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US 4,451,085 AGranted
Chair
AssigneeWilkhahn & Hahne GmbH & Company
InventorsKlaus Franck, Werner Sauer
Life of this patent
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AssigneeWilkhahn & Hahne GmbH & Company
InventorsKlaus Franck, Werner Sauer
Estimating the term…
A reclining article of furniture for sitting, especially an office chair, with the article including a seat portion and a back portion articulated thereto. The seat portion and back portion are respectively connected to an underframe. The seat portion is supported in a forward zone and the back portion is supported by a supporting lever articulated to the underframe and articulated to the back portion at hip level of a user. To obtain a support which is also effective in the zone of the lumbodorsal vertebrae and to provide a close contact of the supporting surfaces with the users body. The contact is uniform in the rest position approximately from a back of the knees up to the shoulder blades. The seat and back merge through an arcuate intermediate section which is flexible so that the arc becomes wider. A connecting line extending between two points of articulation of the supporting lever in a basic position of the chair is inclined at an angle of between 0.degree. and 25.degree. and, preferably, between 15.degree. and 25.degree., with respect to the vertical. By virtue of these features, the seat surface is initially lengthened toward a rear before a stronger rearward inclination of the back occurs when the seat is moved from an upright sitting attitude to a reclined attitude.
A reclinable article of sitting furniture comprising a support means for supporting the article, a seat portion, a back portion, means for mounting a forward area of the seat portion on the support means, and lever means for mounting the back portion on the support means, the lever means has a first end articulated to the back portion and a second end articulated to the support means, characterized in that an arcuate flexible intermediate means is interposed between the seat portion and the back portion connecting the seat and back portions together, the flexible intermediate means is adapted to be flexed such that the arc becomes wider when the intermediate means is flexed, the first end of the lever means is articulated to the back portion at approximately hip level of a user of the article, the second end of the lever means is articulated to the support means at a point below and approximately at a center of the seat portion, and in that a line connecting the points of articulation of the lever means to the back portion and support means subtends, with respect to a vertical plane, a predetermined angle in the range of between 0.degree. and 25.degree. when the article is in a basic upright position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.