WO2021140520A1

WO2021140520A1 - A modular tool-less furniture assembly

Info

Publication number: WO2021140520A1
Application number: PCT/IN2020/050678
Authority: WO
Inventors: Apoorva BAHETI
Original assignee: Satisfaction Products Private Limited
Priority date: 2020-01-06
Filing date: 2020-07-31
Publication date: 2021-07-15

Abstract

Disclosed herein a tool-free modular furniture employed with a portable storage unit. The said furniture is assembled using complementary interlocking mechanism, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally.

Description

A MODULAR TOOL-LESS FURNITURE ASSEMBLY

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a modular furniture assembly capable of getting assembled, disassembled and re-assembled easily in no time. More particularly, the present invention relates to a tool-free modular furniture employed with a portable storage unit.

Background of the Invention

Historically, furniture has been manufactured and bought by consumers in a fully assembled and upholstered state. Such Furniture furnishings tends to be heavy and bulky, making it tough to elevate and maneuver, both for the duration of manufacture and delivery of the Furniture. Such Furniture is likewise often tough to save in a warehouse as it takes up a good deal of space. Furthermore, it could be difficult to deliver to customers, and may even be not possible to supply to some customers because of the dimensional constraints of their doorways, hallways, Stair ways, etc. Finally, the shipping prices associated with such fixtures has a tendency to be quite expensive due to the fact the furniture is so massive and cumbersome.

To keep the fasteners away from strain, avoid the parts movement of the assembly and the aesthetically unpleasing appearance of the gaps, furniture objects are generally assembled at the assembling sites to make sure that the individual parts are nicely assembled and upholstered with minimal interspace gaps. But in the current scenario, it requires a specific skillset possessed by a person to assemble a furniture and the assembling work is labor intensive as it involves various tools for assembly, hinge mechanism has always been a prominent part of any furniture, whether be it for joining different components of the furniture or for providing storage space, thus further increasing the furniture cost and complexity. In addition to the above points, when one particular part of the furniture gets damaged then instead of repairing or replacing that part, the entire furniture has to be replaced at homes.

The downside furniture assembly at the production line is that the regular state of the amassed seating furniture commonly counteracts effective pressing of the furniture for transport. Contingent upon the shape and size of the furniture, the pressing of the furniture can bring about a lot of dead space inside the transportation compartment or truck. Notwithstanding but expanding the expense of transportation, the dead space can enable the furniture to move during transport and may bring about dangers. Despite the fact that the furniture can be boxed for shipment, the molded cross-area makes part of the case that are unsupported and liable to crumple harming the container and hidden furniture. The clumsy moving and situating the furniture can cause damage to the movers and additionally harm to the furnishings or the structure of the furniture.

There have been many tool-less furniture already available in the market, but none of them are capable of maintaining the same or even better mechanical strength along with a proper stability in the structure. It has been observed that a lot of time was being unnecessarily consumed while assembling the conventional tool-less furniture and still not able to give a perfect shape and configuration to the furniture.

US8777319B2 discloses an assembly system permitting separate construction and transport of subcomponents for seating furniture items. The disassembled subcomponents allow for more efficient transportation by eliminating the dead space created by transporting irregularly shaped assembled furniture items. The assembly system includes a seat box having a rectangular frame defining an accessible internal cavity covered by an upper support surface. The assembly system also comprises a back rest having a seat box interface surface and at least arm rest interface surface. The back rest also defines an internal cavity accessible through closable opening for internal access to the arm rest interface surfaces. The assembly system also includes mounting an interface surface to the arm rest for securing the arm rest to the arm rest interface surface of the back rest and the rectangular frame of the seat box.

US20050179303A1 discloses unique brackets, which form a bracket assembly that may be placed at any location of various components to form an assembly piece, such as furniture. An assembled furniture piece made of furniture panels interconnected with attached engaging and receiving brackets is provided. The engaging and receiving brackets are positioned on components to facilitate the connection of the components. A method to assemble furniture having preformed arm, base, seat and back components is provided. This method of assembly saves on shipment costs, and facilitates the repair of damaged furniture.

US7922253B2 concerns a furniture which solves the problems of the prior art by providing a furniture that can easily be assembled or disassembled by the end consumer at home. The disassembled furniture can be stored in 3 flat boxes. Storage in the flat boxes not only helps the warehouse to store the furniture, but when the end user has purchased the furniture it is easier in such flat boxes to transport it to the location where it will be assembled. The way this invention accomplishes these results is as follows: The parts of the furniture can be broken down into three boxes. Chaise sections can be assembled by placing the seat back flat on the ground and placing the seat frame/arm upright on top of the seat back. A metal threaded rod is used to connect the seat frame and the seat back. A metal nut is used to secure the seat frame to the back using a wrench that comes provided in the package of the kit. The legs are then twisted onto the bottom of the seat frame. The Chaise can be assembled in a left handed or right handed configuration. There is also a love seat portion and an ottoman portion. The love seat portion can also be assembled in a left handed or right handed configuration. US5738414A discloses a modular furniture assembly comprising interconnected frame, back, and arms. The frame has walls mounting the back and arms. The frame walls include flanges and the back and arms include slits, with each flange being slidably received in a corresponding slit to secure the back and arms to the walls. Another aspect involves the covering which is disposed over components of the modular furniture. A component body has an exterior surface over which a covering extends. The body includes a channel and the covering includes a strip having a size and shape approximately matching the internal contour of the channel. The strip easily slides into the channel to secure the covering over the outer contour, while the channel configuration prevents the movement of the strip except in the sliding direction.

As detailed above, there are various solutions that have been provided according to the existing arts, however, still there are challenges existing because of the complex arrangement and weak structure of the assembly which leads to difficulty in maintaining the mechanical strength, saving the cost and making the furniture installation user friendly. Further, because of the continuous use of furniture in the existing structural arrangement of furniture assembly for even a short period of time, the durability is reduced.

It is, therefore, important to work on the alternative solution to develop an improved tool-less furniture assembly which obviates the complexity and challenges of the prior arts and provide easy to install and time-saving assembly, and additional joinery strength.

Summary of the Invention

It is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture capable of getting assembled, disassembled and re-assembled again without using any tools.

It is an objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture having tubular structure capable of getting attached interfacially through overlapping, thus helping the furniture to achieve high mechanical strength and durability.

It is an objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture wherein their components are configured to get fastened in such a manner that the entire assembly stays stable irrespective of the receiving weight and random movement. It is an another objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture wherein joining components are joined at such positions that it is capable of maintaining and distributing weight balance uniformly.

It is an objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture with a storage unit hingelessly supported by other components of the furniture.

It is an yet an another objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture that requires minimum efforts and skillset to assemble the furniture, therefore, a lot more user friendly.

It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture that is easily transportable in an easy flat packed arrangement.

It is an objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture manufactured in an eco-friendly manner.

It is yet an objective of the present invention to provide a tool-less modular furniture capable of getting modified and changed, even its fundamental components can be changed by the end user in order to have an alternate look and feel at any point of time.

The above and other objectives of the present invention are achieved according to the following embodiments of the present invention. However, the disclosed embodiments are exemplary based on the preferred and best mode of the invention and not limit the scope of the present invention.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein said a seat base locking mechanism is performed via an infixing mechanism.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein a front tie member configured to join both the side armrest forming the front bottom portion of furniture.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein said side armrest and backrest have tubular structure that are modularly insertable with each other into their corresponding passage, and are made to overlap interfacially with each other to enhance the mechanical strength of furniture.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein said backrest is bilayer arranged angularly to enable better interlocking with side armrest.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein said joinery is rotatably fixed at one part and invertedly U-shaped cut configured to get hooked with the protrusion of the side armrest.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein side armrest is replaceable and customizable with any other design and shape.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein said furniture is customizable to have multiple seats.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein the backrest, armrests, storage unit and seat base are capable of getting packed in the minimum volume.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modular tool less furniture comprises of a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm, a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking, a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery, a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally and wherein the seat base and backrest is mutually designed to accommodate the seat base within the backrest.

These and other objectives and embodiments of the invention will become more fully apparent when the following detailed description is read with the accompanying figures and examples. However, both the foregoing summary of the invention and the following detailed description of it represent one potential experiments and embodiment and are not restrictive of the invention or other alternate embodiments of the invention.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The disclosed embodiments of the invention are depicted in the accompanying drawing. The embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate the disclosure. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments; on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

Figure 1 shows the furniture’s complete structure after modularly joining all its components. Figure 2A illustrates the joining of side armrest with its corresponding parts of the furniture. Figure 2B illustrates the interlocking mechanism between the backrest and side armrest. Figure 3A and 3B shows the positions of connecting equipment with the seat base.

Figure 4A, 4B and 4C illustrates the infixing of connecting equipment with the side armrest. Figure 5 illustrates the housing of seat base into backrest.

Detailed Description of the Invention

The following is a detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure depicted in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate the disclosure. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments; on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

Various terms as used herein in the invention is not defined and it should be given the broadest definition persons in the pertinent art have given that term as reflected in printed publications and issued patents at the time of filing.

In the description herein, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details.

The term ‘complementary’ according to the present invention define as affixing the joinery with the protrusion.

The term ‘infixing’ according to the present invention refers to the affixing of clamp onto the receiving component 110 joining the seat base 104 and side armrests 102.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, wherein the backrest is angularly designed to house seat base to minimize the packaging volume for the transportation of the furniture. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the different components of the furniture such as backrests, armrests, seat base and storage unit are designed in such a manner that they are configurably packed in the minimum volume for transportation.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, seat base and backrest have been mutually designed to minimize the volume for transportation as the seat base is configured to get accommodated inside the hollow portion of backrest at the time of packing.

Figure 1 shows the entirely assembled modular tool-less furniture that comprises of a backrest 101 provided with a hanging rectangular frame 108 making an angle less than 90° but more than 0° with said backrest 101 , wherein vertical portion 108a of said hanging square frame

108 and backrest 101 are joined by a joinery 107, wherein said joinery 107 comprises of a bar 107a (fig. 2) fixedly connected with the vertical portion 108a of hanging rectangular frame 108 that performs function of maintaining a fixed required angle between backrest 101 and vertical portion 108a of said hanging square frame 108, and a rotatable locker 107b (fig. 2) inter-joining the backrest 101 and side armrest 102 by getting complementarily fixed in the protrusion 107c in side armrest for holding the side armrest 102 and backrest 101 , wherein said joinery 107b has an inverted angularly U-shape cut which is further helping in the complementary affixing of rotatable locker 107b with the protrusion 107c, wherein side armrest has a horizontal beam

109 further employed with a receiving equipment 110 to receive the seat base 104, wherein seat base 104 is easy to open which is hingelessly supported by the side armrest 102 via an infixing mechanism, wherein said receiving equipment 110 is further downwardly extended using a vertical rod 106 to attach receiving equipment 110 and bottom portion of the side armrest. Apart from above, the horizontal beam 109, the vertical rod 106 and receiving equipment 110 are synergistically responsible for enhancing the structural strength and balance of the side armrest and ultimately the mechanical strength of furniture increases. A tie member 103 forming the front portion of the furniture and helping to join both the side armrests. The modular furniture is also employed with four legs 105 on its four corners, wherein said corners are front and rear end of side armrests, wherein said legs are easy to install and changeable as per the requirement by user.

Figure 2A illustrating the joinery mechanism among the side armrest 102, backrest 101 and tie member, wherein side armrest 102, backrest 101 and tie member 103 have tubular structure that are modularly insertable with each other into their corresponding passage i.e. 201a with 201b and 202a with 202b. The rotatable locker 107b is pulled up for setting the backrest and side armrest for joining. Figure 2B illustrating the mechanical positive engagement of backrest with side armrest with the help of joinery 107, wherein said joinery 107 comprises of a horizontal bar 107a (fig. 2A) fixedly connected with the vertical portion 108a of hanging rectangular frame 108(fig. 1) that performs function of maintaining a fixed required angle between backrest 101 and vertical portion 108a of said hanging square frame 108, and a rotatable locker 107b (fig. 2) inter-joining the backrest 101 and side armrest 102 by getting complementarily fixed in the inwardly protrusion 107c in side armrest 102 for holding the same with the backrest 101 thus creating a positive engagement to restrict any horizontal and vertical motion between said side armrest and backrest, wherein said locker 107b has an inverted angularly U-shape cut which is further helping in the complementary affixing of rotatable locker 107b onto the protrusion 107c to create a positive engagement.

Figure 3A and 3B illustrating the modular connection of attaching clamp 301 from one part onto the inner part of the seat base 104 located towards the backrest 101 , wherein said attaching clamp 301 from second part has an ability to get modularly secured by the receiving equipment 110 of the side armrest 102 that further enables the seating armrest to become easily fixable and openable via infixing mechanism.

Figure 4A shows the infixing mechanism performed by the attaching clamp 301 , wherein said second side of attaching clamp 301 is modularly attached to the receiving equipment 110, wherein said receiving equipment 110 comprises an inward pointing rigid surface(not shown in the figure) and a cylindrical protruded tightening component 402 & 403 to secure second part of attaching clamp, wherein said second part further comprises of a cavity (not shown in the figure) configured to get capped onto the inward pointing rigid surface (not shown in the figure) and an inverted U-shape 403 is configured to be fastened onto the tightening component 402 & 403, wherein said tightening component comprises of a fixed cylindrical protrusion 403 coupled with a movable tightening member 402, wherein the angularly cut inverted U-shape 401 is received by said fixed cylindrical protrusion 403 and further tightened by moving up the movable tightening member 402 (as shown in figure 4B), then said tightening member 402 is placed back to its down position (as shown in figure 4C), the seat base 104 is now capable of getting opened as per the requirement of user after the modular connection of attaching clamp 301 with the receiving equipment 110 of the side armrest 102.

Figure 5 illustrates the seat base 104 housing into the angularly designed backrest 101 to minimize the packaging volume. Along with the above design, the different components of the furniture such as backrests 101 , armrests 102, seat base 104 are designed in such a manner that they are configurably packed in the minimum volume for transportation. Seat base 104 and backrest 101 have been mutually designed to minimize the volume for transportation as the seat base is configured to get accommodated inside the hollow portion 500 of backrest at the time of packing.

While the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, some embodiments have been illustrated by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail above. The intention, however, is not to limit the invention by those examples and the invention is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives to the embodiments described in this specification.

The embodiments in the specification are described in a progressive manner and focus of description in each embodiment is the difference from other embodiments. For same or similar parts of each embodiment, reference may be made to each other.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above description was in respect of preferred embodiments and that various alterations and modifications are possible within the broad scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention with the necessary modifications.

Based on the description of disclosed embodiments, persons skilled in the art can implement or apply the present disclosure. Various modifications of the embodiments are apparent to persons skilled in the art, and general principles defined in the specification can be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments in the specification but intends to cover the most extensive scope consistent with the principle and the novel features disclosed in the specification.

Claims

We claim:

1 . A modular tool-less furniture comprises: a backrest consisting of moveably fixed joinery configured to join a side arm; a left side armrest and a right side armrest employed with an protrusion configured to secure the joinery of backrest for complementary interlocking; a storage unit is formed by modularly arrangement of front part, side armrest, back rest and a base plate, wherein said arrangement is performed without employing any joinery; a seat base having a flexible clamp configured to clamped with side armrest and adapted to pull up and down the seat to open and close the storage, wherein said complementary interlocking between the backrest and side armrest is performed centrally.

2. The furniture as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said a seat base locking mechanism is performed via an infixing mechanism.

3. The furniture as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a front tie member configured to join both the side armrest forming the front bottom portion of furniture.

4. The furniture as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said side armrest and backrest have tubular structure that are modularly insertable with each other into their corresponding passage, and are made to overlap interfacially with each other to enhance the mechanical strength of furniture.

5. The furniture as claimed in claim, wherein said backrest is bilayer arranged angularly to enable better interlocking with side armrest.

6. The furniture as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said joinery is rotatably fixed at one part and invertedly U-shaped cut configured to get hooked with the protrusion of the side armrest.

7. The furniture as claimed in claim 1 , wherein side armrest is replaceable and customizable with any other design and shape.

8. The furniture as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said furniture is customizable to have multiple seats.

9. The furniture as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the backrest is angularly designed to house seat base to minimize the packaging volume.