Securing device for positioning a seat post of office chairs

[0002] The present invention relates to a securing device comprising two clamp members with two expanding members are connected therebetween and a seat post is clamped between the two clamp members. A releasing member is engaged with one of the clamp members.

[0003] A conventional office chair generally includes a securing device that controls the position of the seat. The conventional securing device involves a hydraulic cylinder and the seat post is connected to the piston rod of the cylinder so that when the users operate the hydraulic cylinder, the seat post is lowered or raised by the movement of the piston rod. However, the cylinder is expensive and has a potential problem of leakage of the liquid in the cylinder. Besides, the number of parts composing the cylinder is large and every part has to be machined to have suitable holes. All of these make the office chair to have a high price and cannot be popular for most of the customers. In other words, there are no office chairs, in the market having adjustable height of the seat and sold at lower price.

[0004] The present invention intends to provide an office chair that has a securing device for holding the seat post and the securing device includes a simple structure.

[0005] In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an office chair and comprises a seat with a seat post extending from an underside of the seat. A base has tube and a plurality of legs extend from the tube. A recess is defined in the tube and a securing device is received in the recess. The securing device comprises two clamp members which are connected by two expandable members which bias the clamp members in opposite directions. A cover is mounted to the base and the seat post extends through the cover and clamped by the two clamp members. A releasing member extends through the cover and engages with one of the two clamp members.

[0006] The primary object of the present invention is to provide an office chair that has a seat height adjustable feature and the mechanism for controlling the seat post is simple.

[0007] The present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention.

[0008] FIG. 1 is a plan view to show an office chair of the present invention;

[0009] FIG. 2 is an exploded view to show the securing device for clamping the seat post of the chair of the present invention;

[0010] FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view to show the seat post is clamped by the securing device;

[0011] FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view to show that the releasing member is unscrewed and the seat post is not clamped by the securing device, and

[0012] FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view to show the seat post is lowered and re-clamped by the securing device.

[0013] Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the office chair of the present invention comprises a seat 50 with a seat post 5 extending from an underside of the seat 50. A base has a tube 100 and a plurality of legs 11 extend from the tube 100. A recess 10 is defined in a top of the tube 100 and a flange 101 extends inward from an inner periphery of the recess 10. A hole 12 is defined through the tube 100 and communicates with the recess 10.

[0014] A cover 4 is mounted to the top of the tube 100 and the seat post 5 extends through a hole 40 of the cover 4 and a central hole in the flange 101. A securing in device is received in the recess 10 and comprises two clamp members 20, 20′ which are connected by two expandable members 21 which bias the clamp members 20, in opposite directions. The two clamp members 20, 20′ are rested on the flange 101. The seat post 5 is clamped by the two clamp members 20, 20′. The seat post 5 has a tapered outer periphery and each of the two clamp members 20, 20′ has a tapered inside.

[0015] A releasing member 3 which is a bolt extends through a side hole 41 of the cover 4 and the hole 12 in the tube 100 and engages with a threaded recess 202 defined in one of the two clamp members 20, 20′. The clamp member 20′ is pushed to contact the inner periphery of the recess 10 and the other clamp member 20 is pushed by the releasing member 3 to clamp the seat post 5.

[0016] A shown in FIG. 4, when adjusting the height of the seat 50, the releasing member 3 is unscrewed so that the clamp member 20 is biased by the expandable members 21 and moves away from the other clamp member 20′. The seat post 5 is then moved freely till the releasing member 3 is threaded again to push the clamp member 20 to clamp the seat post 5 again. The tapered outer periphery of the seat post 5 and the tapered inside of each of the two clamp members 20, 20′ allow the users to effectively secure the seat post 5 in position. Other known methods may be used to clamp the seat post 5 such as by cam device to clamp the two clamp members.

[0017] While we have shown and described the embodiment in accordance with the present invention, it should be clear to those skilled in the art that further embodiments may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.