Patent Application
20200023762
Priority is claimed of German patent application DE102018117399.7, filed Jul. 18, 2018, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety as if set forth at length.
The invention relates to a table device with a tabletop which is coupled to a support strut for purposes of support. The support strut may be braced directly against a wall or indirectly against a stand surface.
Table devices of the mentioned kind are used in the prior art as fixtures for stowing objects of various kinds. The known table devices however have the drawback that, when mounted in a train car or inside a touring bus, due to a fixed connection with the interior paneling of the train car or touring bus, they represent an impact edge for a person seated at the table in event of an abrupt acceleration, such as in particular a sudden braking maneuver of the respective vehicle, and may represent a clear danger of serious injury to that person depending on the forcefulness of the sudden acceleration acting as an impact.
The problem which the invention proposes to solve is therefore to create a table device for mounting inside a movable interior such as that of a train car, a ship, or a touring bus, in which a danger of injury to a person located in its vicinity during a sudden acceleration, especially in the direction of travel, is significantly reduced as compared to the known table devices.
For a table device of the kind mentioned at the outset, this problem is solved according to the invention in that the tabletop is fastened to a carrier platform provided with mechanical damping elements and is indirectly connected to the support strut across the mechanical damping elements.
Preferred embodiments of the invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims, whose elements act in the sense of a further improvement of the solution approach adopted by the invention.
In the table device according to the invention, thanks to its combination of features such that the tabletop is fastened to a carrier platform provided with mechanical damping elements and connected across the mechanical damping elements indirectly to the support strut, and in the event of a sudden acceleration of a person located in the vicinity of the table device, a dampening of the impact of the person against an edge of the respective tabletop is achieved in relation to the table device, so that there is a significant lessening of the risk of injury as compared to the rigidly suspended tabletops of the prior art.
According to a first preferred embodiment of the table device according to the invention, it is provided that the support strut, the carrier platform and the tabletop are oriented horizontally.
According to another preferred embodiment of the table device according to the invention, the damping elements are oriented horizontally on a carrier platform, in order to provide maximum effectiveness during an expected acceleration in the horizontal direction.
So as not to be an impediment and not present any risk of injury, and for protection against unwanted mechanical actions from the outside, the damping elements are preferably integrated inside respective recesses in a carrier platform.
As a rule, the tabletop of a table device according to the invention is rectangular in shape and has two mutually parallel oriented main side edges and two secondary side edges oriented parallel to each other and being shorter than the main side edges, and the damping elements are oriented perpendicular to the main side edges of the tabletop.
In order to bring about a uniform unidirectional dampening, preferably each time two damping elements for dampening an impact against a first one of the two main side edges are provided and each time two damping elements for dampening an impact against a second one of the two main side edges are provided.
According to a preferred embodiment, a first damping element of the two damping elements for dampening an impact against the first main side edge is arranged in the area of a first secondary side edge of the tabletop and a second damping element of the two damping elements for dampening an impact against the first main side edge is arranged in the area of a second secondary side edge of the tabletop.
Accordingly, a first damping element of the two damping elements for dampening an impact against the second main side edge is preferably arranged in the area of a first secondary side edge of the tabletop and a second damping element of the two damping elements for dampening an impact against the second main side edge is preferably arranged in the area of a second secondary side edge of the tabletop.
The nature of a damping element should be chosen according to the weight of a tabletop and the hardness of an expected impact of a person against the tabletop. Thus, for example, a damping element may be made of an elastic plastic material, and then the damping element is preferably long and narrow in configuration and mounted by form fitting in a long narrow cavity of the carrier platform.
According to one preferred embodiment of the table device according to the invention, a damping element is formed from an elastically or in elastically compressible damping body with undulating shape in the linear direction, which is inserted by form fitting into a long narrow cavity of the carrier platform.
According to another preferred embodiment of the table device according to the invention, a damping element is formed from a plastically compressible damping body with undulating shape in the linear direction, which is inserted by form fitting into a long narrow cavity of the carrier platform. Preferably, a plastic deformation occurs during a compression of the damping body only after a given defined strength of an impulse acting on an edge of the tabletop.
In general, a damping element may be formed by a spiral spring, a gas spring or a hydraulic spring, which is introduced with form fitting into a long narrow cavity of the carrier platform.
The table device according to the invention shall be explained in the following with the aid of a preferred embodiment, represented in the figures of the drawing. There are shown:
The table device 100 according to the invention as represented in
The damping elements 130, 131; 130′, 131′ are mounted horizontally oriented on a carrier platform 140 and are integrated inside a respective recess 132, 133; 132′, 133′ in the carrier platform 140.
The tabletop 110 is rectangular in shape and has two mutually parallel oriented main side edges 111, 112 and two secondary side edges 113, 114 oriented parallel to each other and being shorter than the main side edges 111, 112, and the damping elements 130, 131; 130′, 131′ are oriented perpendicular to the main side edges 111, 112 of the tabletop 110.
Each time two damping elements 130′, 131′ for dampening an impact of a person located in the vicinity of the table device 100 against a first one of the two main side edges 111, 112 are provided and each time two damping elements 130, 131 for dampening an impact of a person located in the vicinity of the table device 100 against a second one of the two main side edges 111, 112 are provided.
A first damping element 130′ of the two damping elements 130′, 131′ for dampening an impact against the first main side edge 111 is arranged in the area of a first secondary side edge 113 of the tabletop 110 and a second damping element 131′ of the two damping elements 130′, 131′ for dampening an impact against the first main side edge 111 is arranged in the area of a second secondary side edge 114 of the tabletop 110.
A first damping element 130 of the two damping elements 130, 131 for dampening an impact against the second main side edge 112 is arranged in the area of a first secondary side edge 113 of the tabletop 110 and a second damping element 131 of the two damping elements 130, 131 for dampening an impact against the second main side edge 112 is arranged in the area of a second secondary side edge 114 of the tabletop 110.
Each damping element 130, 131; 130′, 131′ is formed from an elastically compressible damping body with undulating shape in the linear direction, which is inserted by form fitting into a long narrow cavity 132, 133; 132′, 133′ of the carrier platform 140.
The above discussed exemplary embodiment of the invention serves merely for the purpose of a better understanding of the teaching of the invention as provided by the claims, which in itself is not limited by the exemplary embodiment.
The following is a list of reference numerals:
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2018 117 399.7 | Jul 2018 | DE | national |
