Furniture foot with ball joint and felt pad

Abstract

A furniture foot comprises (a) a furniture foot connector; (b) a foot base having a molded portion; (c) a ball joint connecting the furniture foot connector to the foot base; and (d) a felt pad co-molded with the molded portion of the foot base, such that the felt pad protrudes away from the foot base.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]This invention relates generally to furniture and, more specifically, to furniture feet used to support items of furniture above a floor or other horizontal surface.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Items of furniture are very often supported above the floor by a plurality of support legs, with a foot attached at the lowermost end of each such support leg. Typically, each foot is made from a rubber, plastic or similar material designed to minimize damage to the floor and to minimize the propensity of the item of furniture to skid along the floor.[0003]Most such feet comprise a foot pad having a lower planar surface surrounded by a foot pad perimeter. To minimize damage caused to the floor and to minimize the propensity of the item of furniture to skid along the floor, it is important that the lower foot pad surface be disposed flat against the floor, rather than having only an edge disposed in contact with the floor. When an item of furniture is supported ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]Accordingly, there is a need for an improved furniture leg f

Problems solved by technology

When an item of furniture is supported solely by the edge of the foot pad on one of its support leg feet, the pressure forces created against the floor along that edge can cause damage to the floor.

Manufacturing furniture such that the foot pads of the feet supporting the furniture are always disposed flat against the floor is not easily accomplished.

Because most floors are not perfectly flat, even an absolutely level foot pad can cause damage by contacting the non-level portions of a floor.

Manufacturing furniture such that the foot pads of the feet supporting the furniture are always disposed flat against the floor is also especially a problem where the legs are downwardly disposed at an angle with respect to the vertical, such as in many tables and chairs.

In such items of furniture, manufacturers find it difficult to assure that the foot pads on each of the furniture legs rests flat against the floor, because in the manufacturing process it is difficult to assure that the angle of the support legs does not vary from item to item.

However, such foot pads have not been found to substantially decrease damage to a floor caused by the skidding of the furniture along the floor.

Such foot pads have been found to reduce damage to floors caused by skidding of the furniture along the floor, but do not address the problem of assuring that the foot pad rests flat against the floor.

Such attachment methods have been found to be prone to failure.

This method is also prone to failure in that the molded cup frequently disengages from the foot base.

Also, the use of a molded cup necessarily increases the diameter of the foot base, which frequently interferes with the ability to stack the chair with identical chairs.

The problems associated with trying to ensure that the foot pads of furniture support feet are disposed flat against a floor is a considerable problem where the item of furniture is a chair having sled-type legs.

Such disposition of the sled legs makes it exceedingly difficult to provide feet for the sled legs which consistently are disposed flat against the surface of the floor.

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