Patents Represented by Law Firm Doriy & Manning, PA
  • Patent number: 5797155
    Abstract: A seating system is designed for self-adjusting pressure relief for use with wheelchairs and other generally confined seating arrangements. One or more support chambers filled with resilient foam and a fluid such as air are arranged on an upper support surface. Respective self-adjusting reservoirs are provided and arranged in fluid communication (such as through plastic tubing) with various of the chambers. As elastic band or similar is placed surrounding each respective reservoir, to compensate for, and reach equilibrium with, air pressure differences caused therein by the amount of force or loading received on the corresponding respective support chamber. The physical placement of the reservoir arrangements may be accommodated within an enclosing cover, so that an integrally formed self-contained wheelchair cushion or similar is provided with self-adjusting features, operative in respective zones of the support surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 25, 1998
    Assignee: Span-America Medical Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Edmund K. Maier, Richard W. Raburn