Seating arrangement

Abstract

An improved seating arrangement having a pair of rigid sides which include a back portion and a seat portion. Flexible webbing members extend between the rigid sides in the back and seat portions. Various arrangements are provided for increasing and decreasing the length and tension of the flexible webbing to provide a three dimensional variation in the contour of the flexible webbing in the back and / or seat portion.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]This invention relates to the seating art and more particularly to an improved adjustable seating arrangement particularly adapted for providing variable contour back and / or seat portion to accommodate various configurational deformities to the user.[0003]2. Description of the Prior Art[0004]Many persons, including both adults and children, are unfortunately afflicted with various disorders causing postural configuration abnormalities which vary from the normal configuration of persons not so afflicted. For example, many suffering from cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy have their upper torso, and / or buttocks, and / or upper legs twisted or otherwise in configurations that can differ considerably from the generally planer array generally associated with those same portions of the anatomy of persons not so afflicted. The distortions from the planar array can vary throughout the length of each of the body portions so that...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015]It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved seating arrangement for disabled persons requiring configurational variations in the seat and / or back of the seating arrangement.

[0016]It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved seating arrangement for disabled persons in which adjustments to the contours of the back and / or seat may be quickly and easily made in one, two, or three dimensions.

[0017]It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a seating arrangement for disabled persons in which variations in the contours of the back and / or seat may be quickly and easily accomplished.

[0018]It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a variable contour seating arrangement that is of sturdy construction, comparatively inexpensive to fabricate and adaptable for utilization with a wide variety of contour configurational requirements.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0026]Each of the flexible webbing members of the first plurality and second plurality thereof may be individually adjusted in length by suitable adjustment of the adjustment means and because of the four point attachment can provide a variable contour of each of the flexible webbing members thus provided a capability for a three dimensional contour variation throughout the extent of the back portion and the seat portion to accommodate a wide variety of configurational variations.

[0027]In other embodiments of the present invention, flexible strap means which may be flexible nylon webbing are provided to allow insertion of resilient pads to further provide contour adjustment and comfort to the seating arrangement.

Problems solved by technology

Many persons, including both adults and children, are unfortunately afflicted with various disorders causing postural configuration abnormalities which vary from the normal configuration of persons not so afflicted.

The distortions from the planar array can vary throughout the length of each of the body portions so that, for example, a chair back or chair seat having a single variation from the planar extending throughout the extent thereof cannot provide the desired support throughout the extent of each body portion.

Such an arrangement is comparatively costly and cannot provide the desired seating comfort or convenient contour arrangement often desired.

There is no provision for adjusting the tension and the ties are not directly connected to the transverse strips and contouring cannot be provided.

However, there is no provision for providing the desired contour to match the various bodily contours for the disabled persons for whom such a seat is desired.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,667 shows the structure for attaching a webbing to the frame of a tubular chair such as a lawn chair but does not provide any contour adjustment to either the seat or the back.

None of these patents shows or suggests the desired contour configuration adjustability.

Other prior art seating arrangements for such disabled persons generally consist of costly complex and cumbersome solid seat inserts with many mechanical adjustments or multiple pieces of foam applied to achieve the desired contour for each individual persons.

Such units are difficult to transport and tend to lose their adjustment so that the contours do not remain constant for the person.

An individual custom molded contour chair covered with a padded cover has also been utilized but such units are very costly and need significant lead time.

Further, should the contours of the individual change, as they often do with many diseases, and / or as the size of a person increases such as when a child grows, the molded contour chair cannot accommodate the changes.

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