GB2353210A

GB2353210A - Swivelling, foldable furniture.

Info

Publication number: GB2353210A
Application number: GB9923647A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Wei-Sin Chang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1999-08-09
Filing date: 1999-10-06
Publication date: 2001-02-21
Anticipated expiration: 2019-10-06
Also published as: GB2353210B; DE29917673U1; GB9923647D0; JP3068729U; CN2389551Y

Abstract

A swivel mechanism 202 for foldable furniture comprises two disks 3021, 3025 and a rotatable assembly 3020 sandwiched between them. Each disk has a plurality of through holes for pivotally receiving a tubular element 3011. The tubular elements connected to the lower disk serve as leg members 201 and those connected to the upper disk act as supporting members 204 for a supporting surface 203. The rotatable assembly preferably comprises a plurality of ball bearings mounted in a ball race 3023 and sandwiched between two rings 3022, 3024. Grooves are preferably provided in the disks to house the rotatable assembly. The mechanism may be used in a stool or table.

Description

2353210 SWIVEL MECHANISM FOR FOLDABLE FURNITURE The present invention

relates to foldable furniture, and more specifically to a swivel mechanism for foldable furniture.

Foldable furniture is very popular in recent years. People who enjoy outdoor activities such as camping, hunting and watching outdoor sport games usually carry foldable furniture with them. Foldable furniture of various designs have been manufactured for easy porting and carrying around outdoors. Foldable chairs or tables have almost become household necessities.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a foldable stool. As shown in FIG. 1, the foldable stool comprises three legs 101, a joint ring 102, and a piece of cloth 103 as the stool top. Each leg 101 is pivotedly connected to the joint ring 102 by a pivot pin. One end of each leg is affixed to the cloth 103. As can be seen, the stool can be put up by opening the three legs 101. The cloth 103 is flattened to form the top of the stool by the upper ends of the legs 101 that are then tightly held and restrained by the cloth 101. By collapsing the three legs 101 together, the stool can be folded for easy carrying.

The foldable stool offers great convenience for outdoor activities.

However, as most people may have experienced, it is uneasy and inconvenient when sitting on such a stool and trying to swivel around. If one needs to turn around, he often has to stand up to avoid over twisting his necks or bodies.

The present invention has been made to overcome the above mentioned inconvenience of conventional foldable furniture. The primary object of the invention is to provide a swivel mechanism for foldable furniture.

The second object is to provide a swivel mechanism that is durable and can be manufactured with low cost. It is also an object of the invention to provide a swivel mechanism that can be easily integrated into different foldable furniture.

According to this invention, a swivel mechanism is provided for a foldable stool or table. The stool or table comprises an upper portion and a lower portion jointed together by the swivel mechanism. A plurality of leg members form the lower portion and a plurality of supporting members form the upper portion. The swivel mechanism comprises upper and lower disks stacked together. A recessed area is formed on the inner surface of each disk for housing a rotatable assembly between the two disks. The rotatable assembly comprises a plurality of ball members to facilitate the smooth rotation of the swivel mechanism.

A plurality of through holes are formed in the upper disk to receive and joint the supporting members. One end of each supporting member is jointly 2 connected to the upper disk within the hole. The holes are shaped so that the supporting members can be opened up to support a stool top or a table top that may be formed by a piece of cloth. In a closed position, the supporting members can be folded and collapsed together.

Similarly, a plurality of through holes are also formed on the lower disk to receive and joint the leg members. One end of each leg member is jointly connected to the lower disk. The holes are shaped so that the other ends of the leg members can be opened up as legs to allow the stool or table to stand. In a closed position, the leg members can be folded and collapsed 10 together.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional foldable stool.

FIG. 2 shows a foldable swivel stool of this invention.

FIG. 3 shows a decomposed view of the foldable swivel stool of FIG. 2 without the stool top.

FIG. 4 shows a magnified view of the inner surfaces of the two disks comprised in the swivel mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows a magnified view of the components of the rotatable assembly comprised in the swivel mechanism according to the present invention.

3 FIG. 6 shows a see-through top view of the foldable swivel stool according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows the foldable swivel stool being folded and collapsed for easy carrying.

FIG. 8 shows a foldable swivel table according to the present invention.

With reference to FIG. 2, a foldable swivel stool according to this invention comprises a lower portion that includes three leg members 201, a swivel mechanism 202, an upper portion that includes three supporting members 204, and a piece of cloth as the stool top 203. Both the leg members 201 and the supporting members 204 are jointly connected to the swivel mechanism 202. The stool top 203 is made of strong fabric such as canvas, rayon or nylon.

FIG. 3 shows a decomposed view of the foldable swivel stool without the stool top. The swivel mechanism comprises an upper disk 3021, a rotatable assembly 3020, and a lower disk 3025. Both upper and lower disks of the swivel mechanism have a number of through holes formed therein. The holes are located substantially symmetrical to the center of each disk.

Each leg member comprises an elongated tube 3011. One end of the tube is capped with a plastic cap 3012. The other end is jointly connected to the lower disk 3025 through a hole by means of a joint pin. The hole is 4 slightly larger than the diameter of the tube 3011 and shaped so that the leg member can be held vertical to the disk or slanted and restrained within an angle. A plug member 3013 is inserted into the joint end of the tube for increasing the strength of the tube to prevent it from being dented or damaged when the leg member is slanted.

As can be seen from FIG. 3, the structure of a supporting member is very similar to that of a leg member. It is also formed by an elongated tube. One end of the tube is capped by a plastic cap and the other end is jointly connected to the upper disk 3021 through a hole by a joint pin 3026. The supporting member can be held vertical to the upper disk 3021 or slanted and restrained within an angle. A plug member is also inserted into the joint end of the tube to increase its strength.

A recessed area is formed on the central part of the inner surface of each disk to create a space for housing the rotatable assembly 3020. The inner surfaces of the upper and lower disks are shown in a magnified view illustrated in FIG. 4. The two disks are substantially identical to each other except that one may have a protruded center part in its recessed area for holding and fixing the rotatable assembly 3020. A small hole is formed through the center of each disk so that the two disks and the rotatable assembly can be assembled together by a fastening device such as a screw 3027 and a nut 3028 as shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 shows a magnified view of a preferred embodiment of the rotatable assembly. It comprises an upper ring member 3022, a rotatable device 3023 and a lower ring member 3024. The rotatable device 3023 comprises a plurality of ball members housed in a groove formed on a ring shaped body. Both upper and lower ring members have a curved surface to accommodate the ball members. When the upper ring member 3022, the rotatable device 3023 and the lower ring member 3024 are stacked together, the rotatable device can be rotated smoothly.

As mentioned earlier, the two disks have recessed areas for housing the rotatable assembly and one of the recessed areas may have a protruded center part to hold and fix the rotatable assembly. When the two disks and the rotatable assembly are assembled, a small gap is maintained between the upper and lower disks so that they can swivel freely.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the stool is in an opened position, each leg member is slanted and restrained so that the stool can stand stably. The supporting members are also slanted and restrained. Because each supporting member has one end affixed to the stool top 203, the stool top 203 also helps holding the supporting members together.

The preferred material for manufacturing the upper and lower disks is strong plastic material. It may be made of nylon or ABS (acrylo-mitrile butadlene-styrene). It may also be made of metal such as stainless steel.

However, the cost would be increased. The rotatable assembly is usually made of metal. The preferred material for the ring members and the ball members is stainless steel. The tubes for making leg and supporting 6 members are preferably made of light-weight alloy. The plug member at the end of a tube is usually made of nylon or ABS.

It should be noted that although in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5,1 three separate components are shown for the rotatably assembly, one of the ring members may be combined with the rotatable device to form a single body for easy manufacturing.

The above description has shown the two disks and the rotatable assembly as separate components. However, it can be understood that one or both ring members may be embedded in the disks. For example, the upper disk may be manufactured with a built-in upper ring member embedded in the recessed area. It is also possible that a combined body of a ring member and the rotatable device is embedded in one of the two disks.

FIG. 6 shows a see-through top view of the foldable swivel stool in an opened position according to this invention. To reduce material cost, voids 601 may be formed on the disks. FIG. 7 shows a side view of the foldable swivel stool in a folded position.

The swivel mechanism of this invention can be used in different furniture. The above description shows a foldable stool having three leg members and three supporting members as an example. More holes can be formed in the upper and lower disks to accommodate more leg members and supporting members. FIG. 8 shows an example of a foldable swivel table with four legs according to this invention.

7 Although only the preferred embodiments of this invention were shown and described in the above description, various modification or combination that comes within the spirit of this invention may also be made by a person skilled in the field according to the principle described. The invention is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.

8 CLAMS 1 1. A swivel mechanism for foldable furniture, comprising:

2 a first disk having a plurality of through holes formed around a central 3 area, each through hole receiving a leg member for jointly connecting said 4 leg member to said first disk; a second disk having a plurality of through holes formed around a central 6 area, each hole receiving a supporting member for jointly connecting said 7 supporting member to said second disk; and 8 a rotatable assembly being sandwiched between said first and second 9 disks; wherein a gap is maintained between said first and second disks for free 11 swivel when said first disk, second disk and rotatable assembly are 12 assembled to form said swivel mechanism.

1 2. The swivel mechanism according to claim 1, wherein said rotatable 2 assembly comprises:

3 a rotatable device comprising a plurality of ball members housed in a 4 groove formed in a ring-shaped body; a first ring member having a curved inner surface; and 6 a second ring member having a curved inner surface; 9 7 wherein said rotatable device is sandwiched between said first and second 8 ring members to allow free rotation of said ball members on the two 9 curved inner surfaces.

1 3. The swivel mechanism according to claim 2, wherein said first or second 2 disk has a protruded center portion for holding and fixing said rotatable 3 assembly through central holes of said first and second ring members and 4 said ring-shaped body.

1 4. The swivel mechanism according to claim 2, wherein one of said first and 2 second ring members is embedded in one of said first and second disks.

1 5. The swivel mechanism according to claim 2, wherein said first and second 2 ring members are embedded in said first and second disks respectively.

1 6. The swivel mechanism according to claim 5, wherein said rotatable device 2 is combined with one of said first and second ring members to form a 3 combined body.

1 7. The swivel mechanism according to claim 2, wherein one of said first and 2 second members is combined with said rotatable device to form a 3 combined rotatable body.

1 8. The swivel mechanism according to claim 7, wherein said combined 2 rotatable body is embedded in one of said first and second disks.

1 9. The swivel mechanism according to claim 1, said first disk further having a first recessed central area and said second disk further having a second 3 recessed central area, and said rotatable assembly being housed in a 4 space formed between said first and second recessed central areas.

1 1O.The swivel mechanism according to claim 9, wherein said first or second 2 disk has a protruded center portion in its recessed central area for holding 3 and fixing said rotatable assembly through central holes of said first and 4 second ring members and said ring-shaped body.

1 11. The swivel mechanism according to claim 1, wherein each of said leg 2 members is movable within a slanted angle to a vertical position with 3 respect to said first disk.

1 12. The swivel mechanism according to claim 1, wherein each of said 2 supporting members is movable within a slanted angle to a vertical 3 position with respect to said second disk.

1 13. The swivel mechanism according to claim 1, wherein each of said leg 2 members is an elongated tube having a plug inserted in one tube end 3 which is received in one of the plurality of through holes in said first disk.

1 14. The swivel mechanism according to claim 1, wherein each of said 2 supporting members is an elongated tube having a plug inserted in one 3 tube end which is received in one of the plurality of through holes in said 4second disk.

1 15. The swivel mechanism according to claim 1, wherein three leg members are connected to said first disk and three supporting members are t 3 connected to said second disk for forming a swivel mechanism of a 4 foldable swivel stool.

1 16. The swivel mechanism according to claim 1, wherein four leg members 2 are connected to said first disk and four supporting members are 3 connected to said second disk for forming a swivel mechanism of a 4 foldable swivel table.

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