Foam furniture molded around a core with a lumbar support protrusion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9456696-B2
Application number	US-201414511471-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2014
Priority date	Nov 29, 2013
Publication date	Oct 4, 2016
Grant date	Oct 4, 2016

Abstract

A foam seating article includes an outer foam layer molded around an inner core of molded foam or expanded polystyrene that includes a lumbar support protrusion. The lumbar support protrusion has a convex outer surface disposed inside the seat back area of the outer foam layer and that is not visible on the outer contour of the seat back area. The inner core is made from polyurethane polyol and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and has a hardness greater than 25 Shore A and a density less than two pounds per cubic foot. The polymer material of the inner core has a hardness greater than that of the outer foam. The outer layer of molded foam is high density (HD) foam, memory foam or latex foam. A fabric covering encloses the inner core and molded outer foam layer. The foam seating article can be a chair, sofa, chaise lounge or bench.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A seating article comprising:
a foam core made of molded foam having a first hardness;
an outer layer of foam molded completely around the foam core, wherein the outer layer of foam has a second hardness, and wherein the first hardness is greater than the second hardness, wherein the foam core has a lumbar support protrusion inside a seat back area of the outer layer of foam; and
a covering enclosing the outer layer of foam and the foam core.

2. The seating article of claim 1 , wherein the lumbar support protrusion has a convex outer surface inside the seat back area of the outer layer of foam.

3. The seating article of claim 1 , wherein the lumbar support protrusion has a convexity shaped to conform to a lordotic curve portion of a seated person's spine.

4. The seating article of claim 1 , wherein the first hardness is greater than 25 Shore A, and the second hardness is less than 20 Shore A.

5. The seating article of claim 1 , further comprising:
a layer of memory foam glued on top of the outer layer of foam, wherein the covering encloses the layer of memory foam.

6. The seating article of claim 1 , wherein the molded foam of the foam core has a hardness of greater than 25 Shore A and a density of less than 1.5 pounds per cubic foot.

7. The seating article of claim 1 , wherein the seating article includes no metal.

8. The seating article of claim 1 , wherein the seat back area has an outer contour adapted to face the lower back of an occupant of the seating article, and wherein the lumbar support protrusion is not visible on the outer contour of the seat back area of the outer layer of foam.

9. The seating article of claim 8 , wherein the outer layer of foam is taken from the group consisting of: HD foam, memory foam and latex foam.

10. The seating article of claim 8 , wherein the foam core is made of a polyether-derived polyurethane polyol and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate.

11. A seating article comprising:
a foam core made of molded foam having a first hardness;
an outer layer of foam molded completely around the foam core, wherein the outer layer of foam has a second hardness, and wherein the first hardness is greater than the second hardness, and wherein the foam core has a lumbar support protrusion inside a seat back area of the outer layer of foam; and
a covering enclosing the outer layer of foam and the foam core, wherein the foam core contains between 100 kg and 120 kg of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate for every 100 kg of polyether-derived polyurethane polyol.

12. A seating article comprising:
a solid core made of a polymer material;
an outer layer of foam molded completely around the solid core, wherein the polymer material of the solid core has a hardness that is greater than that of the foam of the outer layer, wherein a portion of the solid core forms a seat back around which the outer layer is conformally molded, and wherein a lumbar support protrusion is disposed on the seat back portion of the solid core.

13. The seating article of claim 12 , wherein the lumbar support protrusion has a convex outer surface.

14. The seating article of claim 12 , wherein the lumbar support protrusion has a convexity shaped to conform to the lordotic curve of the lower spine of an occupant of the seating article.

15. The seating article of claim 12 , wherein the outer layer of foam has a lower-back outer contour adapted to face the lower back of an occupant of the seating article, and wherein the lumbar support protrusion is not visible in the lower-back outer contour of the outer layer adjacent the lumbar support protrusion.

16. The seating article of claim 12 , further comprising:
a covering enclosing the outer layer of foam and the solid core.

17. The seating article of claim 12 , wherein the hardness of the polymer material is greater than 25 Shore A, and the hardness of the foam of the outer layer is less than 20 Shore A.

18. The seating article of claim 12 , wherein the outer layer of foam is taken from the group consisting of: HD foam, memory foam and latex foam.

19. The seating article of claim 12 , wherein the hardness of the polymer material is greater than 25 Shore A, and wherein the polymer material has a density of less than 1.5 pounds per cubic foot.

Assignees

• Zinus Inc
• Zinus Inc

Inventors

• Lee Youn Jae

Classifications

• B29C44/04

  consisting of at least two parts of chemically or physically different materials, e.g. having different densities · CPC title

• B29C44/1285

  the preformed part being foamed · CPC title

• B29C44/1266

  the preformed part being completely encapsulated, e.g. for packaging purposes or as reinforcement · CPC title

• B29K2105/04

  cellular or porous · CPC title

• A47C7/18 Primary

  having foamed material included in cushioning part · CPC title