Chair and components
AssigneeFormway Furniture Limited
InventorsKent Wallace Parker, Martyn Walter Goodwin Collings, Wayne Douglas O'Hara, Aaron Michael Young, Paul James Stevenson, Gavin James Bateman, Kai Xi Lin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A chair support shell has an integral back portion, seat portion, and joining portion between the back portion and the seat portion. At least a major portion of the support shell comprises a compliant structure, the compliant structure having a plurality of cells interconnected by a plurality of resilient members. The compliant structure provides compliance in the seat portion, compliance in the back portion, and compliance in the joining portion. The compliant structure enables recline of the back portion relative to the seat portion.
Claims20
A chair comprising a base, a transom supported on the base, a seat portion and a back portion supported on the transom, and a rocking mechanism configured to enable the transom to rock forward and rearward relative to the base;
- the rocking mechanism comprising:
- a concave rock surface provided on the base;
- a convex rock surface operatively provided on the transom and arranged to be in rolling contact with the concave rock surface, the convex rock surface having a radius of curvature less than a radius of curvature of the concave rock surface;
- and
- complementary engagement features operatively provided on the transom and on the base;
- wherein the engagement features comprise a gear with a plurality of teeth on the transom and a curved array of recesses or teeth or both recesses and teeth on the base, wherein the gear is in rolling contact with the curved array of recesses or teeth or both recesses and teeth on the base, wherein at least one of the teeth of the gear is seated in a complementary recess or between the teeth or both in a complementary recess and between the teeth of the curved array when the transom is in a neutral position, and configured such that rocking the transom forward or rearwards moves the at least one of the teeth away from its seated position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.