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US 6,644,749 B2Granted
Office chair
AssigneeHerman Miller, Inc.
InventorsDouglas M. VanDeRiet, Jeffrey R. Oberlin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A modular arm rest system for a chair. The arm rest includes a connecting member that is installed into an interior cavity in the chair frame and is retained by a nose. A back is also provided with an arm rest hole that the connecting member can be installed through, thereby securing the back to the chair frame. The modular system includes a reclining chair and a four-legged stacker chair with arm rests and plugs so that the chairs can be reconfigured as desired by the user.
Claims48
A chair comprising:
- a back having a hole, a frame received through said hole wherein said frame comprises an interior cavity, an arm rest comprising a connecting member received through said hole and into said interior cavity, and a nose connecting said connecting member to said frame and thereby locking said arm rest to said chair;
- wherein said hole in said back comprises a ledge with a bottom surface and a top surface, said connecting member comprises a frame stop surface and a back stop surface, said frame comprises a top mounting surface;
- wherein said bottom surface of said ledge abuts said top mounting surface, said frame stop surface is adjacent to and/or abuts said top mounting surface, and said back stop surface is adjacent to and/or abuts said top surface of said ledge.
A chair comprising:
- a back having a hole, a frame received through said hole wherein said frame comprises an interior cavity, an arm rest comprising a connecting member received through said hole and into said interior cavity, and a nose connecting said connecting member to said frame and thereby locking said arm rest to said chair;
- wherein said connecting member comprises tapered surfaces and said interior cavity comprises corresponding tapered surfaces.
A chair comprising:
- a back having a hole, a frame received through said hole wherein said frame comprises an interior cavity, an arm rest comprising a connecting member received through said hole and into said interior cavity, and a nose connecting said connecting member to said frame and thereby locking said arm rest to said chair;
- wherein said nose engages a receiver thereby locking said connecting member to said frame;
- wherein said nose and said receiver are misaligned from each other by a first offset distance in a first installed position with one being offset from the other;
- wherein said nose and said receiver are misaligned by a second offset distance in a second installed position, said second offset distance being less than said first offset distance.
1 more element
A chair comprising:
- a back having a hole, a frame received through said hole wherein said frame comprises an interior cavity, an arm rest comprising a connecting member received through said hole and into said interior cavity, and a nose connecting said connecting member to said frame and thereby locking said arm rest to said chair;
- wherein said frame comprises an anti-rotation slot and said connecting member comprises an anti-rotation tab received by said anti-rotation slot thereby restraining rotation of said connecting member.
A chair comprising:
- a back having a hole, a frame received through said hole wherein said frame comprises an interior cavity, an arm rest comprising a connecting member received through said hole and into said interior cavity, and a nose connecting said connecting member to said frame and thereby locking said arm rest to said chair;
- further comprising an O-ring compressed between said connecting member and said interior cavity.
A chair comprising:
- a back having a hole, a frame received through said hole wherein said frame comprises an interior cavity, and a plug received through said hole and into said interior cavity;
- wherein said plug comprises a spring member attached to said plug along one end and cantilevered therefrom wherein said spring member is angled outward from said attached and cantilevered end and a detent nose is disposed along an unattached end of said spring member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.