Chair, especially an office chair

Details Chair, especially an office chair Chair, especially an office chair

1999-10-18

2001-03-06

Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3624)

Chairs and seats

Bottom, back and leg

Back standard secured below or to underside of bottom

C297S411400, C297S301100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06196632

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Our present invention relates to a chair, especially an office chair, of the type having a tubular frame, a seat and a backrest.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Chairs and especially office chairs, utilizing a tubular metal frame can be provided in a variety of configurations, for example, as a rotary chair in which the seat and backrest can pivot relative to the supporting portion of the frame, a four-legged chair or as a free-swinging chair in which the seat portion is cantilevered over the base. In all of these types of chairs, the tubular frame can comprise a pair of frame members having horizontal tubular portions which support or form the armrests. The tubular armrest portions are usually not themselves particularly comfortable and frequently a wider support for the arms of the user may be required and can be connected, e.g. by screws, to the horizontal tube portions. Of course separately mounting armrests on these tubular portions has the drawback that additional fabrication and mounting steps are required and hence the fabrication costs may be comparatively high. Also, in many cases the appearance of the chair suffers from the need to individually and separately mount armrests on these tubular frame portions.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved chair, especially an office chair which is fabricated more easily and less expensively, is of particularly esthetic appearance and affords high stability and seating comfort, especially with respect to the armrests thereof.
Another object is to provide an office chair which can be fabricated in any of a variety of configurations, especially as a swivel chair, a four-legged chair and a free-swinging chair, whereby drawbacks of earlier chair configurations are avoided.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained, in accordance with the invention in a chair in which the backrest is formed as one piece with a pair of arms capable of forming armrests and fixed to the horizontal tube portions of the frame. Since the armrests are arms projecting from the one-piece backrest structure, assembly of separate parts can be avoided and unesthetic constrictions in which the armrest must be separately mounted on tubular portions of the frame, can likewise be excluded.
More particularly, the office chair of the invention comprises:
a seat;
a tubular chair frame supporting the seat and having a pair of bent tubular support members having generally horizontal armrest support portions spaced above the seat; and
a one-piece backrest carried by the frame and formed unitarily with a pair of arms fitting over the respective armrest support portions and at least partly forming armrests for the chair.
A particularly esthetic and convenient construction has the arms extending the full lengths of the tubular armrest support portions, i.e. to the front of these portions. Advantageously, the arms are connected to the backrests by transition portions which widen toward the backrest and away from the free ends of the arms. The widening from the free end cross section can be provided only at the rear of each arm or can be gradual from portions of the arm relatively close to the free ends. The fastening of the arms to the tubular portions can be effected in a variety of ways. For example the arms may themselves be tubular in cross section and can be fitted over the tubular portions and secured thereto, for example, by an adhesive.
It is also possible to provide the arms so that they in cross section are angular, preferably L-shaped in cross section, receiving the tubular portions between the shanks or flanges and connected to the tubular portions by screws.
The one-piece construction of the backrest and arms allows the fabrication of a wide variety of chairs with respect to the construction of the backrest, arms and frame systems a variety of connection systems between them. The arms can, for example, project from a formation extending around the back and the tubular portions may be connected by a stirrup shape member which reaches around the backrest. If desired, a back support can be attached to the extensions of the arms reaching around the back of the chair and forming the backrest in the sense of the invention.
According to another feature of the invention, the backrest can have an upper portion lying above an imaginary line through the backrest at bottom edges of said arms and a lower portion below said imaginary line. The upper and lower portions can be trapezoidal and mirror symmetrical. The backrest can, alternatively, lie wholly above a line connecting bottom edges of the arms.


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