Modular Recliner Assembly With Hip-Pivot Backrest Motion
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In environments like hospital lobbies and patient rooms, there is a need for comfortable seating with a compact recliner mechanism that minimizes parts, maximizes manufacturing efficiency, and provides ease of adjustment while maintaining a visually pleasing design.
Innovation Solution
A reclining chair design featuring a chair frame with parallel side frame members, a seat, backrest, and legs, incorporating a recliner assembly with a bracket that rotates about an axis approximating the hip position of a seated user, allowing for reclining movement and integration into a modular system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional recliner mechanisms are used to provide comfortable reclining functionality, then user comfort is improved, but device complexity and number of parts increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the reclining mechanism components into a simplified assembly where the seat back is directly coupled to the seat base through a reclining mechanism that integrates multiple functions into fewer parts, reducing overall part count while maintaining reclining functionality
Solution Approach 2:
The reclining mechanism is designed to perform multiple functions (reclining, supporting, positioning) through a unified structure that uses common parts across different options, maximizing the use of universal components
2Ease of operation
If additional comfort features are incorporated into the chair, then user comfort is improved, but manufacturing efficiency decreases due to increased part variety
Solution Approach 1:
The chair design maximizes the use of common parts among different options and configurations, allowing comfort features to be added while maintaining manufacturing efficiency through standardized components that can be used across multiple product variants
3Ease of operation
If multiple options and features are added to enhance comfort, then user comfort is improved, but assembly complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The chair is designed as a modular system where the seat base, seat back, and reclining mechanism are separate assemblies that can be independently manufactured and then easily assembled together, simplifying the overall assembly process despite multiple features
Solution Approach 2:
Modular components are designed to be interchangeable and compatible across different configurations, allowing various comfort options to be assembled using the same base components and assembly procedures
4Productivity
If a compact recliner mechanism is designed to reduce part complexity, then manufacturing efficiency is improved, but reclining smoothness may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The reclining mechanism uses a simplified structure where the seat back rotates about an axis that approximates the hip joint position, creating a natural and smooth reclining motion through geometric design rather than complex mechanical components
Data Source
AI summary
A recliner has a chair frame that provides support to a seat and back rest. The frame includes a recliner assembly that includes a bracket that is connected to the backrest enabling reclining movement of the backrest as the bracket moves through a correspondingly shaped bracket slot in a recliner base plate, and where the bracket rotates about an axis that approximates the position of the rotational axis of the hip of a seated user. The reclining chair can also be part of a modular system of components that enable one or more seating units to be in a spanned or ganged configuration.