Claims
- 1. A bedding mattress comprising
- a spring interior having a relatively long longitudinal dimension and a relatively shorter transverse dimension, said spring interior having a plurality of parallel bands of springs, each band of springs comprising a single length of spring wire shaped to form a plurality of individual coil springs arranged in a row, one end turn of each coil spring lying adjacent to a top face of the band and the other end turn of each coil spring lying adjacent to a bottom face of the band, each coil spring being of a hand opposite to the hand of the adjacent coil springs immediately before and after it in the row and being interlaced with the adjacent coil springs of the same row, each coil spring being joined to said adjacent coil springs by interconnecting segments integral with the coil springs, one of said interconnecting segments being located substantially in the top face of the band and the other of said interconnecting segments being located substantially in the bottom face of the band, and each interconnecting segment comprising a bridging portion, the bands being disposed side by side so that their top faces lie in a top main face of the spring interior and their bottom faces lie in a bottom main face of the spring interior, the bands being interconnected by helical wires lying in the top and bottom faces of the bands and extending across the bands, each helical wire embracing portions of wires of the bands that extend from the ends of said bridging portions thereof, there being, in each face of the spring interior, two springs in the interval between each helical wire and the next,
- padding overlying at least one of said main faces of said spring interior,
- an upholstered covering material encasing said spring interior and said padding, and
- the spring interior being characterized by said bands of springs extending transversely of the spring interior and said helical wires extending longitudinally of the spring interior, at least one longitudinal section of the spring interior having coil springs which are all of differing physical characteristics relative to the coil springs of the other longitudinal sections.
- 2. A spring interior having a relatively long longitudinal dimension and a relatively shorter transverse dimension, said spring interior having a plurality of parallel bands of springs, each band of springs comprising a single length of spring wire shaped to form a plurality of individual coil springs arranged in a row, one end turn of each coil spring lying adjacent to a top face of the band and the other end turn of each coil spring lying adjacent to a bottom face of the band, each coil spring being of a hand opposite t the hand of the adjacent coil springs immediately before and after it in the row and being interlaced with the adjacent coil springs of the same row, each coil spring being joined to said adjacent coil springs by interconnecting segments integral with the coil springs, one of said interconnecting segments being located substantially in the top face of the band and the other of said interconnecting segments being located substantially in the bottom face of the band, and each interconnecting segment including a bridging portion, the bands being disposed side by side so that their top faces lie in a top main face of the spring interior and their bottom faces lie in a bottom main face of the spring interior, the bands being interconnected by helical wires lying in the top and bottom faces of the bands and extending across the bands, each helical wire embracing portions of wires of the bands that extend from the ends of said bridging portions thereof, there being, in each face of the spring interior, two springs in the interval between each helical wire and the next, and
- the spring interior being characterized by said bands of springs extending transversely of the spring interior and said helical wires extending longitudinally of the spring interior, at least one longitudinal section of the spring interior having coil springs which are all of differing physical characteristics relative to the coil springs of the other longitudinal sections.
- 3. The spring interior of claim 2 characterized in that the wire of said bands of coil springs in said at least one longitudinal section of said spring interior is of greater resistance to deflection than the wire of said bands of coil springs in said other longitudinal sections of said spring interior.
- 4. A spring interior according to claim 2 characterized in that the wire of said bands of coil springs in said at least one longitudinal section of said spring interior is of larger diameter than the wire of said bands of coil springs in said other longitudinal sections of said spring interior.
- 5. A spring interior according to claim 2 characterized in that the wire of said bands of coil springs in said at least one longitudinal section of said spring interior is of greater tensile strength than the wire of said bands of coil springs in said other longitudinal sections of said spring interior.
- 6. A spring interior according to claim 2 characterized in that the coil springs of said bands of coil springs in said at least one longitudinal section of said spring interior are of differing height in the relaxed state of the coil springs than the coil springs of the bands of coil springs in said other longitudinal sections of said spring interior.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This application is a Continuation-In-Part application of U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 07/285,778 filed Dec. 16, 1988, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,773.
This invention relates to spring interiors and, specifically, to spring interiors for bedding products, such as mattresses and the like.
A known form of spring interior comprises a plurality of longitudinally extending bands of springs disposed side by side and connected together by helical wires which extend transversely of the bands and embrace portions of the bands. Several kinds of bands of springs have been proposed for incorporation in spring interiors. One kind of band, which is the subject of British patent No. 2,143,731, will hereinafter be referred to as a band of interlocked or interlaced springs. It comprises a single length of spring wire shaped to form a plurality of individual coil springs arranged in a row, one end turn of each coil spring lying adjacent to a top face of the band and the other end turn of each coil spring lying adjacent to a bottom face of the band, each coil spring being of a rotational hand opposite to the rotational hand of the adjacent coils immediately before and after it in the row, and being joined to the adjacent coil springs by a pair of interconnecting segments of wire integral with the coil springs. One of the pair of interconnecting segments is located in the bottom face of the band, and the other of the pair of interconnecting segments is located in the top face of the band. Each interconnecting segment comprises a bridging portion between adjacent coils, which bridging portion extends lengthwise of the row.
When bands of interlocked springs of the type described hereinabove are assembled to form a spring interior, they are disposed side by side and interconnected by helical wires, some of which lie in the top face of the spring interior and others of which lie in the bottom face thereof, the top and bottom faces of the spring interior being the faces defined by the top and bottom faces of the bands incorporated in the spring interior. Each helical wire extends across the bands of springs and embraces portions of wires of the bands that extend transversely of the bands from the ends of the bridging portions of the links. In the top face of the spring interior the helical wires are disposed at uniform intervals along the bands of springs, the arrangement being such that there are two springs disposed in the interval between each helical wire and the next. There is a similar arrangement in the bottom face of the spring interior.
In this description of the invention there are references to faces of bands of springs and of spring interiors. As the bands of springs and spring interiors are, of course, of open-work or skeletal form, the term "face" must be understood as referring to an imaginary surface defined by the relevant parts of the bands or spring interiors. Furthermore, as the wires and helical wires are of finite width or thickness and as they sometimes overlap each other, the term "face" cannot be understood as having a strictly geometrical meaning. Nevertheless, as the faces concerned are relatively extensive and are of flat shape, their locations can in practice be determined without difficulty or ambiguity.
It is customary for a bedding spring interior or a seat spring interior to be incorporated in an upholstered article. In such an article at least one of the main faces of the spring interior (that is the top and bottom faces thereof) is covered by a layer or layers of padding. This is turn is covered by a cover made of sheet material, such as ticking or upholstery fabric.
Pressure is applied unevenly to the top surface of a mattress or chair seat when a person reclines atop a mattress or sits atop a seating surface. This uneven pressure or uneven loading of the surface is a consequence of the uneven weight distribution of a person on the surface. In the case of a mattress, the heaviest portion of the body is located approximately midway along the length of the body, and consequently, a person reclining atop a mattress tends to cause the mattress to deflect or sag to a greater extent in the lengthwise center of the mattress than at the ends. This uneven deflection in turn results in a person reclining atop the mattress having an unnatural and uncomfortable misalignment imparted to his or her spine.
To counter this uneven deflection of a mattress when a person is reclining atop the mattress, it has been proposed to reinforce or rigidify the lengthwise center section of the mattress. Such center section reinforcement or rigidification has taken the form of increasing the number or density of springs in the center section of the mattress, using different or firmer springs in the center section of the mattress, or adding additional structure to the center section to reinforce that section to a greater extent than the end sections. One patent which discloses differing zones of firmness in a spring mattress is U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,266. In this patent, the zones of differing firmness are created by the installation of coil springs of differing firmness in each of the differing firmness zones. But, the mattress disclosed in this U.S. patent, as well as all spring mattresses which are characterized by zones of differing firmness, has in the past been relatively expensive to manufacture, primarily because of the difficulty of automating the manufacture and, particularly, the assembly of such mattresses or spring assemblies.
It has therefore been an objective of this invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for imparting differing firmness to differing lengthwise sections of a spring mattress or spring seating assembly.
Still another objective of this invention has been to provide an improved method and apparatus for increasing the firmness of selected lengthwise sections of a bedding or seating spring interior of the interlocked spring type described hereinabove.
The invention of this application which achieves these objectives comprises a spring interior having a plurality of transversely extending bands of interlocked or interlaced coil springs wherein the bands are disposed side by side so that their top faces lie in a top main face of the spring interior and their bottom faces lie in a bottom main face of the spring interior. The bands of springs are interconnected by longitudinally extending helical wires lying in the top and bottom faces of the bands and extending across the bands with each helical wire embracing portions of wires of the bands that extend transversely of the bands. In order to increase the firmness or the contour of a selected section of the spring interior, as for example, the lengthwise, center one-third of the spring interior, the transversely extending bands of interlocked springs in this selected section are formed by wire of heavier gauge (greater diameter) or greater height (when in the relaxed state) than the bands of the non-selected sections.
The primary advantage of the invention of this application is that it enables selected sections or portions of spring interiors made from multiple bands of interlocked or interlaced coils to be inexpensively and easily increased in firmness or contour by currently existing automated equipment without substantial changes being required to that equipment. Specifically, existing equipment need only be reoriented and slightly modified by well-known and easily accomplished modifications in order to enable that equipment to produce the novel spring interior of this invention.
Spring interiors made from multiple bands of interlocked or interlaced coil springs of the type described hereinabove are currently made by first forming the bands in the manner described in British Patent No. 937,644 and then coiling those interconnected bands into long, continuous lengths of interlaced coil springs interconnected by interconnecting segments. Those continuous lengths of coil springs each typically contain many times more individual bands than are required to form a single bedding spring interior. After the bands are formed into coils, they are conventionally moved to an assembly machine, such as the machine described in British Patent No. 1,095,980. This machine is operable to simultaneously feed bands longitudinally from several coils into the assembly machine where the individual bands are interconnected by transversely extending helical lacing wires.
Because the individual bands of springs in the spring interior are each uncoiled from a separate coil of bands of springs, each band of coil springs of a spring interior may be made of a differing gauge or diameter wire from the other bands of the said spring interior. Alternatively, each band of coil springs may be comprised of coils which, in the relaxed state, differ in height from the coils of the adjacent bands of coil springs. This characteristic is not of any particular advantage when applied to conventional prior art spring interiors made from multiple bands of longitudinally extending interlaced coils, but when applied t spring interiors of this invention wherein the bands extend transversely of the spring interior and are longitudinally laced, it is very advantageous. Specifically, when applied to spring interiors made from transversely extending bands of interlaced coil springs, it enables longitudinal sections of the spring interior to be "posturized" or made of differing height than other sections of the same spring interior upon currently available spring forming and assembly machines without substantial modification of those machines. In other words, this invention enables spring interiors made from bands of interlaced coils to be very inexpensively "posturized" or contoured, i.e., made of differing firmness and/or heights throughout the length of the spring interior.
US Referenced Citations (4)
Foreign Referenced Citations (5)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
| 228745 |
Jan 1959 |
AUX |
| 1155218 |
Oct 1963 |
DEX |
| 839835 |
Jun 1960 |
GBX |
| 2143731 |
Nov 1986 |
GBX |
| 2198938 |
Jun 1988 |
GBX |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
| Parent |
285778 |
Dec 1988 |
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Patent Grant
4972536
