This invention relates generally to the field of furniture technology, and more specifically to a new and useful system and method for voxel-based furniture systems.
Furniture production is an ancient field that has been around since the beginning of civilization. Although it has been around for so long, there are severe limitations to what people can purchase. Currently there are few avenues for the purchase of new furniture. Generally, either a person purchases high-end furniture; or the person purchases generic low-end furniture. The former comes at exorbitant costs, that may or may not be customized, while the latter typically comes with few or no customizability options at all. Additionally, recent material shortages caused by supply chain disruptions have led to significant delays in production and sales of furniture products. Therefore, having an alternative material solution to fulfill the performance requirements of furniture is of value.
Thus, there is a need in the field of furniture manufacturing to create a new and useful system and method for affordable and customizable furniture construction. This invention provides such a new and useful system and method.
The following description of the embodiments of the invention is not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments but rather to enable a person skilled in the art to make and use this invention.
A system for a modular furniture construct that comprises a set of voxels that form a lattice providing the shape and structure of the furniture construct. Each voxel comprises a unit volume, a discrete three-dimensional structure enabled to connect with other voxels. Additionally, each voxel has a voxel type, defined by the stress/strain properties of the voxel. This is governed by the material properties and the geometry of the voxel, which includes voxel pitch, and beam cross section and geometric design. Regions of the furniture construct may have distinct zones of compliance by the use of different arrangements of voxel types. The system functions as a lightweight, modular, furniture construct, wherein the system leverages arrangements of different voxel types to construct highly customizable furniture with varying levels of compliance.
The system and method may provide a number of potential benefits. The system and method are not limited to always providing such benefits and are presented only as exemplary representations for how the system and method may be put to use. The list of benefits is not intended to be exhaustive and other benefits may additionally or alternatively exist.
One potential benefit of the system is to provide lightweight furniture. As voxels constructs are relatively lightweight lattice structures, furniture constructs of the system may be significantly lighter than furniture produced through more traditional means.
Another potential benefit of a voxel based furniture construct is that furniture products are cheaper. As voxels may be easily and cheaply produced, the cost of production and material cost of a voxel based furniture product would be potentially much cheaper than other types of furniture.
Through the use of different types of voxels, the system also provides a highly customizable furniture construct. Voxel based furniture constructs may be easily modified to provide different levels of compliance, providing spatial customizability dependent on the size and shape of a person in addition to how they wish to use the furniture (e.g., a mattress furniture construct customized for a side sleeper vs. a back sleeper).
As shown in
Dependent on implementation, the system may further include additional “non-voxel” based components. That is, other components may be used in conjunction with the set of voxels. These non-voxel components may function to complement and/or improve the functionality of the furniture construction system. For example, a mattress furniture construct may further include a mattress cover, a foam or other type of cushioning layer, a flame retardant covering/coating, etc. Other additional components that may be included as part of the furniture construction system include drawers (e.g., for dressers), hinges (e.g., for opening doors), covers (e.g., a leather couch cover), extra cushioning, etc.
As a covering is generally necessary for the functionality of many furniture constructs, many variations include a furniture covering. Depending on implementation, the furniture covering may be customized. Alternatively, the furniture covering may have a simplified single piece format as shown in
The system may include a set of voxels. The set of voxels function as the primary structure of the furniture construct, providing the support and shape of the construct. That is, the set of voxels comprises individual voxels, connected together to form a three-dimensional lattice. Through implementation of specific arrangements of different types of voxels (i.e., voxel type) within the lattice, the set of voxels may provide specific mechanical properties both locally (to specific regions of the furniture construct and globally (to the entire furniture construct). For the purposes of application in furniture, these properties can be characterized through standardized test procedures, as described by ASTM F1566 “Standard Test Methods for Evaluation of Innersprings, Boxsprings, Mattresses or Mattress Sets”, which covers firmness, durability, impact, and firmness retention, and ASTM D3574 “Standard Test Methods for Flexible Cellular Materials-Slab, Bonded, and Molded Urethane Foams”, which covers Indentation Force Deflection, Tensile Strength, Tear resistance, Air Flow, Resilience, Dynamic Fatigue, and Hysteresis Loss.
Each voxel, from the set of voxels, has a voxel type and a discrete three-dimensional structure enabled to connect with other voxels along any one of its interface surfaces. That is, each voxel has: a voxel type, defined by the voxel mechanical properties (including but not limited to effective density, effective tensile and compressive modulus of elasticity and strength, shear stiffness and strength, and Poisson’s ratio); a three-dimensional volume; and interface surfaces, to connect to other voxels. As used herein, a voxel refers to a unit cell, which may be combined with other voxels to form the three-dimensional lattice of the furniture construct.
The system may be constructed, or assembled, in different ways dependent on the method of voxel construction. For example: each voxel/cell may be constructed separately and then combined together; subsets of voxels/cells may be constructed and then combined together; or the all voxels/cells may be constructed together as the set of voxels. In some variations, voxels may be constructed using injection molding. In some injection molding examples, voxels may be constructed as described in: U.S. Pat. Application Publication No. US 2021/0146581A1, published on May 20, 2021, titled “Method for discrete assembly of cuboctahedron lattice materials”, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by this reference. Alternatively, voxels may be constructed using other methods, such as welding, 3D printing, wire weaving, etc.
Each voxel may comprise beams and connecting joints (that enable inter-voxel and intra-voxel connections) that form the voxel three-dimensional structure. Generally, the shape of the three-dimensional structure may be any space-filling polyhedra. For example, each voxel may be cube shaped. In another example, each voxel may be a hexagonal prism (e.g., an octahedra). In another example, each voxel may be a tetrakaidecahedron (e.g., Kelvin Cell). In many variations, each voxel may be a cuboctahedron, as described in: US Patent Application Publication No. US 2022/0290570A1, published on Sep. 15, 2022, titled “Discrete macroscopic metamaterial systems”, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by this reference.
In many variations, each voxel comprises edges and connecting joints. As shown in one
Connecting joints may comprise intra-connecting joints and inter-connecting joints. Intra-connecting joints (or voxel-corner joints) may function to connect edge pieces of a single voxel, whereas inter-connecting joints (or neighbor joints) may function to connect adjacent voxels, as shown in
In voxel variations that do include joints, the system may further include additional component(s) and/or processes to connect inter-connecting and intra-connecting joints. Joint connectors may be permanent or reversible. Any component and or method compatible with the voxel may be incorporated for joint connections. Some examples of methods/components for implementing permanent joint connections include: welding and gluing joints together. Some examples of methods/components for implementing reversible joint connections include bolting and riveting joints together.
The space-filling polyhedra shape of the voxel may define a unit volume. The unit volume for each voxel may be set by implementation, wherein each voxel from the set of voxels will have the same unit volume (i.e., cell size). The unit volume (or base unit) topology may define joint connectivity and inform lattice behavior (e.g., bending, compressing, stretching, etc.). One example voxel has a pitch length (i.e., volumetric bounding cube side length) of 75 mm. As a lower limit, the pitch length may be approximately 7.5 mm, which is set by manufacturing and assembly practical constraints. As for the upper limit, the pitch length may be limited by the furniture construct size (i.e., limitations on voxels fitting into the shape of the furniture object), but may otherwise have no upper limit. In the case of a mattress construct, the limiting size may be the mattress thickness which ranges from 9 to 12 inches. While manufacturing and assembly constraints are less significant in larger voxel implementations, the effective properties of the assembled structure are diminished due to the cell count of n =1 in the loading direction. In some variations, specialized voxels may be incorporated that have a volume that is a discrete multiple or fraction of the unit volume (e.g., one half, or double the unit volume).
The material composition of each voxel may be dependent on the method of voxel construction. For example in injection molding variations, voxels may be composed of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) or glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP). In 3D printed variations, the voxels may be composed of thermoplastics (plastic 3D printing), composites, such as carbon fiber (FDM 3D printing, resins (SLA 3D printing), nylons (SLS 3D printing), titanium or other printed metals (metal 3D printing). Although any general method of voxel construction and material type may be incorporated in voxel construction for the system, there is one material limitation that must be incorporated into each voxel, and thus the entire system: For any lattice of interconnected voxels, the normalized size of the system (i.e.: the dimension in voxel-based units) must be greater than the length of a single voxel. In other words, inter-connecting voxel joints are designed to fail at higher loads prior to the failure of voxel edges. From a voxel material and method of composition perspective, this loading constraint may limit the types of material that may be used to produce a voxel; or more specifically, set a limitation on the voxel edge thickness dependent on material type.
Each voxel may have a plurality of interface surfaces. As used herein, the interface surface is defined as the voxel surface where another voxel may be rested on and thereby connected to. The number and shape of the interface surfaces of a voxel may be dependent on the voxel geometry and the voxel type. For the cubaoctahedra example, each voxel may have six interface surfaces that are relatively square shaped. Additionally, the specific shape of the interface surface may be influenced by the voxel type. For the cubaoctahedra example, as shown in
Each voxel from the set of voxels may have a voxel type. The voxel type is defined by the voxel loading response (i.e., strain response to tensile and compressive stress), which can be calculated based on the geometry of the parts and the material they are made from. Herein three voxel types are presented: a rigid voxel type, a compliant voxel type, and a hyperelastic voxel type. As shown in
In some variations, the system may include a rigid voxel type (also referred to as a rigid voxel). The rigid voxel type may function to provide a stiff support structure. From a stress response perspective, as shown in
In some variations, the system may include a compliant voxel type (i.e., compliant voxel). The compliant voxel type may function to provide a level of elasticity to the furniture construct, providing a linear spring-like response. From a stress response perspective, as shown in
In some variations, the system may include a hyperelastic voxel type (i.e., hyperelastic voxel). The hyperelastic voxel may function to provide “foam-like” elasticity to the furniture construct. From a stress response perspective, as shown in
As shown in
As this mattress construct is only a three voxel height example, there is a limitation on the number of zones that may be created. A greater number of voxels, in the direction of compression, may provide a greater number of variations of zones of compliance. Generally, the three voxel height zones may be generalized for furniture constructs larger than three voxels according to the stiffness of that region. Furthermore, to generalize the three voxel example, as shown in
For a fixed voxel lattice height (number of voxels), medium zones may be made “softer” by the replacement of rigid voxels with compliant voxels and made “harder” by the replacement of compliant voxels with rigid voxels. In the same manner, soft zones may be made “softer” by the replacement of compliant voxels with hyperelastic voxels and made “harder” by the replacement of hyperelastic voxels with compliant voxels. With the increase of a greater voxel height more nuances of medium and soft zones may be created. In this manner any zone may be made softer by replacing a voxel with a less rigid voxel, or made harder by replacing a voxel with a more rigid voxel.
To further generalize the mattress construct, as shown in
For example, the sleeping region may be subdivided into body regions, rectangular regions crossing the lateral axis of the mattress. In many variations, these body regions include: two upper/lower-regions, and a mid-region. In some examples, the upper/lower regions may be distinct for a head region and a leg region. Alternatively, they may be symmetric. In symmetric implementations, the upper/lower-regions are situated such that one is approximately where a person would rest the majority of their shoulder and the other is situated approximately where a person would rest the majority of their legs. The mid-region may be situated approximately where a person would rest their midbody. These may be customized for a specific individual, or may come as a general implementation set by the mattress size. In one body region implementation (
Zones of compliance may be customized both from a furniture perspective and the type of user. As shown in
Customizability may be further extended for multiple people. As shown in
As used herein, first, second, third, etc. are used to characterize and distinguish various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections. These elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. Use of numerical terms may be used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer and/or section from another element, component, region, layer and/or section. Use of such numerical terms does not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Such numerical references may be used interchangeable without departing from the teaching of the embodiments and variations herein.
As a person skilled in the art will recognize from the previous detailed description and from the figures and claims, modifications and changes can be made to the embodiments of the invention without departing from the scope of this invention as defined in the following claims.
This Application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/257,058, filed on Oct. 18, 2021, which is incorporated in its entirety by this reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63257058 | Oct 2021 | US |