Chair With Independently Collapsible Armrest and Method of Operation

This invention relates in general to seating articles and more particularly to chairs of the type with collapsible armrests to prevent their interference with desks, work stations or other structures, or to permit easy access to the seat by the user such as in aircraft passenger or pilot cabins.

My U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,406 discloses such a chair (see FIG. 1), with collapsible armrests comprising an arm at each side of the chair, the arm having a rear end pivotally connected to and supported by the back of the chair; an arm support strut having an upper end pivotally connected to the forward end of the arms and having a lower end pivotally connected to the seat. The chair back is vertically slidable on the chair back support to permit operation of the armrests. With this arrangement, which results in a highly sturdy, efficient and extremely aesthetic design, the user can collapse the arms out of the way with a minimum of effort, and the chair arms remain integral to the chair, accessible, and pleasantly unobtrusive.

In spite of the obvious novelty and advantages of the above mentioned chair construction, a need exists for further improvement leading to even easier armrest operation and simplicity in manufacture while preserving sturdiness and atttractiveness.

The armrests can be moved in and out of an operative position independently of the chair back by means of a track, object of the invention. To that end, a chair arm is pivotally attached at its rear end to the back of the chair and is pivotally attached at its front end to the upper end of a support strut which in turn is pivotally and slidably attached at its lower end to an elongated slotted track on the side of the chair seat. The arm and its support strut are movable from a raised position wherein the arm extends generally horizontally, and the strut extends generally vertically to a retracted or collapsed position, wherein the arm extends generally vertically adjacent the side of the chair back, and the strut extends generally horizontally adjacent the edge of the chair seat.

With this arrangement, and in accordance with the method of the invention, the lower end of the support strut can be easily made to disengage a limit slot on the track and slide forward, guided by the track, moving the arm and the strut to a temporary straight position and then pivoting the forward end of the arm and the upper end of the strut rearwardly and downwardly.

Advantageously, the chair armrest may be easily moved to or from its two positions while the occupant is seated in the chair. Also, one arm can be moved to its retracted position while the other remains in its raised position for situations in which such an arrangement is desired. Thus also, a series of chairs in side-by-side relation can be easily adjusted to so-called bench seating.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the chair of the prior art.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the chair showing the object of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the chair of FIG. 2 with the arms in a position midway between the raised position and a retracted position.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the chair of FIG. 2 with the arms in the retracted position.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the seat and back of the chair of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the arm and support strut components.

FIG. 7 is a partially exploded, partially sectionalized view illustrating the support strut track on the chair seat and the support strut front end connection thereof.

Referring to FIGS. 2-4 the chair includes a chair seat 1, a chair back 2, a back support 3, a pair of arms 4 and a pair of struts 5. The chair seat is mounted on a suitable support such as a pedestal 6 with an adjustable control unit 7.

In FIG. 2, the chair arms 18 are raised into a normal position wherein they extend generally horizontally spaced above the seat 1 as supported by the struts 5 and the backrest 2. The front ends 8 of the struts 5 are slidably connected to the track 9 so that can be moved to a forward position 10 as shown in FIG. 3, allowing the pivotal connection 11 between the arms and the structs to be moved rearwardly into the temporary straight position shown in FIG. 3. As rearward movement of the pivotal connection 11 continues, the front ends 8 of the struts 5 slide rearwardly guided by the track 9 and the arms pivot to a retracted position wherein the chair arms 4 are vertically oriented to the sides 12 of the chair backrest 2, and the struts 5 are horizontally oriented to the sides 13 of the clear seat 1. Thus, as seen in FIG. 4, the arms are conveniently out of the way for situations in which that condition is desired, such as moving the chair under a table which would interfere with the arms. When it is desired that the armrests be returned to the condition of FIG. 1, the procedure is simply reversed. Sometimes it may be desirable to have one armrest in the raised position and the other in the retracted position. This easily accomplished while the chair is in the position of FIG. 3 by moving one pivot between one arm and its strut rearwardly while moving the connection between the other arm and its strut forwardly.

Referring now to FIGS. 5-7 the chair is seen without the arm 4, struts 5 or pedestal 6 for the purpose of clarity only. The track 9 is seen located along the sides 13 of the seat 1 and is oriented in a substantially horizontal manner. A positional limit slot 14 is located at the rear end of the track for releasably positioning the front end 8 of the struts 5 during the raised position of the arms so that the front end of the struts is can be pulled up from the limit slot 14 and made to engage the horizontal surface 16 of the track 9 for operative displacement.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, the chair arms 4 and struts 5 are seen in an exploded view showing the back pivot 17, arm to strut pivot 24 and strut lower pivot 15. The strut pivot 15 comprises a bolt 19 threaded at one end and inserted thru the strut 5 and a bushing 20 in rotatable engagement thereof. Bushing 20 is slidably and rotatably received within the track slot and is thus free to displace on the track surface 16 from one releasable functional position in engagement with limit slot 14 to any number of positions along the track 9. A washer 21 is received over bolt 19 to provide direct contact between the bushing 20 and a nut 23 on the inside 22 of the seat. Nut 23 secures bolt 19 and therefore strut 5 in firm yet movable and pivotal engagement with the track 9.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention and the invention is not to be considered limited to what is shown on the drawings and described in the specification and it is applicable to any suitable article of seating.