Patient chair with quaternary spring motion

Abstract

A patient chair has a support pedestal with a pair of front legs, a pair of rear legs, a pair of side members, a rear frame member connecting the two rear legs and a cross member connecting the side members at a location between the front and rear legs. A pair of leaf springs is attached to the underside of the cross member with portions thereof extending forwardly and rearwardly therefrom in a substantially horizontal manner. Each leaf spring includes a U-shaped bight or loop portion at the forwardmost extremity of the leaf spring coupling the forwardly extending portion with a horizontal overlying portion which passes over the cross member and extends rearwardly therefrom terminating in an orthogonally generally upwardly extending back support portion. A seat is fastened to the horizontal overlying portion of each leaf spring for receiving and supporting a chair occupant. Each leaf spring is provided with two spaced apart resilient members which are fixed to the chair and engage the horizontal overlying portion when the seat is supporting a load. The resilient members contribute to the spring action opposing closing of the U, but not to the spring effect opposing opening of the U.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.