Chairs and seats – Combined – Mounted on accommodating platform
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-27
2001-06-12
Cuomo, Peter M. (Department: 3624)
Chairs and seats
Combined
Mounted on accommodating platform
C052S009000, C297S331000, C297S335000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244657
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to chair-raising and folding constructions for moving stands which are applied to not only indoor facilities such as gymnasiums, lecture halls, and multi-purpose halls, but also indoor or outdoor athletic facilities, and public halls, etc. This moving stand is substantially of a telescopic construction as a whole and so constructed such that a plurality of stages of decks are protracted step-wise on occasion demands, and the decks can be, after use, accommodated while being arranged in an up-and-down directions. In this chair-raising and folding constructions, only folding operation of a plurality of chairs, which are arranged continuously to one another or independently on each of the decks, is automated.
BACKGROUND ART
Conventionally, various kinds of moving stands, which can telescopically accommodate and protract a plurality of stages of decks horizontally arranged, have been proposed. They are, in most cases, capable of providing a plurality of chairs on each of the decks, thereby enabling a predetermined number of spectators, etc. to sit on the moving stand.
Then, in such a moving stand, accommodating the respective decks when they are unused requires causing each of the chairs to take the folded attitude forward, which requires causing each of the chairs to take the raised attitude, enabling the spectators to sit thereon, when the moving stand is used.
Therefore, as described in JP-A-62-201109, the applicant has proposed an automatic chair-raising and folding apparatus which is capable of automatically raising and folding chairs without using special power sources, with the protracting and accommodating operation of decks.
In this apparatus, a main part of which is shown in a side view of
FIG. 1
, a bed frame
103
is disposed on a deck
101
, and a chair leg
105
is arranged on the bed frame
103
raisably and foldably. A three-pronged lock ring
111
has a locking and unlocking roller
107
as a weight, and a hook portion
109
at a lower pronged portion thereof. The leg
105
is connected with the three-pronged lock ring
111
with a front end penetrating shaft
113
as a fulcrum in such a manner that the roller
107
can move downward. Disposed on a back side of the leg
105
is a locking angle
115
for holding the leg
105
in the raised state due to the engagement with the hook portion
109
of the lock ring
111
with the roller
107
moving downward; therefore, when the deck
101
is retreated, the roller
107
abuts against the upper stage-side deck
117
, thereby causing the hook portion
109
and the locking angle
115
to be released and disengaged from each other. As a result, protracting each of the decks causes the chairs to be automatically raised, and accommodating each of the decks causes the chairs to be automatically folded forward.
The proposed technique has, however, disadvantages that the construction of the apparatus becomes complicated, and further the weight of the apparatus, in its turn the weight of each stage of the decks is increased.
Also, when the moving stage is used with only intermediate stages of the decks, i.e. the lowest two stages of the decks out of six stages of the decks protracted, suitably seating on the chairs of the second deck, i.e. raising up backrests of the chairs, disposed on the second deck, above a passage B of the third deck A requires causing the third deck A also to take the protracted attitude. According to the proposed technique, protracting the third deck A causes the chairs disposed on the deck to necessarily take the raised attitude; therefore, there is a disadvantage, from the viewpoint of spectator-guide-countermeasure, that the spectators, etc. are required to be prevented from entering into the passage B by taking a suitable countermeasure of surely preventing the spectators from using the chairs C, e.g. roping off, or fencing in the place, or guiding the spectators, etc. by guides, guards, etc.
Moreover, in such a case, when the chairs C on the third deck A are free to be used, the backrests of the chairs C interfere with the upper stage-side accommodating deck above the deck A, thereby disabling the backrests to be sufficiently folded rearward, which disables the seat to take a satisfactory free attitude. Therefore, not only the comparability to sit on becomes bad, but also unexpected forces act on the chairs C, which possibly may cause the chairs C to get out of order, etc.
Also, in the proposed technique, automatic raising and reversing apparatuses are independently arranged for respective chairs on the same deck. For example, as exemplified in
FIG. 3
, so long as the first stage deck D retreats during the protracted decks are accommodated while being inclined in the fore and rear direction, i.e. in the advancing and retreating direction, under the influence of the condition, such as unevenness of the floor on which the moving stand is disposed, and so on, even when the chairs disposed on one end portion of the deck D in the longitudinal direction, in its turn the leg
105
of the chair is unlocked, and hence the leg
105
starts to fold, the legs
105
of the other chairs may be still in the locked condition. Especially when a plurality of chairs disposed on the deck D are so-called connected chairs which are connected to one another, the occurrence of the above-mentioned state provides a problem that the connected chairs undergo an unexpected large torsional external force, etc. not only thereby causing the connected chairs to be damaged worst of all, but also thereby causing the deck D to be retreated to disable the other chairs to be smoothly unlocked. The same is true of the advancing and retreating direction-wise inclination of the deck when the specified deck is advanced to thereby be protracted.
The present invention has been made as a result of investigating the subject of solving the above-mentioned problem included in the above proposed technique. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a chair-raising and folding construction for a moving stand, which is capable of precluding the possibility of increasing the weight of decks, and effectively preventing spectators, etc. for entering into a surplus stage of decks which are, when lower decks are protracted for use, obliged to be protracted to a rear side of the lower decks, and to provide a chair-raising and folding construction for a moving stand, which is capable of, even if a plurality of chairs disposed on the deck are connected to one another, not only raising but also folding smoothly and surely the connected chairs irrespective of the retracted attitude of the deck, and also of satisfactorily preventing the connected charts from receiving a torsional force, etc.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a chair-raising and folding construction for a moving stand, which is capable of substantially telescopically accommodating and protracting a plurality stages of horizontal decks arranged at spaces in up-and-down directions, each of the decks having a plurality of chairs thereon raisably and foldably, wherein a leg portion of the chair is hinge-connected foldably forward to a base frame disposed on the deck, a crank member, comprising a swing arm protruding upward from the base frame, and a hook protruding forward from a lower end portion of the swing arm, is rotatably supported on a rear portion of the leg portion at a corner portion thereof, the swing arm has such a protruding length as that a distal end portion thereof abuts against a front end surface of the upper stage-side deck, and the leg portion is provided with a lock member engaged with the hook when the leg portion takes the raised attitude.
According to this raising and folding construction, the construction as a whole becomes simple, and the total weight is reduced. Also, in this construction, when a desired number of stages of decks are retracted, the connected chairs or the respective independent chairs disposed on each of the decks, which takes the folded attitude, are raised by the
Cuomo Peter M.
Kabushikikaisya Kotobuki
Vu Stephen
Young & Thompson
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