U.S. patent number 3,639,002 [Application Number 05/025,832] was granted by the patent office on 1972-02-01 for seat construction.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Gulf & Western Metals Forming Company. Invention is credited to Henry J. Tischler.
United States Patent |
3,639,002 |
Tischler |
February 1, 1972 |
SEAT CONSTRUCTION
Abstract
A seat construction comprising a frame including a base and a
back. Each of the base and back have a frame with spaced siderails
and a spring assembly mounted on the frame. Each spring assembly
comprises a plurality of longitudinally extending wires, a
plurality of transversely spaced wires having intermediate portions
extending between the spaced wires and free ends extending beyond
the longitudinally extending wires at an acute angle to the
intermediate portion. Each spring assembly further comprises a
longitudinal wire along each side edge connecting the free ends of
said transversely spaced wires. Each spring assembly is resiliently
supported on its respective frame.
Inventors: |
Tischler; Henry J. (Bloomfield
Hills, MI) |
Assignee: |
Gulf & Western Metals Forming
Company (Southfield, MI)
|
Family
ID: |
21828293 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/025,832 |
Filed: |
April 6, 1970 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
297/452.52;
297/DIG.1; 297/452.53 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47C
7/32 (20130101); A47C 7/20 (20130101); Y10S
297/02 (20130101); Y10S 297/01 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A47C
7/32 (20060101); A47C 7/02 (20060101); A47C
7/18 (20060101); A47C 7/20 (20060101); A47c
007/02 (); A47c 023/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;297/452,DIG.2
;5/254-267 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Gilliam; Paul R.
Claims
I claim:
1. In a seat construction, a spring assembly comprising
a pair of longitudinally extending wires,
a plurality of transversely extending spaced spring wires,
portions of said transversely extending spaced spring wires being
wound around said longitudinally extending wires to define an
intermediate portion extending between the spaced longitudinally
extending wires and connected thereto and free ends extending
beyond the longitudinally extending wires at an acute angle to the
intermediate portion,
an additional longitudinally extending wire connecting the free
ends of said transversely extending spring wires along each said
first-mentioned longitudinally extending wire.
2. The combination set forth in claim 1 including a covering on
said first-mentioned longitudinally extending wires.
3. The combination set forth in claim 27 wherein said covering
comprises paper.
4. The combination set forth in claim 1 including additional
longitudinal extending elements intermediate said first-mentioned
longitudinally extending elements and pierced by said spaced
wires.
5. The combination set forth in claim 1 including a border wire
connecting said second-mentioned longitudinally extending
wires.
6. In a seat construction, a spring assembly comprising
a pair of longitudinally extending wires,
a plurality of transversely extending spaced spring wires,
portions of said transversely extending spaced spring wires being
wound around said longitudinally extending wires to define an
intermediate portion extending between the spaced longitudinally
extending wires and connected thereto and free ends extending
beyond the longitudinally extending wires at an acute angle to the
intermediate portion,
an additional longitudinally extending wire connecting the free
ends of said transversely extending spring wires along each said
first-mentioned longitudinally extending wire,
a body of foam plastic material in which substantially the entire
spring assembly is embedded.
7. The combination set forth in claim 6 wherein said intermediate
portions of said spaced wires are substantially adjacent one
surface of said body.
8. The combination set forth in claim 6 including a frame on which
said body is supported.
9. The combination set forth in claim 8 including means for
supporting said spring assembly resiliently on said frame.
10. The combination set forth in claim 9 wherein said
last-mentioned means comprises sinuous wire elements at
longitudinally spaced points upon said frame,
said sinuous wire elements comprising load members and torsion bars
connected to one another in sinuous fashion,
one end of each said sinuous wire element being connected to said
frame and the other end being connected to one of said
first-mentioned longitudinally extending wires.
11. The combination set forth in claim 10 wherein said sinuous wire
elements comprise straight load bars and straight torsion bars.
12. The combination set forth in claim 8 including a covering on
said first-mentioned longitudinally extending wires.
13. The combination set forth in claim 8 including additional
longitudinally extending elements intermediate said first-mentioned
longitudinally extending elements and pierced by said spaced
wires.
14. The combination set forth in claim 8 including a border wire
connecting said second-mentioned longitudinally extending wires.
Description
This invention relates to seat construction and particularly to
spring seat construction.
Conventional types of seat construction comprise coiled springs,
sinuous springs, combinations of coiled and sinuous springs and the
like.
Among the objects of the invention are to provide a novel seat
construction which utilizes longitudinally and transversely
extending straight wires connected to form a spring assembly which
is resiliently mounted on a frame, which seat construction is
thinner than conventional constructions and yet at the same time
produces the same luxurious feel on the occupant; which can be
produced at low cost; which eliminates parts and which can be
readily adjusted to produce varying degrees of resiliency and
support.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A seat construction comprising a frame including a base and back.
Each of the base and back have a frame with spaced siderails and a
spring assembly mounted on the frame. Each spring assembly
comprises a plurality of longitudinally extending wires, a
plurality of transversely spaced wires having intermediate portions
extending between the spaced wires and free ends extending beyond
the longitudinally extending wires at an acute angle to the
intermediate portion. Each spring assembly further comprises a
longitudinal wire along each side edge connecting the free ends of
said transversely spaced wires. Each spring assembly is resiliently
supported on its respective frame by sinuous spring elements.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG 1 is a side elevational view of a seat embodying the
invention.
FIG. 2 is a part sectional plan view of the seat base, parts being
broken away.
FIG. 2A is sectional view of the intermediate wire connection.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3--3 in FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along in line 4--4 in
FIG. 2.
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along line 5--5 in
FIG. 2, parts being broken away.
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a portion of the
seat shown in FIG. 5.
FIG. 7 is a plan view of a spring element utilized in the seat
showing the element prior to being bent to the final form.
FIG. 8 is a fragmentary front elevational view of the seat back
portion of the seat, parts being broken away.
FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along the line 9--9 in FIG. 8.
FIG. 10 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 10--10
in FIG. 8.
FIG. 11 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 11--11
in FIG. 8.
FIG. 12 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 12--12
in FIG. 11.
FIG. 13 is a plan view of a spring element utilized in the seat
prior to its being bent in final form.
FIG. 14 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 14--14
in FIG. 8.
DESCRIPTION
Referring to FIG. 1, the seat embodying the invention comprises a
seat base 10 and a seat back 11 that may be fixed or pivoted
relative to one another by appropriately mounting their frames in
accordance with well-known construction.
Each of the seat base 10 and seat back 11 is of generally similar
construction.
Referring to FIG. 3, the seat base 10 comprises a frame 11
including spaced siderails 13. The seat back 10 further comprises a
spring assembly 14 that is resiliently mounted on the rails 13 by
sinuous spring elements 15, as presently described (FIGS. 2 and
3).
Spring assembly 14 comprises spaced longitudinally extending wires
16 of oil-tempered steel having a paper wrapping 17 and spaced
transversely extending wires 18 of oil-tempered steel. Wires 18
include intermediate portions 19, the ends of which are wound
around the wires 16 (FIG. 2A) and extend in a free manner as at 20
at an acute angle to the general plane of the intermediate portions
19 (FIG. 3). The free ends of portions 20 are attached by a single
loop about additional longitudinally spaced wires 21 of paper cord
or the like.
The spring elements 15 comprise a plurality of rectangular loops
forming one or more V-shaped sections and have varying
configurations at their longitudinally spaced connection to the
intermediate wires 16. Thus the elements 15a at the middle of the
seat have the configuration such as in FIG. 3 comprising
rectangularly shaped loops including a first loop 22 that is hooked
into a clip 23 on the frame rail 13, a second loop 24 extending
upwardly and inwardly, a generally horizontal third loop 25, an
upwardly and outwardly inclined fourth loop 26, an inwardly and
upwardly inclined fifth loop 27, and an upwardly and outwardly
inclined sixth loop 28. A U-shaped clip 29 is provided on the end
of the spring element 15a and extends generally vertically with its
plane at a right angle to the plane of the loop 28 to engage the
wires 16. The sinuous spring element 15a thus comprises four
generally V-shaped portions, one of which forms an obtuse angle as
at 30, the others of which form acute angles as at 31, 32.
The sinuous element 15b at the front end of the seat is shown in
FIG. 4 and is generally similar and includes a first horizontal
loop 33, a second upwardly and inwardly inclined loop 34, a third
upwardly and outwardly inclined loop 35, a fourth upwardly and
inwardly inclined loop 36, and a fifth generally horizontal loop 37
having a clip 38 thereon for engaging the wire 16. This spring
element thus forms three V-shaped portions 39, 40, 41, each of
which defines an acute angle.
The spring element 15c at the rear end of the seat base is similar
except that it comprises a lesser number of loops as shown in FIG.
5 and 6 including a first loop 42, a second upwardly and outwardly
inclined loop 43, a third generally horizontal loop 44 having the
clip 45 thereon engaging the wire 16.
The spring element 15c is made of a single piece of wire such as
shown in FIG. 7 which is formed into generally rectangular loops
including transverse torsion bars 46, 47, 48 and 49 connected by
longitudinally extending bars including a curved bar 50, straight
bars 51, 52, and a U-shaped portion defining the clip 45. The
sinuous element is bent to proper shape by twisting about
transverse bars 47, 48 and 49 as well as about a connecting bar 52
that connects the loop 45 with the transverse bar 49. The
arrangement is adapted to hook onto an inclined portion 54 of the
base rail 13 as shown in FIG. 6 to connect to the wire 16.
The construction of the seat back 11 is similar to that of the seat
base 10 and is shown in FIGS. 8-14. Referring to FIG. 8, the seat
back 11 includes a frame 59 having spaced siderails 60, a spring
assembly 61 which is resiliently supported on the rails 60 by a
plurality of longitudinally spaced sinuous springs 62.
As in the previous form of the invention, the spring assembly 61
comprises a plurality of spaced longitudinally extending
oil-tempered steel wires 63 that are wrapped with paper 64 and a
plurality of closely spaced tranversely extending oil-tempered
steel wires 65, each of which comprises an intermediate portion 66.
The wires 65 are wrapped around the wires 63 and have free ends 67
extending upwardly and outwardly to form an acute angle with the
general plane of the intermediate portions as shown in FIG. 9.
Spring assembly 61 further includes a wire-wrapped longitudinally
extending intermediate wire 68, the paper of which is pierced by
the wires 65, and paper wire elements 69 about which the ends of
the free portions 67 are looped.
Each of the sinuous elements 62 is of varying configurations
depending upon the degree of resiliency and distance that the
portion of the spring assembly is to be mounted with respect to the
frame. As shown in FIG. 9, the spring element 62a at the
intermediate portion of the seat comprise a first loop 70 that has
a transverse bar 71 that clips through a retaining clip 72, a
second loop 73 forming an obtuse angle with the loop 70, a third
loop 74 extending outwardly and away from the frame and forming an
acute angle with the loop 73, a fourth loop 75 forming an angle
with the loop 74 and also extending outwardly, and a clip 76
forming a right angle to the plane of the loop 75 and engaging the
wire 61.
As shown in FIG. 11, the sinuous element at the base of the seat
back is generally similar and comprises a first loop 78, a second
loop 79 extending outwardly away from the frame and inwardly with
respect to the seat and at an obtuse angle to the loop 78, third,
fourth and fifth loops 80, 81 and 82 lying in the same general
plane and extending outwardly and away from the frame, and a clip
83 engaging the wire 63. The sinuous elements are made of generally
rectangular loops. Thus, for example, the sinuous element shown in
FIGS. 11, 12 and 13 comprises a single wire including transverse
bars 84, 85, 86, 87, 88 and 89 connected by a curved longitudinal
wire 90, straight longitudinal bars 91, 92, 93 and 94,
respectively. The clip 83 is connected to the transverse bar
89.
In each of the forms of the invention, the foam material may be
cast about the spring assemblies with the free portions entirely
embedded in the foam material, the outer configuration of the foam
material simulating the final shape of the seat.
By varying the inclination of the free portions of the transverse
wires with respect to the intermediate portions, a varying shape
and feel may be provided to the seat back and seat base. Similarly,
by varying the configuration of the sinuous elements, varying
degrees of resiliency may be achieved.
As shown in FIG. 8, a portion of the spring assembly includes wire
elements 66' which terminate at the wire 63 and extend upwardly to
form a support for the foam material which serves as a headrest
formed integrally with the seat. It should be understood that
upholstery material or trim is provided overlying the foam material
in accordance with well-known practice.
* * * * *