Chairs and seats – Bottom or back – Rigid or semirigid hollow shell
Reexamination Certificate
1995-06-07
2004-03-09
Cuomo, Peter M. (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Bottom or back
Rigid or semirigid hollow shell
C297S451130, C297S451120
Reexamination Certificate
active
06702391
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to furniture for seating having a frame, the larger portion of which is made with a molding process. In particular, the invention relates to a frame having molded components which are largely shell-structure, in which a lattice form is defined by the molded components around a recessed or open area e.g., within the seat portion of the seat frame, and which may optionally be upholstered.
Furniture for seating is typically made by providing a weight-bearing frame and, in many cases, a suspension and foam or other padding and upholstery.
A significant portion of seat frames are of conventional construction. The overwhelming majority of upholstered seat frames are of conventional construction. The conventional construction of seat frames is the familiar frame construction seen in most furniture, and especially in most upholstered furniture. In it, conventional materials such as hardwood, softwood, plywood, chipboard, and extruded steel members, are processed by conventional means such as sawing, milling, planing, etc., and joined using conventional materials and methods such as screw and glue joinery, staple gun joinery, welding, rabbeting, and the like. The conventional construction of seat frames is limited as a process of manufacture. The conventional construction of seat frames is limited as regard to the intended use, and potentially desired capabilities for use, of the seat frame. The limitations of conventional construction are particularly significant for seat frames that are upholstered.
Seat frames of conventional construction are poorly equipped to provide higher quality and greater value at modest or reduced cost. The materials and processes of the conventional construction severely limit the range of properties that can be provided in a seat frame, particularly at modest cost. Seat frames of conventional construction are not efficiently produced. Extensive pre-processing of materials is usually required, and assembly processes are usually cumbersome and labor-intensive, leading to poor cost-efficiency. Labor in many cases accounts for nearly 50% of value-added cost of manufacture. The conventional construction can result in inconsistencies in product quality. The high labor content in the manufacturing process is a contributing factor, as are conventional frame materials, particularly wood-based materials, which are often idiosyncratic and inconsistent.
The engineering capabilities in seat frames of conventional construction are limited. The properties, structural and otherwise, that can be engineered into the seat frame, especially at modest cost, are limited. Conventional seat frames are often governed by strict perpendicularity at places of intersection where the component parts join, and the nature of the joinery often provides for non-optimal strength and durability. The design capabilities in seat frames of conventional construction are limited. It is not feasible to produce a generous range of forms, especially at modest cost. Conventional seat frame designs incline to a rigid, rectilinear format. Ergonomic features such as lumbar support, are poorly accommodated. Seat frames of conventional construction are often difficult to recycle, since the hardware used in the joinery frequently differs from the material from which the frame is made and must be removed, often with some difficulty.
The forms that are usually provided within the frames of seat frames of conventional construction are not especially well-suited for use with upholstered furniture. Seat frames of conventional construction tend to provide surfaces that are lean and narrow. Furthermore, components are typically rectangular in cross-section, defining sharp edges. Thus, in such furniture, large quantities of, typically expensive, foam or padding are usually required to provide upholstered furniture which can accommodate the human body with some degree of comfort (overstuffed upholstered furniture being a typical, and frequent, expression of this). And, despite the large quantities of foam or padding usually demanded, coverage of the frame with such foam or padding is usually not complete, often reducing the useful life of the upholstery, often limiting the fabric materials available for use with the upholstered seat frame to “upholstery grade” materials, and often further limiting the ease with which upholstered pieces can be transported (already usually burdened by the relatively great weight of the frames). The (typical) rectilinear format of conventional seat frame designs tends to restrict the ability to facilely produce seat frames or seat frame components that stack or internest.
Some furniture is designed to be “knocked-down” (i.e. disassembled and/or folded so as to occupy a smaller volume than in the normal use configuration). Seat frames of conventional construction typically require added hardware in order for the frames to be knocked-down, adding the cost of fitting and joining such additional hardware to the seat frame. The various seat frame designs must be accommodated to the available knock-down hardware. The material of which such added hardware is made typically differs, both in composition and strength, from the material from which the seat frame is made, resulting in stress raisers (concentrations of stress in a relatively small region) that reduce the durability of the seat frame. The added hardware also makes the seat frame more difficult to recycle. Many knock-down designs are relatively difficult to disassemble and reassemble. Among other things, this has limited the use of knock-down seat frames with modular-like interchangeable parts or sections.
Some furniture provides for relative movement of components (e.g. recliners, sofa beds, seat frames with adjustable headrests or adjustable armrests). In conventional seat frame construction these typically have been produced by joining separate hardware devices (such as hinges and other pivots, sliding hardware and the like) to portions of the frame. These designs suffer from defects similar to those described for knock-down devices (such as cost, limitation of designs to available hardware, stress raisers and difficulty of recycling).
Devices or techniques for therapeutic or comfort enhancement such as massage, heating, pneumatic variable body support, etc. are typically coupled to the seat frame by conventional means. Design and engineering capabilities for the incorporation of such devices or techniques are restricted by the limited engineering capabilities of conventional seat frame construction, i.e. the properties, structural and otherwise, that can be engineered into the seat frame, especially at modest cost. Design and engineering capabilities for the incorporation of such devices or techniques are also restricted by the limited design capabilities of conventional seat frame construction, and the limited range of forms that can be produced, and are at least partially defined by the typically rigid, rectilinear conventional seat frame format.
Because of limitations on design and engineering capabilities in conventional seat frame construction, such as those indicated above, it is impossible for producers of conventional seat frames to fully realize the benefits of modem design tools such as computer-based visualization and 3-D modeling, structural analysis, process simulation, rapid prototyping and computer-driven tools. Limits in design and engineering capabilities also result in a limited range in the choices available for custom-designed and engineered seat frames and upholstered units.
There are fundamentally sound reasons for manufacturing a seat frame comprised largely or entirely of a molded article or molded articles (molded seat frames). The capabilities of molded construction generally, applied to the manufacture of seat frames, can answer to the limitations of the conventional construction of seat frames, limitations both as process of manufacture, and limitations as regard to the intended use, and potentially desired capabilities for use, of the seat frame. The advantages of molde
Cuomo Peter M.
Sheridan & Ross P.C.
Vu Stephen
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