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US 4,905,331 AGranted
Watermattress
OwnerArthur A. Hochschild, IIIinventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerArthur A. Hochschild, IIIinventor
Estimating the term…
An improved waterbed structure including an upwardly opening frame with a horizontal watermattress supporting platform and vertical longitudinally and laterally extending upwardly projecting side and end retaining boards about the perimeter of the platform, a waterfilled watermattress of soft flexible sheet plastic material with a bottom wall supported atop the platform, side and end walls supported by the side and end boards and a normally substantially flat horizontal user supporting top wall. The watermattress includes a multiplicity of longitudinally and laterally spaced elongate vertically extending and downwardly tapering support spring parts of soft resilient interconnected cellular material in load supporting relationship between the top and bottom walls. The support spring parts are shaped springs that afford progressively greater vertical load supporting force as they are compressed and are positioned within those portions of the watermattress where supplemental vertical load carrying capacity is advantageously afforded. Water within the parts controls their spring rate as it is expressed from and drawn into those parts upon compression and relaxation thereof. The downwardly tapered parts work to notably impede lateral movement of water and absorb wave motion energy within the upper portion of the watermattress while affording no appreciable resistance to the free movement and distribution of water throughout the lower portion thereof.
A waterbed structure with vertical, longitudinal and lateral axes and including a waterfilled watermattress made of flexible sheet plastic material and defining a flat horizontal bottom wall, a normally substantially flat horizontal top wall in vertical spaced relationship above the bottom wall, laterally spaced vertical longitudinally extending side walls and longitudinally spaced laterally extending vertical end walls, a frame structure below and about the perimeter of the mattress supporting the bottom wall and including side and end boards retaining the side and end walls, said watermattress including a multiplicity of laterally and longitudinaly spaced elongate vertically extending axially compressible support spring parts in reactive relationship with and between the top and bottom walls and normally reacting between those walls to yieldingly support the top wall up and in predetermined normal spaced relationship above the bottom wall, the support spring parts being downwardly convergent shaped spring parts made of soft resilient water permeable. Interconnected cellular material, each part functioning to exert exponentially greater vertical load supporting force on the top wall upon progressive downward displacement of the portion of the top wall above it and corresponding axial compression of said part.
In combination, a water-filled bladder-like watermattress with a stationary horizontal bottom wall and a flexible downwardly displaceable horizontal top wall that is normally in predetermined spaced relationship above the bottom wall;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.