Furniture system having a linear actuator

Abstract

A furniture system having a furniture item which includes an electrically-adjustable component, a control unit and a linear actuator for adjusting a component of the furniture item is provided. The linear actuator includes a gear mechanism including a hollow element and a first stage formed as a friction wheel stage. The linear actuator further includes a motor on a drive side and an adjustment member arranged on an output side. The linear actuator, in particular the motor, the gear mechanism and the adjustment member are adapted to alter a length of the adjustment member by means of the motor and the gear mechanism. The control unit is coupled with the linear actuator and adapted to actuate the linear actuator for adjusting the component.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present disclosure relates to a furniture system having a linear actuator for adjusting a component of a furniture item, e.g. for adjusting the height of a table or for adjusting the height or the position of a component of a lounging furniture item or a seating furniture item.[0002]Linear actuators conventionally serve for adjusting two parts which are moveable relative to one another. Linear actuators are used in height-adjustable tables for lifting or lowering a table top on a rack of a table, for example. Typically, linear actuators include an electric motor, a gear mechanism and an adjustment member such as a spindle, for example. Besides the performance of the linear actuator, reliability and required construction space, the noise level of the linear actuators can be an essential quality criteria. The gear mechanism may represent a main source of noise development.[0003]Noises in gear mechanisms, e.g. in toothed gear mechanisms, can result ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]The present disclosure provides an improved concept for a furniture system having a linear actuator for adjusting furniture components, which allows less noise generation and high flexibility in the use of the linear actuator.

[0008]In a linear actuator having a motor, an adjustment member and a gear mechanism, the improved concept is based upon the idea of using a friction gear mechanism or a gear mechanism with a friction gear stage for the transmission of a rotational movement from the motor to the adjustment member. As teeth will not mesh in the friction gear stage, a main cause of the noise generation can be eliminated. At the same time, a coaxial construction is possible, which can ensure the desired flexibility.

[0025]In various embodiments of the linear actuator, each of the planetary elements includes a cylindrical sleeve, which is mounted to the carrier element in a rotationally-movable manner, e.g. slid or pushed on the carrier element. The planetary elements additionally include a friction pad connected to the surface of the sleeve. The friction pad can be elastically-deformable, thereby enabling the pinching of the planetary elements.

[0041]Synchronization of multiple linear actuators, in particular of actuators according to the improved concept, can be achieved by determining the position of the linear actuator and / or the adjustment member, for example. Furthermore, an impact of slip in the gear mechanism on the determination of the position of the adjustment member can be reduced or eliminated by arranging the position sensor on the output side, for example.

Problems solved by technology

The gear mechanism may represent a main source of noise development.

Noises in gear mechanisms, e.g. in toothed gear mechanisms, can result from production-related imprecisions, which may result in meshing errors, which in turn can induce vibration.

To some extent, this problem can be reduced by gear components that are produced in a very precise manner, which however may considerably increase production costs of the linear actuator.

Linear actuators of the first configuration can generally have of low noise level due to the design of the meshing in the worm gear mechanism or helical gear mechanism, but the angular arrangement comes with considerable disadvantages, in terms of product design, inter alia.

Nevertheless, noise generation, which can eventually be highly tolerance-dependent, is disadvantageous here.

Passive measures for noise reduction such as encapsulation of the gear mechanism may involve high spatial requirements and thermal problems.

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