Patent Application
20140131138
The present disclosure is directed to an apparatus upon which to sit or stand or support an object, and more specifically to foldable stools and step ladders.
There are commercial and residential uses for stools and step ladders of varying sizes. Problems inherent to all of these types of devices are storage, stability, and manufacturing costs, as well as “pinch points” associated with folding the devices.
A compact area for storing a stool or step ladder is important to its utility. The need to minimize the device's size for storage purposes often results in the stool becoming unstable and unsafe for use. While there is an ever present demand to lower manufacturing costs, the structural integrity of the apparatus should not be compromised. Thus, there is a need for a cost-effective, lightweight, foldable stool or step ladder that is stable and that can be stored in a compact manner.
Four-legged stools of the prior art are generally expensive to manufacture and are quite bulky, even in a folded or collapsed state. In addition, foldable stools with steps are typically bulkier and less stable or require a hinged top surface. Thus, there is a need for a significantly compact four-legged stool that provides one or more steps and is relatively light weight and easily portable.
It is thus one aspect of the present invention to provide a cost-effective, lightweight, portable stool. Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a folding stool that eliminates potential pinching of a user's fingers on the top surface of the stool when in a use configuration.
In one embodiment, this is accomplished by using a folding design that minimizes materials, reduces manufacturing costs, and is both lightweight and portable. It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a folding stool with two foldable side wall members, two nonfoldable side wall members, and a nonfoldable top wall member. A further aspect of the present invention is to minimize the width of the folding stool when in a folded configuration by having the front face of a front wall be coplanar with a top face of the top wall when in the folded configuration.
The present disclosure is directed to a folding step stool. The folding stool has trapezoidal sides including front and rear nonfolding side walls and left and right folding end walls. Each end wall includes first and second nonfolding half-walls and a hinge connecting these half-walls to each other. The folding stool includes a nonfolding top wall connected to the top of the front side wall by a hinge and a strut connected proximate the middle of the top wall at one end and proximate the top of the rear side wall at the other end. The top wall extends horizontally outwardly from the left and right end walls and rear side wall when the folding stool is in its unfolded configuration to rest upon the left and right end walls and rear side wall to support weight placed upon the folding stool. The folding stool folds so that the top face of the top wall is coplanar with the outer face of the front side wall when in the folded configuration.
The folding stool includes a nonfolding top wall 60 connected to the top of the front side wall 20 by a hinge 12 and a strut 80 connected proximate the middle of the top wall 60 at one end and proximate the top of the rear side wall 30 at the other end. Strut 80 may be connected to top wall 60 and rear side wall 30 by various means known in the art, such as a hinge mechanism. Hinge 12 comprises portions of the top wall 60 and front side wall 20 with a hinge pin 14 connecting the portions. Each of the left and right folding end walls 40, 50 is connected to each of the front and rear nonfolding side walls 20, 30 by corner hinges 70. Corner hinges 70 comprise portions of the adjoining side walls with a hinge pin 75 connecting the portions. The top wall 60 extends horizontally outwardly from the left and right end walls 40, 50 and rear side wall 30 when the folding stool 10 is in its unfolded configuration to rest upon the left and right end walls 40, 50 and rear side wall 30 to support weight placed upon the folding stool 10. The folding stool 10 folds so that the top face of the top wall 60 is coplanar with the outer face of the front side wall 20 when in the folded configuration.
To secure the folding stool 10 in configuration for use (i.e., the unfolded configuration), the top wall 60 includes stops 62 located outwardly from the left and right side walls 40, 50 and extending toward the bottom of the folding stool 10 when in the unfolded configuration to prevent the right and left side walls 40, 50 from extending beyond the left and right extremities of the top wall 60. To further secure the folding stool 10 in configuration for use, the rear side wall 30 and top wall 60 fasten by one or more means. For example, the rear side wall 30 may have one or more protrusions 32 that lodge within associated apertures 64 of the top wall. The fastening means may also include protrusions on the rear side wall that wedge against protrusions on the top wall. When in the folded configuration, the top face 66 of nonfolding top wall 60 is substantially coplanar with the front face 26 of the nonfolding front side wall 20.
Other embodiments of the disclosure are possible. Although the description above contains much specificity, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure, but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this disclosure. It is also contemplated that various combinations or sub-combinations of the specific features and aspects of the embodiments may be made and still fall within the scope of the present disclosure. It should be understood that various features and aspects of the disclosed embodiments can be combined with or substituted for one another in order to form varying modes of the disclosed embodiments of the disclosure. Thus, it is intended that the scope of the present disclosure herein disclosed should not be limited by the particular disclosed embodiments described above.
Thus the scope of this disclosure should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents. Therefore, it will be appreciated that the scope of the present disclosure fully encompasses other embodiments which may become obvious to those skilled in the art, and that the scope of the present disclosure is accordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, in which reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one or more.” All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the above-described preferred embodiment(s) that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for a device or method to address each and every problem sought to be solved by the present disclosure, for it to be encompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 29/437,360 entitled Step Stool, filed Nov. 15, 2012, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 29437360 | Nov 2012 | US |
| Child | 13836509 | US |
