Folding Booth Bench With Weight-Shifting Base for Mobile Seating
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional booth-style seating is less common in institutional settings like school cafeterias due to its bulkiness, immobility, and difficulty in cleaning, which compromises mobility, space efficiency, and ease of cleaning.
Innovation Solution
A mobile folding bench that converts between a folded storage position and a stationary seating position by pivoting a seat, using a mobile base and a stationary base with a biasing member to facilitate movement and support, allowing for easy reconfiguration and cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional booth-style seating is used, then comfort and privacy are improved, but mobility and ease of storage are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The booth is divided into two separate benches that can be independently moved and stored. Each bench can be folded and positioned separately, allowing for easier mobility and storage while maintaining the booth configuration when assembled together.
Solution Approach 2:
The benches incorporate foldable seats and backs that can transition between upright and folded positions. This dynamic capability allows the benches to be compacted for storage or moved individually, while forming a stable booth structure when assembled together with a table.
2Ease of operation
If traditional booth-style seating is used, then comfort is improved, but cleaning efficiency is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The booth is segmented into separate movable benches rather than a fixed structure. This allows cleaning personnel to easily move the benches apart and access all surfaces, including undersides and between components, significantly improving cleaning efficiency while maintaining comfort when assembled.
3Area of stationary object
If booth seating is positioned next to a wall, then space utilization is improved, but cleaning access is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The benches are designed to be dynamically reconfigurable and movable rather than fixed. Even when positioned against a wall to maximize space utilization, the foldable design and separable components allow cleaning personnel to access all surfaces by folding or moving the benches, eliminating hidden corners that would be difficult to clean.
4Ease of operation
If booth seating is made bulky for comfort, then comfort and privacy are improved, but mobility is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The booth is divided into separate lightweight benches rather than a single bulky structure. Each bench can be quickly moved to new positions or stored separately, dramatically improving mobility and reconfiguration speed while maintaining comfort and privacy when the benches are assembled in the booth configuration with a table.
Solution Approach 2:
The foldable design allows the benches to transition between compact and expanded states. When folded, they occupy minimal space and are easy to move; when unfolded and assembled with a table, they provide full booth-style comfort and privacy, thus resolving the contradiction between bulkiness and mobility.
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 mobile folding bench provides comfort and privacy while maintaining mobility, space efficiency, and ease of cleaning, addressing the challenges of bulkiness and immobility in institutional settings.
Implementation Method 1
a base biasing member connected between the mobile base and the stationary base and biasing the stationary base in a generally upward direction relative to the mobile base
Data Source
AI summary
Mobile folding restaurant booth style benches are provided, which may be arranged in opposed pairs to form restaurant style booths. An individual bench incorporates a mechanism for shifting the weight of the bench between a mobile base, which may be supported by swivel casters, and a stationary base, which may be supported by non-slip feet, actuated by pivoting a bench seat down from a folded storage position to an unfolded seating position. The weight shifting mechanism may include an engagement member, which is initially spaced apart from an actuator at a folded angle of the seat, and which contacts and begins transmitting force and movement to the actuator at a partially unfolded angle of the seat. Preferably, the bench further includes a biasing component that biases the stationary base upward relative to the mobile base, a locking mechanism that resists a force provided by the biasing component to retain the bench seat in the unfolded seating position, contoured shells or other covers for the seat and a seat back, and a back panel extending vertically above the seat back.