Folding chair enabling reduced collapse height and volume

Details Folding chair enabling reduced collapse height and volume Folding chair enabling reduced collapse height and volume

2001-11-21

2003-02-11

Barfield, Anthony D. (Department: 3636)

Chairs and seats

Collapsible chair; i.e., relatively folding bottom, back,...

With folding armrest

C297S035000, C297S027000, C297S041000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06517152

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a folding chair, and more particularly to a folding chair that enables effectively reduced height and volume of the folding chair in a fully collapsed state.
A fixed chair occupies a specific space even it is not in use. To solve this problem, there are developed various types of folding chairs, so that the chairs may be extended for use or folded to occupy less room for convenient storage.
The collapse volume of a folding chair has influence not only on the convenient storage of the chair by a user, but also on manufacturers' costs of warehousing and freight, as well as spaces needed by distributors' for folding chairs in stock.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,545 discloses a folding chair that includes a collapsible structure shown in FIG.
1
. When the folding chair of U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,545 is in a fully extended state for use, lower ends of its front and rear legs
10
,
11
contact at lower ends with a ground surface G and are separated from each other by a predetermined distance. The front leg
10
is connected at upper ends to first pivoting points P
1
defined near front ends of two armrests
12
; and the rear leg
11
is connected at upper ends to second pivoting points P
2
defined near middle points on the armrests
12
. A backrest
13
of the folding chair is connected at a predetermined height to third pivoting points P
3
defined near rear ends of the armrests
12
, and at lower ends to fourth pivoting points P
4
defined at upper ends of a pair of knuckle plates
14
. A seat
15
of the folding chair is connected at rear ends to fifth pivoting points P
5
defined near middle points of the knuckle plates
14
, and near front ends to sixth pivoting points P
6
defined on the front leg
10
. Lower ends of the pair of knuckle plates
14
are connected to seventh pivoting points P
7
defined on the rear leg
11
at a predetermined height.
To collapse the above-described folding chair, the armrests
12
and the seat
15
are turned about the third and the fifth pivoting points P
3
, P
5
, respectively, to move toward the backrest
13
. Meanwhile, the front and the rear leg
10
,
11
are brought by the upturned armrests
12
and seat
15
to move toward the backrest
13
, too. The folding chair of
FIG. 1
in a fully collapsed state is shown in FIG.
2
. As can be clearly seen from
FIG. 2
, although the collapsed folding chair has a largely reduced depth, it has a collapse height H very close to an original overall height of the folding chair in an extended state.
In collapsing the above-described folding chair, the knuckle plates
14
having a predetermined overall length A are turned upside down about the seventh pivoting points P
7
, causing the fourth and the fifth pivoting points P
4
, P
5
to move downward. A distance C of the rear leg
11
between the second pivoting points P
2
and the seventh pivoting points P
7
keeps unchanged during the collapse of the folding chair. As a result, the length A of the knuckle plates
14
is restricted to a certain range and could not be too long. Under this condition, a distance by which the backrest
13
could be pulled downward by the turned knuckle plates
14
is small. That is why the collapse height H of the fully collapsed folding chair of
FIG. 1
is not effectively reduced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a folding chair that enables effective reduction of a collapse height and volume of the chair.
To achieve the above and other objects, the folding chair of the present invention is provided at two armrest members with two long slots forward extended from second pivoting points at joints of the armrest members and upper ends of a rear leg member, so that the second pivoting points are movable when the chair is collapsed. The folding chair of the present invention also includes a pair of knuckle plates that pivotally connect a backrest support member, a seat, and the rear leg member of the folding chair to one another and have length-increased lower portions. Whereby when the knuckle plates are turned upside down during the collapse of the folding chair, the backrest support member pivotally connected to upper ends of the knuckle plates is pulled downward by a longer distance to effectively reduce the collapse height and volume of the folding chair.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2195091 (1940-03-01), Lorenz et al.
patent: 2709481 (1955-05-01), Budai
patent: 5735570 (1998-04-01), Tseng
patent: 6217111 (2001-04-01), Tseng
patent: 6095596 (2001-08-01), Chen

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