Patent Application
20240138569
The present invention relates generally to seating units, and relates more particularly to reclining seating units.
Recliner chairs and other reclining seating units have proven to be popular with consumers. These seating units typically move from an upright position, in which the backrest is generally upright, to one or more reclined positions, in which the backrest pivots to be less upright. The movement of the seating unit between the upright and reclined positions is typically controlled by a pair of matching reclining mechanisms that are attached to the seat, backrest and base of the chair.
One particularly popular recliner is the “three-way” recliner, which has two reclined positions: a “TV position”, in which the footrest or ottoman of the chair is projected forwardly from the chair while the backrest remains substantially upright; and a “fully reclined position”, in which the backrest is less upright (i.e., it has been reclined to a shallower angle relative to the floor). In a “three-way” recliner, the backrest pivots relative to the seat as the chair takes its fully reclined position; this differs from a “two-way” recliner, in which the backrest and seat are rigidly fixed and do not pivot relative to one another as the chair moves to the fully reclined position. Many three-way recliners are constructed such that the backrest and footrest are coupled to one another, such that reclining of the backrest cannot occur unless the footrest is already extended (i.e., the chair is in the TV position). See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,444 to Rogers, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,291 to Hoffman, which illustrate chairs of rather contemporary style with three-way reclining capability. Other reclining chairs may have decoupled reclining and footrest-extending mechanisms. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,731,276 to Hoffman et al.
In recent years, furniture designers have looked for alternatives to rocking chairs that can provide a similarly relaxing repetitive motion. One alternative has been the rocking-reclining chair, or “rocker”, which includes structure that enables the seat portion of the chair to “rock” forwardly and rearwardly relative to its base to mimic generally the rocking motion of a traditional rocking chair. Exemplary rocker-recliners are discussed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,459,733 to Hoffman and U.S. Pat. No. 8,123,288 to Murphy, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in full.
Some reclining units have employed power actuators to recline the backrest and extend the footrest. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 8,297,693 to Hoffman et al. It may be desirable to provide additional reclining units with power actuation, particularly in a rocker-recliner.
As a first aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to a reclining seating unit comprising: a base; a seat having a seat frame; a rocking unit configured to allow the seat to reciprocate relative to the base; a backrest mounted and pivotally interconnected to the seat frame; a footrest unit; a reclining mechanism attached to the seat and the backrest, the reclining mechanism configured to control relative movement of the seat and backrest between upright and reclined positions; a footrest mechanism attached to the seat and the footrest unit, the footrest mechanism configured to control relative movement of the footrest unit and the seat between retracted and extended positions, the footrest mechanism being decoupled from the reclining mechanism; a first linear actuator attached to the reclining mechanism and to the seat configured to move the seat and backrest between the upright and reclined positions; and a second linear actuator attached to the footrest mechanism and to the seat frame configured to move the footrest unit between the retracted and extended positions.
As a second aspect, embodiments of the invention are directed to a reclining seating unit comprising: a base; a seat having a seat frame; a reciprocating unit configured to allow the seat to move reciprocally relative to the base; a backrest mounted and pivotally interconnected to the seat frame; a footrest unit; a reclining mechanism attached to the seat and the backrest, the reclining mechanism configured to control relative movement of the seat and backrest between upright and reclined positions; a footrest mechanism attached to the seat and the footrest unit, the footrest mechanism configured to control relative movement of the footrest unit and the seat between retracted and extended positions, the footrest mechanism being decoupled from the reclining mechanism; a first linear actuator attached to the reclining mechanism and to the seat configured to move the seat and backrest between the upright and reclined positions; and a second linear actuator attached to the footrest mechanism and to the seat frame configured to move the footrest unit between the retracted and extended positions.
The present invention now is described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. In the figures, the thickness of certain lines, layers, components, elements or features may be exaggerated for clarity. Broken lines illustrate optional features or operations unless specified otherwise.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. As used herein, phrases such as “between X and Y” and “between about X and Y” should be interpreted to include X and Y. As used herein, phrases such as “between about X and Y” mean “between about X and about Y.” As used herein, phrases such as “from about X to Y” mean “from about X to about Y.”
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the specification and relevant art and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on”, “attached” to, “connected” to, “coupled” with, “contacting”, etc., another element, it can be directly on, attached to, connected to, coupled with or contacting the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being, for example, “directly on”, “directly attached” to, “directly connected” to, “directly coupled” with or “directly contacting” another element, there are no intervening elements present. It will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references to a structure or feature that is disposed “adjacent” another feature may have portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature.
The seating units illustrated and described herein comprise a plurality of pivotally interconnected links. Those skilled in this art will appreciate that the pivots between links can take a variety of configurations, such as pivot pins, rivets, bolt and nut combinations, and the like, any of which would be suitable for use with the present invention. Also, the shapes of the links may vary as desired, as may the locations of certain of the pivots. Moreover, in some instances combinations of pivot points may be replaced by equivalent structures, such as “slider-crank” configurations, like those described in B. Paul, Kinematics and Dynamics of Planar Machinery 4-21 (1979).
Referring now to
The base unit 11 includes a rocking assembly 20. The rocking assembly 20 includes vertically-oriented springs 21 that are mounted between plates 22, 23. The lower plate 22 is mounted to cross-members 26, which are in turn mounted to a longitudinally-extending leg member 24. The upper plate 23 is mounted to a rocker cam 25 that has an arcuate lower surface that bears against the upper surface of the leg member 24. This configuration enables the upper plate 23 to rock relative to the lower plate 22, with the movement defined by the lower surface of the rocker cam 25, and with the movement resisted (and therefore controlled) by the springs 21.
A mounting bracket 30 is fixed to the upper plate. A cross-member 27 spans the mounting brackets 30 on opposite sides of the seating unit 10 to ensure that the rocking motion is synchronized on both sides of the seating unit 10. The mounting bracket 30 is fixed to a second mounting bracket 32.
A seat adapter 66 is fixed to the seat frame 13a to provide additional locations for the mounting of additional mechanism links. A swing link 60 with tabs on either end is mounted to the front portion of the seat adapter 66 at a pivot 62 and to a front portion of the mounting bracket 32 at a pivot 64. Also, a V-shaped swing link 134 is attached at the upper end of its rearward leg to the seat adapter 66 at a pivot 135, and at the upper end of its forward leg to the mounting bracket 32 at a pivot 136.
As noted above, the chair 10 includes the reclining mechanism 40, which reclines the backrest 15 (shown in
A linear actuator 54 controls the movement of the reclining mechanism 40. The linear actuator 54 includes a motor 56 and a retractable rod 57. The rod 57 is attached in alignment with the vertex of the drive link 34 at a pivot 46 via a cross-member 61 and a bracket 63. At the opposite end of the linear actuator 54, the motor 56 is mounted to the seat adapter 66 via a mounting plate 48 fixed to the seat adapter 66, a cross-member 51 that spans the mounting plates 48 on either side of the chair 10, and a dual tab 50 fixed to the cross-member 51; the motor 56 is mounted to the lower end of the dual tab 50 at a pivot 52.
The backrest 15 is shown in
It will be understood that the backrest 15 can recline relative to the seat 13 whether the footrests 17a, 17b are retracted as in
Referring now to
A bi-angled inner ottoman bracket 96 is attached at its lower, forward end to the lower ottoman extension link 86 at a pivot 98. At its opposite end, the inner ottoman bracket 96 supports the ottoman 17a. The inner ottoman bracket 96 also includes a slot 96a that receives a pin 80a located on the upper ottoman extension link 80.
Referring still to
An angled connecting link 100 is attached at a pivot 104 with the lower ottoman swing link 76 and extends rearwardly and slightly downwardly therefrom. The connecting link 100 is pivotally connected to a locking mechanism 132 that can prevent the seat 13 and backrest 15 from rocking relative to the base 11 when the footrests 17a, 17b are extended. The locking mechanism 132 includes the V-shaped swing link 134, which is attached at its vertex to the rear end of the connecting link 100 at a pivot 133. At the end of its forward leg, the V-shaped swing link 134 is attached to the bracket 32 at the pivot 136. A drive link 138 is attached at its front end at a pivot 140 to the vertex of the connecting link 100 and extends rearwardly therefrom. A locking link 142 is attached at a pivot 146 to the rear end of the drive link 138. The locking link 142 is also attached to the rear end of the mounting bracket 32 at a pivot 148. The locking link 142 has a wheel 150 at its lower end and a post 152 at its upper end. A Z-shaped stop link 154 is fixed to the leg member 24; the upper legs of the stop link 154 form a forwardly-facing pocket 156.
As can be seen in
To move the footrests 17a, 17b from their retracted positions in
In addition, the rotation of the lower ottoman swing link 76 draws the connecting link 100 forward. Movement of the connecting link 100 rotates the swing link 134 counterclockwise about the pivot 136, which draws the seat adapter 66 (and in turn the seat 13) slightly downwardly to increase the pitch angle of the seat 13. The front of the seat 13 is supported by the swing link 60, which pivots slightly counterclockwise about the pivot 64.
Movement of the connecting link 100 of the swing link 134 also drives the drive link 138 forwardly. The forward movement of the drive link 138 rotates the locking link 142 counterclockwise about the pivot 148, with the result that the post 152 of the locking link 142 is received in the pocket 156 of the stop link 154, and the wheel 150 of the locking link 142 engages the upper surface of the leg member 24. The engagement of the locking link 142 with the stop link 154 prevents rocking movement of the seat 13 relative to the base 11.
One potential advantage to embodiments of the invention assists in manufacturing of the chair. During manufacture, the reclining mechanisms, footrest mechanisms, the linear actuators, the rocking assembly and the base can be formed as a single assembly. Once constructed, they can be dropped into an inverted chair frame as a single unit and quickly and easily mounted to the backrest and seat and arm frames with a few screws and/or bolts. As such, construction of the seating unit is simplified markedly over typical recliners.
As shown schematically in
In some embodiments the controller 200 is configured so that the linear actuator 54, which drives the reclining motion of the backrest 15, cannot begin to recline the backrest 15 until the linear actuator 112, which controls the extension of the ottomans 17a, 17b, has reached a predetermined position. As one example, the controller 200 may be configured so that the linear actuator 54 cannot begin to recline the backrest 15 until the ottomans 17a, 17b are fully extended.
One advantage that can be realized by the inclusion of the controller 200 that can control the movement of both linear actuators 54, 112 is simplicity of operation. In a conventional three-way reclining chair, as described above, the chair moves from the upright position to the TV position, then from the TV position to the fully reclined position. In order for such movement to be mimicked in the rocker-recliner 10 discussed above, in which the reclining and footrest mechanisms are mechanically decoupled, the occupant of the rocker-recliner 10 must first actuate the linear actuator 112 to extend the ottomans 17a, 17b, then actuate the linear actuator 54 to recline the backrest 15. Typically, this requires the occupant to employ two different actuation devices (e.g., two sets of toggle buttons, or two joysticks) to complete both movements. The requirement of switching between actuation devices can be confusing, particularly for occupants who are unfamiliar with the rocker-recliner 10 or that are uncomfortable with such technology.
In contrast, the use of the controller 200 enables the use of a single actuation device 202 to complete the entire movement, even though two different linear actuators 54, 112 are included in the rocker-recliner 10. For example, the occupant may use a single manipulable feature 204 (e.g., a single button or toggle switch) to drive the rocker-recliner 10 from the upright position through the TV position and to the reclined position, and a different single manipulable feature 204 (e.g., a second toggle switch or button) to drive the rocker-recliner 10 to return to the upright position. As such, operation of the rocker-recliner 10 is much simpler and straightforward for the occupant.
Those of skill in this art will appreciate that the use of a controller operatively connected to both linear actuators and a single actuation device may be employed in other reclining chair styles. These include other rocker-recliners, glider-recliners, and non-reciprocating reclining seating units. The reclining seating units move be standalone chairs, sectional pieces, individual seats in a multi-seat piece (such as a love seat or sofa) or the like.
Referring now to
Referring now to
The footrests 317a, 317b are extended (
The manufacturing advantages of the chair 10 may also be present in the seating unit 310. Further, a controller such as the controller 200 may be employed with the seating unit 310 and provide a similar advantage.
Referring now to
Referring first to
The reclining mechanism 540 is mounted to the mounting bracket 532 and, with the exception of the locking mechanism 632 described below, is similar to the reclining mechanism 340 described above, including having a linear actuator 554 that is mounted to the rear end of the frame of the seat 513. The footrest mechanism 570 is attached to the seat adapter 566 in the manner discussed above in connection with the footrest mechanism 70. Both the reclining mechanism 540 and the footrest mechanism 570 operate as described above in connection with their respective similar mechanisms.
As noted above, the reclining mechanism 540 includes a locking mechanism 632, which is designed to prevent the seating unit 510 from gliding when the footrests 517a, 517b are extended. The locking mechanism 632 includes a V-shaped swing link 634, which is attached at its vertex to the rear end of the connecting link 600 at a pivot 633. At the end of its forward leg, the V-shaped swing link 634 is attached to the bracket 532 at a pivot 636, and at the end of its rearward leg, the V-shaped link 634 is attached to the seat adapter 566 at a pivot 635. A drive link 638 is attached at its front end at a pivot 640 to a rear leg of the V-shaped link 634 and extends rearwardly and downwardly therefrom. A locking link 642 is attached at a pivot 646 to the rear end of the drive link 638. The locking link 642 is also attached at its front end to the rear end of the mounting bracket 532 at a pivot 648. The locking link 642 has a pocket 650 near its rear end. The rear glide link 606 has a post 652 near its lower end.
When the footrests 517a, 517b are retracted, the locking link 642 is in a raised position, such that it does not engage the post 652 on the rear glide link 606. In this position, the rear glide link 606 is free to rotate about the pivot 608, and thus the front glide link 603 is free to rotate about the pivot 604. The freedom of rotation of the front and rear glide links 603, 606 enables the seat 513, the backrest 515, and the footrests 517a, 517 to move in a gliding motion forwardly and rearwardly relative to the base 601. Notably, this gliding motion is possible whether the backrest 515 is upright (see
When the footrest mechanism 570 extends the footrests 517a, 517b as described above in connection with the footrest mechanism 70, the coupling link 600 moves forwardly. This movement rotates the V-shaped link 634 counterclockwise about the pivot 635. This movement forces the drive link 638 downwardly, which in turn causes the locking link 642 to pivot counterclockwise about the pivot 648. This rotation allows the locking link 642 to capture the post 652 of the rear glide link 606 in the pocket 650, which prevents movement of the rear glide link 606 and thereby prevents gliding movement of the seat 513, the backrest 515 and the footrests 517a, 517b relative to the base 601.
The foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although exemplary embodiments of this invention have been described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention.
This application claims priority from and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 63/381,606, filed Oct. 31, 2022 and 63/500,733, filed May 8, 2023, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in full.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63381606 | Oct 2022 | US | |
| 63500733 | May 2023 | US |
