AU617249B2 - An article of furniture - Google Patents

Description

JUJ JI CL "i 6 17 2 4 s 9 Ref: 89283 FORM 10 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

FOR OFFICE USE: Class Int. Class Application Number: Lodged: PJ3928 27 April 1989 Accepted: Published: Priority: Related Art: Name and Address of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Sebel Furniture Limited 96 Canterbury Road Bankstown New South Waies 2200

AUSTRALIA

Denise Sheridan Spruson Ferguson, Patent Attorneys, Level 33 St Martins Tower, 31 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia Complete Specification for the invention entitled: An Article of Furniture The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us 8 5 4478 15049 5815/2 -2- The present invention relates to moulded plastic arm chairs and, in particular, to a stacking mechanism for such chairs.

Moulded plastic arm chairs which are stackable are well known, US patent No.4,341,419 being representative of such art.

In such arm chairs, the surface of the seat is swept upwardly on either side of the seat so as to form a support for the arm rests, the upper end of the supports being flared outwardly so as to provide the arm rest surface. The supports for the arm rests are inclined outwardly by a few degrees relative to the vertical so that an upper chair can be stacked within, and above, a lower chair.

It is highly desirable with any such stackable object to ensure that the upwardly facing surfaces of the lower object, do not press up against the downwardly facing surfaces of the upper object, particularly to an extent sufficient to substantially exclude air from between the two objects. Should this occur, it is extremely difficult for the stacked objects to be separated. This phenomenon is often experienced with moulded plastic drinking cups, for example.

Furthermore, with chairs it is necessary to maintain a sufficient spacing, termed the stacking height, between adjacent chairs in order to enable the fingers of a person to be inserted below the arm rest of the, say, uppermost chair in order that this chair can be lifted from the stack of chairs. If this is not provided it becomes awkward to separate the chairs. Also if an adequate stacking height is not provided it is possible to pinch the fingers of a person stacking the chairs.

Hitherto it has been usual to determine the stacking height by the provision of small webs or ribs on the lower surface of the seat of the upper chair which then bear on the upper surface of the seat of the lower chair. Under this arrangement, the arm rests, and the arm rest support are essentially unengaged. However, this arrangement has the disadvantage that the arm rest supports of the lowermost chairs in a stack may tend to distort outwardly under the load of the upper chairs and thereby cause interference, difficulty in separating the chairs, scuffing, and other like problems.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved stacking mechanism which will enable such moulded plastic arm chairs to be stacked.

gl/12o -3- According to one aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a stacking mechanism for like arm chairs moulded from plastics, each said arm chair comprising a pair of arm rests, each arm rest being supported by a support inclined outwardly relative to the vertical, the outer surface of each support of an upper one of said chairs being arranged to rest within the inner surface of the corresponding support of a lower one of said chairs whereby said upper and lower chairs can be stacked, said stacking mechanism comprising at least one elongate protrusion formed in the outer surface of each said support and being raked relative to the generally vertical stacking direction whereby when said chairs are stacked each said protrusion of the upper chairs bears on the inner surface of the lower chair to determine the stacking height. Preferably the protrusion takes the form of a displacement whereby a corresponding groove is formed in said support inner surface.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the moulded plastic arm chair of the preferred embodiment, and also illustrating an accompanying foot stool, Fig. 2 is a side elevation of three of the arm chairs illustrated in Fig. 1 stacked one upon the other, and Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of the chairs of Fig. 2 taken along the line III-III of Fig. 2.

As seen in the drawings, the arm chair 1 of the preferred embodiment is provided with a pair of front legs 2, a pair of rear legs 3, a seat 4 and a back rest 5. Each rear leg 3 is formed with an outwardly directed channel 6 having an interior step 7 adjacent the lower end of the leg 3.

As best seen in Figs. 1 and 3, the seat 2 is swept upwardly on each side in order to form a support 9 for an arm rest 10 which is itself formed from curving the support 9 into a generally horizontal position. Formed in each of these supports 9 are three grooves 11 which are raked so that the upper ends of the grooves 11 extend forwardly and the lower ends of the grooves 11 extend rearwardly.

As best seen in Fig. 3, the grooves 11 are formed by displacing the side wall thickness of the support 9 thereby forming the groove 11 in the inwardly facing surface 12 of the support 9 whilst the outwardly facing surface 13 has an elongated protrusion 14 formed therein.

gl/12o -4- It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the protrusions 14 on the upper support 9 at their lower ends engage the inwardly facing surfaces 12 of the lower support 9 just where the lower support 9 merges into the arm rest 10. In this way, by adjusting the position of the grooves 11, the stacking height of the arm chairs 1 can be determined.

It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that because the protrusions 14 are raked, the lower end of any given protrusion 14 does not lie immediately above the upper end of the corresponding groove 11 of the chair below. Thus the protrusions 14 actually bear on the inwardly facing surfaces 12 rather than bear on the grooves 11 of the chair below.

V It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that it is not necessary in order to form the protrusions 14 that the grooves 11 be V formed in the support 9. Rather, the protrusions 14 could simply be formed on the outwardly facing surfaces 13 of the supports 9. In this way the wall thickness of the support would be increased at the location of the protrusions.

However, the above described arrangement enables an aesthetically pleasing appearance to be achieved by making a feature out of what would be otherwise a purely functional arrangement.

As seen in Fig. 2, the stacking direction of the chairs 1 approaches, but does not reach, the vertical. This is because the front legs 2 of each upper chair lie in front of, as well as above, the front legs 2 of the immediately lower chair. In addition, it will also be appreciated that the V interior step 7 of each of the rear legs 3 provides a further stacking height regulator by abutting with the lower end of the corresponding rear leg 3 of the arm chair 1 above. This is best seen in Fig. 2.

The foregoing describes only one embodiment of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the art, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention.

gl/12o

Claims (9)

1. A stacking mechanism for like arm chairs moulded from plastics, each said arm chair comprising a pair of arm rests, each arm rest being supported by a support inclined outwardly relative to the vertical, the outer surface of each support of an upper one of said chairs being arranged to rest within the inner surface of the corresponding support of a lower one of said chairs whereby said upper and lower chairs can be stacked, said V stacking mechanism comprising at least one elongate protrusion formed in the outer surface of each said support and being raked relative to the generally vertical stacking direction whereby when said chairs are stacked each said protrusion of the upper chairs bears on the inner surface of the lower chair to determine the stacking height.

2. A mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein each said protrusion takes the form of a portion of increased wall thickness in said arm rest supports.

3. A mechanism as claimed in claim I wherein each said protrusion is formed by displacing the wall thickness of said arm rest supports thereby forming a corresponding groove in the inner surface of said arm rest supports.

4. A mechanism as claimed in claim any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein each said protrusion is of substantially equal length.

A mechanism as claimed in claim 4 wherein each said protrusion extends between said seat and the corresponding arm rest.

6. A mechanism as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein each said protrusion is raked so that its lower end is inclined rearwardly.

7. A mechanism as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein each rear leg of each said arm chair is provided with an outwardly directed channel which receives the corresponding rear leg of an upper like chair stacked above it, each said channel being provided with an interior step with which the lower end of said upper chair rear leg abuts.

8. A stacking mechanism substantially as described with reference to the drawings.

9. A stacking armchair substantially as described with reference to the drawings. gl/12o -6- DATED this TWENTY THIRD day of AUGUST 1991 Sebel Furniture Limited Patent Attorneys for the Applicant SPRUSON FERGUSON