U.S. patent application number 13/175288 was filed with the patent office on 2011-10-27 for structurally improved seat cushion.
Invention is credited to David S.K. Siu.
Application Number | 20110260509 13/175288 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44815176 |
Filed Date | 2011-10-27 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110260509 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Siu; David S.K. |
October 27, 2011 |
STRUCTURALLY IMPROVED SEAT CUSHION
Abstract
The present invention relates to a structurally improved seat
cushion, comprising a main body which includes a padding part, a
backrest part and multiple accordion-shaped vent pipes used to
connect the padding and backrest parts. There are guide grooves
formed between padding components on the padding and backrest
parts, multiple wings extending from two side edges of the padding
components and capable of being bent to fit in with a seat
adequately and a containing space with an opening at front end of
the padding part to fix a wind scooper, while a blower fan is
connected with the opening. When the blower fan draws external
cooling air into the main body, the cooling air goes quickly out of
vent holes along diversion grooves formed by multiple separation
boards in the wind scooper, guide grooves and vent pipes, making
users feel cool, ventilative and more comfortable when sitting on
it.
Inventors: |
Siu; David S.K.; (Tao-Yuan
County, TW) |
Family ID: |
44815176 |
Appl. No.: |
13/175288 |
Filed: |
July 1, 2011 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
12470495 |
May 22, 2009 |
|
|
|
13175288 |
|
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
297/180.14 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47C 7/021 20130101;
B60N 2/5657 20130101; B60N 2/565 20130101; A47C 7/744 20130101;
B60N 2/5635 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
297/180.14 |
International
Class: |
A47C 7/74 20060101
A47C007/74 |
Claims
1. A structurally improved seat cushion, comprising a main body, a
blower fan and a wind scooper, wherein: the main body includes a
padding part, a backrest part and a multiplicity of hollow
accordion-shaped vent pipes connecting the padding part through to
the backrest part; both the padding and backrest parts have
multiple padding components that are transversely arranged at
regular intervals, and guide grooves are established between the
padding components to guide airflows, and multiple vent holes are
further formed inside these guide grooves for air to blow out of
the main body; there are multiple wings extending from two outer
edges of the padding components, in which the wings can be bent to
fit in with a proposed seat adequately; the padding part has a
containing space with an opening in front of the guide grooves, and
the main body is covered by at least one layer of cover; the blower
fan is connected to the opening at the front end of the main body,
and consists of a motor and multiple blades; the blower fan is
connected with a power wire which is equipped with a control switch
set, and is wrapped by a cover; on the surface of the cover, a
through hole is opened facing the blower fan for external cooling
air to go in, and on the outer side of the through hole, an outlet
is established to connect with the opening at the front end of the
padding part to guide cooling air into the containing space; the
wind scooper is fixed in the containing space of the main body, and
multiple bent separation boards are installed inside the wind
scooper; multiple diversion grooves are formed between the
separation boards to connect with the opening and guide grooves in
the padding part respectively.
2. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the main body contains catching grooves, while the vent
pipes have convex fasteners at their front and back ends, so that
the convex fasteners are fastened into the catching grooves on the
padding components for a fixing purpose.
3. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the padding part and wings of the main body may be made
respectively from foam, foamed substances or elastomeric
polymers.
4. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the padding part and wings of the main body may be made
from rubber or silicon rubber.
5. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the wings of the main body are wrapped by four pieces of
high density foam along the side edges of the padding parts and
backrest parts, and the padding components made from EVA foam on
the padding parts and backrest parts are used to separate the wings
from the main body, so as to make the wings be freely folded or
bent, thus enabling the main body to be easily placed on a proposed
seat and lean against the concave bucket-shaped back
appropriately.
6. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the vent pipes of the main body are made of hollow and
flexible materials.
7. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the surface of the cover on the padding part of the main
body opposite to the padding components is wrapped by a sheet of
high density foam as supports and pads of the multiple vent holes,
supplemented by a sheet of pierced mesh fabric with dense holes and
supporting structural strength.
8. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the cover that wraps the main body may be made of soft
plastic.
9. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the cover that wraps the main body may be made from
foam.
10. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the cover that wraps the main body may be made of mesh
fabric or artificial fibre.
11. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the cover that wraps the main body may be made of leather
or artificial leather.
12. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the power wire of the blower fan can be electrically
connected with a proposed power supply or external power source for
supply of the electricity required by the seat cushion, and the
control switch set is used to start, switch on/off the blower fan
or to adjust the air volume.
13. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,
wherein the wind scooper is made of metal materials or with
injection molding of plastic.
Description
[0001] This application is a Continuation-In-Part of application
Ser. No. 12/470,495, filed on May 22, 2009, now pending. The patent
application identified above is incorporated here by reference in
its entirety to provide continuity of disclosure.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to a structurally improved
seat cushion, particularly to a seat cushion whose main body
contains a wind scooper with sufficient structural strength to
prevent it from being squashed flat, so as to secure unobstructed
air flows and better discharge efficiency of cooling air when the
blower fan operates. Besides, the design of separated and
comfortable contour design folded wing structure for multiple wings
on both side edges of the main body enables the main body to be
placed on the seat adequately.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] For chairs currently available in the marketplace, e.g. sofa
chairs, car seats or office chairs, they are usually designed to be
filled with preformed foam and sewed and packed by fabric, leather
or other materials, so that people can sit on these chairs with
comfort. Due to limited air permeability of fabric and leather,
however, people easily feel sultry and uncomfortable or suffer from
eczemas or bedsores on their body parts in contact with chairs as a
result of sultriness or sweating when sitting on these chairs. In
addition, some persons may cover chairs with cushions made of bead
strings, bamboo, rattan wares or other materials. Though this can
improve situations of sultriness and poor air permeability
temporarily by reducing direct body contact, it cannot effectively
achieve quick cooling and ventilation effect when users seat
themselves on such kinds of chairs.
[0006] Therefore, some persons engaged in this field develop a seat
cushion as shown in FIG. 7, which comprises a soft plastic board A,
a soft plastic sheet B and a fan C. The soft plastic board A is
covered by multiple elastic convex strips A1 arranged at regular
intervals, and multiple air ducts A2 are formed to connect with
each other between the elastic convex strips A1. In addition,
multiple air vents A21 are established on the air ducts A2, which
converge into an integrating space A3 at the front end. Then, the
soft plastic sheet B covers the soft plastic board A to form a
closed space. Besides, the fan C is installed inside the
integrating space A3 of the soft plastic board A to blow air into
air ducts A2 and blow it out of the air vents quickly when the fan
C works, so that users can feel cool and comfortable when sitting
on the seat cushion. Yet, the aforesaid seat cushion still has
certain deficiencies and shortcomings in use, which are described
respectively as below: [0007] 1. when the aforesaid seat cushion
bears users' body weight, its elastic convex strips A1 and air
ducts A2 will be squashed flat, preventing the fan C inside the
integrating space A3 from blowing cooling air into the air ducts A2
directly for heat radiation. As a result, heat will accumulate in
the seat cushion and cannot be radiated effectively. [0008] 2. for
the aforesaid seat cushion, the fan C hangs from the integrating
space A3 inside the soft plastic board A, and there is no
supporting structure built in the folded part of the soft plastic
board A. So when users sit on the cushion, the air ducts A2 will be
squashed flat, causing the fan C to be blocked due to too large
wind resistance. [0009] 3. the soft plastic board A used in the
aforesaid seat cushion is in the shape of a flat board. When the
seat cushion is placed on a chair, it first needs to be folded
along the middle of the soft plastic board A. As there is no
foldable structure in the soft plastic board A, it will cause the
soft plastic board A unable to be placed steadily over the chair,
thus making users feel rather uncomfortable after long periods of
sitting.
[0010] Nevertheless, many seat cushions of the same kind are
produced with high-cost but unskillful design that features
complexity of overall structure in order to prevent their air
inlets and outlets from being squashed and blocked. For such
design, air channels are molded with plastics, and peripheries of
air outlets bulge like edges of city walls to prevent the air
outlets from being squeezed by human bodies. Though such design
does produce certain effect, these bulging parts that serve as a
support make sitters feel very uncomfortable and make them unable
to sit on these cushions for a long period of time.
[0011] Therefore, how to solve deficiencies and shortcomings of
conventional seat cushions in use is what those engaged in this
field need urgently to explore and improve.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] The primary object of the present invention is to make the
main body contain a padding part, a backrest part and multiple
accordion-shaped vent pipes that can be integrated between the
padding part and the backrest part. There are multiple supporting
parts established respectively on the padding part and backrest
part, and guide grooves formed between these supporting parts
include multiple vent holes inside. In the padding part, a
containing space with an opening is formed to fix a wind scooper in
front of the guide grooves, and the opening is connected with a
blower fan. When the blower fan draws cooling air from outside into
the main body, the cooling air goes along diversion grooves formed
by multiple separation boards inside the wind scooper, the guide
grooves and vent pipes, and quickly blows out of the vent holes,
making users feel cool, ventilative and more comfortable when
sitting on the cushion.
[0013] The secondary object of the present invention is to make the
airflows generated by the blower fan (as it operates) guided into
the diversion grooves through the multiple separation boards of the
wind scooper. Since the wind scooper has sufficient structural
strength to bear the weight of a human body, it is not easy to
squash the guide grooves and opening flat and cause blockages when
a user sits on the padding part. This allows cooling airflows to go
smoothly with less wind resistance to secure working stability of
the blower fan and also reduce the noise caused by flow
disturbance. Besides, this helps prevent overloads on the blower
fan and prolongs the overall service life of the cushion
effectively.
[0014] Another object of the present invention is to introduce the
design of a separated and comfortable contour design folded wing
structure for multiple wings on both side edges of the main body to
enable the main body to be placed on the seat easily and freely and
against the concave bucket back steadily, and to enable the main
body to be folded freely and adequately fit in with various kinds
of car seats (for example, racing bucket seats), desk chairs and
home chairs (e.g. deck chairs) etc., so that users can feel cool
and ventilative when sitting on the main body and feel more
comfortable with wrapping of multiple wings. Besides, as the
present invention has sufficient structural strength and packing
and supporting properties, it can be used more widely in different
aspects.
[0015] A further object of the present invention is to wrap the
main body with at least one layer of a cover made from high density
foam as supports and pads of the vent holes on the surface opposite
to the padding components of the padding part, supplemented by
pierced mesh fabric with dense holes and considerable structural
strength, so that airflow go more smoothly along guide grooves
formed between the padding components and multiple vent holes, thus
making users feel more comfortable when sitting on the seat
cushion.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional appearance drawing of the
present invention.
[0017] FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional decomposition drawing of the
present invention from another angle of view.
[0018] FIG. 3 is a three-dimensional decomposition drawing of a
vent pipe according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0019] FIG. 4 shows three-dimensional decomposition drawings of a
blower fan and a wind scooper respectively according to one
embodiment of the present invention.
[0020] FIG. 5 is a sectional drawing of the present invention from
a side view.
[0021] FIG. 6 is a three-dimensional appearance drawing according
to one preferred embodiment of the present invention.
[0022] FIG. 7 is a three-dimensional decomposition drawing of a
conventional seat cushion.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0023] Refer to FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4, which clearly show that the
present invention comprises a main body 1, a blower fan 2 and a
wind scooper 3, wherein:
The main body 1 includes a padding part 11, a backrest part 12 and
multiple accordion-shaped vent pipes 13, and the vent pipes 13 are
fixed between the padding part 11 and the backrest part 12 as
hollow and connection tubes to connect the two parts. Multiple
padding components 111 and 121 are transversely installed on the
padding part 11 and backrest part 12 respectively, and are arranged
at regular intervals. There are guide grooves 112 formed between
the padding components 111 and guide grooves 122 between the
padding components 121 to guide airflows, and there are multiple
vent holes 113 inside the guide grooves 112 and multiple vent holes
123 inside the guide grooves 122. In addition, there are multiple
wings 114 and 124 established on the side edges of the padding
components 111 and 121 respectively. The padding part 11 includes a
containing space 14 with an opening 141 in front of the guide
grooves 112, and then the padding part 11, backrest part 12 and
multiple vent pipes 13 are packed by a cover 15 of at least one
layer.
[0024] Catching grooves 115 are established on the left side of the
multiple padding components 111 of the padding part 11 close to the
connection part of the main body, while catching grooves 125 are
built on the right side of the multiple padding components 121 of
the backrest part 12 close to the connection part of the main body,
and the catching grooves 115 correspond to the catching grooves
125. The vent pipes 13 may be a fixed or dismountable structure,
and have convex fasteners 131 at both ends, so that the convex
fasteners 131 are fastened into the catching grooves 115 and 125
respectively on the padding components 111 and 121 for a fixing
purpose.
[0025] The blower fan 2 connects to and hangs from the front of the
main body 1, and includes a motor 21 and multiple blades 22. It is
connected with a power wire 23 that includes a control switch set
231, and is covered by a cover 24. On the surface of the cover 24,
a through hole 241 is opened facing the blower fan 2 rightly to
allow external cooling air to go in, and there is an outlet 242
established on the outer side of the through hole 241 to connect
with the opening 141 in front of the padding part 11 for guiding
cooling air into the containing space 14.
[0026] The wind scooper 3 is fixed inside the containing space 14
of the main body 1, and contains multiple bent separation board 31
in it. And there are multiple diversion grooves 32 formed between
the separation boards 31 to connect with the opening 141 and guide
groove 112 of the padding part 11 respectively.
[0027] Furthermore, the padding components 111 and 121 and wings
114 and 124 on the padding part 11 and backrest part 12 may be made
from foam, foamed substances, elastomeric polymers, rubber, silicon
rubber or other soft and elastic materials, and are pasted onto the
padding part 11 or backrest part 12 by using adhesives, resin or
other adhesive substances. Regarding design of folding lines of the
multiple wings 114 and 124, two side edges of both the padding part
11 and backrest part 12 are wrapped by four pieces of high density
foam, while ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) battens of 1 cm .times.0.4
cm.times.42 cm are used as the padding components 111 and 121 on
the padding part 11 and backrest part 12 to separate the wings 114
and 124 from the main body 1, so as to make the wings 114 and 124
be folded or bent at users' will. As the mainstream, however, car
seats are currently designed to consist of seats bulging on edges
and sinking in the middle and backs with bucket sheathing. In view
of this, the multiple wings 114 and 124 on the two side edges of
the main body 1 are made with the design of separated and
comfortable contour design folded wing structure, so that the main
body 1 can be placed on the cushion easily and freely and lean
against the concave bucket-shaped back appropriately. Besides, it
also can be folded freely and fit in with various kinds of car
seats (e.g. racing bucket seats), office chairs and home chairs
(e.g. deck chairs) etc, without difficulty to provide sufficient
structural strength in addition to sheathing and supporting
properties, thus making it able to be used more widely in different
aspects.
[0028] The cover 15 over the main body 1 may be made of foam, mesh
fabric, soft plastic, synthetic fiber, leather, artificial leather
or other materials that can be over-molded by means of combining
methods, such as sewing or adhesion, while the wind scooper 3 may
be made of hard materials such as metals or plastic, as long as the
wind scooper 3 has sufficient structural strength to support the
weight of a human body and prevent the guide grooves 112 and 122 on
the padding part 11 from being squashed flat, so as to avoid the
situations where airflows are blocked and cannot go smoothly.
[0029] However, the cover 15 is formed by coating the surface of
the padding part 11 opposite to the padding components 111 with
high density foam of 0.5 cm in thickness to support and pad the
multiple vent holes 113, supplemented with a sheet of pierced mesh
fabric which has the thickness of 0.4 cm and considerable
supporting strength to make the airflows go more smoothly along the
guide grooves 112 formed between the padding components 111 and 121
as well as multiple vent holes 113, so that users can feel more
comfortable when sitting on it.
[0030] Therefore, the structural improvement of the seat cushion in
the present invention is made in a logical, simple and effective
way by selecting appropriate materials and with a perfect design of
comfortable contour design folded wing structure, integrating the
wind scooper 3 which prevents from being squashed, accordion-shaped
vent pipes 13 and ergonomic wings 114 and 124, and with a simple
and reasonable design of vent conduits for the guide grooves 112
and 122. Besides, the padding components 111 and 121 inside the
main body 1 are made of EVA foam as supporting materials. All these
demonstrate advantages of the present invention and highlight its
affordability, commonality and practical applicability, as it is
made with the simplest and most practical concept and a special
patent design that achieve its functions to the utmost.
[0031] Refer to FIGS. 5 and 6, which clearly show that the backrest
part 12 of the main body 1 is bent to be almost vertical along the
multiple vent pipes 13 as a pivot when the seat cushion of the
present invention is used. The accordion-shaped vent pipes 13 can
not only be bent easily, but also be made of hollow and flexible
materials, so as to effectively prevent blockage of airflows inside
the hollow vent pipes 13 due to bending. In this way, the padding
part 11 and backrest part 12 of the main body 1 can be connected
with each other via the vent pipes 13. Then, uses can put the main
body 1 on seats in their cars or indoors (rooms or offices, etc.)
and fasten it onto the seats by using the elastics, lashings,
strips or magic tapes (not indicated in the figures) of the main
body 1.
[0032] When users connect the plug or igniter (not shown in the
figures) of the power wire 23 linked with the blower fan 2 to an
igniter receptacle in a proposed car or an electric outlet of a
power supply or external power source, the blower fan 2 will be
supplied with electricity as required through the power wire 23 and
will be controlled via the control switch set 231 to make it start,
operate, switched on/off or to adjust the air volume. As a result,
cooling air from a proposed car will be drawn into the main body 1,
and flow through the diversion grooves 32 of the wind scooper 3.
The cooling air will then go along the guide grooves 112 and
multiple vent pipes 13 of the padding part 11 and the guide grooves
122 of the backrest part 12, till it blows out of the vent holes
113 and 123. In this way, the cooling air blows out of the main
body 1 directly and quickly through the vent holes 113 and 123, or
assists with exchange of heat accumulated inside the main body 1 to
cool down, so that users can feel cool, ventilative and more
comfortable when sitting on the seat cushion.
[0033] In the process of drawing in cooling air, the airflows
generated by the blower fan 2 as it works will be guided along the
separation boards 31 of the wind scooper 3 into the diversion
grooves 32 respectively. Since the wind scooper 3 is made of hard
materials and has sufficient structural strength to bear the weight
of a human body, when users sit on the padding part 11 of the main
body 1, it is not easy for the weight of a human body to squash the
guide grooves 112 and the opening 141 in front of it and cause
blockages. Thus, the cooling air can go smoothly through the main
body 1 with reduced wind resistance after entering into the wind
scooper 3, and the air volume will be equally distributed along the
diversion grooves 32 into the guide groove 112 of the padding part
11, so as to secure operational stability of the blower fan 2.
Besides, lower wind resistance will help reduce the noise generated
by airflow disturbance and resonance effect, and overloads on the
blower fan 2 will be avoided without unequal distribution of air
volume, thus extending the overall service life effectively.
[0034] Thus, for the present invention, when a user sits on the
main body 1, the padding components 111 on the padding part 11 and
padding components 121 on the backrest part 12 can bear the body
weight of the user. As the design of separated and comfortable
contour design folded wing structure is adopted for the wings 114
and 124 extending from two outer edges of the padding components
111 and 121, it enables the main body 1 to be placed onto the seat
easily and freely and lean against the concave bucket-shaped back
appropriately. In addition to making the user feel the cooling and
ventilative effect when he/she sits on the main body 1, it also
enables the user to feel soft and comfortable through sheathing of
the wings 114 and 124, and provides sufficient structural strength
in addition to good sheathing and supporting properties. As a
result, it is more likely that the seat cushion of the present
invention is used more widely in different aspects, thus further
promoting its competitive advantage in the marketplace.
[0035] The above detailed descriptions are given to illustrate one
preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, such
embodiment shall not be construed as limiting the appended patent
claims of the present invention. It is hereby stated that all
modifications and equivalent structural changes made without
departing from the spirit and art of the present invention shall be
included in the patent claims of the present invention
[0036] In summary, the structural improvement of a seat cushion as
disclosed in the present invention can achieve its functions and
objects. Therefore, the present invention is really an excellent
one with practical applicability and can satisfy the conditions for
patentability of a utility model. While the application of patent
is filed pursuant to applicable laws, your early approval will be
highly appreciated so as to guarantee benefits and rights of the
inventor who has worked hard at this invention. For any question,
please do not hesitate to inform the inventor by mail, and the
inventor will try his best to cooperate with you.
* * * * *