Phoronomic backrest for a chair or seat
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional office chairs fail to provide adequate support and stimulation for prolonged sitting, leading to poor blood circulation and discomfort due to their static backrests, which do not effectively move or adapt to the user's body.
Innovation Solution
A backrest with phoronomic elements, comprising columnar bands and transverse ligaments that adjust to the user's spine, providing flexible tilting and massage-like movements through adjustable resistance and displacement, promoting subliminal muscle activation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If a stiff backrest is used to provide stable support, then structural stability is improved, but blood circulation and muscle activation deteriorate due to lack of movement
Solution Approach 1:
The backrest is transformed from a static structure to a dynamic one through the introduction of finray elements that can move and deform. These elements consist of flexible strips connected by pivotally attached webs, allowing the backrest to adapt its shape and provide gentle movements that stimulate blood circulation while maintaining support stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The finray elements are constructed using flexible material strips that can bend and deform to accommodate body movements. These thin, flexible components allow the backrest to conform to the user's back shape and provide dynamic support without rigid constraints, promoting blood flow and muscle activation.
2Measurement precision
If a stationary backrest is used to maintain fixed support position, then positioning accuracy is improved, but adaptability to user movements deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The backrest incorporates movable finray elements that can dynamically adjust to user movements while maintaining proper positioning. The pivotally connected webs allow each finray element to move independently, adapting to changes in body posture while keeping the overall backrest structure properly positioned.
Solution Approach 2:
The backrest is divided into multiple discrete finray elements rather than being a single rigid structure. This segmentation allows each element to move and adapt independently to local body contours and movements, providing customized support across different regions of the back while maintaining overall positional stability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If frequent adjustments are made to adapt to different bodies, then adaptability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The backrest is designed to automatically adapt to different body shapes and movements without requiring user intervention. The finraw elements with their flexible construction and pivotal connections self-adjust as the user sits and moves, eliminating the need for manual adjustments while maintaining high adaptability to different bodies.
Solution Approach 2:
The backrest achieves adaptability through changes in its physical parameters - specifically the deformation and repositioning of flexible finraw elements - rather than through discrete adjustment mechanisms. This allows continuous adaptation to different body types and postures simply by the natural deformation of the flexible components under body weight and movement.
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 backrest enhances seating comfort by inducing subtle, dynamic movements that stimulate blood circulation and support the back, thighs, and buttocks, improving overall well-being during extended periods of sitting.
Implementation Method 1
these connecting webs are also longitudinally variable or articulated, or their linkages to the transverse straps are designed to be longitudinally displaceable on the same, so that these connecting webs define the distance between the transverse straps in a relaxed position and under local pressure a change in shape and length according to the arrangement and design of the connecting webs
Data Source
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AI summary
The backrest brings about the stimulation of underlying movements in the back muscles. The backrest consists of at least one moveable element (1) formed of two flexible column strips (2, 3) running over one another and connected via struts (4), and which track the spinal column of the person using the chair with a gap. This element (1) extends upwards from the centre of the rear end of the seating surface. The front column strip carries a number of moveable elements (6) laterally protruding on both sides like ribs (6) from the central moveable element (1), each having two transverse strips (7, 8) for supporting the back region of the seated person exclusively on both sides of their spinal column. Each time the backrest constructed in this way is leant upon, a movement of its contact surface is brought about in different directions, and thereby a massaging of the back muscles of the user.