Chairs and seats – Rest for knee – leg – or foot – Portable
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-05
2003-08-19
Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Rest for knee, leg, or foot
Portable
Reexamination Certificate
active
06607246
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a footrest for a chair. More particularly, this invention relates to a footrest apparatus for maintaining the user's feet in a comfortable position. Further, this invention relates to a footrest that may be utilized for various sizes of chairs.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
In the workplace, persons such as machine operators and secretaries are often required to perform repetitive manual tasks in a sedentary position. Without proper support of the body, the person can become fatigued and possibly subjected to repetitive-motion injuries. It is now known that utilizing ergonomic principles in workstation design can help increase worker productivity, decrease worker fatigue, and reduce the likelihood of possible repetitive-motion injuries.
One area in which this proper support is especially necessary is the support of the feet of a seated person. Without proper support of the feet, the feet and legs may be deprived of much-needed circulation. Unsupported feet tend to cause the seated person's ankles to swell. Not only is this unsupported position uncomfortable, but this position also leads to worker fatigue. Without proper support for the legs, proper circulation is hampered. Conversely, proper foot support facilitates blood flow through the legs which helps prevent fatigue and improves worker comfort.
It is commonly known in the workplace design industry that it is possible to provide free-standing footrests that are not directly attached to the chair of a seated person. However, the addition of another piece of furniture in the work area is not always desirable in many space-limited workplace designs. Further, chairs are often supported by legs with wheels or rollers. So it is possible that when a person places his feet on a separate footrest, he and his chair can roll away from the footrest.
It is also known to provide a grooved surface for these free-standing footrests to help prevent feet from sliding off the footrest surface. However, these grooves tend to retain dirt and generally do not provide sufficient traction to hold the feet in a secure, comfortable position.
Another conventional method of supporting the feet of a seated person in the workplace is by mounting a solid, typically metal ring or footring on the legs of a chair to support the feet of a seated person. However, because of the design of the legs of industrial chairs, these ringed supports hold the feet too far off the floor and position the feet at an uncomfortable, and ergonomically improper, angle. Further, because this type of support is permanently mounted, the adding or removing these supports to chairs can be difficult.
These footring footrests also cause complications if one chair is to be used by more than one person, such as in a multiple work-shift operation. When more than one person uses a chair, it is possible that one person may desire to use the footrest and another may not. Because these footring footrests circumscribe the chair legs and are permanently mounted to the chair legs, such a chair cannot be utilized by a person who does not want to use the footrests.
The footring footrests also are problematic when used on chairs of different sizes. It is known that chairs of many different sizes are used in the industrial workplace. For example, it is generally known that industrial chairs are utilized with legs having different lengths, each chair having legs of uniform length. A single, nonadjustable footring footrest having a given radius generally may not be used to properly support a user's feet on chairs of two different sizes. For example, if the footring's radius is 23″ and the chair leg length is 21″, the footring will not be supported. Similarly, if the chair leg length is 27″ and the radius of the footring footrest is only 21″, a user's feet will likely not reach the footring in a comfortable position. Thus, a footring footrest should have a radius closely associated with the length of the chair legs upon which it is mounted: and chairs having different lengths of legs will require different sized footring footrests. Having to provide correctly-sized footrests therefore increases the number of footrests required for a given number of chairs in a work area, thus increasing the associated costs.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a footrest that can support the feet at a comfortable angle. Further, there is a need for one footrest that may be adjustable for use with chairs having chair legs of different sizes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In some aspects, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method to support the feet of a person sitting in a chair. Specifically, according to one aspect of the invention, a footrest apparatus is designed for use in combination with a chair having a plurality of substantially horizontally extending legs, comprising one or more support sections adapted to receive the bottom surface of a user's foot or footwear, and one or more connecting sections functionally associated with said support sections, said connecting sections being detachably mounted on one or more legs of said chair, the upper surfaces of said one or more support sections being located below the upper surface of said substantially horizontal legs.
In some embodiments, the upper surface of each support section is angled from a horizontal plane. In some embodiments, this angle is between about 10 degrees and about 40 degrees. In some embodiments, this angle is approximately 30 degrees.
In some embodiments, each support section is substantially curvilinear. In some embodiments, the upper surface of each supporting section is provided with tactile bumps. In some embodiments the upper surface of each supporting section is further provided with tactile grooves.
In some embodiments, each connecting section further comprises an inside radius, each chair leg has an outside radius, the said inside radius of each connecting section being approximately equal to the outside radius of each chair leg to detachably connect the connecting sections to the chair legs.
In some embodiments, the footrest apparatus comprises a fastener attached to each connecting section for connecting the connecting sections to the chair legs. In some embodiments, the fastener is a nail. In some embodiments the fastener is a screw; in some embodiments the fastener is glue. In some embodiments, the fastener comprises each connecting section having an inside radius, each chair leg having an outside radius, the inside radius of each connecting section being approximately equal to said outside radius of each chair leg.
In another aspect, the footrest apparatus is designed for use in combination with a chair having five substantially horizontally extending legs, comprising two support sections adapted to receive the bottom surface of a user's foot or footwear, each support section being substantially curvilinear, and three connecting sections functionally associated with said support sections said connecting sections being detachably mounted on one or more legs of said chair, the upper surface of both support sections being located below the upper surface of said substantially horizontal legs, said upper surface of both support sections being angled from a horizontal plane at an angle of approximately 30 degrees and having tactile bumps, each connecting section further comprising an inside radius being approximately equal to an outside radius of each chair leg to detachably connect each connecting section to the chair legs.
In another aspect, a footrest apparatus is designed for use in combination with a chair having substantially horizontally extending legs, comprising at least one support section, each support section having a first end, a second end, and an upper surface adapted to receive the bottom surface of a user's foot or footwear, and means for detachably connecting each foot support section to one or more legs of said chair, said means being integrally connected to each end of each support
Howrey Simon Arnold & White , LLP
Jr. Milton Nelson
Neutral Posture Ergonomics, Inc.
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