Chairs and seats – Supplemental seat
Patent
1996-08-16
1998-07-28
Cranmer, Laurie K.
Chairs and seats
Supplemental seat
29721912, 2972842, 29723014, A47C 108
Patent
active
057853827
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to infant car seats, that is to say seats in which infants are accommodated, and generally restrained by a restraining belt, and which are secured on a conventional car seat, usually by means of the seat belt which is provided for use by an adult.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Infant car seats comprise a leg support portion and a back support portion, which usually form an integral unit, which are connected or merge together at the base of the back support portion. At the transition region between the two portions the seat usually has a relatively sharp curvature, that is to say a small radius of curvature. This is acceptable and indeed desirable for larger infants so as to induce a satisfactory seating posture but can produce problems for smaller infants. Infant car seats for newborn babies are typically designed for infants with a weight of 3.2 kg and above but an increasing number of babies are being born with a body weight of significantly less than this, e.g. 2 kg or even less. When such small babies are placed on a typical car seat, they slump into the curvature of the seat and adopt a posture which can be very uncomfortable and, more importantly, can lead to blockage of the infant's airway and thus potentially to death.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,307 discloses an infant vehicle restraint device which is convertible between a cot and a seat. The restraint device includes lower and upper shell portions which are pivotally connected together to be movable between a planar configuration, in which they define a car seat, and an angled configuration, in which they define a cot. The upper shell portion has a support surface and the lower shell portion has a further support surface for supporting the legs of the infant which has a central hinge and is connected by means of straps to the upper support surface. When the device is in the cot configuration, the lower support surface is bent at the hinge and adopts an angled configuration. When the restraint device is in the car seat configuration, the lower support surface adopts an upwardly inclined planar configuration.
Whilst the radius of curvature between the two portions of the known restraint device may be increased, this is only in the context of converting the restraint device from a seat to a cot. However, many parents do not wish their infant to travel in a car in a prone position and when in the cot configuration the known restraint device is too large to be received on a conventional car seat and secured by the seat belt associated therewith. Furthermore, the known restraint device is complex and bulky and thus heavy and expensive.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide an infant car seat with a contour modifier which is cheap, simple and light and which may be used to modify the contour of a conventionally shaped seat so that it is appropriate for a baby of low weight and which may also be readily rendered inoperative so that the seat is still usable by a child once its weight has reached the value for which the seat was originally designed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention an infant car seat comprising a back support portion and a leg support portion which merge together at a junction region is characterised in that each of the said portions has retaining means and that a flexible contour modifying member, e.g. a sheet of textile or plastics material, is provided having respective engagement means adjacent each of two opposed sides, the engagement means being engageable with respective retaining means, whereby the contour modifying member then extends between the two retaining means spaced from the junction region of the back support region and the leg support region and has a radius of curvature greater than that of the junction region.
Thus the seat in accordance with the present invention includes a flexible contour modifying sheet which may be secured to the seat across the junction region thereby increasing th
REFERENCES:
patent: 4478543 (1984-10-01), Schutz
patent: 4998307 (1991-03-01), Cone
Bettacare Limited
Cranmer Laurie K.
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