Chairs and seats – Back movement resiliently opposed in operating position – Back and seat adjust simultaneously
Patent
1987-10-13
1989-08-15
Zugel, Francis K.
Chairs and seats
Back movement resiliently opposed in operating position
Back and seat adjust simultaneously
297DIG2, 297457, A47C 300
Patent
active
048568465
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention concerns a chair with a seat and an inherently elastically pliable back rest that consists roughly in the hip area of several transverse ribs separated from one another by spaces, which are held together by connectors in such a way that the transverse ribs can be rotated with respect to one another around horizontal axes.
Such a chair is shown in European Patent Application No. 107 627. As the drawings of this publication show particularly, it requires a substantial technical effort to produce the known chair in the area of the connectors, especially because of spring elements located in the area of the connectors for which leaf springs are provided in particular. The spring elements introduced separately each require separate technical means for fastening and motion clearance, so that an expensive structural design is produced overall. The possibility is actually pointed out in claim 32 of the mentioned European Patent Application of molding the known chair in one piece from a material in which two leaf springs are embedded, using an embedding material that has to be appropriately flexible. However, this embedding does not reduce the structural expense in the interior of the chair, it merely provides for enclosing the design elements on all sides by the embedding, which has to meet the requirement of having the same mobility as the leaf springs.
The purpose of this invention is to develop a chair of the type of design described initially in such a way that it can be produced at lower structural expense and thus more simply and economically.
The problem is solved by the fact that the connectors consist of film hinges with rotation-limiting elements, bridging over the intermediate spaces in one piece, with the seat being molded in one piece together with the transverse ribs of plastic, over continuous profiles that are formed by the film hinges and spring elements associated with these placed on the arms of the film hinges.
Based on this configuration, there is the possibility of molding the individual elements necessary for the chair in one piece, without the need of any components that have to be embedded in the plastic. This results in a molding process that can be handled directly in production, particularly by injection molding, with important parts of the chair, namely the parts that make possible a rotation of the transverse ribs relative to one another, and the spring elements, being formed by continuous profiles. The plastic bridges between the transverse ribs necessary for the molding from plastic are therefore designed in the form of continuous profiles in such a way that they form important elements of the chair, which makes unnecessary a separate structural incorporation of otherwise required components. This results in a chair that can be manufactured completely mechanically in one operating step with regard to its seat and its back rest.
To produce the back rest, up to approximately three transverse ribs are normally necessary in the hip area of the back rest. Under an ordinary loading of the back rest by a seated person leaning back, angular changes are produced between the individual transverse ribs that are approximately in the range of up to 3.degree.. This results in the film hinges and the spring elements associated with them being exposed to only relatively slight bending and thus mechanical stresses, that can be supported directly by appropriate plastics, such as polypropylene, for example.
The arms of the film hinges suitably change smoothly into the back rest and the transverse ribs. In this case, the spring elements are directly coactuated with the motion of the film hinges.
A suitable design of the film hinges with the spring elements is provided when they are designed as components of tubes running along the intermediate spaces opposite one another, with the tube sections between the film hinges and the spring elements being of essentially rigid design.
Another possibility for the design of the film hinges consists of designing the intermediate spaces in the area o
REFERENCES:
patent: 1886308 (1932-11-01), Schultes
patent: 4333683 (1982-06-01), Ambasz
patent: 4580836 (1986-04-01), Verney
patent: 4585272 (1986-04-01), Ballerini
patent: 4733910 (1988-03-01), Brennan
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