Self-leveling tablet mechanism for a chair

Abstract

A self-leveling mechanism for an article mounted to a chair is disclosed. The chair has an arm member movable from a first position to a second position that is reclined with respect to the first position. The article has an upper surface having an angular relationship with respect to the support surface on which the chair rests. The mechanism includes a pivot member that mounts the article to the movable arm member of the chair. The movable arm member pivots with respect to the pivot member to keep the angular relationship between the support surface and an upper surface of the article the same without manual adjustment of the pivot member by a user when the movable arm member is moved from the first position to the second position. The mechanism can maintain items on a tablet mounted to the armrest during reclining action by keeping the tablet horizontal.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] Not Applicable. STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH [0002] Not Applicable. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 1. Field of the Invention [0004] The present invention relates to a self-leveling mechanism for an article mounted to a chair, and more particularly to a self-leveling mechanism for a tablet mounted to a reclining arm of a reclining chair. [0005] 2. Description of the Related Art [0006] It is known that articles such as writing tablets can be mounted to a chair. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,862 describes a device for supporting a tablet via an armrest including a mounting socket that is firmly mounted to the armrest and a tablet with a pin that is inserted in the socket where the tablet can be removed by removing the pin from the socket. However, when such devices are used with a chair having a reclining armrest, the materials resting on the tablet surface fall off the tablet due to tilting of the tablet during...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011] The invention includes leveling means attached to the article. The leveling means keeps the angular relationship between the support surface and the upper surface of the article the same without manual adjustment by a user when the movable arm member is in the first position or the second position. Thus, in one form, the leveling means can maintain items on a tablet mounted to the armrest during reclining action of the armrest by keeping the top surface of the tablet horizontal.

[0016] In yet another aspect, the invention provides a chair including a base for supporting the chair on a support surface, a seat supported by the base, and an arm member supported by and movable with respect to the base. The arm member is movable from a first position to a second position that is reclined with respect to the first position. A tablet is mounted on the chair, and the tablet has an upper surface having an angular relationship with respect to the support surface. The chair further includes leveling means for keeping the angular relationship between the support surface and the upper surface of the tablet the same without manual adjustment by the user when the movable arm member is in the first position or the second position. The leveling means may be mounted on a location other than the arm rest. In one form, the leveling means can maintain items on a tablet mounted to the chair during reclining action of the armrest by keeping the tablet horizontal.

Problems solved by technology

However, when such devices are used with a chair having a reclining armrest, the materials resting on the tablet surface fall off the tablet due to tilting of the tablet during reclining.

Such manual positioning of the table may be difficult for older users or those in a healthcare setting.

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