roll together”).
It should be understood that where the term “body support apparatus” is used herein with reference to the present invention the term includes within its scope beds, chairs and other apparatus capable of supporting a living human being or an animal having a mass greater than 1 Kg or a part of such a human being or animal.
For the sake of convenience a support member, which is so arranged that movement of it in a direction substantially normal to the support surface and beyond a threshold distance relative to an adjacent support member causes movement in substantially the same direction of said adjacent support member (there being substantially no movement of said adjacent support member caused by the movement of the first mentioned support member when the distance of relative movement is below the threshold distance) shall hereinafter be referred to as an “active support member”.
Preferably the apparatus comprises more than 250 support members.
The respective threshold distances in relation to pairs of adjacent active support members are conveniently substantially the same. The distance of relative separation between a pair of adjacent active support members may conveniently be limited, in that there may be a maximum distance of separation between adjacent support members during normal use of the apparatus. The maximum distance of separation between a pair of adjacent active support members may be dependent on the threshold distance associated with that pair of support members. When all of the support members in a region are active support members and there is such a maximum distance of relative separation between pairs of adjacent active support members, a maximum angle of inclination of the support surface in that region may be predetermined by selecting appropriate threshold distances.
Preferably the apparatus is so arranged that the angle of inclination of the support surface relative to the support surface when unloaded is limited to a maximum angle.
Preferably that maximum angle is between 5 and 45 degrees and more preferably between 10 and 30 degrees.
Preferably all of the multiplicity of support members are resiliently urged towards an unloaded position. Preferably, each of a plurality of the resiliently urged support members are directly resiliently urged towards an unloaded position, for example, by means of a respective resilient device. Not all of the resiliently urged active support members need to be directly resiliently urged as can be illustrated as follows. Consider an apparatus according to the present invention, including first and second adjacent active support members, only the second of which is directly resiliently urged by, for example, a spring. When the first active support member moves beyond its thresho
Greenhalgh Colin Jack
Greenhalgh Marlene Claire
Pitney Hardin Kipp & Szuch LLP
Trettel Michael F.
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