1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a support apparatus for a seating device. More particularly, this invention relates to a support apparatus for selectively providing both dorsal and ventral support to a user seated in a seating device, such as a chair or stool, for example. The support may be selectively moved from the dorsal-supporting position to the ventral-supporting position by a user while in the seated position. Additionally, when the support apparatus is in the ventral-supporting position, the user is not required to straddle any portion of the support apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the workplace, persons are often required to perform repetitive manual tasks in a sedentary position. By maintaining a sedentary position throughout the workday, the person can become fatigued without proper support. By utilizing ergonomic principles when designing furniture, worker productivity is increased, worker fatigue and absenteeism are decreased, and blood flow throughout the body is improved.
In many applications, it is desirable to properly support the upper torso of a person seated in a seating device, such as a chair or stool for example, throughout the day. In some instances, it may be desirable to provide a support for a user's back such that the user may lean back against the support apparatus. Thus, it is desirable in some instances for a support to provide dorsal support for a user. Dorsal support is support for the back of the user's upper torso.
In other circumstances, it is desirable to provide ventral support for a user. Ventral support is support for the front side of the user's upper torso. For instance, some operations at workstations within certain industrial settings, require a user to lean forward or repeatedly reach forward. Over time, the user may become fatigued while remaining in this forward-leaning position. Thus, it desirable in some situations to provide ventral support for a worker or user.
It is known to provide back supports for a user sitting in a chair. For instance, the background section of U.S. Pat. No. 6,220,663 to Benden et al., assigned to Neutral Posture Ergonomics, Inc. (incorporated herein by reference in its entirety) describes prior art chairs and patents directed to providing support for the back of a user, including lumbar support, while seated in the chair. However, these traditional backrests provide only dorsal support, and are generally not suitable for providing ventral support of a user.
It is also known to provide ventral support for a user. For instance, a ventral rest may be provided on the workstation, not the chair. A user in the chair may then lean against the ventral rest on the workstation while leaning forward. However, this requires two separate pieces of equipment (the chair and the rest on the workstation) which can be problematic in a busy manufacturing floor, for example, as a user on one shift may desire ventral support while the user of the next shift at the same station may desire dorsal support. As these ventral supports on the workstations are not adjustable, other means for providing dorsal support would be required.
It is also known to have a rest that may provide both ventral and dorsal support. With these devices, the rest is simply placed on the floor or workstation and the user leans against the rest while standing. However, these ventral-support devices having this dual capability are “stand and lean” devices. As these devices are designed for standing users, each is limited to the specific height of the present user. When a user of a different height replaces the current user, such as after changing shifts, another stand and lean device must be used for the new user.
Finally, it is known to have a rest that has two brackets to mount the rest to the chair: one on the front of the chair (for ventral support) and one on the rear of the chair (for dorsal support). With these devices, the rest may be mounted to the first bracket to provide ventral support. To change the configuration, the user must get out of the chair, remove the rest, and insert the rest into the second bracket. Again, this configuration requires two separate pieces of equipment, which may lead to the rest becoming misplaced.
Further, when the rest is in the position to provide ventral support, the user must mount the chair from the back, with his or her legs straddling the bracket. This straddling is undesirable to users in various workplace situations.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a single, versatile support apparatus which can be used to selectively provide both dorsal and ventral support for a user. It is desirable that the apparatus be easily converted from traditional dorsal support of the upper body to ventral support of the upper body. It is desirable that the support apparatus be operable without the user having to straddle any portion of the apparatus. It is also desirable that the support apparatus be adjustable from a dorsal-supporting position to ventral-supporting position, by a user while remaining in a seated position. Finally, it is desirable that the apparatus be comprised of generally one piece of equipment, attachable to the seating device, so that the two do not become separated.
A support apparatus is described for use by a user seated on a seating device, having a support movably mountable to the seating device such that when the support is in a first position, the support is adapted to provide ventral support for the user and when the support is in a second position, the support is adapted to provide dorsal support for the user, wherein the support is selectively movable from the first to the second position by the user while in the seated position. The apparatus may comprise a pivot arm that is rotatably attachable to the seating device.
In some aspects, the pivot arm may have a first substantially horizontal member rotatably mountable to the seating device and a riser connected to the first substantially horizontal member, the support adapted to being attachable to the riser. The pivot arm may further comprise a second substantially horizontal member adapted to moveably attach the support to the riser.
In some embodiments, the support is movably attached to the second substantially horizontal member by a first attachment means. The support may comprise a cushion. Each of the components of the pivot arm may have an adjustable length.
Also described is a method of supporting a user seated in a seating device, the method comprising (1) providing a support apparatus having a support movably mountable to the seating device such that when the support is in a first position, the support is adapted to provide ventral support for the user and when the support is in a second position, the support is adapted to provide dorsal support for the user, a first substantially horizontal member rotatably mountable to the seating device, a riser connected to the first substantially horizontal member, the support adapted to being attachable to the riser, and a second substantially horizontal member adapted to movably attach the support to the riser; (2) rotating the support apparatus such that the support is at the front of the chair so that the user can lean forward on the support, the support thus providing ventral support; and (3) rotating the support apparatus such that the support is at a rear of the seating device such that the user can lean backward on the support, the support thus providing dorsal support, wherein the support apparatus may be rotated by the user remaining in a seated position.
The method may further comprise changing a height of the support apparatus by removing a bolt in a first hole in the riser and inserting the bolt into a second hole in the riser to attach the riser to the first substantially horizontal member.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. However, it should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
The invention relates to an apparatus and a method to provide either dorsal or ventral support to a user while seated in a seating device. The same support may be rotated from a position providing dorsal support to a position providing ventral support by the user in a seated position. The same support is easily movable from a position that provides dorsal support to a position that provides ventral support. This movement may be performed by a user while seated. Further, the support does not have to be removed from the seating device during this movement. Finally, when the support is in the position to provide ventral support, the user does not have to straddle a component of the support.
Illustrative embodiments of the invention are described below as they might be employed in providing ventral and dorsal support for a user seated on a seating device, such as a chair or stool. In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the this disclosure.
Further aspects and advantages of the various embodiments of the invention will become apparent from consideration of the following description and drawings.
Referring to
Although the seating device shown is a traditional, star-base industrial chair, the invention is not so limited. For instance, the seating device could comprise a stool, a four-legged chair, a bench, or any number of seating devices known to one of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure. Further, the seating device may further comprise armrests, footrests, casters, a lever to adjust the seat's height, an adjustment means to allow the seat to slide forward and backward on the column 60, ect.
Also shown in
Support 10 is rotatably attachable to the seating device via a pivot arm. The pivot arm may comprise a first substantially horizontal member 80 which is rotatably attachable to the support column 60 of the seating device. The pivot arm may further comprise a riser 30 adapted to connect to the support. Further, the support 10 may be connected to the riser 30 by the second substantially horizontal member 20. The first substantially horizontal member 80, the riser 30, and the second substantially horizontal member 20 may be comprised of a metal tube, a metal bar, an integral rod, or any number of materials designed to perform the desired function as stated herein. In some embodiments, the support 10 may further comprise a cushion to provide comfort for the seated user.
Further, although not shown in
The pivot arm may be rotatably mountable to the seating device to allow a seated user move the support 10 from one position that provides dorsal support to a position that provides ventral support. For example,
Conversely,
It should be noted that the two support positions shown in
In operation, a user may lean his or her back against support 10 when the support 10 is located in a first position as shown in
Of course, the support apparatus may be rotated in reverse (i.e. from the ventral support position to the dorsal support position) as desired by the user. Also, as will be further detailed below, the rotation of the support 10 between the two positions, may be easily accomplished by a user in a seated position without removing the support from the seating device.
The support 10 may be adjustably attached to the pivot arm to adjust the support for users of different heights. For example,
Again, any number of attachment means, such as telescopically connected members, a ratcheting height adjustment, a small tube fitting inside a large tube each having a row of holes which may be aligned with via push-pin to adjust the height, ect. could be utilized for the first attachment means.
In some embodiments of the present invention, the height of the support 10 is adjustable via a second attachment means on the riser 30. For instance, by way of example and as shown in
Again, any number of attachment means, such as telescopically connected members, a ratcheting height adjustment, a small tube fitting inside a large tube each having a row of holes which may be aligned with via push-pin to adjust the height, etc. could be utilized for the second attachment means. For instance, the riser 30 may have a slot and a cam lock such that the when the cam lock was unlocked, the riser 30 is free to move along the slot with respect to the seating device, and when the cam lock is locked, the riser 30 is no longer free to move. Or, the riser could further comprise an air cylinder that allows riser 30 to raise or lower as desired.
In the embodiment shown in
Also shown in
In operation, the first substantially horizontal member 80 contacts the stop 62 via pin 65 when the support 10 is in a position to provide dorsal support, as shown in
In the embodiment shown, the stop 62 is flat. Thus, the two positions (i.e. the first in which the support provides dorsal support and the second where the support provides ventral support) are necessarily 180 degrees apart. However, by bending the stop 62 at a given angle, e.g. 90 degrees, the stop 62 would allow the two positions to be 90 degrees apart.
Although various embodiments have been shown and described, the invention is not so limited and will be understood to include all such modifications and variations as would be apparent to one skilled in the art.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/313,407, filed Dec. 6, 2002, entitled “Support for a Seating Device,” by Jerome J. Congleton, Mark E. Benden, Rebecca Congleton Boenigk, and John C. Guillen, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, now U.S. Pat. No. ______, issued ______, 2005.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10313407 | Dec 2002 | US |
Child | 11043381 | Jan 2005 | US |