US3495873A - Infant's chair - Google Patents

Description

F 7, 1970 c. o. HAMILTON ETAL 3,495,873

INFANTS 'cnun 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 18, 1968 INVENTORS N m A ..0 TA MS LEL Y CM E MMS 1 N H R G 0 o T SD M N O E M RDY A A Y A a R a Feb. 11, 1970 i 15. 01mm; 11, ET AL 3,495,873 v x nmm' s CHA IR I Filed April 18, 1968 Sheets-Sheet z INVENTORS CLARENCE -O. HAMILTON IE I fl DAVID s; GARCEAU 4 RAYMOND R. SPILMAN BY fMg ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,495,873 INFANTS CHAIR Clarence 0. Hamilton II and David S. Garceau, Columbus, Ind., and Raymond R. Spilman, Stamford, Conn.,

assignors to Hamilton Cosco, Inc., Columbus, Ind., a

corporation of Indiana Filed Apr. 18, 1968, Ser. No. 722,425 Int. Cl. A47d 1/00; A47c N02 US. Cl. 297-345 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An infants chair which is adjustable to different heights comprising a seat having a pair of upwardly projecting side arms and a back rest. A plurality of socket members are disposed on the lower face of the seat in fore and aft spaced relation. A first leg frame is swingably connected to one of said socket members and a second leg frame intersecting the plane of the first leg frame and pivotally connected thereto is removably connectable to the other of said socket members whereby the spacing between the connections of the two leg frames to the seat can be adjusted for adjusting the height of the seat.

Summary of the invention In accordance with one form of the invention, there is provided a seat having a back rest projecting upwardly from its rear edge and a pair of side arms projecting upwardly from its lateral edges. The lower face of the seat has mounted thereon a first socket member adjacent its rear edge, a second socket member adjacent its front edge, and a third socket member intermediate said first and second socket members. Conveniently, each of said socket members comprises a downwardly open, rearwardly angled channel.

A first leg frame is swingably mounted in said first socket member and a second leg frame is removably connectable to said second and third socket members. Said second leg frame intersects the plane of said first leg frame and is pivotally connected thereto at said intersection. In this manner, by changing the connection of said second leg frame between said second and third socket members, the fore and aft spacing between the connections of the leg frames to the seat can be adjusted for adjusting the height of said seat.

Desirably, each of said leg frames comprises a pair of diverging legs terminating at their lower ends in feet adapted to rest on a supporting surface. The inner ends of each of said feet are interconnected by a V-shaped runner lying in a plane disposed at an acute angle to the plane of its associated feet. With the leg frames in their position of adjustment to dispose the seat at its lowest height, the leg frame feet and runners will be disposed in positions to provide maximum contact between the leg frames and a supporting surface.

Description of the drawings The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention. In such drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of an infants chair embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation of the chair shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the chair shown in FIG. 1, and showing said chair in full lines in its lowered position and in dotted lines in its raised position; and

FIG. 4 is a horizontal section taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 1.

3,495,873 Patented Feb. 17, 1970 ice Detailed description of the preferred embodiment The embodiment of our chair shown in the drawings is adapted to be adjusted between a lowered position as shown in full lines in FIG. 3 wherein it can be used for example as an infants booster chair and a raised position as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 3 wherein it can be used for example as an infants car seat. To facilitate use of the chair as a car seat, means are provided for the reception of a conventional automobile seat belt for retaining it and the infant sitting therein in a fixed position on the automobile seat as will be more fully described hereinafter.

As shown, our chair comprises a seat 10 having an upwardly projecting back rest 12 along its rear edge and a pair of upwardly projecting side arms 14 along its lateral edges. Conveniently, said seat, back rest and side arms can be formed as a unitary plastic molding, and can thus be integrally interconnected with each other. As shown in FIG. 3, a pair of enlarged openings 15 are formed in the side arms 14 in transverse alignment with each other. Said openings are disposed sufficiently forward of the back rest 12 such that with an infant sitting on the seat 10 a conventional automobile seat belt can extend through the openings 15 in front of the infant for thus holding him in the chair and the chair on an automobile seat. Conveniently, a cushioned insert 16 can be mounted on .the seat 10 to enhance the comfort of the chair to the infant.

As shown in FIG. 4, a first pair of sockets 18 are formed on the bottom of the seat adjacent the rear thereof, a second pair of sockets 19 are formed on the bottom of said seat adjacent the front edge thereof, and a third pair of sockets 20 are formed on the bottom of the seat slightly rearwardly of the sockets 19. The sockets comprising each pair of sockets 18-20 are in the form of transversely aligned, laterally spaced, downwardly open channels which are angled rearwardly with respect to the seat. Conveniently, when the seat, back rest and side arms are formed as an integral molding, said sockets can be formed as integral parts of the molding.

The seat is supported on a pair of leg frames which can be economically made of rod stock. The front leg frame 22 is connected to the sockets 18 and comprises a pair of legs interconnected at their upper ends by a bight 23 swingably connected to the sockets 18. The upper portions 24 of each of the legs are parallel with each other, and the lower portions 26 of said legs diverge laterally outwardly. The lower ends of the leg portions 26 term1 nate in laterally inwardly projecting feet 28 whose inner ends are interconnected by a rearwardly extending V- shaped runner 30. As shown, the runner 30 lies in a plane at an acute angle to the plane of the leg portions 2 1 and 26. The rear leg frame 32 comprises a pair of legs interconnected by a transverse bight 34. The legs on the frame 32 which intersect the plane of the legs on frame 22, are formed from upper parallel portions 36 interconnected to lower outwardly diverging portions 38. The lower ends of the leg portions 38 terminate in laterally inwardly projecting feet 40 whose inner ends are interconnected by a forwardly extending V-shaped runner 42 lying in a plane which is at an acute angle to the leg portions 36 and 38. Intermediate their upper and lower portions, the leg frames 22 and 32 are flattened, as at 44 and said flattened portions overlap each other and are pivotally interconnected by pivot pins 46.

In order to adjust the height of the seat, the bight 34 on frame 32 is removably connectable to sockets 19 and 20. To this end, the spacing between the channel legs in each socket 18-20 is less than the diameter of the leg frame bights 23 and 34 so that said bights can be snapped into the sockets and be releasably retained therein by the inherent resiliency of sockets channel legs. Thus, as shown in full lines in FIG. 3, when the bight 34 is received in the sockets 19, the chair will be disposed in its lower posi= tion of adjustment, and when said bight is received in the sockets 20, it will be more closely spaced to the bight 18 of frame 22 to dispose the seat in its raised position of adjustment. As shown in FIG. 3, when the seat is in its lowered position of adjustment, the feet 28 and 40 and the runners 30 and 42 will be in positions to engage a supporting surface. Thus, if the chair is slid forwardly to the edge of a supporting surface, such as an adult chair, at least a portion of the rearwardly extending runner 30 will still be supported on that supporting surface even though the feet 28 may be disposed forwardly of the front edge of said supporting surface. This construction therefore gives the chair an added stability and reduces the possibiL ity of the chair being slid off the forward edge of any supporting surface such as an adult chair. Resilient snubbers 48 are also mounted on the feet 28 and 40 to reduce the tendency of the chair to slide along a supporting surface. As shown, the snubbers 48 have generally triangular cross-sections and are rotatably mounted on the feet 28 and 40 to thus provide a flattened downwardly presented surface for engagement with a supporting surface irrespective of the angle of the leg frames with respect to said supporting surface.

While the invention has been described as employing three sets of sockets on the seat for connection of the leg frames to thus provide two different positions of height adjustment, it is to be understood, of course, that additional sets of sockets may be employed to provide additional positions of height adjustment.

We claim:

1. An infants chair, comprising a seat having at least three socket members disposed in fore and aft spaced relation along its lower face, a first leg frame swingably connected at its upper end to one of said socket members, a second leg frame swingably connected at its upper end to another of said socket members and intersecting the plane of said first leg frame, means pivotally interconnecting said first and second leg frames, at least one of said leg frames being removably connectable to said socket members for adjusting the angle between said leg frames to thereby adjust the height of said seat, each of said leg frames having a pair of diverging legs terminating at their lower ends in a pair of transverse laterally spaced feet, and a V-shaped runner on each of said leg frames interconnecting the inner ends of the feet there-on, said runners being in planes disposed at acute angles to their associated legs.

2. The invention as set forth in claim 1 in which said runners project inwardly from said feet toward the center of the chair.

3. The invention as set forth in claim 1 with the addition that snubbers having generally triangular cross-sections are rotatably mounted on said feet.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,824,600 2/1958 Baumgardner 297345 XR 2,843,391 7/1958 Pelletier 108116 XR 3,006,688 10/1961 Ouellette 297I-" 3,022,037 2/ 1962 Stallard 248-421 3,033,511 5/1962 McAfee 248-421 3,201,172 8/1965 Bliss 297-445 3,302,276 2/ 1967 Williams, et ai.

BoBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner GLENN o. FINCH, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 108116; 248-421

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