Seating risers are often used in auditoriums, gymnasiums, stadiums, and event halls, as examples, to accommodate spectators on portable seats, such as folding chairs, or on seats that are affixed to the risers. Certain facilities may require seating risers that are capable of being moved between a retracted position for storage and a deployed position for use.
A seating system according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a riser including a tiltable deck.
Another seating system according to the present disclosure includes, among other things, a drive system for moving a riser. The drive system includes a sprocket configured to engage a belt.
The embodiments, examples and alternatives of the preceding paragraphs, the claims, or the following description and drawings, including any of their various aspects or respective individual features, may be taken independently or in any combination. Features described in connection with one embodiment are applicable to all embodiments, unless such features are incompatible.
The drawings can be briefly described as follows:
An example seating system 10 is illustrated across
In one example, the lowest level seating riser 12A is a powered seating riser including a drive assembly for driving the riser 12A between the deployed and retracted positions. The drive assembly may optionally laterally steer the risers 12A-12F during deployment and retraction. In another example, such as that discussed relative to
Referring to
As will be explained below, the decks 16A-16F are tiltable between a “stored” position (
The riser 12A includes a support 14A configured to support a deck 16A. In this example, the support 14A includes lower and upper longitudinal supports 18, 20 extending in the longitudinal direction L. The lower longitudinal support 18 is spaced apart from the upper longitudinal support 20 in a vertical direction V, which is normal to the longitudinal direction L. The upper longitudinal support 20 is supported in this example by a first vertical support 22 and first and second cross supports 24, 26. The lower longitudinal support 18 may include a plurality of rollers 28 (such as wheels), which are configured to allow the riser 12A to deploy and retract relative to a ground surface or a track, as examples.
The deck 16A includes a deck stringer 36, which defines a deck plane P. In the stored position (
The detail of the actuator 38 is illustrated in
The motor 40 is configured to lock the ball screw 44 in place, and prevent rotation thereof to lock the deck 16A in position. In other examples, the deck 16A may cooperate with a separate lock to maintain the deck 16A in the “use” and “stored” positions.
As perhaps best seen in
The ball nut 46 is mounted relative to the trolley 34 such that the trolley 34 is guided along the deck stringer 36 by way of side rollers 48 and vertical rollers 50. As the trolley 34 travels rearward along the axis A, the deck 16A tilts about the joint J3 and moves into the “use” position. While not illustrated, a control unit may be in communication (e.g., wirelessly or otherwise) with the actuator 38 to selectively control tilting of the deck 16A.
In order to protect the ball screw assembly 42, a bellows 52 (shown in
Further, as shown in
While a particular actuator 38 has been illustrated and described herein, it should be understood that other types of actuators (e.g., linear actuators that do not include ballscrews, and non-linear actuators) come within the scope of this disclosure. Further, while only one actuator 38 has been described, each riser may include additional actuators (e.g., in
Providing a tiltable deck such as that described above increases the availability of seating, while reducing the vertical storage space required to store the seating system.
As illustrated in
With reference to
The clamping blocks 82 may be positioned at each end of each of the belts 74, 76 to maintain tension in the belt 74.
In this example, the adjuster 88 includes a bolt having a threaded shaft 90 and a head 92. Opposite the head 92, the threaded shaft 90 is attached to a slotted plate 94 supporting the plates 84, 86. The slotted plate 94 includes longitudinal slots 96 receiving fasteners 98. The length of the slots 96 is longer than the diameter of the shafts of the fasteners 98, which allows longitudinal movement of the adjuster 88. This movement in turn adjusts the tension in the belt 74.
While not illustrated herein, the belts 74 may include teeth on one side thereof, to engage the drive sprocket 70. The drive sprocket 70 may include notches corresponding to the teeth in the belt. This relationship may increase force transfer between the drive sprocket 70 and the belt 74.
While a particular drive system 64 is illustrated across
Although the different examples have the specific components shown in the illustrations, embodiments of this disclosure are not limited to those particular combinations. It is possible to use some of the components or features from one of the examples in combination with features or components from another one of the examples.
One of ordinary skill in this art would understand that the above-described embodiments are exemplary and non-limiting. That is, modifications of this disclosure would come within the scope of the claims. Accordingly, the following claims should be studied to determine their true scope and content.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/901,065, filed Nov. 7, 2013, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20150121771 A1 | May 2015 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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61901065 | Nov 2013 | US |