Patent Grant
10258149
The present application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application CN 201610907361.3 filed on Oct. 18, 2016 and to Chinese Patent Application CN 201720256059.6 filed on Mar. 16, 2017.
The present invention relates to office furniture, and in particular to a height-adjustable desktop device appropriate for persons of different heights or appropriate for working while sitting or standing.
With the development of society, the occurrence of occupational diseases is on the rise. Conventional office desks are constant in height; or, their height may be customized during manufacturing, but it is difficult to change the height once they are delivered. Office workers are very easy to have occupational diseases at their waist, back, neck or legs if they work on an office desk at the same height for a long period of time. Since such occupational diseases resulted from long-time sitting have troubled many workers, standing office or alternate sitting and standing office first becomes popular abroad. This office style has various advantages. Particularly, this office style may avoid the occurrence of some lumber and cervical spondylosis and also has a certain effect of losing weight. Research reports have indicated that this office style may also improve the working efficiency by 10% to 30%.
Due to the problem of inappropriate desktop height resulted from the change between the standing office and the sitting office, various height-adjustable desktop products have been provided. Chinese Patent Publication CN102715729B has disclosed a lifting desktop, wherein two support legs are in transmission connection to one another successively by a motor, a speed reducer and a screw so that the desktop is lifted electrically. With this technical solution, the lifting desktop is very compact in a folded state and will not influence the normal use of the original desk when it is placed on the desk. The height to be adjusted is freely selected by electrically or manually driving the screw, and it is thus convenient to change between the standing office and the sitting office. However, this technical solution has the disadvantage of low speed in lifting the desktop, due to the driving by the screw. Moreover, electrical driving is costly, whereas manually shaking the screw requires good physical fitness of a user.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,504,316B1 has disclosed a height adjustable desktop assembly. The technical solution of this patent includes a desktop support, a base frame, support frames which are provided between the desk support and the base frame and pivoted to each other in an X-shaped form, and hydraulic cylinders connected to the base frame and a position close to a middle portion of one support leg of the support frames. The technical solution of this U.S. patent also has various disadvantages: firstly, when the desktop is actuated from a folded state, the hydraulic cylinders provide limited assistance in lifting the desktop since they are approximately horizontally arranged, and additionally, it is difficult to manually lift the desktop due to the weight of objects on the desktop; and secondly, since it is difficult to completely unfold the desktop due to the presence of the central pivot in the middle of the X-shaped support frames, the structure is not compact and the normal use of the original desk is influenced. As far as the present applicant knew, European Patent Publication No. EP0937677A2 has disclosed scissor lifts. The lift includes two support legs crossing each other, wherein each of the support legs is provided with a roll end and a fixed pivot end; a connecting rod is pivoted onto one of the support legs; one end of the connecting robe is provided with a roller and resisted against the other support leg, while the other end thereof is pivoted to a piston rod; and, the other end of the piston rod is pivoted to the other support leg. In the technical solution, an upward thrust force is generated by a connecting rod under the action of the piston rod, so that an actuating assistance is provided to the lift during the actuation. However, since the piston rod is arranged between two support legs on a same side, there will be the following disadvantages: firstly, the lifting assistance to the lift is not satisfactory during the lifting process of the lift after actuation, because no sufficient torque is provided to the support legs; secondly, since the piston rod is arranged between two support legs on a same side, the maximum extension length of the piston rod is limited, and the lifting height of the lift is thus influenced; and thirdly, due to the arrangement of the connecting rod structure and the piston rod, the lift cannot be unfolded completely, resulting in poor structural compactness. Therefore, this technical solution cannot be applied to a lifting structure of a lifting desktop.
An objective of the present invention is to solve at least the problems and/or deficiencies and provide at least the advantages described hereinafter.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a lifting desktop with a compact structure. In view of the technical problems of the non-compact structure in a folded state, the difficulty in lifting the desktop resulted from small lifting assistance and the difficulty in actuation when completely folded, the structure of a base frame and the arrangement of support frame assemblies are improved to allow the panel of the desktop and the base frame to be folded completely. By improving the structure and connection arrangement of assistance assemblies, the desktop is allowed to obtain well assistance from the actuation in the folded state to the normal lifting, so that it is very easy to lift the desktop.
To solve the technical problems, particularly to solve the problem of structure compactness when the desktop is folded completely, the present invention provides a lifting desktop with a compact structure, including a desktop platform, a base frame below the desktop platform, and two sets of support frame assemblies, assistance assemblies and locking assemblies which are symmetrically arranged on two sides between the base frame and the desktop platform, wherein the base frame includes lower side-plates, and the desktop platform includes upper side-plates; each of the support frame assemblies includes two support legs which are pivoted to each other in scissors by a central pivot and spanned on two sides of the respective lower side-plate; each of the support legs has a fixed pivot end pivoted to the respective lower side-plate or upper side-plate and a free end movably connected to the opposite upper side-plate or lower side-plate on the same side; one end of each of the assistance assemblies is pivoted to the support leg on a side close to the free end, while the other end thereof is pivoted to the lower side-plate or upper side-plate on a side of the fixed pivot end of the same support leg; and, central slots for accommodating the central pivot are provided on the lower side-plates. With the separate arrangement of the support legs on two sides of the opposite lower side-plates and the arrangement of the central slots, the support frame assemblies are folded completely, and the whole lifting desktop is very flat, so that the lifting desktop is more compact and concise when placed on an original desktop and will not cause any adverse effect on the environment of the original desktop. The arrangement of the lifting desktop allows the office desk to adapt to persons of different heights or adapt to different office postures, so that the occurrence of occupational diseases is reduced and the working efficiency is improved.
In order to easily lift the completely folded lifting desktop, decrease the operating intensity of a user and realize easy lifting experience, preferably, each of the assistance assemblies includes an elastic element and an actuating lever at least pivoted to one end of the elastic element; the actuating lever is provided with a ram portion and an arm-of-force portion, a fulcrum pivot is provided on the arm-of-force portion, and the elastic element is pivoted onto the arm-of-force portion, so that a thrust force applied to the arm-of-force portion by the elastic element allows the ram portion to rotate about the fulcrum pivot towards a plane bearing the base frame or a bottom surface of the desktop platform; and, the elastic element includes a pneumatic cylinder, a hydraulic cylinder or a compression spring.
Specifically, in order to satisfy the requirement for more compact structure of the lifting desktop in the folded state and meet the requirement on the actuating torque and lifting force applied by the actuating lever to the desktop, the lifting desktop further includes a limiting pin for limiting the swing angle for the rotation of the actuating lever, and the swing angle of the actuating lever about the fulcrum pivot is 60° to 120°. Preferably, the swing angle of the actuating lever relative to the fulcrum pivot is 90°.
The movable connection at the free end of each of the support legs may be rolling connection of a roller and a plane. Preferably, a movable connection structure for the free end of each of the support legs includes an upper sliding chute provided on the upper side-plate, a lower sliding chute provided on the lower side-plate on the same side, and a sliding pin provided at the free end of the support leg. With the movable connection structure, the connection of the support legs and the upper side-plates or the lower side-plates is more reliable.
The lifting position of the lifting desktop may be continuously positioned at any position by the locking assemblies. However, in order to make the locking structure simpler and more reliable, the lifting and positioning of the present invention are realized by a stepped locking structure; moreover, in this solution, the stepped locking structure is arranged in accordance with the principle that the unit lifting height progressively increases stepwise or progressively decreases stepwise. With the structure, the desktop platform is allowed to have a large lifting height in the initial stage so that it is more convenient for preliminary adjustment; moreover, the progressive decrease of the lifting height allows the height adjustment in the later lifting stage to be more precise. Each of the locking assemblies includes a pin assembly arranged on the bottom surface of the desktop platform and a locking bar connected to the free end of the support leg; a number of locking pin holes are formed on the locking bar, and the locking pin holes are arranged at an equal interval B; and, the unit lifting height of the desktop is stepped: hn=R−√{square root over (R2−(R−nB)2)}−hn−1, where n is the step number, B is the interval between the locking pin holes and R is the half length of the support leg.
As another solution for the stepped locking structure for lifting and positioning in the present invention, the desktop platform is lifted equidistantly stepwise; each of the locking assemblies includes a pin assembly arranged on the bottom surface of the desktop platform and a locking bar connected to the free end of the support leg; a number of locking pin holes are formed on the locking bar, and the locking pin holes are arranged at an equal interval B: Bn=R−√{square root over (R2−(nh)2)}−Bn−1, where R is the half length of the support leg, h is the unit limiting height and n is the step number. The solution of equidistantly lifting the desktop platform stepwise is suitable for the height adjustment of the desktop for users of different heights in a sitting posture and also suitable for the height adjustment of the desktop in a standing posture.
When the support frame assemblies are folded to allow the bottom surface of the desktop platform to resist against the roller at the free end of the ram portion, a turning force will be generated since the elastic element pushes the actuating lever. In order to realize more reliable locking, when the desktop platform is subject to a large resilience force applied by the actuating lever after the support frame assemblies are completely folded, not only based on the locking effect generated by the fitting of the locking pin holes on the locking bar with a pin, and to solve the problem that it is difficult to lock the support frame assemblies in the completely folded state by a locking pin and locking pin holes since the interval between the non-equidistant locking pin holes on the locking bar is too small when the desktop is lifted equidistantly stepwise, each of the locking assemblies further includes a locking hook provided at a head end of a press plate of the pin assembly and a lock catch which is provided on the lower side-plate and corresponds to and adapts to the locking hook.
To solve the technical problems, particularly to solve the problem that it is difficult to actuate the lifting desktop after folded completely due to small actuating torque, the present invention provides a lifting desktop with a compact structure, including a desktop platform, a base frame below the desktop platform, and two sets of support frame assemblies and locking assemblies which are arranged between the desktop platform and the base frame, wherein a pneumatic cylinder and an actuating lever are provided between the desktop platform and the base frame; an upper end of the pneumatic cylinder is pivoted to the desktop platform; the actuating lever is a rod with obtuse corner consisting of an arm-of-force portion and a ram portion, and the actuating lever is pivoted onto the support frame assemblies by using its corner as a fulcrum pivot; a free end of the arm-of-force portion is pivoted to a lower end of the pneumatic cylinder; and, a free end of the ram portion can act on a bottom surface of the desktop platform in the starting stage of unfolding the support frame assemblies. In this technical solution, by using a rod with obtuse corner as an actuating lever structure and providing the actuating lever structure by using its corner as a fulcrum pivot, the lifting desktop is allowed to have a large torque in the completely folded state to lift the desktop platform, and the requirements of the compact fitting of the actuating lever in the folded state with the support frame assemblies and the compactness of the overall structure of the lifting desktop are satisfied.
As a preferred technical solution for solving the technical problem of completely folding the lifting desktop, the desktop platform includes upper side-plates separately arranged on two sides, and the base frame includes lower side-plates separately arranged on two sides; each of the support frame assemblies includes two support legs which are pivoted to each other in scissors by a central pivot and spanned on two sides of a lower side-plate of the base frame; each of the support legs has a fixed pivot end pivoted to the lower side-plate or upper side-plate and a free end movably connected to the opposite upper side-plate or lower side-plate on the same side; and, a central slot for accommodating the central pivot is provided in the middle of each of the lower side-plates. With the separate arrangement of the support legs on two sides of the opposite lower side-plates and the arrangement of the central slots, the support frame assemblies are allowed to be folded completely, and the whole lifting desktop is very flat, so that the lifting desktop is more compact and concise when placed on an original desktop.
In the technical solutions of the present invention, in view of the technical problems of the non-compact structure in a folded state, the difficulty in lifting the desktop resulted from small lifting assistance and the difficulty in actuation after complete unfolding, the structure of the base frame and the arrangement of the support frame assemblies are improved to allow the panel of the desktop and the base frame to be folded completely. By improving the structure and connection arrangement of the assistance assemblies, the desktop is allowed to obtain well assistance from the actuation in the folded state to the normal lifting, so that it is very easy to lift the desktop.
in which: 1: desktop platform; 11: upper support frame; 111: upper side-plate; 112: upper sliding chute; 12: desk panel; 2: base frame; 21: lower side-plate; 22: lower sliding chute; 23: central slot; 3: support frame assembly; 31: support leg; 311: fixed pivot end; 312: free end; 313: sliding pin; 32: balance bar; 33: central pivot; 4: assistance assembly; 41: elastic element; 42: actuating lever; 421: arm-of-force portion; 422: ram portion; 43: limiting pin; 44: roller; 45: fulcrum pivot; 5: locking assembly; 51: pin assembly; 511: press plate; 512: locking pin bracket; 513: locking pin; 514: return spring; 515: locking hook; 516: transverse pin; 52: locking bar; 521: locking pin hole; 53: lock catch; B: pin holes span; R: half length of the support leg; h: unit lifting height; and, n: step number.
The technical solutions of the present invention will be further described below by specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
There are two sets of support frame assemblies 3 which are provided between the upper side-plates 111 and the lower side-plates 21 on two sides, respectively. Each of the support frame assemblies 3 includes two support legs 31. Each of the support legs 31 is provided with a fixed pivot end 311 and a free end 312. The two support legs 31 on each side are crossly pivoted to each other in X-shaped scissors by a central pivot 33. The fixed pivot ends 311 of the two support legs 31 are pivoted to ends of the upper side-plate 111 and the lower side-plate 21 in a same direction, respectively, and are in up-and-down correspondence. The free ends 312 of the two support legs 31 in each side are movably connected to ends of the upper side-plate 111 and the lower side-plate 21 in another direction, respectively, and are in up-and-down correspondence. In this embodiment, an upper sliding chute 112 is provided on the upper side-plate 111 connected to the free end 312 of one support leg 31, a lower sliding chute 22 is provided on the lower side-plate 21 connected to the free end 312 of the other support leg 31, and sliding pins 313 are provided on the free ends 311 of both the support legs 31. The free end 312 of each support leg 31 is slidingly connected to the respective upper sliding chute 112 and lower sliding chute 22 through the sliding pin 313. When the support legs 31 are rotated about the central pivot 33 as an axis, the desktop platform 1 does an up-and-down lifting motion relative to the base frame 2, and the free ends 312 of the support legs 31 do a back-and-forth motion under the limit of the upper sliding chute 112 and the lower sliding chute 22. The lower side-plate 21 is a section bar having an L-shaped cross-section, the two support legs 31 of each of the support frame assemblies 3 are separated apart by a spacer and spanned on two sides of the respective lower side-plate 21, and a central slot 23 is formed in the middle of the lower side-plate 21. Referring to
With the very compact lifting structure, more effective assistance assemblies 4 are required to lift the desktop by a very small artificial force. Therefore, in this embodiment, the assistance assemblies 4 are arranged between the support legs 31 close to the free ends 312 and the upper side-plates 111 on a side of the fixed pivot end of the same support leg. With the arrangement of the assistance assemblies 4, the assistance assemblies 4 are allowed to generate a torque at both ends of the central pivot 33 of the support legs 31, so that the maximum torque is provided and the very effective assistance effect is realized. Moreover, with the arrangement of the assistance assemblies 4, when the support frame assemblies 3 are folded, the assistance assemblies 4 are nearly parallel to the upper side-plates 111 and the lower side-plates 21 to realize the compact folded structure. Each of the assistance assemblies 4 includes an elastic element 41 and an actuating lever 42. Since the elastic element 41 is approximately horizontally arranged when the support frame assemblies 3 are folded, the outward thrust force of the elastic element 41 is insufficient to apply an upward force to the support legs 31. With the arrangement of the actuating lever 42, the elastic element 41 is allowed to convert the horizontal thrust force in the folded state of the support frame assemblies 3 into an upward actuating force. In this embodiment, the elastic element 41 is a pneumatic cylinder. However, the elastic element 41 may also be a hydraulic cylinder or compression spring for generating a thrust force. Referring to
Referring to
Due to the action of the actuating lever 42, when the support frame assemblies 3 are folded to allow the bottom of the desktop platform to resist against the roller 44 at the free end of the ram portion 422, the support frame assemblies 3 will be subject to a rebound force. When the support frame assemblies 3 are completely folded, since the interval between the locking pin holes 521 on the locking bar 52 of the locking assembly 5 is too small, it is difficult to lock the desktop platform in the completely folded state by the locking pin 513. Therefore, in the locking assembly 5, a lock catch 53 is provided at a corresponding position on the lower side-plate 21 and a locking hook 515 fitted with the lock catch 55 is provided on the press plate 511, so as to lock the completely folded support frame assemblies 3.
A difference between this embodiment and Embodiment 1 lies in a variation of the assistance assemblies 4.
Referring to
A difference between this embodiment and Embodiment 1 lies in a variation of the assistance assemblies 4. Referring to
A difference between this embodiment and embodiment 1 lies in a variation of the assistance assemblies 4. referring to
The specific embodiment are merely for understanding the present invention more clearly and are not intended to limit the patent right of the present invention. Various variations may be made without departing from the concept of the present invention, and all modifications apparent for those skilled in the art shall fall into the scope of the claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 1 0907361 | Oct 2016 | CN | national |
| 2017 2 0256059 U | Mar 2017 | CN | national |
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| CN 206953123; Xiao H; abstract and drawing (Year: 2018). |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20180103752 A1 | Apr 2018 | US |
