Selectively cooled or heated cushion and apparatus therefor
OwnerSteve Feherinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cushion (10, 12) has a plenum (16) which includes a plurality of flexible plastic woven tubes (34) held within a pair of similarly woven sheathes (38,40). The plenum has its sides and bottom covered by an air impermeable (14) layer with the top covered by an air permeable layer (20). A low to medium density foam pad (19) is located between the plenum (16) and the top layer (20). Conditioned air is provided to the cushions (10,12) from a Stirling cycle heat pump (44).
Claims20
Variable temperature cushion apparatus, comprising:
- a cushion including,
- (a) a centrally located plenum having top, bottom and lateral sides constructed of intermeshed synthetic monofilament fibers forming a plurality of generally parallel tubes arranged side by side in single plane, the walls of which tubes are open-weave so that pressurized conditioned air received into the plenum can move along a relatively low back-pressure path lengthwise of the tubes and along a higher back-pressure path transversely of the tubes longitudinal axes, said tubes having sufficient transverse rigidity so as to be free from closing off to any significant extent during use,
- (b) an air and moisture impervious layer covering the bottom and lateral sides of the plenum, and
- (c) an air permeable foam sheet covering the top of the plenum;
- a ducting means mounted to extend through the air and moisture impervious layer to the plenum;
- and
- means releasably connected to the air ducting means for selectively cooling or heating a pressurized air stream including a Stirling cycle heat pump for cooling the pressurized air stream.
Variable temperature cushion apparatus, comprising:
- a cushion pad including
- (a) a plenum constructed of synthetic plastic monofilament fibers intermeshed and interwoven to form a plurality of generally parallel tubes arranged generally in a single plane, the walls of which tubes are open-weave so that throughout use pressurized conditioned air received into the plenum moves both readily along a relatively low back-pressure path lengthwise of each tube and along a higher back-pressure path transversely of the tubes longitudinal axes, first and second monofilament open-weave layers arranged on opposite sides of the plane of parallel tubes unitarily securing the parallel tubes together,
- (b) an air and moisture impervious layer covering the bottom and lateral sides of the plenum, and
- (c) an air permeable sheet covering the top of the plenum, said sheet being free from ridging from the underlying plenum tubes;
- air ducting means interconnected to the cushion pad plenum;
- and
- means releasably connected to the air ducting means for selectively cooling or heating a pressurized air stream to be applied via the air ducting means to the cushion plenum.
A cushion for receiving selectively variable temperature air which can withstand an individual sitting, leaning or lying thereupon without significantly closing off the ready transfer of the variable temperature air throughout any part of the cushion, comprising:
- plurality of individual hollow-center tubes arranged in a single plane to form a pad with the longitudinal axes of the tubes being arranged in mutually parallel relation, said tubes having sidewalls constructed of synthetic plastic fibers woven in an open-weave manner with the fibers at fiber crossover points being free to slide across one another maintaining the open-weave construction,
- open-weave synthetic plastic fiber layers the fibers of which are free to slide across one another securing the pad tubes in fixed predetermined spaced apart relation;
- an impermeable layer enclosing certain sides and bottom of the pad of tubes;
- and
- an air and vapor permeable foam layer covering the pad and connected to the impermeable layer sides.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.