US2968116A

US2968116A - Furniture glide shoe

Info

Publication number: US2968116A
Application number: US758220A
Authority: US
Inventors: Arenson Herbert
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1958-09-02
Filing date: 1958-09-02
Publication date: 1961-01-17
Anticipated expiration: 1978-01-17

Description

Jan. 17, 1961 H. ARENSON FURNITURE GLIDE SHOE Filed .Sept. 2, 1958 fiig.5.

INVENTOR.

A T'TORNE Y6.

Herbert Arena on.

United States Patent FURNITURE GLIDE SHOE Herbert Arenson, Childlore Co., 210 W. 15th St., Kansas City, Mo.

Filed Sept. 2, 1958, Ser. No. 758,220

1 Claim. (Cl. 45-137) This invention relates to furniture supports and the like, and more particularly to a novel glide shoe for attachment to a foot member on furniture legs or supports.

Various articles of furniture and the like have been made in the past with legs or supporting portions provided with feet which include a mounting portion securing the foot to the article and a floor-engaging element or foot with a connector between said element and the mounting portion which may be rubber, swivel members or other suitable structure for some resiliency or relative movement between the floor-engaging element and the mounting portion. It is common in glide structures to have the floor-engaging element in the form of a metal cap secured to an overlying cushion which may be made of rubber as by turning the edges of the metal cap upwardly and inwardly and embedding them in the sides of the cushion whereby the periphery of the floor-engaging element is rounded or toroidal in shape. Such metal caps wear and the outer surfaces become rough, corroded or otherwise marred in use, and then tend to scar, cut or otherwise damage the surface of the floor or supporting surface on which the cap rests. The deterioration of the conventional metal caps on furniture supports necessitates frequent replacement to prevent such damage. Usually, it is necessary to replace the entire glide assembly including the mounting which involves considerable labor, together with the cost of the parts, making the replacement relatively expensive.

The principal objects of the present invention are to provide a novel glide shoe for attachment to the usual foot or floor-engaging element of a glide assembly, and thereby restore its usefulness Without replacement of said glide assembly; to provide a glide shoe molded in one piece and having a recess defined by resilient portions for receiving the floor-engaging element of furniture and resiliently gripping same to retain the glide shoe thereon; to provide such a glide shoe that is molded of a synthetic resin whereby the shoe has long life, no age hardening, is substantially inert and capable of withstanding a great deal of stress without failure; and to provide such a novel glide shoe that is quickly and easily snapped on a worn glide foot member to furnish a new floor-engaging element therefor at very low expense.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein are set forth by way of illustration and example certain embodiments of this invention.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a glide shoe applied to a support for furniture or the like.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view through the glide shoe engaged with the furniture support, taken on a line 2-2, Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the glide shoe.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the glide shoe from the top thereof.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged partial sectional view through the glide shoe separated from the furniture foot member to illustrate the relative shapes thereof.

Referring more in detail to the drawings:

The numeral 1 designates a glide shoe for attachment to a conventional floor-engaging element 2 or foot member on a supporting portion such as a leg 3 of furniture or the like. In the illustrated structure, the supporting member 3 is representative of the leg of a piece of furniture such as a chair, table or the like, and mounted at the lower end 4 thereof by any suitable conventional mounting is a glide assembly 5 which is of conventional structure including a cushion portion 6 on which is secured a floorengaging element 2 which, in the illustrated structure, is a metal cap secured to the overlying cushion 6 by turning the edges of the element 2 upwardly and inwardly and embedding them as at 7 in the sides of the cushion 6. The floor-engaging element or foot 2 has a bottom surface 8 normally adapted to rest on the floor or supporting surface, and the outer periphery is rounded or substantially toroidal in shape, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, whereby the upper portion is of less width or diameter than the area of maximum width or diameter.

The glide shoe 1 is preferably molded or otherwise suitably formed of material capable of withstanding a great deal of stress without failure, and that has long life, no age hardening and that is substantially inert. The glide shoe is preferably molded from a synthetic resin such as polyethylene, and it has been found that low pressure, high density polyethylene, frequently called linear polyethylene, is particularly adapted for the making of this glide shoe; however, other flexible plastics, such as nylon, may be used. It is also preferable that the synthetic resin be such that in the thicker sections it is relatively rigid while the thin sections are flexible and resilient. The glide shoe 1 comprises a molded base portion 9 having a flat floor-engaging bottom surface 10 and an upwardly extending dome-like or frusto-convex portion 11 with a recess or socket 12 formed in said dome-like portion adapted to receive the floor-engaging'element 2 of the furniture support.

The floor-engaging element or metal cap having a toroidal shape at the periphery has its greatest or maximum width or diameter as at 13 with the portion 14 thereabove of decreasing diameter whereby the outer surface of said upper portion is frusto-convex. The recess or socket 12 has an area or portion of greatest or maximum width or diameter as at 15 with the portion of the socket below the said area of greatest width or diameter corresponding in shape and size to the portion of the foot member or metal cap 2 below the greatest width or diameter 13 thereof.

The portion of the socket 12 above the greatest diameter substantially corresponds in shape to the portion of the foot member above the area of greatest diameter, only it is preferable that the socket upper portion be of slightly less diameter than a corresponding portion of the metal cap 2 or foot member whereby it is necessary that the wall 16 of the dome-like portion 11 contracts the opening 17 of the socket and is slightly expanded when the glide shoe is mounted on the foot member or metal cap, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The dome-like portion 11, from substantially at the plane of the greatest diameter 15 of the socket, has an outer surface 18 sloping generally downwardly and outwardly whereby the wall thickness surrounding the lower portion of the socket is relatively great to form a substantially rigid section. Adjacent the plane of the greatest diameter 15 of the socket, the outer surface of the dome-like portion 11 is an inwardly offset step as at 19 whereby the wall portion 16 thereabove defining the socket 12 is relatively thin and progressively decreases in thickness to the opening 17 as shown in Fig. 5 to provide a flexible resilient section. It is preferable that the wall 20 of the base 9 between the. bottom 21 of the socket and the bottom surface 10 of the base member be relatively thick to form a substantially rigid section, and it is also preferable that a small aperture 22 extend through said wall portion 20 for escape of air from the socket or recess when the glide shoe is being applied to the furniture foot member. In the illustrated structure, the base portion is larger in diameter than the dome-like portion, providing increased size of the bottom surface and thereby increased bearing area for the glide shoe. At the outer periphery of the flat bottom surface 10, the glide shoe preferably slopes upwardly and outwardly as at 23 providing an inclined edge facilitating movement of the furniture over slight upward projections in the floor or supporting surface. The upper surface of the base slopes inwardly and upwardly as at 24 to provide a substantially frustoconical surface. While the base member is shown to be cylindrical, it may be of any suitable geometric shape, and also while the socket and dome-like or frusto-convex upwardly extending member 11 on the base are also illustrated as cylindrical, it is to be understood that they may be of any shape substantially corresponding to the peripheral shape of the foot 2 of the furniture support.

While the glide shoe is particularly adaptable to be a replacement shoe on used furniture supports, it may also be used as a shoe for new supports.

In assembling the glide, the furniture supporting foot 2 is positioned over the recess 12 in axial alignment therewith, and the foot member is forced against the upper edge 25 of the wall portion 16, and due to the rounded contour of the lower portion of the foot member or metal cap the wall portion is forced outwardly allowing the foot member to be forced or snapped into the recess 12, the wall portion 16 then contracting around the upper portion of the foot member 2 to securely hold the shoe on the foot member. Any air tending to be trapped in the recess 12 is forced through the aperture 22. The glide shoe 1 Will be firmly retained on the furniture supporting member or foot member 2 thereof, and due to the relatively thick sections in the wall portions surrounding the lower portion of the recess 12, and in the base wall below the socket, there is such rigidity therein that the load is distributed over the bottom surface 10 of the base member rather than localizing the load in the center portion of the base member. The glide shoe when applied is not subject to corrosion, is wear-resistant, capable of withstanding great stress, and will have long life without danger of marring or damaging a floor or other supporting surface.

It is to be understood that while I have illustrated and described one form of my invention, it is not to be limited to the specific form or arrangement of parts herein described and shown except insofar as such limitations are included in the claim.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A glide shoe for use with a furniture support having a foot with a bottom surface and a periphery substantially toroidal in shape with a plane of greatest width spaced above said bottom surface comprising, a base member molded of plastic material that is relatively rigid in thick sections but relatively resilient in thin sections, said molded base member having a floor-engaging bottom surface substantially larger than the furniture support foot to which it is adapted to be applied, said base member having an integral upwardly extending central portion with a substantially toroidal cavity therein and a restricted opening extending from said cavity through the top of said central portion, said opening being significantly smaller than the dimension of the foot in the plane of greatest width thereof, said cavity being dimensioned to tightly receive the furniture support foot therein and having a lower portion substantially corresponding in shape and size to the furniture support foot below the plane of greatest width thereof, said central portion having a frusto-convex exterior and a thick wall section defining the periphery of the cavity below said plane of greatest width thereof and a relatively thin wall section defining the restricted opening and the periphery of the cavity above said plane of greatest width thereof, said frusto-convex exterior having an inwardly ofr'set step located in said plane of greatest width and dividing said thick and thin wall sections whereby the flexibility of the shoe is substantially limited to the thin wall section above said plane of greatest width, said thin wall section being progressively thinner from adjacent said offset step to said restricted opening whereby said thin wall section will deform radially outwardly under pressure thereon by a support foot at said restricted opening to permit said support foot to enter into said cavity and then said thin wall section will return to its original shape wherein the opening is significantly smaller than the dimension of the foot in the plane of greatest width thereof to engage and grip said foot above the plane of greatest width of said foot providing secure retention thereof in said cavity.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 887,663 Lee May 12, 1908 2,262,064 Swarr Nov. 11, 1941 2,820,240 Matys Ian. 21, 1958 2,827,655 Ustica Mar. 25, 1958 2,865,133 Hoven et a1. Dec. 23, 1958 2,875,552 Stillman Mar. 3, 1959