Pocketed Spring Core Using Air-Restrictive Fabric for Slow Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing seating and bedding products with visco-elastic foam pads provide a luxury feel but retain heat and are expensive to manufacture, lacking a cost-effective alternative with similar slow-compression and slow-recovery characteristics.
Innovation Solution
A pocketed spring core assembly using semi-impermeable fabric to encase each spring, which slows air flow and compression, made from materials like spun-bonded polypropylene or multi-layered fabrics, allowing for manufacturing on existing equipment with minimal modifications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If visco-elastic foam pads are used to provide luxury feel and slow compression characteristics, then the cushion achieves desired comfort and slow-to-compress properties, but heat retention increases and manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the heat retention problem from the visco-elastic foam system by removing the foam material entirely and replacing it with pocketed springs enclosed in semi-impermeable fabric. This separation allows retention of the slow compression feel while eliminating the harmful heat retention characteristic.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses composite construction combining pocketed springs with semi-impermeable fabric covering. This composite structure creates a new material system that mimics the slow compression properties of visco-elastic foam while allowing heat dissipation through the semi-permeable fabric layers.
2Ease of operation
If visco-elastic foam pads are used to achieve slow compression and slow recovery characteristics, then the luxury feel is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive visco-elastic foam with a more economical construction using standard pocketed springs and semi-impermeable fabric. This substitution uses cheaper, more readily available materials while achieving the same functional effect of slow compression and slow recovery.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical parameters of the cushioning system by using semi-impermeable fabric with specific air permeability ratings (e.g., 5-50 cfm) to control the compression rate. This parameter-based approach allows tuning of the slow compression effect without requiring expensive specialty foam materials.
3Ease of manufacture
If air permeable fabric is used for pocketed springs, then manufacturing is simple and cost-effective, but compression speed is too fast and luxury feel is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the air permeability parameter of the fabric covering from fully permeable to semi-impermeable, with specific ratings (e.g., 5-50 cfm). This parameter change slows the compression speed by controlling air flow rate through the fabric, creating the desired luxury feel while maintaining the pocketed spring construction's manufacturing advantages.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses pneumatic principles by controlling air flow through semi-impermeable fabric to regulate compression speed. The semi-permeable fabric acts as a flow restrictor, creating a pneumatic damping effect that slows compression and recovery without adding mechanical complexity to the manufacturing process.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides a luxurious feel with reduced heat retention and lower production costs, achieving similar slow-compression and slow-recovery characteristics to visco-elastic foam pads without the heat retention issues, while being economically viable.
Implementation Method 1
The fabric is semi-impermeable to air flow through the fabric material... air may pass through such a semi-impermeable material, but at a very reduced rate compared to the rate at which air usually flows freely through a fabric material
Implementation Method 2
the visco-elastic foam pad which is slow acting. That is, the visco-elastic foam pad is slow to compress under load and slow to recover to its original height when the load is removed
Data Source
AI summary
Spring cushions (10) having slow-acting pocketed spring cores (12) characterized by the individual springs of the cores (12) being pocketed within semi-impermeable fabric material and a method of making such pocketed spring cores (12).