Abstract: A spring forming machine is provided with closed-loop feedback from sensors which monitor dimensions of the coils and heads of the spring being formed, servo motors which control wire feed speed, coil radius and pitch forming elements, and coiling direction. Video cameras form pictorial images of the spring being formed. The images are digitized and fed to a central computer, along with images from similar machines forming similar springs, which compares the signals, such as photometric images, from the different machines, which represent actual spring dimensions, with a single stored image relating to the desired dimensions, such as head shape, coil diameter, and the positions and angles of bends. Discrepancies are correlated with causation data, such as feed roll slippage or material hardness variations, and adjustment signals are sent to the machines. Machines producing errors are interrogated more frequently by the computer. Large errors or failures to respond to adjustments triggers an alarm.

Abstract: A modular bedding system which comprises a rigid non-resilient platform having depressions formed in the top surface thereof for the reception of resilient cushions, and a relatively thin mattress supported atop that platform and the cushions. In one preferred embodiment, there is a depression and one cushion located beneath the shoulders of a person reclining atop the mattress of the bedding system and a second cushion located beneath the hips of a person reclining atop the system. In another preferred embodiment, there is a single cushion located in a single depression of the bed but the cushion extends beneath the shoulders to beneath the hips of a person reclining atop the mattress and has a zone of increased firmness located beneath the waist of that person.

Abstract: A method of maintaining spinal alignment of a person reclining atop an air mattress which has a plurality of isolated zones along the length of the mattress inflatable to different preset pressures, which method comprises filling each zone of the mattress with air at a predetermined initial prefill pressure and then locating a person in a reclining position atop the mattress so as to cause the pressure in the individual zones of the mattress to change to the preset pressures previously established as appropriate to achieve spinal alignment of the person reclining atop the mattress.

Abstract: A housing containing an air pump and an air pressure supply system for supplying air to a body support, such as an air mattress. The housing contains, in addition to the air pump, diaphragm type pressure regulators and diaphragm type surge check valves, as well as passageways and pressure chambers for interconnecting the pump to the pressure regulators and surge check valves.

Abstract: An air bed comprising an air mattress having a plurality of interconnected rows and columns of air cells divided into longitudinally isolated zones, and an airflow control system for supplying air at differing pressures to the zones such that a person reclining atop the mattress is supported and maintained in spinal alignment at subischemic applied pressures.

Abstract: A spring interior comprising a plurality of transversely extending bands of springs disposed side by side and connected together by longitudinally extending helical lacing wires in the top and bottom faces of the bands. Each band of springs comprises a single length of wire formed into a plurality of substantially vertical coil springs interconnected by interconnecting segments of wire located alternately in the top and bottom faces of the bands. The spring interior is characterized by sections of differing firmness or height throughout the length of the spring interior, which differing firmness or height sections are created by either having the wire from which the bands of coil springs differ in physical characteristics or by having the coil springs of the differing bands differ in height when in the relaxed state.

Abstract: A spring interior comprising a plurality of longitudinally extending bands of springs disposed side by side and connected together by helical lacing wires in the top and bottom faces of the bands. Each band of springs comprises a single length of wire formed into a plurality of substantially vertical coil springs interconnected by interconnecting segments of wire located alternately in the top and bottom faces of the bands. The endmost coil springs of each row are interlaced for the length of the coil with the next adjacent coil of the same row such that the axes of the last two coils in each row are substantially coaxial.

Abstract: A spring interior comprising a plurality of longitudinally extending bands of springs disposed side by side and connected together by helical lacing wires in the top and bottom faces of the bands. Each band of springs comprises a single length of wire formed into a plurality of substantially vertical coils of springs interconnected by interconnecting segments of wire located alternately in the top and bottom faces of the bands. Each interconnecting segment comprises a longitudinally extending bridging portion, a pair of transversely extending end portions, and a transversely extending support structure. The corners defined by the intersections between the bridging portions and the end portions of the interconnecting segments are radiused by radii of differing dimension so as to colinearly align the bridging portions of each band of springs.

Abstract: A spring interior comprising a plurality of longitudinally extending bands of springs disposed side by side and connected together by helical lacing wires in the top and bottom faces of the bands. Each band of springs comprises a single length of wire formed into a plurality of substantially vertical coil springs interconnected by interconnecting segments of wire located alternately in the top and bottom faces of the bands. The coil springs of each row are interlaced with the adjacent coils of the same row. The spring interior is characterized by sections of differing firmness throughout the length of the spring interior. The sections of greatest firmness have such increased firmness imparted by a plurality of posture rods which extend through interlaced portions of a plurality of pairs of interlaced coils of the spring interior.

Abstract: A spring interior comprising a plurality of longitudinally extending bands of springs disposed side by side and connected together by helical lacing wires in the top and bottom faces of the bands. Each band of springs comprises a single length of wire formed into a plurality of substantially vertical interconnected by interconnecting segments of wire coils of springs located alternately in the top and bottom faces of the bands. Each interconnecting segment comprises a longitudinally extending bridging portion and a transversely extending padding support structure. The padding support structure is angled upwardly away from the top face of the band and downwardly away from the bottom face of the band so as to impart initial softness and subsequent increased firmness to the spring interior when the spring unit is vertically compressed.