US3178735A - Construction for cushion, mattress and chair - Google Patents

Description

April 20, 1965 w. THOMPSON r-:TAL 3,178,735

CONSTRUCTION FOR CUSHION, MATTRESS AND CHAIR Filed May 18, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet l 47 l I I i INVENToRs 46 Loro w. rf/o/uPso/v F/6`.8 noaa-nr w/LEN L NORTON B. LEV/NE 52 50 Izzi-l2 4.9 BY

5/ ATTORNEY April 20 1965 L. w. THOMPSON ETAL 3,178,735

CONSTRUCTION FOR CUSHION, MATTRESS AND CHAIR Filed May 18. 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS LLOYD W. 'HOMPSON ROBERT WILLEN NORTON E. LEV/NL BY l ATTORNEY United States Patent 3573535 CGNSTRUCTQN FOR CUSHlN, MATTRESS ANE CHAIR ioyd W. Thompson and Robert Willen, High Point, and Norton B. Le Vine, Thomasviile, N.C., assignors to Preiude Corporation, High Point, N13., a corporation of North Carolina Filed May 18, 1962, Ser. No. 195,883

2 Claims. (Cl. 5--353 This invention relates to cushions, mattresses and chair seat sections in which polyurethane foam sheets of prefabricated contours envelop and assembly formed by a piurality of fabric bag-enclosed aligned springs that form a resilient inner cushion core.

Various constructions for cushions and mattresses, as `well as upholstered furniture including sofas, are well known and are disclosed in United States Letters Patents Nos. 2,785,734; 2,862,214; 2,913,041 and 2,953,195, among others. The present invention constitutes an imrovement upon the aforesaid Patent No. 2,862,214 by providing many novel features of construction not heretofore attainable with the use of rubberized or latex-coated hair which new construction embodies superior features for producing more uniform cushioning and more pleasing appearance in the ultimately fabric-covered condition.

Utilization of integral bodies of foam rubber or urethane foam for cushioning and mattress construction has not met with consumer acceptance due to the disadvantages of either discomfort, hard spots, springiness, non-uniform resilience, among other reasons. In order to overcome at least some of the aforementioned disadvantages, and to improve the wear-life and cushioning effect over prolonged periods, cushions and mattresses have been attempted to be made of rubber and urethane foam by laminating or articulating various sections together and by interposing between top and bottom foam sheets having spaced cavities, an intermediate iayer, in order to achieve increased comfort with a minimum of hard spots throughout the cushion. However, this construction has been inadequate to achieve the desired overall uniform resilience, density and to provide the requisite contours for superior quality cushions.

It has been found to be advantageous to retain the optimum resilience inherent in coil springs which additionally permits a greater range of cushioning effects without objectionable hard spots and also a greater range of crowned surface contours. Flat urethane sheets have been used to advantage for covering an assembly of spaced apart oriented fabric-covered coil springs without providing the desired contoured corners, adequate boxing frame rigidity or crowned boxing in the side-walls.

Therefore, it is one objective of this invention to provide a cushion or mattress construction in which a series of substantially contiguous coil springs are enveloped or sealed substantially within fabricated plane sheets of urethane to form, at least a crowned seating surface of uniform cushioning resilience without objectionable hard spots.

However, still another objective is the provision of a cushion or mattress construction in which the plane sheets of urethane foam envelop an assembled series of oriented fabric-covered coil springs with the top, bottom and side walls of the cushion being perimetrically sealed to form rounded and imperceptible corners by exposing but a single surface of the covering urethane.

Another objective of this invention is to provide a mattress or cushion construction in which reinforced perimetrical support is provided for a series of assembled coil springs that are enveloped -by cut sheets of plane urethane foam, which reinforcement is capable of distribaristas uting cushion distorting loads more uniformly throughout the load bearing coil springs.

A further objective of this invention is to provide a cushion construction of superior cushioning characteristics in which the edges of sheet urethane foam serving as the enveloping material is prevented from becoming frayed or ragged by exposing to wear only the single exposed surface in the form of a perimetrical sealing line.

A further objective of this invention is the provision of a cushion assembly of fabricated sheet urethane enveloping an assembled series of coil springs supported on a substantially rigid backing forming a sub-assembled chair or sofa section that may be employed as a seat or back rest.

Still another objective of this invention isto provide a superior construction cushion and mattress that may be mass produced economically from cut sheets of urethane foam which form the top, bottom and side Walls of the cushion or mattress and enclosing, in prt-:stressed condition, a plurality of arranged intercoil springs.

@ther objectives and many of the advantages of this invention, and of the various embodiments disclosed, will become more readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several views of various types of cushions or mattress constructions shown primarily in reduced form and without reference to the actual size or orientation of the inncrsprings, and wherein:

FIG. l is a perspective view of one embodiment of a cushion construction with the forward side wall opening removed to expose a row of only three of the interior fabric-covered coil springs;

FIG. 2 is a partial transverse sectional View, somewhat reduced from FG. l, illustrating the orientation of the crowned upper and lower cushioning surfaces, omitting the sprincs, and the joint formed connecting the top, bottom and side wall FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 illustrating a cushion subjected to a load;

FIG. 4 is a partial transverse sectional view of the initial position of the sheet urethane foam for forming a modified joint between the top and side walls;

FIG. 5 is similar to FIGA illustrating the joint formed by adhering the exposed edges of FIG. 4 together;

FIG. 6 is a partial rear perspective view of a cushion construction illustrating the rear side wall panel joint;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a modified embodiment of a mattress or cushion construction with portions of the cover removed and a section cut out exposing the interior of the cushion;

FG. 8 is a partial transverse sectional view, somewhat reduced, taken substantially along the plane of section line 8-8 of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a sofa, with portions removed, from the seat and back thereof, illustrating another embodiment of this invention for the seat and bach sections of a chair or sofa;

FIG. l0 is a partial transverse sectional view taken substantially along the section line of the plane it--l of FlG. 9 and illustrating the cushion contours in outline form only while omitting the coil springs;

FIG. 11 is an enlarged front partial perspective view, with portions removed, illustrating the back cushion of the sofa of FIGS. 9 and l0; and

FIG. 12 is a reduced partial transverse sectional view of the seat cushion of FIGS. 9 and 10.

In each of the various embodiments of this invention, plane sheets of polyurethane foam, herein referred to sometimes as urethane, having the desired thickness, density, resilience, porosity and elastic foam recovery o o properties is fabricated to cover or envelop, as will be more fully described herein, a plurality of helical spring members each of which is preferably sealed orcovered within a canvas or fabric material of generally continuous length, each of the spring members is secured within a separate vsection or compartment of the fabricformed bag conventionally referred to in the upholstering and furniture art as Marshall springs, and arranged as shown and disclosed in Patent No. 2,862,214. The plane or fiat sheets of urethane have exposed edges that lack the resistance of compression, resilience and wear abrasion as portions of the urethane, a short distance from the terminal exposed edges, tend to be weak by reason of the fact that it lacks the body and density to resistwthe load. Therefore, in each embodiment, the exposed edges of the plane urethane will adhesively abut contiguous edges to form a neperimetrical seam increasing or making more uniform the resistance to compression and increase the resilience, and by concealing the right angle terminal edges, the weak exposed edges are not frayed or worn after prolonged use.v

With this preliminary explanation, reference will now be made to FIGS. l through 6 in which a small cushion will be described in greater detail although it is to be clearly understood that this is without limitation to the size cushion that may be fabricated utilizing this construction, and that the term cushion shall be equally applicable to mattress constructions.

In FIG. l, a single row of fabric-covered coil springs 20, 21 and 22 is exposed through one open cushion side wall of the spring-enveloping cushion 22 formed by the convexly-contoured perimetrical side walls 24 and 25, and the crowned top and bottom cushion walls or surfaces 26 and 27 respectively, with the side walls, and top and bottom walls being formed of fabricated plane sheets of urethane precut to the proper dimensions. The row of fabric-covered coil springs -22 forms only one of a plurality of rows closely oriented to each other within the enclosed cavity or frame 28 formed by the top, bottom and side walls of the cushion. The ne line perimetrical upper and lower substantially continuous seams 29 are formed in thisV embodiment by cutting a V-shaped groove 30 on opposite edges of the side walls with a hot wire or other suitable means, continuously along the upper and lower inside longitudinally-extending edges of the side wall sections for cooperatively receiving therein the inwardly beveled edges 31 of the top and bottom plane sheet surfaces of urethane. The requisite adhesion of one edge to the other may be achieved with suitable adhesives or by the application of heat to one or both of I the edges to be joined together, and thereafter applying suitable pressure to the surfaces bonding one edge to the other. Depending upon the coefficient of resilience of the springs and urethane, as well as the extent of the crowned surface desired, some of the springs adjacent to the side walls may be prestressed or preloaded by partial compression during the fabrication. This desired result may be achieved by forming the cushion and leaving opposite walls exposed for insertion of the springs. The springs adjacent to the side walls Z4 and 25 and the opposite walls will be compressed or preloaded and the springs located more centrally of the cushion will be extended so as to form the crowned surface in the top and bottom walls.

ered by a suitable upholstering fabric, the tine edges that are not concealed form an irregular objectionable edge visible in the form of a ripple or wave through the cushion covering.

The convex contour of the side wall 24 may be formed by means of a hot wire or buing the urethane so as to present the curved or crowned contour to the side wall. A more pronounced crown may appear when a load is applied to the top wall 26 of the cushion projecting the side Walls outwardly. A at sheet or rectilinear surface may also be employed for the side wall with the upper and lower edges suitablyl grooved so as to cooperatively receive the perimetrical edges of the top and bottom walls within such groove concealing the thickness of the ureethane and forming a substantially uniform density for the edges. l

A modified embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 for the juncture or joint between the top and side wall construction, which construction is equally applicable to the bottom and side walls, and in which the top urethane sheet 33 has a square or right angle edge 34. The thickness of the' side wall urethane sheet 35 is greater than that of the top wall 33 permitting a slight overlapping of the surfaces as at 36. Suitable,

adhesive is applied to the overlapping portions, or heat may be applied, and the exposed edges 34 and 37. The edges 34 and 37 are then pressed together, as shown in FIG. 5, forming the rounded perimetrical edge 38 concealing the `sheet edges and resulting in uniform compression resistance for the corners 39 and 40 of the urethane sheets of the top and side walls.

Y As the bonding of the various fabricated components forms a spring-receiving core, provision is made for an opening 41 that extends into the interior of the cushion, preferably in the rear of the cushion for the escape and introduction of any air during compression and release of any load on the cushion surface. Opening 4l may be .provided by omitting any adhesive material between the edges 42 and 43 of the side walls 44 and 45 respectively.

A further modification of the invention is shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 wherein fabric-covered rows and columns of fabric-covered springs 46 are yenveloped by fabricated sheets of urethane, and in which the side walls or boxing 47 may be formed substantially as shown in FIGS. l, 4 and 5 and the top wall 48, as well as the bottom wall, not shown, may be positioned in substantially the same manner as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The bottom wall 49, shown in FIG. 8, illustrates the completed joint 50 for-med between the bottom and side walls producing the rounded corner 51 extending perimetrically around the bottom of the cushion. The top wall 48 is positioned prior to Vfabrication substantially as shown and described for FIG. 4. However, a load distributing reinforcing metal band 52, of circular cross-section, is positioned at the open corner formed between the side wall 47 and the top wall 48. The joint is formed embedding the reinforcing band 52 within the joint as shown in the completed joint for the bottom wall 49 and side wall 47 at 50 with the reinforcing band 52 secured in position. The reinforcing band 52 is'also shown in FIG. 7 and extends about the perimeter of the top of the cushion and preferably around the base of the cushion. After fabrication of the cushion, a suitableY fabric or plastic covering 53 having conventional welts 54 may be placed over the urethane cushion. In sole instances, it has been found desirable to add a layer of down 55 directly over the top and possibly the bottom surfaces of the top and bottom walls and means is provided for retaining the down in position prior tothe application of an upholstered covering.

In the construction of chairs, sofas and couches, the foundation construction requires webbing to support the innerspring construction, padding over the innersprmg Construction and ultimately a loose cushion may be placed over the padding to provide the requisite cushioning for the chair or other upholstered piece of furniture. The construction of a sub-assembled unit, as more fully shown in FIGS. 9 through 11, will eliminate the costly labor consuming operations of providing the webbing, coil construction and padding conventionally employed for upholstered furniture. As shown in FIG. 9, the couch 60 is provided in the seat portion with laterally spaced-apart slats 61 that are mounted within a longitudinally extending frame 62. The back of the unit is similarly provided with laterally spaced apart slats 63 that reach from the base frame 64 to the top rail 65. A Prefabricated sub-cushion assembly seat 66 and subasscmbly back 67 may be readily mounted to the seat and back sections of the couch respectively by means of L-shaped hooks 68. Top surface cushions rnay then be placed over the sub-assembled units and supported in position, such as shown in FIG. 9.

The sub-assembled seat and back portions 66 and 67 are more clearly shown in FIGS. 10, 11 and 12 wherein a substantially rigid bottom wall member 68 formed of Masonite or plywood or other suitable semi-rigid material having the requisite physical characteristics, is utilized as the base for retaining rows and columns of the fabricencased coil springs 69. The side walls 70 of each subassembly form a box frame for enclosing the coil springs 69 over which the top wall of sheet urethane 71 is placed forming a joint comparable to that shown in FIGS. 1 through 5 at 72 resulting in rounded corners 73 bordering the sub-assembled cushion. The crowned surface for the top wall is achieved by compressing the peripheral springs and the extent of the crown will depend upon the height of the side walls and the compressability of the springs. As shown in FIG. 11, the bottom rigid wall 68 is iush with the side wall 70 permitting an upholstered fabric 74 to form an envelope about the cushion. The sub-assembled unit shown in FIG. 11 may be positioned as a back member 75 shown in FIG. l0 mounted to the inclined slats 63 supported by the rear frame 76 of the sofa. In those instances where an additional lip or reinforcing edge is necessary for the seat portion, the subassembly 77 for the seat portion may be provided wherein the top and side walls are formed substantially as shown in FIG. 11 with the bottom wall 78 being of substantially rigid material and provided with a plurality of spaced openings enabling air to enter and escape from the inner cavity 80 in which the coils are contained. The covering fabric 81 may be suitably tacked to the bottom wall or adhesively secured thereto. The sub-assembly seat 77 is shown secured to the slats 61 in FIG. l0.

Loose surface cushions of the desired length, width and height, similar to those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, may be positioned as seat cushions 82 and back cushions 83 on the sofa 66.

In the event a reinforcing canvas member 84 is necessary to protect the urethane top wall 71, this member may be rnade of nylon mesh or other suitable material.

It will be appreciated that cushions embodying these various inventions may be made of the desired length and Width and that the term cushion is not intended in any limitative sense but is equally applicable to mattresses and innerspring constructions for various uses.

Various modifications and variations may be made in the various embodiments disclosed of this invention and such modications and variations are contemplated within the spirit and purpose of this invention. Such modifications and variations are contemplated Within the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A construction for a cushion or mattress comprising an encasing structure having bottom, top and side Walls of sheet urethane defining a completely enclosed spring-receiving cavity, at least said top and side walls having their edge thicknesses contiguously sealed together forming a rounded perimetrical edge concealing the sheet thickness, a reinforcing load distributing band embedded in the perimetrical edge, and a plurality of fabric-encased coil springs contiguous to each other filling said cavity arranged in rows and columns whereby a load applied adjacent to the perimetrical edges distributed through the band to springs remote from the applied load.

2. A construction for a cushion or mattress comprising an encasing structure having bottom, top and side walls of sheet urethane defining a completely enclosed springreceiving cavity, at least said top and side walls having their edge thicknesses contiguously joined together to form a perimetrical edge concealing the sheet thickness, a reinforcing load distributing metal band extending perimetrically around the joint formed between at least the top and side walls and concealed therewithin, and a plurality of fabric-encased coil springs contiguous to each other filling said cavity whereby load applied adjacent to the perimetrical edge is distributed through the metal band to springs remote from the applied load.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,239,457 4/41 Gibbons 5-361 2,359,003 9/44 Sawyer 5--353 X 2,858,881 11/58 Newall et al. 5-361 X 2,862,214 12/58 Thompson et al 5-353 2,874,758 2/59 Jones 5-337 X FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. A CONSTRUCTION FOR A CUSHION OR MATTRESS COMPRISING AN ENCASING STRUCTURE HAVING BOTTOM, TOP AND SIDE WALLS OF SHEET URETHANE DEFINING A COMPLETELY ENCLOSED SPRING-RECEIVING CAVITY, AT LEAST SAID TOP AND SIDE WALLS HAVING THEIR EDGE THICKNESS CONTIGUOUSLY SEALED TOGETHER FORMING A ROUNDED PERIMETRICAL EDGE CONCEALING THE SHEET THICKNESS, A REINFORCING LOAD DISTRIBUTING BAND EMBEDDED IN THE PERIMETRICAL EDGE, AND A PLURALITY OF FABRIC-ENCASED COIL SPRINGS CONTIGUOUS TO EACH OTHER FILLING SAID CAVITY ARRANGED IN ROWS AND COLUMNS WHEREBY A LOAD APPLIED ADJACENT TO THE PERIMETRICAL EDGES DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THE BAND TO SPRINGS REMOTE FROM THE APPLIED LOAD.

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