Chairs and seats – Movable bottom – Tiltable
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-28
2003-12-09
Barfield, Anthony D. (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Movable bottom
Tiltable
C297S068000, C297S084000, C297SDIG007, C297SDIG001, C297S423280
Reexamination Certificate
active
06659556
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to the general field of household furniture and is particularly concerned with a motorized, multi-position reclining chair having rocking and pivoting action and other features to permit ease of access for use of such chairs.
BACKGROUND ART
In daily life, chairs are used extensively. Therefore, chairs are typically designed ergonomically to meet the needs of a user's comfort. The requirements for the design of chairs are becoming increasingly stringent with regard to the correct adjustment of the chair. Indeed, the individual adaptation to the user in order to achieve a correct and comfortable sitting position is now considered crucial. This requirement is important since chairs are typically used over a long period time, with the result that an incorrect adjustment feels uncomfortable and leads to potentially harmful sitting positions. It has thus been long recognized that different users generally have different customs and preferences of sitting, and particularly so with older people. Therefore, there is a need for a chair which can be adjusted according to the users' requirements and preferences.
One particularly popular type of chair which can be adjusted to suit the preferences of given individuals is the so-called reclining chair. These chairs are typically provided with a separate linkage mechanism for permitting the seated occupant to selectively actuate an extensible leg rest assembly and/or produce reclining angular movement of a seat assembly between upright and reclined positions. There are numerous linkage arrangements which have been proposed in the prior art for controlling the operation of the reclining mechanism for such chairs, as evidenced both by the extensive patent literature and the numerous commercial chairs which are to be found on the market.
A reclining chair generally takes one of two forms. In a so-called two-way chair, the seat and back are rigidly connected; in moving from the upright position to the fully reclined position, the leg rest rises and the seat and back tilt backwards as a unit. In a three-way chair, the back is pivoted to the seat; in moving from the upright position to the fully reclined position, there is an additional tilt of the back relative to the seat. In both types of chairs, the seat is sometimes made to move forward in reclining positions so that the chair can be placed near a wall even though the seat and back tilting causes the top of the back to move toward the wall; by having the seat move forward, the chair need not be placed several feet from the wall. However, this could provide for an uncomfortable chair.
Moveable leg rests for reclining chairs are also well known in the prior art. A moveable leg rest for reclining chairs may automatically be actuated in response to chair movement or may be hand-actuated to extend between a position of use to a retracted or storage position. In the extended position, the leg rest is disposed generally horizontally relative to the floor level in front of the front edge of the chair. In the retracted position, the leg rest is generally disposed in a vertical position and is usually retracted up against the front edge of the chair beneath the seat.
With the leg rest in the extended position, a user may lean back or recline in a chair and place his or her legs on the leg rest, thereby orienting the legs in an outstretched and generally horizontal position. With the leg rest in the retracted attitude, the user sits in the chair normally with his/her feet on the floor, thereby permitting the chair to be used in the usual fashion since the leg rest is retracted up against the chair behind the chair user's legs.
One common type of leg rest is a type that is supported on the frame of the chair. This type of leg rest is typically actuated by a pantographing linkage type of mechanism between its retracted and extended positions. This type of mechanism includes several linkages which are connected together in scissors fashion to move the foot rest from its relatively vertical position when retracted to a horizontal position when extended and to hold the foot rest in the horizontal position.
This type of actuating mechanism is usually quite complicated, in part because of the requirement that the linkages not only extend the leg rest, but that they also move the leg rest from a vertical to a horizontal position.
Another type of leg rest is one that is supported by the chair seat rather than the frame of the chair. The advantage of this arrangement is that the leg rest and seat relationship stay the same throughout all positions of the seat. However, this type of leg rest also generally uses the complicated pantographing actuating mechanism to extent and retract the leg rest. Furthermore, the actuating mechanism in this type of seat and leg rest arrangement is complicated by the need in many cases to mount the drive means for the actuating mechanism on the chair frame so that the drive means does not move and interfere with other parts of the chair such as upholstery, legs and frame members.
The scissors type of linkage also has other notable disadvantages, foremost amongst which is the safety problem presented by the scissoring action of the linkage itself. Indeed, this scissoring action is capable of causing serious injury such as to a finger or other extremity caught in the mechanism when it is retracted quickly from its extended position. Additionally, the multiplicity of pivot joints in the scissors linkage are all subject to wear and fatigue, often resulting in loosening of the mechanism, with the consequent failure of the foot rest to assume a tightly retracted condition with the chair. Such scissors linkages also have relatively little lateral strength and are subject to easy damage from sideways forces applied to the foot rest when extended. They are also difficult and costly to repair.
Another type of component commonly found, and which selectively locks and unlocks moveable portions to provide a shiftable foot rest, is the so-called Bowden cable assembly which includes a shiftable cable partially received within a tubular jacket. These Bowden cable assemblies are typically coupled with a pivotal handle for shifting the cable between the first and second positions. The handle can be coupled with a rectangular support base which is typically mounted in a chair by cutting a rectangular aperture in a wall of the chair and inserting the rectangular base into the aperture. These types of assemblies are notorious for various drawbacks, including that they cannot be adjusted to various selected positions of comfort because the rectangular aperture precludes any clockwise or counterclockwise rotation of the base with respect to the plane of the wall in which it is retained. Also, the control handle may remain in an awkward extended position after the handle has been manipulated to shift the cable for its primary control purposes due to the resulting friction between the cable and the Bowden jacket.
The hereinabove-mentioned disadvantages associated with conventional mechanically controlled tilt adjustment assemblies are further compounded by the prior art when motorizing such reclining chairs. Although there have been numerous attempts to motorize reclining chair operation, the approach which has generally been taken is to provide a motor to achieve mechanically controlled motion. In other words, one or more motors are added to an existing design in order to aid motion of the several elements, but the physical constraints of the prior art linkages are not overcome. What has been done is to adapt motors to existing designs rather than to recognize that the use of a motor allows new types of motion. In those conventional reclining chairs, or recliners, which do not include special leverage, the motor force is derived by the occupant pushing against the back of the chair. The back starts to move, and the linkage mechanisms in the chair cause the leg rest to rise and the seat to be tilted. Prior art motorized configurations have simply
(Ogilvy Renault)
Barfield Anthony D.
Houle Guy J.
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