GB2118833A - Support or cushioning arrangement - Google Patents

Abstract

An arrangement, which can be used as upholstery, or as a leisure mattress, or a facing for a bar counter comprises a plurality of elastically deformable elongate members, preferably hollow circular tubes 13, linked together by flexible sheets 10, 11, e.g. of fabric or plastics sheeting, having parallel transverse pockets 12 therein to receive the tubes 13. The arrangement so formed can be rolled for storage or transport and unrolled for use as a mattress, and, open used for upholstery, does not give off toxic fumes if ignited, since it contains no plastics foam material. If the ends of the tubes 13 are closed, the arrangement can be used as a leisure raft, or as a life-saving device in emergency. The hollow tubes 13 may be secured together by straps (15, Fig. 5), and the pockets 12 may be formed by a single flexible sheet (Fig. 4). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Support or cushioning arrangement The present invention relates to a support or cushioning arrangement, for the comfortable support or cushioning of the human body. It can, for example, be used as upholstery or cushioning on an article of furniture, such as a chair or couch, or as a protective cushioning on vertical surfaces, such as the front of a bar counter or the like, or may be used as a mattress, for example, a beach or leisure mattress.

Upholstery is at present usually in the form of padding or cushioning, which is made of a specific size and shape for each article of furniture to be upholstered. In order to provide it with the necessary resilience for the comfort of the user, it is nowadays frequently made of a foamed plastics material, particularly polyurethane foam. Such foamed plastics materials constitute a fire hazard, and in the case of polyurethane foam have led to many fire deaths, since the foamed material gives off toxic fumes when ignited.

Mattresses for beach or other leisure uses are generally of the inflatable type, and therefore have the disadvantage that they have to be inflated for use and deflated again for carriage and stowage.

They are, of course, also subject to punctures.

Moreover, such inflated mattresses do not adjust themselves well to uneven terrain.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an arrangement, which can be used as upholstery which does not suffer from the disadvantages and dangers of plastics foam cushioning, and which can also be used as a beach or leisure mattress, which is readily transported and stowed, does not require to be inflated and will adjust itself to an uneven surface.

According to the invention, there is provided a support or cushioning arrangement comprising a plurality of elastically deformable, elongate members flexibly linked together in side-by-side relationship, either individually or in groups.

Normally, the elongate members are of at least approximately the same length.

While elongate members of any cross-sectional shape can be used, they are preferably in the form of hollow cylindrical tubes which are elastically deformable, i.e. which will deform under the weight of a person resting on or against them and take up a conformation following the body outlines, but will reassume their original tubular shape when the weight is removed.

While such tubes preferably have solid walls, increased flexibility may, if desired, be obtained by the use of split or pierced tubing, or of tubes made from mesh. For the sake of clarity, the invention will be further described with reference to the use of hollow tubes, of circular section but it will be appreciated that mutatis mutandis, elongate members of other cross-sectional shape can be used.

The tubes may be either open-ended, or closed at the ends by means of end caps or plugs, or in any other manner.

While the tubes may be held in side-by-side relationship in any suitable manner, e.g. by the use of two of more straps surrounding the tubes and having loops therein through which the tubes are passed, or by the use of pivoting or flexible linkage means inserted in the respective ends of'adjacent tubes, it is preferred to use for linkage purposes one or more sheets of fabric or plastics material in or between which sheets a plurality of parallel transverse pockets are formed to receive and hold the tubes.

While it is preferred to ensure that each tube is flexibly linked to its neighbours, so that the whole arrangement can be rolled up when not in use, the tubes can, if desired, be arranged in groups, the members of which are not flexibly linked together, only the end tube of a group being flexibly connected to the end tubes of the neighbouring groups. In this case, when not in use, the arrangement will be folded not rolled.

For use as upholstery, the support arrangement is made of a length and width appropriate to the article of furniture to be upholstered, e.g. a chair, or couch, which can be completely uncushioned, since the arrangement will provide all the cushioning required. Owing to its lengthwise flexibility, the arrangement will take up the shape of the furniture. Where, as in the preferred embodiments of the invention, the tubes are housed in pockets formed in fabric or plastics sheets, holes may be provided in the sheets between the tubes for fixing the arrangement to the underlying framework. The support arrangement of the invention is particularly suitable for use as garden furniture, or boat upholstery or cushions. When used as a cushion in a boat, if the tubes used are closed at the ends, the arrangement can also serve as a life-saving device.Since no plastics foam is used in the construction of the arrangement, it is particularly advantageous in reducing fire risk, and, in particular, the danger of the production of toxic fumes, which is present with much of the foam upholstery at present widely used. This also makes it very suitable for upholstering licenced bar fronts or the like, where there is a substantial fire risk, and which at present are frequently padded with polyurethane foam cushioning with its attendant toxic risks in the case of fire.

The support arrangement can also advantageously be used as a portable mattress for use on a beach, e.g. a shingle beach, or other uneven terrain, since it does not require to be inflated or assembled before use, but merely unrolled and, when unrolled, will adjust itself to the irregularities of any surface. For these reasons, it is also very useful to replace a ground sheet while camping, since its use for this purpose has been found effectively to insulate the user from damp or wet ground and to provide a comfortable support. In all its uses, it has, of course, the virtue of being almost indestructible, and if a tube should be accidentally damaged it can easily be replaced.

If tubes closed at their ends are used, such a mattress can also be used as a leisure raft, and, as mentioned above, as a life-saving support in emergency.

The degree to which the tubes will deform in use can be varied by using tubes ranging in stiffness from completely flexible to semi-rigid, but, of course, the tubers must be such that they will recover elastically on removal of a distorting weight. The actual degree of rigidity of the tubes can be set by appropriate choice of material and of wall thickness.

The preferred material of construction for the tubes is polypropylene and for the linking sheet material, polyvinyl chloride fabric or sheeting, but the invention is not, of course, limited to the use of these materials. Any other suitable materials may be used.

The invention will now be further described with reference to the drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a first embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a schematic side view of the embodiment of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a similar view to that of Figure 2 of a modification of the embodiment of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a similar view to that of Figure 2 of a further modification of the embodiment of Figure 1; Figure 5 is a schematic perspective view of a second embodiment of the invention; Figure 6 is a schematic side view of the embodiment of Figure 5; and Figure 7 is a schematic perspective view of one end of a tube for use in the embodiments of Figures 1 and 5, provided with an end-cap.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, the arrangement shown therein comprises two sheets 10, 11 of flexible fabric or plastics material which are connected together, e.g. by stitching or welding so as to form a plurality of parallel transverse pockets 12 into which fits tightly but removably, a plurality of respective elastically deformable, hollow, circular plastic tubes 13, the tubes when fitted in the pockets 12 being flexibly linked to one another by respective webs 14 formed by the two sheets between each adjacent pair of tubes. The assembly can therefore readily be rolled up for storage or transport and unrolled for use. If desired, the last tube at one end may be omitted and holes formed at this point in the sheets through which a cord may be threaded to tie up the arrangement when in the rolled position.

As shown in Figure 2, in this embodiment, the pockets 12 are formed between one flat sheet 10 and a corrugated sheet 11, the sheets being connected along the peaks of the corrugations.

Alternatively, as shown in Figure 3, the pockets may be arranged to lie centrally of the planes of the two sheets. Finally, as shown in Figure 4, a single sheet 10 may be used, the pockets being formed by bending the sheet back on itself and sewing or welding along ;parallel transverse lines.

The arrangement can be of any desired length and width and is suitable for use either as upholstery or as a leisure mattress for beach or camping use.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figures 5 and 6, the individual tubes 1 3 are held in side-by-side flexible relationship by two straps 15, each provided with loops 1 6 through which the individual tubes-pass. This embodiment is particularly suitable for garden furniture or boat upholstery.

As shown in Figure 7, each of the ends of the tubes 1 3 may be closed by means of an end-cap 1 7. This is particularly desirable when the arrangement is to be used as a leisure mattress or as boat upholstery and may therefore be required to double as a leisure raft, or as a life-saving support.

(While in the schematic Figures of the drawings, for the sake of clarity, the sheets 10 and 11, and, the straps 15, are shown spaced from the tubes 13 and also spaced apart at the lines or areas where they are welded or sewn, it will be appreciated that the tubes 13 are normally a close fit in the pockets 1 2 or loops 16, so that, there is no danger of their accidental removal from the pocket or loops, and that the sheets 1 0 and 11, and the straps 1 5 are in actual contact where they are joined to form the pockets or loops.) If a very wide support is required, a plurality of tubes may be inserted in each pocket in end-toend relationship, rather than a single long tube; preferably with some play between adjacent tube ends. The support arrangement can then be folded laterally prior to rolling.

While the support arrangement of the present invention is particularly suitable for the support of the human body, it can, of course, also be used for the resilient support of other heavy objects, particularly where these are of a fragile nature. It can also be used, as previously indicated, for padding surfaces, such as the front of a bar counter, for protective purposes.

Claims (11)

1. A support or cushioning arrangement comprising a plurality of elastically deformable, elongate members flexibly linked together in sideby-side relationship, either individually or in groups.

2. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said members are of substantially the same length.

3. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein said elongate members are linked together by means of a flexible sheet or sheets, said members being housed in parallel pockets formed in or between said sheet or sheets.

4. An arrangement as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein two flexible sheets are used, said pockets being formed between said sheets by connecting them together along spaced lines parallel to the axes of said members.

5. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein said elongate members are linked together by two more straps having respective loops therein to receive said tubes.

6. An arrangement as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, wherein said elongate members are hollow.

7. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 6, wherein said elongate members are in the form of open-ended, hollow cylindrical tubes.

8. An arrangement as claimed in Claim 6, wherein said elongate members are in the form of hollow cylindrical tubes having closed ends.

9. A support arrangement substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in Figures 1 and 2, or Figure 3, or Figure 4, or Figures 5 and 6, or Figure 7, of the drawings.

10. The use of a support arrangement as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims as upholstery.

11. The use of a support arrangement as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims as a leisure mattress.