Horizontally supported planar surfaces – Plural related horizontal surfaces – Coplanar extension surface
Patent
1992-07-10
1994-12-20
Chen, Jose V.
Horizontally supported planar surfaces
Plural related horizontal surfaces
Coplanar extension surface
108115, A47B 104
Patent
active
053737946
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to extendible furniture such as tables, sofa beds and the like.
It is known to extend furniture such as tables by various means. For example, a table can be enlarged by the addition of an extra wing, either into the middle of the table or at one end thereof. Generally this involves some means by which the frame of the table may be extended. Similarly, items of furniture such as sofa beds and chair beds are known in which the interconversion from sofa to bed is achieved by extending the frame of the sofa.
United Kingdom Patent Specification No. 1 593 556 discloses a convertible sofa bed having a converting mechanism which includes a movable carriage which is supported on a leg when the carriage is extended, which leg is retracted when the carriage is retracted. In the mechanism of the prior-art, the supporting leg is stored in its retracted position against the underside of the carriage and in front of the frame of the chair. This arrangement of the prior-art mechanism suffers from the limitation that the height of the supporting leg is related to the distance from the front of the chair to the chair frame, which distance in turn is limited by the requirement for stability of the chair. Clearly, where the legs of the chair are part of the chair frame, then it is advantageous to position the frame as close as practicable to the outer periphery of the load bearing part of the chair seat, in order to avoid the possibility of the chair toppling when sat on, or in the case of such a mechanism being applied to a table, to avoid tipping over of the table should a user lean on its edge. However, positioning of the frame close to the edge of the chair, and in particular to its forward edge, means that the supporting leg of the extended chair is of necessity short. Such an arrangement is therefore disadvantageous for many designs of sofa bed or chair bed, and due to their longer legs, is even more unsuitable for the extension of tables.
The object of the present invention is to seek to overcome the above disadvantages.
The present invention provides an article of furniture having at least one support surface which is movable to allow the article assume either a compact usable state or an extended usable state, characterised in that the or each support surface has at least one leg pivotally attached thereto, the pivotal leg being ground engagable when the article is in its extended state, the pivotal leg is stored under the movable support surface when the article is in its compact usable state, and means are provided for moving the pivotal leg from its ground engaging mode to its storage mode on movement of the article from its extended state to its compact state.
Preferably, when the article is in the compact usable state, the pivotal leg extends substantially parallel to the support surface.
Advantageously, the means for moving the pivotal leg from its ground engaging mode to its storage mode includes means for lifting the pivotal leg clear of the ground before the pivotal leg begins to pivot into the storage state.
Conveniently, the lifting means comprises means for raising the support surface into a horizontal plane vertically higher than its plane when the article is in either the compact state or the extended state.
In a preferred embodiment, the lifting means comprises a connection between the support surface and the article which permits limited vertical flexible movement between them.
Advantageously, the means for moving the pivotal leg from its ground engaging mode to its storage mode includes a triple pivot arrangement comprising first and second mutually pivotable elements the first element being additionally pivotally attached to the pivotal leg and the second element being additional pivotally attached to the support surface, biasing means for biasing the pivotal leg into the ground engaging mode and an abutment for initiating the pivotal movement of the elements and pivotal leg on engagement of an element against the abutment.
Conveniently, the pivotal leg is locked into i
REFERENCES:
patent: 1009034 (1911-11-01), Arndt
patent: 1151733 (1915-08-01), Stein
patent: 1860990 (1932-05-01), Burg
patent: 1925216 (1933-09-01), Swartz
patent: 2755152 (1956-07-01), Calgy
patent: 2868597 (1959-01-01), Morrison
LandOfFree
Furniture extension mechanism does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Furniture extension mechanism, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Furniture extension mechanism will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2381851