EP0710458A1

EP0710458A1 - Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general

Info

Publication number: EP0710458A1
Application number: EP95500150A
Authority: EP
Inventors: José Anchuela del Pozo
Original assignee: Fabricas Lucia Antonio Betere SA FLABESA
Current assignee: Fabricas Lucia Antonio Betere SA FLABESA
Priority date: 1994-11-04
Filing date: 1995-11-03
Publication date: 1996-05-08
Also published as: ES2087037A1; ES2087037B1

Abstract

They consist in relating each container (1), of the sort which can be placed under the base (3) of a mattress, to the legs (2) of the said base and being capable of tilting horizontally, each leg (2) acting as and solely as a spin axis, since both the weight of each container (1) and the weight of its contents rest directly upon the floor by means of a series of rolling supports (4), in a manner such that the container or the containers (1), formed in the rear half of the base (3), can be reached both via one of the sides of the bed and via the area defined at the foot of the bed. The containers (1) will be provided with handles (14) to permit them to be drawn and one of their front sides (16) may optionally be made lowerable, whilst, also optionally, the containers may be equipped with upper lids (26), also hinge-connected to the corresponding legs (2), and which may be used both as a means for closing the containers (1) and as auxiliary tables.

Description

SUBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a series of improvements made to the conventional systems for concealable object holders, as used under the bases of mattresses, these improvements being basically directed to permit the user to achieve easier handling of these object holder systems and to obtain another series of complementary advantages which will be made obvious all along the present description.

Although these improvements have been especially conceived to be used in the field of mattress bases, such improvements can obviously be applied to furniture in general, if and when similar circumstances arise.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The classical spring mattresses have been replaced, in a practically definitive manner, by rigid mattress bases, generally embodied as rectangular platforms equipped with support legs in correspondence with their vertices or corners, in a manner such that under this base or platform there is an ample space, with constant volume as it is not affected by the classical deformations of the spring mattress, which can be used as an area for storing objects of a different kind and which may range from bed linen to whatever object, as desired.

There are two conventionallv basic solutions for making suitable use of this space, the former being configured as a drawer of dimensions equal to those of the bed itself and having a tilting upper lid embodied as the very base for the mattress, this first solution offers optimum advantages from a storage capacity viewpoint, but it also gives rise, as a drawback and basic problem therein, to extraordinary handling difficulties as it is made necessary to lift both the base and the mattress in order to reach the inside of the receptacle.

The latter solution, of a more rational nature, consists in establishing guides over the lower side of the mattress base through which, and via a track, travel or slide the drawers which configure the storage receptacles, but this solution gives rise, in turn, to wide-ranging and varied problems which are basically focused on the following aspects:

Access to the drawers is made possible exclusively via one of the sides of the bed, which, sometimes and in practice, is not the most suitable way of doing it.
Excessive loading of the said drawers may cause them to unhook, as a consequence of the partial or total loosening of some of their guides.
Implementation of this storage system to the already existing mattress bases gives rise to a series of problems.
The possibility of bringing the system into general use is not available as it cannot be applied to every sort of mattress bases.
The drawers also happen to be very inconvenient to use, as they remain levelled with the side edges of the mattress base, thus preventing the users from approaching the said base.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The improvements put forward in the present invention fully satisfactorily solve the problems set forth above, i.e. for all and each of the aspects previously discussed.

To this end and more specifically, the essence of the improvements advocated is based on the fact that each container, of the sort which can be placed under a mattress base, is fastened to one of the legs of the base and is capable of tilting horizontally, said leg acting as a spin axis. In exactly the same manner in which the container or containers relate to the support legs of the mattress base, the said containers can also be fitted with spin axes which are not configured as support legs for the base.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, the container unloads its weight and indeed the weight of its contents directly upon the floor via rolling or floating supports, the said leg acting exclusively as a spin axis to permit horizontal tilting of the container.

In accordance with what has been set forth above, it is possible to place, under a mattress base, one, two, three or four containers having characteristic form and arrangements as desired and which, as a whole, will occupy the maximum space available, each one of these containers being fastened to one of the legs of the base or to one of the spin axes, as selected, and capable of tilting on either direction, i.e. in order to make access to the outside through either side of the bed in question, except for the case in which there exists only one container, having dimensions next to those of the mattress base, in which case, as is obvious, the said container can only emerge to the outside through the face or side defined between the two legs situated the farthest possible from each other.

In accordance with another characteristic of the invention and to the end of making the best possible use of the available space, each of these containers is provided with an area, established in correspondence with the vertical edge for coupling to the leg, where the legs acting both as a support and a spin axis for the containers are housed, this area being penetrated by the said leg and having one or a series of orifices to permit passage thereof.

Although the said leg could act freely inside the orifice available in the container, especially if constructed in a cylindrical form, provision has been made for the practical cooperation of an intermediate socket with the aforesaid elements in an aim to achieve universal coupling, so that by using different types of sockets the same container may, in turn, be coupled to different types of legs or spin axes, independent from the legs, to which effect the socket will have a perimetric throat for coupling to the orifice existing in the container plate, this socket also having constant form and dimensions and an internal orifice suitable for each type of leg and which can also be cylindrical, in different diameters, quadrangular, rectangular, etc.

The containers are provided with handles, in an aim to make their handling easy, which may be embodied as simple orifices made operationally in the outer walls of the container or be embodied as complementary attachments suitably linked to the said walls.

In this latter case, i.e. in the case of using complementary attachments, these can be attached to the containers with a view to being detachable, which permits them to be interchangeable at one side or another for handling or making access to the containers.

Optionally, and in line with this same idea of making handling easy, some of the front sides in some of the containers may be lowered in order to facilitate loading and unloading thereof, to this end the lowerable face or wall will be hinge-mounted at the level of its lower edge and having locking means of any conventional type, such as, for example, locking bolts placed in a vertical position.

The floating or rolling supports, through which each container directly unloads its weight upon the floor, may be of any conventional type, such as, for example, self-steerable wheels, but they will preferably be configured inside a housing having a constricted mouth for the ball, which constitutes the rolling element itself and rests on the end of the housing, by means of pointwise supports, and slightly emerges through its mouth so as to be supported on the floor, this latter arrangement permits approaching the base of the container to the floor, which results in greater height for the container and, consequently, greater loading capacity. For certain floors and for certain applications floating container supports may be provided, configured as protuberances which will act as supporting elements for the said containers.

If the containers were fitted with classical wheels, attention should be paid to the limitation set by the fact that the container will not reach the height required to approach the support base, this loss in height being equivalent to the height of the rolling assembly.

Provision has also been made, this being another characteristic of the invention, for the said containers to be fitted with corresponding lids which are also hinge-connected to their corresponding legs and may or may not formally and dimensionally coincide with the leading edges of the corresponding containers.

Specific mention must be made to the fact that the way in which each lid is hinge-connected to its corresponding leg or spin axis, regardless of the equally corresponding container, permits some of these lids to be unfolded, independently from the containers, and so be used as, for example, bedside tables, auxiliary tables, etc.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To supplement the description being given and in order to assist better comprehension of the characteristics of the invention, the present specification is accompanied, as an integral part thereof, by a set of drawings which, in an illustrative and non-limiting manner, show the following:

Figure 1 shows a diagrammatical perspective view of a mattress base provided with two concealable object-holding containers constructed in accordance with the improvements which are the subject of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows an enlarged detail, also viewed in perspective, of one of the containers of the previous figure, duly coupled to the corresponding leg for the mattress base.

Figure 3 shows a perspective view, similar to that view of Figure 1, in which, by means of dotted lines and arrows, the possible ways of tilting or opening the containers are being illustrated.

Figure 4 shows a perspective view, similar to that of figure 3, but in accordance with a practical construction in which the mattress base has only one container.

Figure 5 shows, in accordance with a diagrammatical plan view, some of the many feasible practical constructions for the various containers which can be established under a mattress base, also in accordance with the improvements set forth in the present invention.

Figure 6 shows a detail in perspective and in part section of one of the sockets by means of which a container is coupled to the corresponding leg of the mattress base which, in this particular case, happens to be a quadrangular leg.

Figure 7 shows a detail in elevation and in section of one of the rolling supports through which the containers rest upon the floor.

Figure 8 shows, in accordance with a view similar to that of Figure 7, one of the various feasible construction alternatives for the said rolling support.

Figure 9 shows, in accordance with a diagrammatical plan view, one of the many ways in which the rolling supports can be distributed over the base of each container.

Figure 10 shows a diagrammatical perspective view of a container provided with a lowerable front end.

Figure 11 shows a partial detaching, in perspective view, of one mattress base and one of the containers being coupled thereto, this being a case in which the said container is fitted with a lid.

Figure 12 shows, also in accordance with a perspective view, the same assembly of the previous figure, but duly mounted according to a practical construction in which the lid can also be used as an auxiliary table.

Figure 13 shows, lastly, a diagrammatical plan view of an assembly similar to the assembly of Figure 12, but illustrating a practical construction in which the dimensions of the lid configured as an auxiliary table do not coincide with the dimensions of the container being coupled thereto.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Viewing these figures and, more specifically, Figure 1, it is possible to see how the improvements advocated are mainly based on the fact that each container (1) is secured to one of the legs (2) or spin axes, established to that end in the base (3) of a mattress or a bed, so that the said leg (2) or axis acts to permit the horizontal tilting of the said container (1), these containers (1) resting directly upon the floor by means of rolling supports (4) or floating supports suitably distributed over their bottom or base.

Such as appears from Figure 5, it is possible to place under the same mattress base (3) one, two, three or four containers which may have the same or different shape, adopt different positions, and make partial or full use of the available space, as a function of what practical experience makes more advisable. In any case, the side of the containers (1) opposite to the linking leg (2) must have a rounded configuration, so that the containers do not interfere with each other whilst performing their normal tilting actions, nor do they interfere with the legs (2) of the base (3) which are independent from the container (1) but placed next to it.

To the end of making the best possible use of the available space, each container (1) is provided with an area which, defined in correspondence with its edge for hinge-connecting the corresponding leg (2), is capable of housing the said leg (2) therein and can be embodied as a horizontal plate (6), situated at the level of the leading edge (7) of the container (1) and provided with an orifice (8) through which the leg (2) passes in order to achieve coupling of the container with the mattress base.

This coupling of the container (1) with the leg (2) can be achieved by simply introducing the said leg (2) inside the orifice (8) incorporated in the plate (6), but this coupling will preferably be achieved with the aid of a socket (9) having a perimetric throat (10), formally and dimensionally made to match the orifice (8) through which the said socket (9) is coupled to the plate (6), to this end the socket (9) will be provided with a plurality of elastically deformable dies (11) which, with the aid of an inclined plane (12), will facilitate the pressurized axial coupling of the socket (9), this socket having, in any case, a central orifice (1) which, in turn, is made to formally and dimensionally match the leg (2) and, according to the example of practical embodiment shown in Figure 6, has a quadrangular section as it is assigned to a mattress base (3) provided with prismatic-quadrangular legs, there must exist different types of sockets (9) in order to permit assembly of the same containers (1) over any type of mattress bases (3).

In order to make handling easy, the containers will be provided with handles (14) which can be configured as simple orifices (14), suitably and operationally made in the outer walls of the containers (1), as notches (14') intended to establish access for short extensions (15) of said outer walls, or as complementary attachments, not being shown in any of the accompanying figures, linked to the containers in a detachable manner in order to permit them to be interchangeable.

In line with this same idea of making handling of the containers (1) easy, provision has been made for the containers to have, as shown in Figure 10, a lowerable front side (16) which is hinge-mounted on the base of the container, at the level of its lower edge (17), and has side locking bolts (18) or any other conventional locking means situated in a vertical or operational position.

With regard to the rolling supports (4), these will be of any conventional type, such as, for example, self-steerable wheels, but, as shown in Figure 7, they will preferably be configured inside housings (19) having a constricted mouth (20) and intended to house corresponding balls or spherical elements (21) which slightly emerge from the said mouth (20) and are accurately supported on protuberances (22) shaped as spherical caps existing at the bottom of the said housing (19). However, as shown in Figure 8, each of these rolling supports (4) may be embodied as a sphere (21) which partially emerges through an orifice (23) made operationally at the bottom (24) of the container (1) and is held at its top by a half clamp suitably fastened to said bottom surface. By means of this preferred and non-limiting embodiment, it is possible to obtain a container capable of approaching its bottom to the support base or footing, thus achieving greater loading capacity.

Although this system for rolling and supporting the containers has already been illustrated, it is also possible to apply a sliding system embodied as sliding protuberances mounted on the support base for the containers, this configuration may be adequate for use in connection with certain type of sliding surfaces or surfaces with different finishing characteristics.

Both the number and the distribution of the rolling supports (4) will vary, as a function of the size and configuration given to each container (1), the structure being shown in Figure 9 is given by way of example.

Lastly, it is also possible for each container (1) to be fitted with a lid (26) which is hinge-connected to the same leg (2) of the mattress base (3) as is the container (1), this lid being provided with its corresponding orifice (27) operationally facing the orifice (8) of the container (1) and, in a given case, aided with the same socket (9), the said lid (26) may be constructed so as formally and dimensionally fit the leading edge of the container (1), as shown in Figure 11, or be constructed in different dimensions, as in the case of Figure 13, none of this having any effect on the essence of the invention.

Anyway, these lids (26), in addition to acting as locking means and, consequently,providing protection for the containers (1), can be used as auxiliary tables, such as the tables (26) and (26'), of Figures 12 and 13, which are configured in bedside tables cooperating with the bed to which are fastened.

In this way, it is possible to obtain optimum functionality for concealable object-holding containers, being placed under a bed, which can be easily reached both through one side of the bed and through the foot of the bed, as specifically illustrated in Figure 3.

The last thing left to point out is that, in the case of large-sized containers, as the one being shown in Figure 4, which occupy the entirety of the mattress base, each one of these containers will be provided with two prismatic undercuttings (5) placed in two of its next corners and, although only one of them will be operational, the existence of the two undercuttings, together with corresponding plates (6) and orifices (8), will permit the container to tilt towards either side of the bed, in accordance with the specific requirements of each case.

The containers being depicted and illustrated in the drawings may be projected towards the vicinity of the mattress bases or beds by means of straight or curved forms provided at the sides of the container, this leading to an increase in the loading capacity of the said containers, as a consequence of the occupation of the perimetric space of the bed or mattress base.

These containers, as a consequence of being designed to open out through either side of the bed, can be provided with different interlocking or locking systems in an inoperative position inside the mattress base, so that upon release of that small resistance the container will be set free, and, when the container has to be concealed, its own locking system will fix it inside the base, by simply introducing the container therein.

Claims

Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, of the sort which incorporate containers which can be housed under the mattress base and are reached by means of their lateral displacement outside the area of influence of said base, characterized in that each container (1) is fastened to one of the legs (2) of the mattress base (3) or to one spin axis, independent from the said legs and constructed to that end, and is capable of tilting horizontally, said leg (2) acting as a spin axis, and is also characterized in that the container unloads its own weight and the weight of its contents directly upon the floor via floating or rolling supports (4), independently from the leg or spin axis.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claim 1, characterized in that on a given base (3) can be assembled one, two, three or four containers fastened to a corresponding number of legs (2) or spin axis, constructed to that end, each of these containers can be reached, i.e. are capable of emerging to the outside, through any of the two sides surrounding the corresponding leg (2).
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to the preceding claims, characterized in that each container (1) is provided with an area, established in correspondence with its vertical edge for coupling to the leg (2), where the support legs or spin axes of the said mattress base are housed, the fact that the said area is capable of housing the leg (2) or axis leads to achieving maximum capacity for the container itself, the said area having one or a series of orifices through which the corresponding leg (2) or axis passes and which permits hinge-connecting the container (1) with the leg (2).
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to the preceding claims, characterized in that the orifice (8) of the horizontal plate (6), intended to permit passage therethrough of the leg (2), is coupled to a socket (9) having an orifice (13) which matches the section of the leg (2), provision has been made for the existence of different types of sockets (9) so as to match the different types of legs (2) which exist in the market, regardless of their specific shapes: cylindrical, prismatic or any other configuration.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to preceding claims, characterized in that the said containers (1) are provided with handles (14) which may be embodied as simple orifices (14') made in their outer walls or be embodied as complementary attachments suitably linked to said walls.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claim 5, characterized in that when the handles (14) are embodied as complementary attachments, these can be attached to the containers (1) in a detachable manner in order to permit them to be interchangeable.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to the preceding claims, characterized in that some of the front sides (16) in some of the containers (1) may be lowered in order to facilitate loading and unloading thereof, to this end the lowerable face will have a hinge-connecting line (17), at the level of its lower edge, and locking bolts (18) or any other locking means in an operational position.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claim 1, characterized in that the rolling supports (4) are configured in housings (19) having a constricted mouth (20) from which slightly emerges a ball (21) which constitutes the rolling element itself and rests inside its housing by means of a series of pointwise supports (22) which reduce friction to a minimum, this structure permits approaching the bottom surface of the container to the surface for supporting and rolling the said container, thus achieving greater height and greater capacity for the container.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, acccording to Claims 1 and 2, characterized in that said containers (1) can be fitted with corresponding lids (26) which are also hinge-connected to their corresponding legs (2).
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claim 9, characterized in that each lid (26) may dimensionally coincide or differ from the corresponding leading dimensions of the container, the operation of the lid also being independent from the said container.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claims 9 and 10, characterized in that the said lids (26) may be unfolded, independently from the containers, and so be used as auxiliary tables.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the side edges of the containers may be projected by means of straight or curved lateral sides towards the edges of the mattress base or bed, this leading to an increase in the loading capacity of the said containers which, in turn, will still remain concealed by virtue of the dimensions of the mattress base or bed.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the containers adopt, from a plan view, the shape of a circular quadrant in which the quadrant is defined by straight or curved lateral sides.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the containers adopt a rectangular form and have straight or curved side faces.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the containers may be configured in any fanciful form or shape, as desired.
Improvements made to concealable object holder systems, applicable to the bases of mattresses and beds in general, according to Claims 1 to 15, characterized in that in the event of using several containers, inside the said base, each one of them may be configured to have the same or different shape.