GB2040159A

GB2040159A - Knockdown furniture

Info

Publication number: GB2040159A
Application number: GB7835972A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: ALSTONS COLCHESTER Ltd
Current assignee: ALSTONS COLCHESTER Ltd
Priority date: 1978-09-07
Filing date: 1978-09-07
Publication date: 1980-08-28
Also published as: GB2040159B

Abstract

A knock-down upholstered chair or settee so dimensioned that the arms 2, 2' can fit within a hollow interior of the seat portion 4 and in the preferred case the seat cushion 5 can fit within a hollow interior of the back portion 3 so that the maximum height of a carton for containing the chair or settee is not substantially greater than the sum of the thicknesses of the seat portion and back portion. Protruding portions 15 from the frame of the back may interlock in a slot S between struts of a frame of the seat portion and a similar strut 32 of each arm also fits within the slot and is bolted at 36 to one of the protruding portions of the back frame, the arm frame being bolted at 34, 35 to the seat frame. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Knock-down furniture The present invention relates to a knock-down article consisting of an upholstered chair or settee.

Although it is now conventional to fabricate furniture in known-down form, that is to say packaged with the various limbs disassembled, but in a readily assembled form for reassembly either by the retailer or wholesaler or by a final purchaser, the manufacture of upholstered furniture in this way has not, to our knowledge, been attempted. Upholstered furniture is normally manufactured in such a way that it has not been considered feasible to produce an article of furniture in this way which can retain sufficient customer appeal.

However upholstered furniture is of awkard shape for packaging and where this is intended for export, the freight charges are exorbitant. The present invention is directed to the problem of construction a chair or settee in such a way as to make maximum use of the space available in a shipping container while retaining an acceptable customer appeal. In the preferred form of the invention is has been found possible to package eight suites consisting of one double settee and two chairs, or thirtytwo single chairs or sixteen single settees or an equivalent combination or chairs and settees into a single standard shipping container which is normally 9ft.6in. long by 7ft.8in. width and by 7ft.1 Oin in height.

According to the invention there is provided a knock-down upholstered article consisting of a chair or settee having a pair of disconnectable arms, a back portion and a seat portion, wherein the seat portion is formed with a hollow interior and is dimensioned in relation to the arms such that the two arms fit within the seat interior in the packaged condition of the article.

Preferably the back portion has a hollow interior, the article including (in the case of a chair) a seat cushion which is dimensioned to fit within the hollow back portion, or (in the case of a settee) a plurality of seat cushions dimensioned to fit within the hollow back portion.

The preferred chair or settee fits within a carton having its smallest dimension not substantially greater than the sum of the thickness dimensions of the seat portion and back portion.

An embodiment of the invention is hereafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an assembled chair in accordance with the invention, Figure 2 is an exploded view of the component parts of the chair of Figure 1 showing the form of assembly, Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the packaging of the arms within the seat portion of the chair, Figure 4 is a perspective view showing the packaging of the seat cushion within the back portion, Figure 5 is a perspective view showing the fitment of the disassembled chair within a carton, Figure 6 is a perspective view of the frame of the seat portion of the chair of Figure 1, Figure 7 is a perspective view showing the frame of the back portion of the chair of Figure 1, Figures 8a and 8b are perspective view showing the frame of an arm of the chair of Figure 1, and Figure 9 is a diagram showing the manner of packaging the cartons within a shipping container.

Figure 1 shows an assembled chair 1 in accordance with the invention having disconnectable arms 2, 2', the arms being mirror images one of the other, a disconnectable back portion 3, a disconnectable seat portion 4, and a fitting seat cushion 5. The chair is also shown in screw-in slipper feet 6.

Settees in accordance with the invention will not be described in detail. The manner of construction is essentially the same as that for a chair, it being appreciated that the back portion and seat portion will have a width-wise dimension (side to side) which is a multiple of two or three or sometimes four of the dimension for a chair, there being two or three or sometimes four seat cushions 5.

Each of the upholstered portions comprises a structural frame, normally of wood, the elements of which may be glued, nailed or screwed together in conventional fashion and with non-structural surface portions supported upon cardboard, preferably strawboard of one eighth to three sixteenth inch thickness. The frame and strawboard is normally covered by three quarter inch foam except in areas where thicker foam is required e.g. at the front of the arms, and the whole is covered with fabric. The frames for the seat and back support elongate seat springs of conventional type.

Figure 6 shows the frame for the seat portion. This comprises parallel spaced lengthwise extending side pieces 7, 7' of e.g. 12 mm plywood. These are held together at the front end of the chair by a strut 8 of e.g. three inch by one inch wood, and at the rear by parallel spaced wooden struts 9 and 10 of e.g. one and seven eighths inch by one inch wood adjacent the upper surface and a further similar strut 11 at the lower rear corner. The front surface below the strut 8 is covered with a strawboard panel 12 and seating springs Sp are fastened between the strut 10 and the strut 8 in parallel relation across the width of the frame. The frame is covered with foam and fabric as above described, but until the final assembly, the bottom fabric surface is left untacked except along the front edge, leaving the interior of the seat open.

The struts 9 and 10 are spaced apart by a predetermined distance as will become apparent to provide a slot S and the strut 10 is supported upon a pair of supporting elements 13 respectively at each end, the rearward side of each support 13 being generally flush with the rearward edge of the strut 10.

The frame of the back portion is shown in Figure 7.

This comprises a pair of parallel spaced interior uprights 14, 14' which are spaced apart by substantially the width dimension of the seat portion.

Portions 15,15' ofthese uprights 14,14' are adapted to protrude after the covering of the seat portion so as to slide within the slot S formed in the frame of the seat portion between the struts 9 and 10 and interlock with the seat portion. This is seen best in Figure 2. The upper edges of the uprights 14, 14', which may be of 12 mm plywood shaped as shown, as fastened to a horizontal strut 16 e.g. of one and seven eights inch by one inch and the ends of the strut 16 are fastened to upright side frame pieces 17,17' which may again be of 12 mm plywood and which extend downwardly to the level (18 in Figure 7) of the tops of the arms of the assembled chair (compare Figures 1 and 2), where they are connected to the respective uprights 14, 14' by connecting pieces 19, 19'. A U-shaped element extends downwardly in contact with the struts 14, 14' but so as to extend their width, as far as a position 21 (Figure 7) which is at the level of the top of the seat portion of the assembled chair (compare Figure 2). The rear corners of the uprights 14, 14' are connected by a horizontal strut. Reinforcement blocks may be inserted as desired and surfaces to be covered with fabric may be supported by strawboard, some of which is shown.Conventional seat springs Sp are connected between the struts 16 and 20.

The protruding portions 15, 15' are provided with generally central upright slots 24, 24' to assist in bolting to the arms as will become apparent.

The frame of one of the arms is shown in Figures 8a and 8b; it will be appreciated that the other arm will be as a mirror image. The arm of Figures 8a,b has two shaped end pieces 25,25' of e.g. 12 mm ply connected by horizontal upper struts 26,26' and a horizontal lower strut 27. The strut 27 protrudes at the front of the arm to provide a step constituted by a supporting block 28 and a piece of strawboard 29, to provide support for additionally thick foam at the front edge of the arm.Towards the rear, the strut 26 protrudes and is connected to an upper element 30 which supports a vertical element 31 on the interior side of the arm and which protrudes downwardly to provide a projecting portion 32 which is dimensioned also to fit within the slot S between struts 9 and 10 of the frame of the seat portion outside the projecting portions 15,15' of the back portion frame.

The protruding portions 32 are not slotted. A piece of strawboard 33 covers the interior side of the arm frame and is bent to a suitable curves shape according to the curvature of the end piece. Further strawboard (not shown) is used on the outside of the frame, and the top.

The various frames may be covered as desired with foam and fabric, three quarter inch polyurethane foam being generally used, except at the front of the arms where e.g. a two inch foam block may be used at each arm.

The finished upholstered elements are shown in Figure 2 in exploded form. The bolts used are normally fixed in place so that assembly is performed by adding washers and nuts. Thus in Figure 2 the seat is shown with four protruding bolts 34 which extend through the struts 8 and 9 of the seat frame. These fit through holes 35 formed in the strut 27 of each arm. The rearmost ends of each arm prior to final assembly are unstitched to enable the fitting of nuts and washers to the bolts 34 after fitment of the arms in place with the bolts through the holes 35 and with the protruding portions 32 fitting within the slot S.

A bolt 36 also extends horizontally and towards the interior through each of the elements 31 of the arm frames. The back portion is then fitted in place with the protruding portions 15, 15' fitting within the slot S inside the portions 32,32', and with the slots 24, 24' engaging the bolts 36. Nuts and washers are then placed upon the bolts 36 through the bottom of the seat portion which has been left open. The seat cushion may then be fitted in place and the various end pieces of fabric stitched up and if desired the slipper feet screwed in.

It will be appreciated that in the assembled form the back portion is bolted only to the arms and not to the seat portion but the seat portion is provided with adequate stability by the interlocking of the protruding portions 15,15' within the slot S. Both the protruding portions 15,15' of the back portion and the protruding portions 32,32' of the arms engage against the struts 9 and 10 of the seat portion and also the supporting elements 13, 13' which extent downwardly from the strut 10. It has been found that the seat is very firmly fastened by this means.

The interrelationship of the various dimensions of the component portions of the chair are best seen by reference to the Figures 3,4 and 5 which demonstrate the packaging. By reference to Figure 3, it will be seen that the length of each finished arm is such as to fit within the widthwise dimension of the interior of the seat, access being had through the bottom where the fabric is left unstitched until final assembly. The most advantageous manner of packaging is shown in Figure 3 but it will be appreciated that the arm shown positioned obliquely may be reversed if desired. Thus the maximum widthwise dimension of each arm is not in excess of the depth of the seat portion.

The cushion is so dimensioned that it can slide within the hollow interior of the back portion in the space between the protruding portions 15, 15', where the fabric can be left unstitched or omitted. In practice the lengthwise dimension of the cushion extends towards the top of the back portion and the end of the cushion may protrude slightly.

The packaged chair is shown in Figure 5 and it will be appreciated that the dimensions of the back portion generally correspond with those of the seat portion, the back portion including the protruding portion 15,15' and the maximum heightofthe carton need not be greater than the sum of the depth dimensions of the seat portion and back portion. In practice the height of the container shown in Figure 5 will be 18 inches and the other dimensions may be 30 inches by 35 inches, or 30 inches by 70 inches in the case of a double settee.

In the case of a settee, the widthwise dimension will be multiple of the widthwise dimension of a chair so that the carton will be twice or three times the sideways dimension shown in Figure 5. The preferred settee is a double settee and in this case it is found that three layers each consisting of eight complete suites each consisting of a double settee Se and two chairs Ch can be fitted within a standard shipping container as shown in Figure 9 which is a diagrammatic view of the container and plan view.

Each of the blocks consists of three identical cartons one above the other. Obviously different combinations of chairs and settees can be packed into a container, it being appreciated that the length of a settee carton is slightly greater than the length of two chairs cartons.

In accordance with an alternative aspect of the invention there is provided a knock-down article consisting of an upholstered chair or settee having a pair of disconnectable arms, a back portion and a seat portion, the article is disassembled form fitting within a carton having its smallest dimension not substantially greater than the sum of the thickness dimensions of the seat portion and back portion.

Claims

1. A knock-down upholstered article consisting of a chair or settee having a pair of disconnectable arms, a back portion and a seat portion, wherein the seat portion is formed with a hollow interior and is dimensioned in relation to the arms such that the two arms fit within the seat interior in the packaged condition of the article.

2. An article according to claim 1 wherein the back portion has a hollow interior, the article including (in the case of a chair) a seat cushion which is dimensioned to fit within the hollow back portion, or (in the case of a settee) a plurality of seat cushions dimensioned to fit within the hollow back portion.

3. An article according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the seat portion and back portion fit within a carbon having a dimension, corresponding to the depth dimension (front to rear) of the seat portion and to the height dimension (top to bottom) of the back portion, which is not greater than 36 inches.

4. An article according to any preceding claim which fits within a carton having its smallest dimension not substantially greater than the sum of the thickness dimensions of the seat portion and back portion.

5. An article according to any preceding claim wherein the seat portion and back portion fit within a carton having a dimension corresponding to the width dimension (side to side) of a chair seat or back portion which is not greater than 35 inches, or, in the case of a settee, not greater than 70 inches.

6. An article according to any preceding claim wherein, in assembled form, the arms are fastened to the seat portion and the back portion is fastened to the arms, there being interlocking portions on the back and seat portions.

7. An article according to claim 6 wherein the back portion comprises a frame having two continuous elements parallel spaced by substantially the width of the seat portion and having protruding portions adapted to slide into receiving means in the seat portion.

8. An article according to claim 7 wherein the seat portion comprises a frame including a pair of struts extending widthwise (side to side), the struts being parallel spaced by substantially the width of the protruding portions of the back frame.

9. An article according to claim 8 wherein at least the interiormost of the said frame struts is supported upon a pair of support elements fixed to side elements of the seat frame and which act as abutments to the back frame protruding portions.

10. An article according to claim 8 wherein each arm comprises a frame having a lower lengthwise element bored to receive bolts extending upwardly from the seat frame and a continuous upright element having a protruding portion of a width to interlock together with the protruding portions of the back frame between the said parallel struts of the seat frame and fitted with respective bolts, and wherein the protruding portions of the back frame are formed with respective slots extending upwardly from the ends thereof to receive respective bolts on respective arm portions.

11. An article according to any preceding claim wherein in the packaged condition of the article the underside of the seat portion and therear end of each arm is open.

12. An article according to claim 1 substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

13. Astandard shipping container containing eight suites, each of one double settee and two chairs, or containing thirtytwo chairs or sixteen settees or equivalent combinations of chairs and settees.