Back-suspended Cantilever Seat

Abstract

A longitudinal wall-supported cantilever seat has vertical posts anchored to a vehicle wall and seat-supporting arms carried by the posts and braced by diagonal struts, the arms supporting a tubular frame carrying a plastic shell seat.

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

In a conventional passenger vehicle, the legs and pedestals supporting the passenger seats make it difficult to clean the vehicle in a short time while also interfering with the feet of passengers and making it difficult to store luggage and articles. At the same time it is clear that any attempt to suspend seats upon a vehicle wall presents a problem because of the stresses applied to the seat from different angles during use. I have discovered that a cantilever seat of the longitudinal type can be successfully suspended and one which will resist stresses imposed upon the corners and other areas of the seat by securing posts to the wall of the vehicle and bracing forwardly extending arms carried by the posts in a manner described hereinafter. The structure also includes a tubular frame for carrying a plastic shell upon the support arms of the frame. With this structure, a speedy cleaning of the car can be made with a gang-type sweeper or other sweeper device and a free space is provided below the longitudinal seat for the comfort of passengers, while also providing luggage stowing space, etc.

DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings,

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a three-passenger seat suspended upon a wall;

FIG. 2, a perspective view of the seat-supporting frame with the plastic shell removed;

FIG. 3, a rear perspective view of the seat portion of the chair showing the metal frame under the plastic shell;

FIG. 4, a rear perspective view of the seat frame; and

FIG. 5, a sectional view of the chair unit showing the manner in which it is attached to a vehicle wall and the relation of the frame and plastic parts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In general, a longitudinal support frame is anchored upon a vehicle wall with its rear or backside resting against the wall, and in this structure vertical support posts are secured to the wall, the posts carrying horizontal seat-supporting arms extending forwardly therefrom. A seat is carried by the arms and a diagonal strut extends from an upward portion of each post and is connected to the seat arm therebelow forwardly of the post. Also, an upwardly extending strut extends from a lower end portion of each post to the arm thereabove.

Referring to the drawings, a cantilever-type longitudinal seat 10 is attached to the wall 11 behind it and needs no other support. The chair unit or seat 10 consists of a lower-supporting frame unit 12 and an upper seat unit 13. The lower-supporting unit 12 consists of a metal frame 14 encased in a one-piece plastic shell 15.

The metal frame 14 has a right end structure 16 and a left end structure 17. Each has a square vertical tube or post 18 which attaches to the wall with an upper bolt 19 and a lower bolt 20, a horizontal square tube 21 which supports the seat unit 13, an upper diagonal brace 22 forming a triangle for strength, a lower diagonal brace 23 also forming a triangle, and an attachment angle 24 through which a bolt 25 passes to attach the seat unit 13. A second and longer bolt 26 passes through the horizontal square tube 21 to attach the seat unit. A bracket 27 is provided for holding the ends of the plastic shell 15 with a rivet 28.

The two structures 16 and 17 are held together by a round stretcher tube or member 29 and a square stretcher tube 30, and the plastic shell is attached to the square tube in several places with rivets 31.

There are openings in the plastic shell below the four bolts which attach the seat to the base to allow a ready entrance of the bolts for attachment, and such openings may be closed with plastic plug caps 32.

The upper seat unit 13 has a single piece plastic shell 34 concealing the metal seat frame 35. Frame 35 consists of a horizontally positioned square front stretcher tube 36, round right end tube 37, and round left end tube 38. There is also a rear stretcher tube 39, a top stretcher tube 40, and a center tube 41 which attaches to the top tube and rear tube and then turns to attach to the center of the front stretcher. Several shell support angles 42 along the top stretcher provide attachment to the shell upper edge 43 with rivets 44. A suspended tongue 45 at the upper end of the center tube provides attachment to the wall 11 by means of a metal strap (not shown). There are two projections 46 and 47 from the underside of the top stretcher 40 which fit snugly into the upper ends of the hollow posts or tubes 18 of the right and left end structures 16 and 17 respectively. There are two-rear plates 48 attached to the bottom side of the rear stretcher to receive bolts 25 and two-front plates 49 attached to the bottom of the front stretcher to receive the long bolts 26.

Shell-stabilizing tubes 50 and 51 are attached to the right and left end tubes 37 and 38 respectively and to which the shell sides are riveted at 52, and support tubes 53 and 54 add stiffness to the stabilizing tubes. Several support angles 55 are provided to support the front edge of the shell and are cemented to the underside of the edge of the shell. The shell is a smooth plastic body that can be quickly cleaned and there are no rivets exposed along the front edge of the seat that might snag clothing, etc.

While in the foregoing specification I have set out specific structure in considerable detail for the purpose of illustrating the invention, it will be understood that such details may be varied widely by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Claims

I claim:

1. A cantilever seat adapted to be suspended from the backside thereof upon a vehicle wall, comprising vertical posts in spaced relation, stretcher means connecting said posts, means for anchoring said posts upon a vehicle wall, arms carried by said post at an intermediate position on said posts and projecting forwardly in a generally horizontal plane, a seat structure carried by said arms, a diagonal strut on each post connecting an upper portion of said post and an intermediate portion of the arm below, and a second strut connecting a portion of each post extending below the arm with an intermediate portion of the arm above whereby said arm is held between portions of said post above and below the point of junction of said arm and posts.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which said post is provided with means for anchoring said post to said wall at a point between said struts.

3. The structure of claim 2 in which said stretcher connects the lower ends of said posts below said arms and below said anchoring means.

4. The structure of claim 1 in which a tubular seat support carries said seat and is secured to said support frame.

5. The structure of claim 1 in which said posts are hollow at their upper ends and said tubular support is provided with depending projections extending into said posts.

6. The structure of claim 4 in which said seat is a plastic shell carried by said tubular seat support.

7. The structure of claim 4 in which said tubular seat support is provided at its lower sides with rearwardly extending braces for supporting the rear sides of said shell.