Recliner chair

Abstract

A recliner chair having a frame assembly rotatably and tiltably mounted on a ground-engageable pedestal assembly. A recliner mechanism is mounted on said frame assembly and is connected to the chair seat and back unit whereby said seat and back can be rotated and tilted with said frame assembly, but can also be tilted with respect to said frame assembly between upright and reclining positions. Safety stops are operatively interconnected to said reclining mechanism for movement into a floor-engaging position when said seat and back are moved into a reclining position to prevent the chair from tipping over backwards.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to reclining chairs, and more particularly to a combination recliner-swivel chair.

Recliner chairs, which are selectively movable between two or more positions, are well known in the art. These chairs normally have a seat and backrest structure which are adjustably mounted on a fixed base structure for reclining movement between an upright position and partially or fully reclined positions. An extensible legrest is normally mounted on the base structure for extension movement coordinated with the recling movement of the seat and backrest structure. One such structure is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,626.

Recliner chairs in the prior art have been also combined with a conventional rocker or swivel assembly to form a multi-purpose chair which can either rock or swivel whenever the chair is in an upright position. These chairs, however, all provide restraining structures which prevent the chair from either rocking or swiveling when the chair is in a partially or a fully reclined position. This assures that the chair will not become back-heavy during rocking or swiveling movement while the chair is in a reclined position to thereby reduce the possibility of the chair tipping over backwards. Examples of such structures are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,163,464, 3,243,226 and 3,322,459.

The present invention provides an improved recliner chair having novel restraining structure to prevent rocking of the chair rearwardly whenever the chair is in a reclined position, and which will provide such structure without the necessity of using a special platform base structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the preferred form of the invention, there is provided a frame assembly having a pair of side arm portions interconnected at their lower ends by a transverse brace. An interconnected seat and back unit is interposed between said side arms above said brace.

The chair is supported on a floor-engaging pedestal assembly which permits said chair to swivel and tilt. To this end, the frame brace is mounted on a spring plate swingably connected about a horizontal axis to swivel plate. Springs are interposed between said spring and swivel plates for releasably biasing said spring plate into a horizontal orientation. The swivel plate is rotatably supported on a base plate mounted on a plurality of floor-engaging legs. Thus, the chair can rock about the interconnection of the spring and swivel plates and rotate about the interconnection between the swivel and base plates.

The seat and back unit is interconnected to the frame assembly through a recliner assembly having a pair of seat brackets fixedly connected to the seat at the opposide sides thereof. The seat brackets are movably connected through pluralities of links to a pair of base brackets fixedly mounted on the frame assembly whereby said seat and back can be moved between a normal upright sitting position and a rearwardly tilted reclining position.

In order to stabilize the chair in its reclining position, there is provided a generally U-shaped yoke swingably connected at its forward end to the chair frame assembly and provided at its rearward end with a pair of wheels. A pair of links are swingably connected to said yoke and to a crank swingably connected to the seat bracket. Thus, upon movement of the seat and back unit to its reclining position, the yoke will be swung downwardly to move said wheels into engagement with the floor for stabilizing the chair. Conversely, movement of said seat and back unit into its upright position will cause said wheels to be swung upwardly out of engagement with the floor so that the chair is freely movable with respect to the pedestal assembly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention. In such drawings:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section through a chair embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section of the chair shown in FIG. 1, but showing said chair in a partially reclining position;

FIG. 3 is a vertical section of the chair shown in FIG. 1, but showing said chair in a fully reclined position;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal section taken on the line 5--5 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary vertical section of modified embodiment of the safety stop shown in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a horizontal section taken on the line 7--7 of FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the embodiment of the chair illustrated in the drawings, there is provided a seat 10 fixedly interconnected to a backrest 12. The seat and backrest are carried on a frame assembly comprising a pair of side panels 13 disposed on opposite sides of the seat-backrest unit. The upper ends of panels 13 extend above the seat 10 and form a pair of side arms, and the lower ends of said panels are rigidly interconnected by a transverse brace 14.

The chair is supported on a pedestal assembly having a plurality of outwardly projecting legs 16. As shown in FIG. 4, the upper ends of the legs are connected to a base plate 18 as by rivets 19. A swivel post 20 is mounted in plate 18 and extends upwardly therefrom for connection to a swivel plate 22. A sleeve bearing 24 is mounted on the post 20 and supports the plates 18 and 22 in spaced relation adjacent the centers thereof. Adjacent their peripheries, the plates 18 and 22 are held in spaced relation by a plurality of ball bearings 26 carried in cooperative bearing races 27 and 28 formed in the plates 18 and 22, respectively.

The plate 22 has a generally U-shaped configuration and is provided at a pair of its opposed edges with upwardly projecting flanges 30. The flanges 30 overlap a pair of flanges 32 which project downwardly from a pair of opposed edges of a generally U-shaped spring plate 35 connected to the bottom of the frame brace 14, as by screws 37. The overlapping pairs of flanges 30 and 32 are swingably interconnected on a horizontal axis by pairs of pivot pins 38 extending therethrough. As shown in FIG. 4, the plates 22 and 35 have a plurality of vertically aligned pairs of offsets 40 formed therein both forwardly and rearwardly of the horizontal axis defined by pins 38. A coil spring 42 is seated on each pair of said offsets with its opposed ends in bearings engagement with the plates 22 and 35.

Thus, the seat-backrest unit and the side panels can be swivelled about the axis of the post 20. In addition, said seat-backrest unit and the side panels are rockable about the axis of the pins 38. During such rocking movement, the springs 42 will be selectively compressed and extended and will tend to urge the spring plate 35, and thus the seat 10, into a horizontal orientation with the plate 35 disposed in parallelism with plate 22.

The chair is further provided with a recliner mechanism which permits the seat-backrest unit to be moved between the normal upright sitting position shown in FIG. 1 and a reclining position as shown in FIG. 3. The specific reclining mechanism constitutes no part of my invention, and any desired type of such mechanism can be employed. The reclining mechanism illustrated in the drawings is the subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,626 and comprises a pair of identical linkage and bracket assemblies mounted on the side panels 13.

As shown, each such linkage and bracket assembly comprises a horizontally extending base bracket 45 fixedly mounted on the adjacent side panel 13, as by screws 46. The bracket 45 is swingably connected at its rear end to a seat bracket 48 fixedly connected to the underside of seat 10. While the recliner mechanism disclosed in aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,626 employs a link interconnecting the rear ends of the brackets 45 and 48, for reasons that will become apparent hereinafter, I employ a bell crank 47 to interconnect said brackets. As shown, crank 47 has an upper arm 50 swingably connected to bracket 48 by a pivot pin 52 and lower arm 54 disposed at a right angle to arm 50. The crank is swingably connected to the base bracket 45 by a pivot pin 55 at the juncture of the crank arms 50 and 54.

The illustrated embodiment is provided with a largest bracket 56 upon which a chair legrest 57 is adopted to be fixedly mounted. The legrest bracket is connected to the reclining mechanism by a lazy-tong comprising a pair of parallel links 58 and 59 connected to the bracket 56 as by pivot pins 60 and 61, respectively. The link 59 at its end opposite the legrest bracket 56 is swingably connected, as by pin 63, to one end of a front seat link 64, the opposite end of the link being swingably connected, as by pin 65, to the front portion of the seat bracket 48. In a similar manner, link 58 at its end opposite the bracket 56 is swingably connected, as by a pin 66, to one end of a rear seat link 67, the opposite end of link 67 being swingably connected to the seat bracket 48 by a pin 68 disposed rearwardly of pin 65. As shown, links 58 and 64 intersect and are swingably interconnected at their point of intersection by a pin 69.

The base and seat brackets 45 and 48 are interconnected adjacent their forward ends by an elbow linkage which includes a guide link 70 swingably connected at its rear end to the base bracket 45 by a pin 72 and at its front end to link 67 by a pin 73. As shown in FIG. 1, the guide link 70 is adapted to rest adjacent its forward end on stop pin 71 on the base bracket 45 for supporting the seat-backrest unit in its normal upright position.

Thus, when the chair is moved from its upright position shown in FIG. 1, to its intermediate position shown in FIG. 2, the seat-backrest unit is moved horizontally rearwardly by urging said seat-backrest unit rearwardly. During this movement, the crank 47 swings in a slight clockwise direction about pin 55 while pin 68 and the upper end of link 67 swing rearwardly about pin 73. Such movement of the link 67 causes the links 58, 59, and 64 to swing upwardly to thus dispose the legrest bracket 56 and legrest 57 in a generally horizontal orientation. The rearward movement of the seat-backrest into this intermediate position is limited by the crank 47 abutting stop pin 75 on seat bracket 48.

When the seat-backrest unit occupies this intermediate position, it may be quickly and easily reclined by rotating it and the crank 47 about the axis of pivot pin 55 into the position illustrated in FIG. 3. During such movement, the guide link 70 of the elbow linkage swings upwardly about the pin 72 causing the link 67 to move the links 58, 59, and 64 to maintain the legrest 57 in a generally horizontal orientation. The rearward reclining movement of the seat-backrest unit into this fully reclined position is limited by the guide link 70 abutting stop pin 77 on bracket 45.

The reclining and footrest mechanism described above are known in the art and are fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,282,626 except for the bell crank 47, the prior art employing a simple link instead of said crank. The improvement of the instant invention resides in the provision of stop structure which prevents the chair from tipping over backwards when the seat-backrest unit is moved to its partially reclined position shown in FIG. 2 and its fully reclined position shown in FIG. 3. It prevents such rearward tipping irrespective of the rotational orientation of the chair about the axis of the swivel post 20.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, a pair of plates 85 are fixedly mounted by screws 86 on the brace 14 at the opposite sides of the chair. Each of said plates is swingably connected as by a pin 87 to the adjacent arm 88 of a generally U-shaped yoke 90. As shown, the arms 88, which are angled slightly upwardly intermediate their length, as at 91, are interconnected at their rearward ends by a transverse stretch 92. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, a pair of casters 93 are swivellably mounted in a pair of brackets 95 mounted on the yoke arms 88 adjacent the rear thereof.

The yoke is operatively interconnected to the reclining mechanism by a pair of links 96 swingably connected at one of their ends, as by pins 97, to the inner faces of the yoke arms 88. The opposite end of each of the links 96 is swingably connected, as by pin 98, to the end of the arm 54 on the adjacent bell crank 47. In this manner, the links 96 and cranks 47 form a linkage assembly operatively interconnecting the yoke and caster wheels to the recliner mechanism.

Thus, as the seat-backrest unit is moved into the partially reclined position, the crank arm 54 swings downwardly and acts through the links 96 to swing the yoke downwardly about the axis of the pins 87. with the seat-backrest unit moved into its partially reclined position, the yoke 90 will have been swung downwardly into a position to dispose the casters 93 in engagement with the floor substantially rearwardly of the pedestal legs 16. Said casters thus act in connection with the pedestal legs to provide a broad based support for the chair and prevent its rearward tipping. Since the casters are swivelly mounted in the yoke brackets 95 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, they are free to rotate about both horizontal and vertical axes. This permits the chair to still swivel about the axis of the post 20 even though the seat-backrest unit is in a partially reclined position.

When the seat-backrest unit is moved from its partially reclined position shown in FIG. 2 to its fully reclined position shown in FIG. 3, the bell crank 47 will be swung further in a clockwise direction. This moves the crank arm 54 further downwardly pivoting about its connection 95 with the link 96. In a like manner link 96 swings about its connection 97 to the yoke 90 to thus retain the casters 93 in engagement with the floor when the seat-backrest unit is in its fully reclined position.

When the chair is moved to its fully upright position, the crank arms 54 will, of course, be swung upwardly. During such movement, the arms 54 pull upwardly on the links 96 to cause the yoke to swing upwardly and raise the casters 93 off the floor. Also, because of the upwardly formed angle 91 in the yoke pins 88, said caster will be disposed out of engagement with the floor when the chair is rocked about the axis of the pivot pins 38.

While the movement of the yoke to position the casters into and out of engagement with the floor has been described in connection with only one of the bell cranks 47 and one of the links 96, it is to be understood, of course, that the cranks 47 and links 96 at both sides of the chair will be moved simultaneously through the movements described above.

In certain applications, it may not be desirable to be able to swivel the chair about the axis of post 20 when said chair is in its fully reclined position. To this end, the roller mountedly illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 can be employed. As shown, instead of the casters 93, a pair of parallel plates 100 are fixedly connected to each of the yoke arms 88 adjacent its connection to the transverse stretch 92. The plates 100 in each pair of plates are retained in laterally spaced relation to each other by a block 101, and angle downwardly and rearwardly from the yoke. A roller wheel 102 is interposed between each pair of the plates 100 at the lower ends thereof and is connected thereto by a transverse axle pin 104. Since the wheels 102 are only movable with respect to the yoke about the horizontal axis of the pins 104, they will prevent the chair from swivelling about the axis of post 20 when they are in engagement with the floor when the chair is in its fully reclined position.

As will be apparent from the foregoing disclosure, the invention resides in the provision of a stop assembly which prevents a recliner chair from tipping over backwards, and, in the case of the assembly shown in FIGS. 1-5 even permits the chair to be swiveled in its fully reclined position. Thus, the stop assembly can be employed in combination with any conventional chair and recliner constructions.

Claims

I claim:

1. A recliner chair, comprising a floor-engaging pedestal, a frame mounted on said pedestal, a seat, a backrest fixedly connected to said seat, recliner means interconnecting said seat to said frame, stop means swingably mounted on said frame for movement with respect to said frame about a horizontal axis, a pair of wheels interconnected to said stop means, link means swingably interconnected to said recliner means and stop means, said recliner means permitting said seat and backrest to be moved between a normal upright position and a reclining position and swingably moving said link means to cause said stop means to dispose said wheels into and out of engagement with the floor rearwardly of said pedestal when said seat and backrest are moved into said reclining and upright positions, respectively.

2. A recliner chair, comprising a floor-engaging pedestal, a frame mounted on said pedestal, a seat, a backrest fixedly connected to said seat, recliner means interconnecting said seat to said frame to permit said seat and backrest to be moved between a normal upright position, an intermediate reclining position and a fully reclining position, stop means swingably mounted on said frame for movement with respect to said frame about a horizontal axis, a pair of wheels interconnected to said stop means, a pair of links swingably connected to said stop means, and said recliner means having crank means swingably connected to said seat and said links for moving said links to swing said stop means into position to dispose said wheels into engagement with the floor rearwardly of said pedestal when said seat and backrest are in said fully and intermediate reclining positions and out of engagement with the floor when said seat and backrest are in said upright position.

3. A recliner chair, comprising a floor-engaging pedestal, a frame mounted on said pedestal, a seat, a backrest fixedly connected to said seat, recliner means interconnecting said seat to said frame to permit said seat and backrest to be moved between a normal upright position, an intermediate reclining position and a fully reclining position, a U-shaped yoke swingably connected to said frame for swinging movement about a horizontal axis, a pair of wheels mounted on said yoke, and link means swingably interconnected to said recliner means and yoke for swingably moving said yoke to dispose said wheels into engagement with the floor rearwardly of said pedestal when said seat and backrest are in said fully and intermediate reclining positions and out of engagement with the floor when said seat and backrest are in said upright position.

4. A recliner chair as set forth in claim 3 in which said yoke comprises a pair of laterally spaced arms swingably connected at their forward ends to said frame and a transverse bight interconnecting said arms at their rearward ends, said link means being swingably connected to said arms.

5. A recliner chair as set forth in claim 3 in which said yoke comprising a pair of laterally spaced arms swingably connected at their forward ends to said frame and a transverse bight interconnecting said arms at their rearward ends, said arms being angled upwardly intermediate their lengths, and said link means being swingably connected to said arms.

6. A recliner chair, comprising a floor-engaging pedestal, a frame, a seat, a backrest fixedly connected to said seat, recliner means interconnecting said seat to said frame to permit said seat and backrest to be moved between a normal upright position, an intermediate reclining position and a fully reclining position, means rotatably interconnecting said frame to said pedestal whereby said frame is rotatable with respect to said pedestal about a vertical axis, a yoke swingably mounted on said frame for movement with respect to said frame about a horizontal axis and movable with said frame about said vertical axis, a pair of wheels interconnected to said yoke, and link means swingably interconnected to said recliner means and yoke, said link means and recliner means swingably moving said yoke with respect to said frame to dispose said wheels into engagement with the floor rearwardly of said pedestal when said seat and backrest are in said fully and intermediate reclining positions and out of engagement with said floor when said seat and backrest are in said upright position, said wheels being movable with respect to said yoke about horizontal and vertical axes.

7. A recliner chair, comprising a floor-engaging pedestal, a frame, a seat, a backrest fixedly connected to said seat, recliner means interconnecting said seat to said frame to permit said seat and backrest to be moved between a normal upright position, an intermediate reclining position and a fully reclining position, means rotatably interconnecting said frame to said pedestal whereby said frame is rotatable with respect to said pedestal about a vertical axis, a yoke swingably mounted on said frame for movement with respect to said frame about a horizontal axis and movable with said frame about said vertical axis, a pair of wheels interconnected to said yoke, and link means swingably interconnected to said recliner means and yoke, said link means and recliner means swingably moving said yoke with respect to said frame to dispose said wheels into engagement with the floor rearwardly of said pedestal when said seat and backrest are in said fully and intermediate reclining positions and out of engagement with said floor when said seat and backrest are in said upright position, said wheels being movable with respect to said yoke only about a horizontal axis.

8. A recliner chair, comprising a floor-engageable pedestal, a frame, a seat, a backrest fixedly connected to said seat, recliner means interconnecting said seat to said frame to permit said seat and backrest to be moved between a normal upright position, an intermediate reclining position and a fully reclining position, a base plate fixedly mounted on said pedestal, a swivel plate rotatably connected to said base plate for movement with respect to said base plate about a vertical axis, a spring plate fixedly mounted on said frame and swingably connected to said swivel plate about a horizontal axis, a plurality of springs bearing against said swivel and spring plates urging said spring plate into parallelism with said swivel plate, a yoke swingably mounted on said frame for movement with respect to said frame about a horizontal axis, a pair of wheels interconnected to said yoke, and link means swingably interconnected to said yoke, said recliner means having crank means swingably connected to said seat and link means for swingably moving said yoke with respect to said frame to dispose said wheels into engagement with the floor rearwardly of said pedestal when said seat and backrest are in said fully and intermediate reclining positions and out of engagement with the floor when said seat and backrest are in said upright position, said wheels being movable with respect to said yoke about horizontal and vertical axes.

9. A recliner chair as set forth in claim 8 in which said yoke comprises a pair of arms swingably interconnected to said frame at their forward ends and rigidly interconnected by a transverse bight at their rearward ends, said arms being angled upwardly intermediate their lengths and projecting rearwardly from said frame to dispose said bight rearwardly of said pedestal, and said wheels are mounted on said yoke adjacent the rear thereof to engage the floor rearwardly of said pedestal.

10. A recliner chair, comprising a floor-engageable pedestal, a frame, a seat, a backrest fixedly connected to said seat, recliner means interconnecting said seat to said frame to permit said seat and backrest to be moved between a normal upright position, an intermediate reclining position and a fully reclining position, a base plate fixedly mounted on said pedestal, a swivel plate rotatably connected to said base plate for movement with respect to said base plate about a vertical axis, a spring plate fixedly mounted on said frame and swingably connected to said swivel plate about a horizontal axis, a plurality of springs bearing against said swivel and spring plates urging said spring plate into parallelism with said swivel plate, a yoke swingably mounted on said frame for movement with respect to said frame about a horizontal axis, a pair of wheels interconnected to said yoke, and link means swingably interconnected to said yoke, said recliner means having crank means swingably connected to said seat and link means for swingably moving said yoke with respect to said frame to dispose said wheels into engagement with the floor rearwardly of said pedestal when said seat and backrest are in said fully and intermediate reclining positions and out of engagement with the floor when said seat and backrest are in said upright position, said wheels being movable with respect to said yoke only about a horizontal axis.

11. A recliner chair, comprising a floor-engaging pedestal, a frame mounted on said pedestal, a seat, a backrest fixedly connected to said seat, recliner means interconnecting said seat to said frame, a yoke swingably connected to said frame for swinging movement about a horizontal axis, a pair of ground-engageable members mounted on said yoke, link means swingably mounted on said yoke, said recliner means having crank means swingably connected to said seat and link means, and stop pins on said seat, said recliner means and crank means permitting said seat and backrest to move from a normal upright position into an intermediate reclining position with said crank means engaging said stop pins and said recliner means permitting said seat and backrest to be moved from said intermediate reclining position into a fully reclining position with said crank means rotating with respect to said recliner means to move said link means to cause said yoke to move said ground-engageable members to engage the floor rearwardly of said pedestal when said seat and backrest are in said fully and intermediate reclining positions.