Seating furniture with height-adjustable headrest
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Solution Overview
Problem
Seating furniture with height-adjustable headrests often experiences jamming or wedging issues due to the distance between positioning struts, which can compromise comfort and increase manufacturing costs when using stable guides to prevent these problems.
Innovation Solution
The use of gear rack and gear wheel elements with synchronous struts ensures synchronized adjustment of positioning struts, preventing jamming and wedging while maintaining manufacturing cost-effectiveness, with features like modular gear rack construction and damping elements for enhanced comfort and stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the distance between positioning struts is increased to provide wider headrests for user comfort, then headrest comfort is improved, but jamming and wedging of the headrest adjustment mechanism occurs more frequently
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines two separate guides into a single integrated guide structure that accommodates both positioning struts. This merging allows the struts to be positioned farther apart for comfort while the unified guide prevents jamming by providing a common reference frame and coordinated movement path, resolving the contradiction between width/comfort and stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide acts as an intermediary element between the positioning struts and the headrest adjustment mechanism. It mediates the movement of the struts, ensuring they move in coordination even when spaced farther apart, thereby preventing jamming while allowing the struts to be positioned for optimal user comfort.
2Reliability
If very stable and sturdy guides are used to prevent jamming of the headrest adjustment, then headrest adjustment reliability is improved, but manufacturing costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
By merging two separate guides into one integrated guide structure, the patent reduces the total number of components that need to be manufactured and assembled. This single guide provides the necessary stability to prevent jamming while being simpler and more cost-effective to produce than two separate sturdy guides would be.
Solution Approach 2:
The single integrated guide performs multiple functions: it guides both positioning struts, prevents jamming through coordinated movement, and reduces manufacturing complexity. This multi-functionality allows the guide to provide high reliability without the increased cost associated with multiple separate sturdy guide components.
3Adaptability or versatility
If two separate guides are used for the positioning struts, then each strut can be adjusted independently, but synchronization between the struts is difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the guidance function for both struts into a single integrated guide structure. This allows each strut to be adjusted independently within the guide while the unified structure ensures their movements are synchronized, as the guide provides a common reference frame that coordinates their positions automatically.
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
This solution reliably prevents jamming and wedging of headrests, enhances user comfort through precise and flexible height adjustment, and reduces manufacturing costs by ensuring synchronized movement of positioning struts without the need for overly stable guides.
Implementation Method 1
the guides each have a gear rack element and a gear wheel element meshing with the gear rack element when adjusting the headrest from the lower position to the upper position and back
Implementation Method 2
The adjustment is resulting from each gear wheel element rolling on an associated gear rack element, wherein the teeth of the gear wheel element and of the associated gear rack element engage with one another
Implementation Method 3
the gear wheel elements are connected to one another in a torsion-resistant manner via a synchronous strut
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to seating furniture, in particular an armchair or sofa, with at least one backrest, at least one headrest, and at least one headrest adjustment. The headrest is held adjustable relative to the backrest by means of the headrest adjustment. The headrest adjustment has two height-adjustable positioning struts bearing the headrest and each is guided via a separate guide for adjusting the at least one headrest from the lower position into the upper position and back so that the headrests or the headrest adjustments are less prone to jamming or wedging, without disproportionate manufacturing costs. The guides each have a gear rack element and a gear wheel element meshing with the gear rack element when adjusting the headrest from the lower position to the upper position and back. The gear wheel elements are connected to one another in a torsion-resistant manner via a synchronous strut.