This invention relates to resilient cushions and, more particularly, to pocketed spring cores used in seating cushions or bedding mattresses and the method of manufacturing such pocketed spring cores.
Spring cores are commonly used in seating or bedding products. Such spring cores are commonly made from assemblies or matrixes of multiple springs joined together directly as by helical lacing wires, or indirectly as by fabric within which each individual spring is contained. Such spring cores, whether the springs of the cores are connected directly or indirectly, are generally covered on the top and often on the bottom by pads of resilient foam as, for example, a pad of urethane or latex/urethane mix of foamed material. Within the last several years, more expensive cushions or mattresses have had the spring cores covered by a visco-elastic foam pad, which is slow acting or latex foam which is faster acting than visco-elastic foam. That is, the visco-elastic foam pad is slow to compress under load and slow to recover to its original height when the load is removed from the visco-elastic foam pad. These visco-elastic pads, as well as the latex pads, impart a so-called luxury feel to the mattress or cushion. These pads also, because of their closed cell structure, retain heat and are slow to dissipate body heat when a person sits or lies atop such a foam pad-containing cushion or mattress.
European Patent No. EP 1707081 discloses a pocketed spring mattress in which each pocket has a ventilation hole in order to improve the air flow into and out of the pocket. However, one drawback to such a product, depending upon the fabric used in the product, is that the fabric of the pocket may create “noise”, as the sound is named in the industry. Such noise may be created by the fabric expanding upon removal of the load due to the coil spring's upwardly directed force on the fabric.
It is therefore an objective of this invention to provide a seating or bedding cushion or mattress which has the same luxury feel as a visco-elastic or latex pad-containing cushion, but without the heat retention characteristics of such a cushion or mattress.
Still another objective of this invention has been to provide a cushion or mattress having the same or a similar slow-to-compress and slow-to-recover to its original height luxury feel cushion or mattress which is not as “noisy” as known products incorporating pocketed spring assemblies.
The invention of this application which accomplishes these objectives comprises a seating or bedding spring core made from an assembly of pocketed springs, each spring of which is contained within a fabric pocket. The fabric pocketing material within which the springs are contained is semi-impermeable to air flow through the fabric material. As used herein, the term “semi-impermeable” means that the fabric material, while permitting some air flow through the material, does so at a rate which retards or slows the rate at which a spring maintained in a pocket of the fabric may compress under load or return to its original height when a load is removed from the pocketed spring. In other words, air may pass through such a semi-impermeable material, but at a very reduced rate compared to the rate at which air usually flows freely through a fabric material.
In one embodiment of the invention, the semi-impermeable fabric material within which the springs of the pocketed spring assembly are contained is a spun-bonded polypropylene fabric available from Hanes Industries of Conover, N.C. under the name Elite 200. This Elite 200 fabric is coated with a layer of polyurethane. Such a non-woven fabric has a few pinholes, some of which may be covered by the coating. However, the fabric is not airtight due to the presence of some holes. The air permeability or porosity of a material is commonly measured using the American Society of Testing Materials (“ASTM”) Method ASTM-D737, which is fully incorporated herein. However, when tested using this method, the material for this application may be not be quantified because the porosity is so low. Of course, the fabric material within which the pocketed springs are contained may be any semi-impermeable fabric material which, at ambient air pressure, retards or slows air pressure through the material. The fabric may be a woven or unwoven material which may be coated in a secondary process with a polymer to achieve the requisite semi-impermeable air flow characteristics described hereinabove.
In another embodiment of the invention, the semi-impermeable fabric pockets within which the springs of the pocketed spring assembly are contained comprise multiple layers of material. In one embodiment, the pocket comprises three layers: a middle layer of a polyolefin plastic material and outer layers of non-woven polypropylene fabric material. The outer layer of non-woven polypropylene fabric material provides strength and a satisfactory gluing or ultrasonic welding surface. The middle layer controls the air flow. The inner layer of non-woven polypropylene fabric material provides a quiet material which prevents “noise” created by the coil spring in the pocket rubbing against the fabric material of the pocket. One or more holes extend through all three layers of the pocket and enable air to slowly enter or exit the interior of the pocket, depending upon whether the pocket is under a load.
In accordance with the practice of this invention, the pocketed spring core assembly having the slow acting compression and slow-to-recover original height characteristics of this invention may be inexpensively manufactured upon the same pocketed spring machinery, with very little modification, which is now utilized to manufacture conventional pocketed spring assemblies. Expressed another way, the advantageous spring cushion assembly of this invention may be manufactured upon existing pocketed spring equipment without any substantial modification of that equipment or machinery. As a result, this advantageous pocketed spring core assembly with its unique compression and recovery characteristics is, in accordance with the practice of this invention, manufactured according to the current manufacturing processes of existing pocketed spring assemblies with only the fabric material utilized in the practice of the process being changed from an air permeable fabric, as is now conventional, to an air semi-impermeable fabric material. This conventional process, absent the unique fabric utilized in the practice of this invention, is completely illustrated and described in prior art patents as, for example, Stumpf U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,977; Stumpf et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,697; and, Santis et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,436. These patents all describe apparatus for manufacturing continuous strings of coil springs contained within fabric pockets. The fabric pockets of these springs are generally unsealed from one pocket to the next. After being formed into continuous strings of pocketed springs, the springs are in accordance with the practice of this invention and are cut into strings of predetermined discrete lengths, which are then assembled by gluing together the strings either directly or indirectly via a sheet of fabric on the top or bottom of the side-by-side juxtapositioned strings of coils. Mossbeck U.S. Pat. No. 6,159,319 discloses such an assembly process.
One patent which discloses a point-bonded non-woven fabric and method of making that fabric suitable for use in the practice of this invention is Stokes U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,115. The disclosures and contents of the above-identified patents are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for purposes of completing the disclosure of this application.
The primary advantage of this invention is that it gives rise to a relatively inexpensive seating or bedding cushion, which has the luxurious slow-acting compression and height recovery characteristics of heretofore expensive visco-elastic foam containing cushions. And in accordance with the practice of this invention, the cushion having these characteristics may be relatively inexpensively manufactured on currently existing equipment with very little modification of that production equipment.
According to another aspect of the invention, the bedding or seating cushion core includes fill material in the form of foam, fiber or other like material which resides inside at least some, and sometimes all of the pockets of fabric. One purpose of the fill material inside the pockets is to prevent the fabric to be sucked inside the pocket when a person gets out of bed or out of a seat, thereby reducing or eliminating sound or “noise.”
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will be more readily apparent from the following drawings, in which:
With reference to
While one embodiment of the invention described herein is illustrated and described as being embodied in a single-sided mattress, it is equally applicable to double-sided mattresses or seating cushions. In the event that it is utilized in connection with a double-sided mattress, then the bottom side of the spring core usually has a foam pad applied over the bottom side of the spring core and that pad is, in turn, covered by a fiber pad of cushioning material. According to the practice of this invention, though, either the foam pad or the fiber pad, or both, may be omitted while still practicing the invention of this application wherein the novel features reside in the pocketed spring core 12.
The pocketed spring core 12 may be made upon any conventional pocketing spring manufacturing machine and by any conventional pocketing spring process so long as the machine and process utilized the special fabric material to be described hereinbelow for pocketing the springs of the assembly. One machine and process suitable for creating the pocketing spring assembly 12 is described in Santis et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,436 assigned to the assignee of this application. With very little modification as described hereinbelow, that machine and process may be used in the practice of this invention. While that machine creates so-called “side seam pocketed coil springs”, this invention is equally applicable to spring cores wherein the strings of springs have the longitudinal seam on the top of the string of pocketed springs rather than on the sides of the springs. Such top seamed pocketed spring cores and the methods by which they are manufactured are described, for example, in Stumpf U.S. Pat. No. 4,439,977 and Stumpf et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,697. With very little modification, as explained more fully hereinbelow, the machines and processes of these top seam pocketed spring assemblies may also be utilized in the practice of this invention.
Still with reference to
With reference now to
With reference now to
In accordance with the practice of this invention, the fabric material 15 within which the springs of the pocketed spring assembly are enclosed may be a point-bonded, non-woven fabric material as, for example, the point-bonded, non-woven fabric material disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,115. In accordance with the practice of this invention, this material has a coating of polyethylene or other suitable material sprayed onto or roller coated onto one side of the fabric so as to make it semi-impermeable to air flow as described hereinabove.
As shown in
With reference now to
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With reference now to
With reference to
One purpose of the fill material 108 is to dampen any noise or sound which may occur when a person rises up off a bed or cushion, thereby removing the load placed on the coil springs inside the pockets. Although
If desired, the pockets 84 of the strings of springs 82 of
While I have described only a single preferred embodiment of this invention, persons skilled in this art will appreciate that other semi-impermeable fabric materials may be utilized in the practice of this invention. Similarly, such persons will appreciate that each pocket may contain any number of coil springs or other type of spring, made of any desired material. Therefore, I do not intend to be limited except by the scope of the following appended claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/142,310 filed Jun. 19, 2008 entitled “Slow Acting Pocketed Spring Core and Method of Manufacturing Same”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,136,187, which is fully incorporated herein. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/142,310 is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/672,088 filed Feb. 7, 2007 entitled “Slow Acting Pocketed Spring Core”, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,972, which is fully incorporated herein.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12142310 | Jun 2008 | US |
Child | 13093926 | US | |
Parent | 11672088 | Feb 2007 | US |
Child | 12142310 | US |