CHAIR HANDLE AND HOOK

Abstract

A chair includes a seat and a back and a plurality of legs that together are adapted to support said seat and back. A through-opening opening in the back is configured as a hand hold to receive a user's hand to allow the chair to be manipulated. A through-opening in the back is configured to define an upward facing accessory hook. A method of hanging an accessory includes providing a chair having a seat and a back, and a through-opening in the chair back. The through-opening defines an upward facing finger that is adapted to engage a strap. An accessory is hung from the chair back by engaging a strap of the accessory with the finger.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a chair and, in particular, to a chair accessory.

Chairs (which includes stools) such as in an institutional setting, such as in schools, often require manual manipulation. By way of example only, some chairs are stackable to allow the chairs to be compressed into a stack when not in use to reduce their footprint for storage. In order to stack the chairs, the chairs need to be lifted and manipulated into a stack. Alternatively, chairs may be nestable to reduce their footprint for storage, or a task chair having castors to allow movement along the floor.

In institutional settings, such as in a classroom, it is desirable to provide facilities for storage or coats and other personal items.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a chair and, in particular, to a handle that allows the chair to be grasped with one hand and a hook that is adapted to support an article, such as a back-pack, coat, or the like. A chair, according to an aspect of the invention, includes a seat and a back and a plurality of legs that together are adapted to support said set and back. A through-opening opening in the back is configured as a hand hold to receive a user's hand to allow the chair to be manipulated. A through-opening in the back is configured to define an upward facing accessory hook.

The through-opening may be configured to receive a user's hand and to define an accessory hook combined in a unitary through-opening. The through-opening may be configured to receive a user's hand and accessory hook may be at an upper portion of said back and the back sloping rearward wherein neither the through-opening or an article hung from said hook will interfere with a user of the chair. The chair may be configured to be stackable, nestable or a task chair.

A method of hanging an accessory, according to an aspect of the invention, includes providing a chair having a seat and a back and a plurality of legs that together are adapted to support said set and back. A through-opening is defined in the chair back. The through-opening defines an upward facing finger that is adapted to engage a strap. An accessory is hung from the chair back by engaging a strap of the accessory with the finger.

The through-opening may also define a hand hold to facilitate manipulation of the chair. The chair may be configured to be stackable and the method include stacking the chair on another chair by grasping the through-opening

Aspects of the invention provide facilities for hanging personal belonging of each user at the user's chair. This not only keeps the personal belongings close to the user but allows the number of accessory hooks to be expanded as the number of user chairs are expanded. Also, a hand hold can be provided to allow easy manipulation of the chair. Both are provide in a unitary through-opening that can be provided for little or no extra cost to the chair manufacture.

According to an alternative embodiment, the chair further includes a swivel mechanism between the support assembly and leg assembly. This allows the student to turn to “face the focus” of the learning experience. This may be toward the direction from which the teacher is presenting, or the like. When the student leaves the chair, a spring returns support assembly 11 to its neutral position.

These and other objects, advantages, purposes and features of this invention will become apparent upon review of the following specification in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a chair according to an embodiment of the invention supporting an accessory, namely a backpack;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view taken from the front of the chair illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an elevation view taken from the rear of the chair illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an elevation view taken from the left side of the chair illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a perspective of a chair according to an alternative embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the chair in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of a rotation accommodation assembly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures, wherein the numbered elements in the following written description correspond to like-numbered elements in the figures. A chair 10 includes a seat 12 and a back 14. Seat 12 and back 14 are formed as a unitary support assembly 11 such as from plastic, acrylic, fiberglass, carbon fiber, or similar material. Chair 10 further includes a leg assembly 15 legs 16 which are configured to allow a plurality of chairs 10 to be stacked in order to minimize space for storage when not in use.

An opening 18 is formed in back 12. As can be seen by comparing FIG. 2 with FIG. 3, opening 18 passes entirely through back 12. Thus, opening 18 is a through-opening. Through-opening 18 has an upper portion 22 that is configured as a hand hold to receive a user's hand to allow the chair to be manipulated. This useful because the construction of chair 10 is light-weight and therefore relatively easy to stack. So a user engaging hand-hold 22 can manipulate the chair with a single hand in order to lift the chair for stacking and the like.

Through-opening 18 is further configured with an upward facing accessory finger 20 that defines an accessory hook. Upward facing finger 20 is configured to engage a strap 28 such as on a backpack 26, as shown in FIG. 1 or a coat loop or the like. Thus the accessory can be supported from said chair back by engaging a strap of the accessory with finger 20. It has been found that an accessory of considerable weight can be supported in this fashion without overturning the chair.

In the illustrated embodiment, through-opening 18 is configured to define hand hold 22 and accessory hook 20 in a unitary through-opening. However, benefits may be still be achieved by having the hand hold and accessory hook in separate through-openings. As best seen in FIG. 4, back 14 is sloped rearward at an upper portion 30 of the back. Neither the presence of through-opening 18 nor the presence of a strap around accessory hook 20 will be s nuisance to a chair user since through-opening 18 is at upper portion 30 of back 14 and will be spaced from a user's body. Also, the surface 24 surrounding through-opening 18 is rounded in order to provide a pleasing feel to a user of hand hold 22.

An alternative embodiment 110 of a chair includes a support assembly 11 and leg assembly 15 that are generally the same as for chair 10. But their configurations can vary as would be apparent to the skilled artisan. Chair 110 includes a swivel mechanism 30 that is positioned between support assembly 11 and leg assembly 15 and allows the user to rotate support assembly 11 with respect to leg assembly 15. In the illustrative embodiment, support assembly 11 can rotate approximately 60 degrees in each direction, but other values can be used. Stops 32 are positioned on the upper member 34 and lower member 36 of swivel mechanism 30. Stops are positioned to engage each other in order to limit the degree of rotation of swivel mechanism 30. A spring 38 returns swivel 30 to its neutral position regardless of direction of swivel. Spacers 40 may be positioned between swivel mechanism 30 and respective support assembly 11 and leg assembly 15. Spaces function to level the support assembly 11 with respect to leg assembly 15. Swivel mechanism 30 can be added to chair 10 or can be incorporated to its own support assembly and leg assembly.

Chair 110 allows the student to turn to “face the focus” of the learning experience. This may be toward the direction from which the teacher is presenting, or the like. When the student leaves the chair, spring 38 returns support assembly 11 to its neutral position.

Changes and modifications in the specifically described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the principles of the present invention which is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims, as interpreted according to the principles of patent law including the doctrine of equivalents.

Claims

1. A chair comprising: a seat and a back;a plurality of legs that together are adapted to support said set and back.a through-opening opening in said back that is configured as a hand hold to receive a user's hand to allow the chair to be manipulated; anda through-opening in said back that is configured to define an upward facing accessory hook.

2. The chair as claimed in claim 1 wherein said through-opening configured to receive a user's hand and said through-opening configured to define an accessory hook are combined in a unitary through-opening.

3. The chair as claimed in claim 1 wherein said through-opening configured to receive a user's hand and said through-opening configured to define an accessory hook are at an upper portion of said back and said back is sloping wherein neither the through-opening configured to receive a user's hand, said through-opening configured to define an accessory hook or an article hung from said hook will interfere with a user of the chair.

4. The chair as claimed in claim 1 wherein said seat and said back are jointly formed as a unitary seat assembly.

5. The chair as claimed in claim 1 wherein said legs are connected together as a leg assembly that is adapted to support said seat and said back.

6. The chair as claimed in claim 1 including a swivel assembly between said legs and said seat and said back, said swivel assembly adapted to facilitate rotational movement between said legs and said seat and said back.

7. The chair as claimed in claim 6 wherein said legs are connected together as a leg assembly, wherein said seat and said back are jointly formed as a unitary seat assembly and wherein said swivel assembly interconnects said leg assembly and said seat assembly.

8. The chair as claimed in claim 1 that is configured to be stackable, nestable or a task chair.

9. A method of hanging an accessory, comprising: providing a chair having a seat and a back;providing a through-opening in said chair back;said through-opening defining an upward facing finger that is adapted to engage a strap; andhanging an accessory from said chair back by engaging a strap of the accessory with said finger.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein said through-opening also defines a hand hold to facilitate manipulation of the chair.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein said chair is configured to be stackable and including stacking said chair on another chair by grasping said through-opening.