Chairs and seats – Collapsible chair; i.e. – relatively folding bottom – back,... – Collapsed to a compact bundle having all rigid elongated...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-25
2004-03-09
Cuomo, Peter M. (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Collapsible chair; i.e., relatively folding bottom, back,...
Collapsed to a compact bundle having all rigid elongated...
C297S016100, C297S045000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06702371
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a chair, and more particularly to a foldable chair with detachable seat arrangement which is capable of supporting the weight of the users.
2. Description of Related Arts
Foldable chairs are widely used all over the world. People often use foldable chair in outdoors environment such as in beaches or in campsites in that they are portable and usually foldable.
Referring to
FIG. 1
of the drawings, usually a conventional foldable chair comprises a chair frame A
1
and a seat fabric B
1
. The chair frame A
1
comprises a plurality of construction bars C
1
pivotally connected together to form a back supporting frame A
11
and a seat supporting frame A
12
for supporting the seat fabric B
1
. The seat supporting frame comprises a front pair, a back pair, and two pairs of construction bars C
1
, wherein each pair of construction bars are pivotally connected together to form a pivotal ‘X’ structure.
The seat fabric B
1
has a seat portion B
11
and a back supporting potion B
12
, wherein the seat fabric B
1
is slidably and suspendedly attached onto the chair frame A
1
so as to provide a seat to the users.
However, such a conventional foldable chair possesses some significant drawbacks. First of all, since the fabric seat B
1
is suspendedly supported by the chair frame, and the fabric by itself is soft and can be folded or squeezed into irregular shape, the seat fabric may not be substantially supported by the chair frame A
1
due to small supporting surface area. From simple physical analysis, one can easily expect that when a person sits onto the seat portion of the seat fabric B
1
, the seat fabric B
1
will easily be stretched toward the central part of the seat portion and the person sitting thereon will tend to plunge into the central part of the seat portion. This usually makes the person sitting thereon difficult to move and feel uncomfortable or insecure.
In terms of the ways in which the seat fabric is supported, as shown in
FIG. 1
, only point support is provided to the seat fabric B
1
. The seat portion of the seat fabric is supported by a pair of supporting joints A
13
positioned near the front side corners of the seat fabric. When the person sits onto the seat fabric B
1
, the weight of the user tries to pull the edges of the seat fabric B
1
toward the central portion thereof, and therefore stress will be induced and substantially concentrated at the joints that suspendedly support the seat fabric B
1
. As a result, after a considerable period of time, the joints may be distorted or more seriously, broken, and this can bring disastrous consequence to the user.
Moreover, the seat fabric B
1
is permanently attached onto the chair frame A
1
. Because the foldable chair is usually used in outdoors environment, after a period of time, the seat fabric B
1
will be dirty and need cleaning. However, sometimes the user is hard or even unable to detach the seat fabric for cleaning purpose.
Last but not least, for the chair to be compactly foldable, one shouldn't attach any bulky accessory, such as a seating cushion onto the chair. Therefore, conventionally, the seating portion of the chair is usually made of fabric and in simple structure, thus making the chair uncomfortable. From another point's of view, the seat fabric B
1
of the foldable chair plays an important role for the compactness thereof. Thus, in other words, the simpler the seat fabric is, the more compact the chair can fold. A detachable seat may be needed to solve this problem.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
A main object of the present invention is to provide a foldable chair with detachable seat arrangement, wherein the user's body can be substantially supported so that the foldable chair is more comfortable to the user as compare with conventional foldable chairs.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a foldable chair with detachable seat arrangement wherein line support is provided for supporting the seat fabric, so as to minimize the stretching and distortion of the seat fabric when the user is sat onto the foldable chair.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a foldable chair with detachable seat arrangement wherein the seat fabric can be detached from and attached onto the chair frame without involving any complicated mechanical procedure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a foldable chair with detachable seat arrangement wherein the chair frame and the seat supporting frame are capable of individually folding into compact size so as to facilitate easy and convenient carrying and storage.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a foldable chair with detachable seat arrangement which does not require to significantly alter the original structure and shape of a conventional foldable chair, so as to minimize the manufacturing and administrative cost of the present invention.
Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a foldable chair comprising:
a chair frame which comprises:
a front supporting frame which comprises a plurality of front frame legs pivotally coupled with each other to form a pivotal ‘X’ structure;
a pair of side supporting frames, wherein each side supporting frame comprises a first and a second side frame leg pivotally coupled with each other to form a pivotal ‘X’ structure; and
a back supporting frame which comprises a plurality of back frame legs pivotally coupled with each other to form a pivotal ‘X’ structure, and a plurality of rear supporting legs, wherein each of the rear supporting legs has an upper attaching portion;
a pair of front frame joints pivotally connecting two upper end portions of the front frame legs and two upper end portions of the first side frame legs respectively; and
a pair of back frame joints pivotally connecting two upper end portions of the back frame legs and two upper ends portions of the second side frame legs respectively, wherein the pair of rear supporting legs are upwardly extended through the pair of back frame joints respectively;
a seat frame which comprises:
a fabric supporting frame which comprises at least a seat supporting bar to define a seat portion, a back portion and a central opening of the fabric supporting frame,
a seat fabric which has a side edge portion substantially supported by the fabric supporting frame; and
a detachable seat arrangement which comprises:
a plurality of fabric frame holders provided at the upper attaching portions of the rear supporting frames respectively for detachably mounting the fabric supporting frame on the back supporting frame; and
a pair of securing members provided on the seat frame for detachably mounting the fabric supporting frame onto the front supporting frame, so as to secure the seat frame on the chair frame in a detachable manner.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2723712 (1955-11-01), Yellen
patent: 4421356 (1983-12-01), Singer
patent: 5984406 (1999-11-01), Lee
patent: 6045177 (2000-04-01), Grace
patent: 6170907 (2001-01-01), Tsai
patent: 6179374 (2001-01-01), Tang
patent: 6322138 (2001-11-01), Tang
patent: 6332646 (2001-12-01), Tseng
patent: 6447057 (2002-09-01), Chen
Chan Raymond Y.
Cuomo Peter M.
David and Raymond Patent Group
Garrett Erika
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