Horizontally supported planar surfaces – Plural related horizontal surfaces – Coplanar extension surface
Patent
1989-11-13
1992-02-18
Dorner, Kenneth J.
Horizontally supported planar surfaces
Plural related horizontal surfaces
Coplanar extension surface
108112, A47B 100
Patent
active
050884190
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to tables.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION AND DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
Tables in which the effective area of the table surface can be varied are well known. Dining tables have been produced for many years provided with a base and one or more additional leaves which may be put adjacent table top sections to give a bigger table top. When not used, they may be slid under the table top (draw leaf tables) or may be removed altogether for storage separately. An alternative approach is to hinge the table top e.g. into two or three sections, one section being supported by a framework from which a support arm, optionally including a floor engaging leg, may be extended to support the folded up section. Such gate-leg tables are produced in a variety of designs. They possess a major disadvantage that when the section or sections are in their folded down position, they constitute a vertical wall e.g. making it difficult to sit with one's knees under the table if one sits at the folded down side. This is unsatisfactory.
Folding hinged table tops are known which consist of two sections hinged together which may either rest one on top of another in turn on top of the base, or where the other one may be hinged about its hinged line with the other piece of the table top to bring them into a common plane, which is then supported by the same underlying framework. The unfolded table top may be swivelled about a vertical axis to ensure that both halves are supported on the underlying framework. Because the framework does not change its shape, when the table top is unfolded, support is sometimes inadequate and the table is unstable. Also, tables with a top consisting of a number of equal sized hinged sections which may be unfolded to form an extended top and folded in for storage are known, for example from German Patent Specification, DE-C-366112, French Patent Specification, FR-A-1028025 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,654,647.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
According to the present invention there is provided a table consisting of a top and a base, the top consisting of a number of hinged sections which may be folded between a position in which the sections are co-planar to a position in which the sections are superimposed forming a two- or multi-layer top, the base being likewise foldable from an extended position in which it supports the unfolded table top to a retracted position in which it supports the folded assembly of superimposed table top sections, characterised in that the hinged sections comprise two quadrant sections and four octant sections.
By means of the combination of the change in shape of the support base to match the unfolding and expanding area constituted by the table top, tables may be produced which are stable both in their low surface area folded form and in their high surface area extended form.
The shape of the table top when in its most extended flat arrangement may vary. It may be for example square, non square but rectangular, circular or oval. Other shapes may also be used, though they are less usual.
A particularly preferred way of dissecting the extended table surface into a plurality of table sections is by two cuts at right angles which intersect at the centre of the extended surface, and a third cut likewise passing through the intersection between the first two, and bisecting the angle between the other two cuts. Such a dissection dissects a circle into two quadrants and four octants. If the lines separating each section from the next are considered as hinge lines, forming the lines between two adjacent octants into ridge folds and the remaining lines into valley folds will start to fold the table top into a folded four layer configuration with the four octants between the two quadrants.
If the same dissection is used with a right angled isosceles triangle, the folded out configuration is a square table. If attached to the hypotenuse of each of the two isosceles right angled triangles having their right angle at the centre of the unfolded table top there
REFERENCES:
patent: 2654647 (1953-10-01), Murry
Hartwell Clive R.
Hartwell David W.
Anderson Gerald A.
Dorner Kenneth J.
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