U.S. patent application number 14/782411 was filed with the patent office on 2016-02-25 for metallic frame for chairs with tubular elements.
This patent application is currently assigned to CERANTOLA S.P.A.. The applicant listed for this patent is CERANTOLA S.P.A.. Invention is credited to Jeremiah FERRARESE, Paolo SCAGNELLATO.
Application Number | 20160051055 14/782411 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 48485329 |
Filed Date | 2016-02-25 |
United States Patent
Application |
20160051055 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
SCAGNELLATO; Paolo ; et
al. |
February 25, 2016 |
METALLIC FRAME FOR CHAIRS WITH TUBULAR ELEMENTS
Abstract
A metallic frame for chairs with tubular elements, comprising
two inverted V-shaped elements that form the legs of a chair, which
are parallel and joined substantially at their inside curvature to
a rod-like crossmember, two L-shaped elements connected by the
crossmember on which they are arranged in a parallel configuration
so as to form a support for the back and for the seat, respectively
with their first portions, which are substantially vertical, and
second portions, which are substantially horizontal.
Inventors: |
SCAGNELLATO; Paolo; (Padova,
IT) ; FERRARESE; Jeremiah; (Padova, IT) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
CERANTOLA S.P.A. |
Loria, Frazione Ramon |
|
IT |
|
|
Assignee: |
CERANTOLA S.P.A.
Loria, Frazione Ramon
IT
|
Family ID: |
48485329 |
Appl. No.: |
14/782411 |
Filed: |
April 4, 2014 |
PCT Filed: |
April 4, 2014 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/IB2014/060437 |
371 Date: |
October 5, 2015 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
297/452.2 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47C 7/002 20130101;
A47C 3/04 20130101; A47C 5/04 20130101 |
International
Class: |
A47C 7/00 20060101
A47C007/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Apr 5, 2013 |
IT |
PD2013A000084 |
Claims
1-10. (canceled)
11. A metallic frame for chairs with tubular elements, comprising
two inverted V-shaped elements that form the legs of a chair, which
are parallel and joined substantially at their inside curvature to
a rod-like crossmember, two L-shaped elements connected by said
crossmember on which they are arranged in a parallel configuration
so as to form a support for the back and for the seat, respectively
with their first portions, which are substantially vertical, and
second portions, which are substantially horizontal.
12. The frame according to claim 11, wherein each one of said
inverted V-shaped elements has a first pair of raised portions
formed by a corresponding first recess of the cross-section
obtained from a plastic compression deformation at said inside
curvature.
13. The frame according to claim 11, wherein each one of said
L-shaped elements has a second pair of raised portions, formed by a
corresponding second recess of the cross-section obtained in a
downward region on said second portion and so as to correspond to
the region for joining to said crossmember by plastic compression
deformation.
14. The frame according to claim 11, wherein each one of said
L-shaped elements has an additional pair of raised portions formed
by a corresponding additional recess of the cross-section obtained
by plastic compression deformation at its curvature region.
15. The frame according to claim 11, wherein said crossmember is
rectilinear with an oval cross-section with parallel sides, joined
by semicircular elements, that form two parallel faces for said
crossmember.
16. The frame according to claim 12, wherein each one of said
inverted V-shaped elements is joined to said crossmember by welding
at regions of contact of said first pair of raised portions with
said crossmember.
17. The frame according to claim 13, wherein each one of said
L-shaped elements is joined to said crossmember by welding at at
least one raised portion of said second pair of raised
portions.
18. The frame according to claim 11, wherein each one of said
inverted V-shaped elements has a reinforcement recess on the inner
side of each one of two straight portions that form a front leg and
a rear leg of said frame.
19. The frame according to claim 18, wherein it can be stacked with
other similar frames, the possibility of stacking being determined
by the coupling of an internal surface of said rectilinear portion
of each front leg or rear leg of one frame with the outer surface
of a rectilinear portion of each front leg or rear leg of an
underlying frame.
20. The frame according to claim 11, wherein said front legs and
said rear legs form, with their four resting points at the base, a
resting area within which every point of the L-shaped elements
lies.
Description
[0001] The present invention relates to a metallic frame for chairs
with tubular elements.
[0002] Chairs with welded tubular elements are currently widespread
which are of the type comprising two inverted U-shaped elements
that form the legs, two L-shaped elements that form a support for
the back and the seat, and two horizontal and mutually parallel
rod-like crossmembers that join the inverted U-shaped elements and
the L-shaped elements.
[0003] These elements are often joined by gas welding with the
addition of material, and this entails rather long times to be
dedicated to the assembly of the chairs and the consumption of
added material for welding, as well as associated high costs.
[0004] A solution aiming at overcoming these drawbacks is proposed
with the teaching contained in WO02054913 in the name of this same
Applicant. This application proposes to replace welding with added
material with welding of the projection type, thus reducing
production costs and times in addition to reducing the weight of
the frame, facilitating therefore its movement and transport.
According to the teachings of the patent, the projection welding is
performed advantageously at pairs of raised portions formed by
recesses of the cross-section of the tubular elements.
[0005] However, since market demand for this kind of chair is
rather high, the number of components to be assembled affects
heavily the final production costs and the need is felt, therefore,
to reduce these costs further and to also reduce further the
production times, trying nonetheless to obtain a frame whose
solidity is comparable to the preceding ones.
[0006] This type of structure is also designed so that it can be
stacked easily for storage and transport on pallets.
[0007] The possibility of vertical stacking is achieved by
superimposing the frames and alternating them turned by 90.degree.
with respect to each other. Currently, the need is also felt to
increase the number of stacked chairs that can be transported,
i.e., to increase their total number that can be carried within the
same volume of a pallet in order to reduce the associated transport
costs.
[0008] Another drawback is due to the fact that the inverted
U-shaped elements, which constitute the legs of the chair for
resting the frame on the floor, due to their very shape and to the
distance between the front legs and the rear legs, are unable to
ensure stable resting even when the chair is in use, i.e., to
exclude the risk of tipping, because the back typically protrudes
from the rear part of the chair with respect to the rear legs.
[0009] The aim of the present invention is to provide a metallic
frame for chairs with tubular elements that is lighter than known
frames and therefore can be handled more easily by a user and, when
stacked with other identical frames, occupies with them a smaller
volume than known frames.
[0010] Within this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a
frame that is at least as solid as currently commercially available
frames and that in particular is not subject to tipping
problems.
[0011] Another object of the invention is to reduce the transport
costs of frames for chairs with tubular elements.
[0012] Another object of the invention is to obtain a chair that
has a different visual impact than known chairs.
[0013] This aim, as well as these and other objects which will
become more apparent hereinafter, are achieved by a metallic frame
for chairs with tubular elements, characterized in that it
comprises two inverted V-shaped elements that form the legs of a
chair, which are parallel and joined substantially at their inside
curvature to a rodlike crossmember, two L-shaped elements connected
by said crossmember on which they are arranged in a parallel
configuration so as to form a support for the back and for the
seat, respectively with their first portions, which are
substantially vertical, and second portions, which are
substantially horizontal.
[0014] Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will
become more apparent from the description of a preferred but not
exclusive embodiment of the frame according to the invention,
illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying
drawings, wherein:
[0015] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a frame according to the
invention;
[0016] FIG. 2 is an enlarged-scale view of a detail of the frame of
FIG. 1;
[0017] FIG. 3 is a view of a detail of a portion of an L-shaped
element;
[0018] FIG. 4 is an enlarged-scale view of a detail of a portion of
an inverted V-shaped element;
[0019] FIG. 5 is an enlarged-scale view of another detail of
another portion to of an inverted V-shaped element;
[0020] FIG. 6 is a side view of the frame according to the
invention;
[0021] FIG. 7 is a front view of the frame according to the
invention;
[0022] FIG. 8 is a top view of the frame according to the
invention;
[0023] FIG. 9 is a perspective view of two frames according to the
invention, stacked vertically according to a first stacking
method;
[0024] FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a column of frames
according to the invention, stacked vertically with a second
stacking method;
[0025] FIG. 11 is a top view of four columns of frames stacked
according to the method of FIG. 10.
[0026] With reference to the cited figures, the frame, generally
designated by the reference numeral 10, is formed by tubular
elements 11, the mutual association of which is provided by
welding.
[0027] The frame 10 as a whole is shown in FIG. 1. It comprises two
inverted V-shaped elements 12, which form the legs of the chair,
and two L-shaped elements 13, which form a support for the back and
the seat.
[0028] The two inverted V-shaped elements 12 are parallel and are
joined substantially at their inside curvature 14, shown in detail
in FIG. 4, to a rodlike crossmember 15. The L-shaped elements 13
are connected by the crossmember 15 and are joined to it again by
welding and are arranged thereon in a parallel configuration. In
particular, they form a support for the back with their first
portions 16, which are substantially vertical, and form a support
for the seat with their second portions 17, which are substantially
horizontal and mutually parallel.
[0029] FIG. 2 is an enlarged-scale view of the frame on the joining
regions of an inverted V-shaped element 12 and of an L-shaped
element to the crossmember 15.
[0030] Each one of the inverted V-shaped elements 12 has a first
pair of raised portions 18, at the inside curvature 14, which is
formed by a corresponding first recess 19 of the cross-section
obtained with a plastic compression deformation. Said first recess
19 is provided so that upon V-shaped bending the excess material
does not form wrinkles in the region of the inside curvature
14.
[0031] The first pair of raised portions 18 and the first recess 19
are visible in the enlarged-scale view of FIG. 4. Joining by
welding occurs in the regions of contact of the first pair of
raised portions 18 with the crossmember 15, which consist of at
least four points, but welding can extend, depending on the shape
of the inside curvature 14 and of the crossmember 15, up to one or
two parallel lines that correspond to the two raised portions.
[0032] Each one of the L-shaped elements 13 advantageously has a
second pair of raised portions 20, formed by a corresponding second
recess 21 on the lower side of the second portion 17 and so as to
correspond to the region for joining to the crossmember 15. The
second pair of raised portions 20 is also provided specifically by
plastic compression deformation and produces a localized contact
region at which welding with the crossmember 15 occurs.
[0033] Advantageously, each one of the L-shaped elements 13 also
has an additional pair of raised portions 22 at the curvature
region 23, which are formed by an additional recess 24 that is also
obtained by plastic compression deformation, again to prevent that,
as a consequence of the bending, the curvature region 23 of the
L-shaped element 13 has wrinkles caused by an excess of material in
the regions having a smaller radius.
[0034] The first portions 16 and the second portions 17 of the
L-shaped elements conveniently have a flattened cross-section, in
order to give the back and the seat a larger contact surface, and
it can be noted, in particular from the perspective view shown in
FIG. 1 and from the top view of FIG. 8, that the first supporting
portions 16 of the back are also rotated, adapting to the curvature
of the back to be associated with the frame in order to compose the
chair.
[0035] The crossmember 15 has an oval cross-section that can be
seen clearly in FIG. 5, with, in a sectional view, parallel sides
25, joined by semicircular elements 26, which form two parallel
faces of the same crossmember 15. Joining by welding with each one
of the inverted V-shaped elements 12 and with each one of the
L-shaped elements 13 occurs at the uppermost face of the two
parallel faces.
[0036] The L-shaped elements 13 are joined by welding along at
least one raised portion of the second pair of raised portions
20.
[0037] As can be seen in FIG. 1 and in particular in the front view
of FIG. 7, the crossmember 15 is substantially rectilinear and
therefore the welding of each one of the L-shaped elements 13
occurs at two parallel lines that are formed by the respective
second pair of raised portions 20, which are intended for contact
with the crossmember 15. However, if the crossmember 15 is not
rectilinear but has for example a curvature or a bend in a downward
direction that is contoured to the shape of the seat, the weld
might still be performed validly in the same regions or along a
single raised portion of the second pair of raised portions 20.
[0038] It should be noted that the oval cross-section of the
crossmember 15 allows welding the elements on larger regions of
contact than in the case of the crossmember with circular
cross-section as in known frames, making the weld more effective
and durable.
[0039] Conveniently, as can be seen in the enlarged-scale view of
FIG. 5, each inverted V-shaped element 12 has a reinforcement
recess 27 on the inner part of each one of the two rectilinear
portions 28 that form respectively a front leg 29 and a rear leg 30
of the chair.
[0040] The reinforcement recess 27, as is clearly visible, extends
practically along the entire length of the leg and becomes
gradually shallower in an upward direction. As shown in FIG. 9, in
the stacking of the frames 10 the internal surface of the
rectilinear portion 28 of each front leg 29a or rear leg 30a of a
frame 10a is coupled to the outer surface of the underlying leg,
respectively the front leg 29b or the rear leg 30b, of the
underlying frame 10b.
[0041] By way of non-limiting example, an angular aperture of the
inverted V-shaped elements 12 of approximately 52.degree. is to be
preferred; an angle of approximately 109.degree. between the first
portion 16 and the second portion 17 is instead to be preferred,
again merely by way of example, for the inclination of the L-shaped
elements 13.
[0042] With these solutions, the front legs 29 and the rear legs 30
of the frame 10 form, with their four resting points 33 at the
base, a resting area 34, shown in broken lines in FIG. 1, within
which every point of the L-shaped elements 13 lies.
[0043] Once the back is assembled, the back fitted on the L-shaped
elements 13 also is such that every point thereof lies within the
resting area 34. These refinements allow producing a chair that is
capable of passing any tipping prevention tests.
[0044] Each L-shaped element 13 is provided conveniently, at its
second portion 17, with a hole 31 for fixing the seat of the chair
by means of screws. The back can be associated easily with the
frame 10, for example by making it slide from above onto the two
first portions 16, so that they enter adapted guides in said
back.
[0045] The use of the frame according to the invention, in its
stacking with other similar structures, is as follows.
[0046] The frame 10 can be stacked according to two possible
stacking methods.
[0047] The first method is shown in FIG. 9 and the resulting
configuration is designated by the reference letter A to
distinguish it from a different configuration of stacked frames 10,
which can be obtained with a second method shown in the subsequent
FIGS. 10 and 11 and is designated here by the reference letter
B.
[0048] With the first stacking method, the frames 10 are
superimposed vertically on each other according to the same
orientation.
[0049] The inverted V-shaped elements 12 are inserted into each
other and the reinforcement recesses 27, which make the internal
surface of the rectilinear portion 28 of each front leg 29a or rear
leg 30a mate with the outer surface of the underlying leg,
respectively the front leg 29b or the rear leg 30b, ensure stable
and aligned stacking of the frames 10. With the second stacking
method, the frames 10, other than with the preceding method, are
superimposed vertically so that they are alternated with an
orientation of 90.degree. of one with respect to the following one.
The stability of the stack of frames 10 is determined by the
coupling of the internal surface of each front leg 29a or rear leg
30a of the frame 10a with the external surface of the underlying
leg, the front one 29b or the rear one 30b, which is the leg of the
frame 10b that is arranged with the same orientation and is spaced
from the upper frame 10a by an intermediate frame 10a that is
rotated by 90.degree..
[0050] By repeating the stacking for a larger number of frames 10,
one obtains the column 32 of frames 10 shown in FIG. 10.
[0051] By grouping four columns 32 of frames 10 stacked according
to the configuration B described above it is possible to fill a
pallet without wasting space, as shown in FIG. 11.
[0052] By way of example, it has been found that a pallet with
maximum external dimensions of 115 cm.times.110 cm.times.235 cm can
contain 56% more frames 10 than the traditional product.
[0053] It should be noted that with respect to known frames, since
the legs are formed by an inverted V-shaped element 12 with
flattened regions produced by reinforcement recesses 27 on the
internal part over the entire length of the legs 29 and 30, the
line of the frame 10 is slenderer, as can be seen in particular in
the side view of FIG. 6, and is aesthetically new with respect to
known chairs with U-shaped elements. At the same time, again thanks
to the reinforcement recesses 27, the frame 10 is also stronger and
the stacking possibility is improved.
[0054] Moreover, the presence of a single crossmember 15 having an
oval cross-section allows not only welding the components at larger
regions of contact than would be the case with a circular
cross-section, but also makes it possible to save material and to
obtain a frame that is lighter and therefore easier to handle and
transport than a frame provided with two crossmembers.
[0055] The difference in weight of course becomes more evident when
the frames are stacked and grouped in large numbers in pallets for
transport.
[0056] In practice it has been found that the invention achieves
the intended aim and objects, providing a metallic frame for chairs
with tubular elements that is lighter than known frames and
therefore can be handled more easily and allows reducing and
containing production times as well as production and transport
costs.
[0057] The cost reduction in fact arises from the smaller amount of
material to be used to provide the frame and from better
utilization of the volume of the pallet by insertion of a larger
number of frames therein.
[0058] Moreover, the frame is stable both when in use, provided
with a seat and a back, passing anti-tipping tests, and when
stacked with other identical frames, according to both
configurations A and B.
[0059] Moreover, the frame has a different visual impact than
traditional ones.
[0060] The invention thus conceived is susceptible of numerous
modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of
the appended claims; all the details may further be replaced with
other technically equivalent elements.
[0061] In practice, the materials used, so long as they are
compatible with the specific use, as well as the contingent shapes
and dimensions, may be any according to the requirements and the
state of the art.
[0062] The disclosures in Italian Patent Application no.
PD2013A000084, from which this application claims priority, are
incorporated herein by reference.
* * * * *