Seat with flexible rubber panel

Abstract

The present invention provides a seat containing several moveable, substantially vertically arranged, rubber panels which are mounted in parallel in a retention frame in such a way that the parallel, moveable, substantially vertically arranged, rubber panels align themselves horizontally when subjected to strain from above and form a horizontal sitting area, which is preferably suitable for use in public buildings such as waiting rooms, bus shelters or railway stations.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention provides a seat which is preferably suitable for use in public buildings such as waiting rooms, bus shelters or railway stations and which can be used in the open air.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Seats in public buildings or public places are now often made of plastic shells which are mounted on metal frames. As a result of vandalism or environmental effects these are very often unsightly and are not inviting to sit on.

[0003] Another alternative is to use metal shells, generally metal meshes which are used in the form of a seating section on a frame. These provide very limited seating comfort, comparable to that provided by the wooden benches which are also used in these situations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The object of the present invention is the provision of a structure which combines immunity to environmental effects with seating comfort.

[0005] This object is achieved by a seat containing several movable, substantially vertically arranged, rubber panels which are mounted in parallel in a retention frame in such a way that the parallel, movable, substantially vertically arranged, rubber panels align themselves horizontally when subjected to strain from above and form a horizontal sitting area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] FIG. 1 shows a side view of the seat together with the retention frame.

[0007] FIG. 2 shows a front view of the seat together with the retention frame.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] The rubber panels advantageously contain a mixture of rubber with +fillers and additives.

[0009] Suitable rubbers are advantageously chloroprene rubber, EPDM, EVM, HNBR and blends thereof.

[0010] Suitable fillers are advantageously carbon blacks, silicas, magnesium and/or aluminum hydroxides and blends thereof.

[0011] Suitable additives are advantageously plasticizers such as esters, ethers and/or mineral oils. Suitable additives are disclosed in Handbuch für die Gummi-Industrie, 2nd ed., Bayer AG, Germany, p. 469-483.

[0012] Obviously, the rubber, filler and additives have to be adjusted to the strength and flexibility required for the particular rubber panels. This lies within the abilities of a person skilled in the art and reference may also be made to Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, Vol. 4, p. 66 et seq. (Compounding).

[0013] The following rubbers are very particularly suitable for producing the preferred flame-resistant rubber panels: EVM, HNBR or blends.

[0014] The following fillers are very particularly suitable for producing flame-resistant rubber panels: Mg(OH)2 or Al(OH)3 or blends.

[0015] The following additives are very particularly suitable for producing flame-resistant rubber panels: phosphates.

[0016] Obviously, it is possible to mix plastics such as polyolefins (PE, PP), polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate or recycled plastics with the rubbers. The proportion of plastics materials which may be tolerated is governed by the specific ultimate application of the rubber panels and the quality requirements for the mechanical properties such as elasticity and strength.

[0017] In the general case, in the region of 20 to 320 phr of fillers and in the region of 10 to 80 phr of additives are used per 100 parts of rubber (phr).

[0018] Another alternative for exerting an effect on the mechanical properties of the rubber panels is to adjust the degree of cross-linking of the rubber/rubber mixture used. At this point, reference is made to the Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering vol. 17, p. 666 et seq. (vulcanisation). In the region of 1 to 15 phr of cross-linking agents are normally used.

[0019] It is often advantageous to use a composite material for the rubber panels. This means that the plastics panel is not built up exclusively from one continuous layer of rubber, but has a layered structure.

[0020] This structure may contain two or more layers. Here, several rubber layers made of the same or of different rubbers may be joined together. The rubber layers preferably contain reinforcing materials such as glass fiber fabrics, textile fabrics, metal fabrics, fiber fabrics such as Kevlar® or Twaron®. In this instance, a fabric is understood to be any possible arrangement such as individual fibers, nets, mats, ropes, cables etc.

[0021] It is also possible to introduce the reinforcing materials as an intermediate layer between the rubber layers. In this case, one or more intermediate layers may be present in the structure.

[0022] A combination of non-reinforced rubber layers and reinforced rubber layers and/or intermediate layers is more preferred.

[0023] The retention frame is used to anchor the rubber panels and enables substantially vertical positioning of the rubber panels in the unoccupied status. This means that rain and snow run off and no water collects on the sitting area produced under strain. The retention frame is advantageously made of metal. Furthermore, it is advantageous that the retention frame is not solid, but is a framework in the form of a seat, in particular a chair, wherein the rubber panels are mounted thereon instead of the sitting area.

[0024] The term substantially vertically arranged means that, in the resting status, the rubber panels are advantageously not located at precisely an angle of 90° to the retention frame, but at an angle which differs slightly or more than slightly from 90°, which facilitates the required flexing/turning of the rubber panels and aids uniform movement of the rubber panels.

[0025] The ends of the rubber panels are advantageously connected firmly and immovably to the retention frame. Movement of the rubber panels takes place purely by twisting the rubber panels themselves under strain from above, wherein a sitting area is then produced. In an alternative embodiment, the ends of the panels are connected to the retention frame by a ball-and-socket joint so that when the rubber panels are twisted under strain from above, a sitting area is produced.

[0026] The sitting area may be continuous or interrupted, i.e. the rubber panels may bend flush to form a sitting area or there may still be breaks in the sitting area after the bending process.

[0027] The height of retention is generally chosen so that a relaxed sitting position is ensured.

[0028] In FIGS. 1 and 2, the rubber slats (1) are mounted in the retention frame (2). The retention frame (2) is interconnected by means of braces (3), (4) and (5). As shown in FIG. 1, the rubber slats (1) are all parallel to each other and essentially vertically oriented and can be turned into a horizontal position both towards the left (6) and the right (7), so that a seat is formed.

[0029] Due to its structure, the seat described here is very resistant to vandalism and to environmental effects such as rain, snow and bird droppings.

[0030] Thus, it is especially suitable for use in the open air and is used as public seating in places such as in parks, waiting rooms, railway stations, bus shelters and airports.

[0031] The invention is further illustrated but is not intended to be limited by the following examples in which all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specified.

[0032] The following examples explain the invention in more detail.

EXAMPLES

[0033] 1 Methods of measurement Residual double bond content IR spectroscopy Mooney viscosity ASTM D 1646 (cited in ME) (ML 1 + 4 (100° C.)) Volatile constituents (wt. %) ASTM D 1416 Ash content (wt. %) ASTM D 1416 Acrylonitrile (ACN) content According to method given below: (wt. % bonded in the polymer)

[0034] Brief Description of Method for Determining ACN

[0035] During analysis, the rubber is pyrolyzed on a catalyst at 900° C. in a stream of oxygen. The unconsumed oxygen is absorbed in a copper reduction reactor and the NO-X gases formed are reduced to nitrogen. Then CO2 present is extracted from the analysis gas stream in a Na2CO3/NaOH trap and the water present is extracted in a MgClO4 trap. The change in thermal conductivity of the analysis gas, as compared with the carrier gas stream, is a measure of the nitrogen content of the sample.

[0036] Equipment for Method Described Above

[0037] Protein analyzer, Fisons, model NA 2000

[0038] Micro-scales, Sartorius, model Micro

[0039] Evaluation unit, Digital, model DECpc Lpx 433 dx with interfaces to NA 2000 and weighing interface, and also EAGER 200 software

[0040] Chemicals and Solvents for Method Described Above

[0041] Methionine, Hekatech

[0042] Constituents of Formulation for the Invention 2 TABLE 1 43% ACN, Therban A 4307 Bayer AG max. 0.9% RDB, 63 ME Apyral 40E Nabaltec aluminum hydroxide Vulkasil N Bayer AG silica Disflamoll TOF Bayer AG phosphate Distribution oil Si 200 GE-Bayer Silicones silane Rhenovin DDA-70 Rheinchemie diphenylamine derivative Rheinau GmbH Polydispersion T Rheinchemie di-(tert.-butyl-peroxy-iso- (VC)D-40 P Rheinau GmbH propyl)benzene, polymer bonded

[0043] Preparing the Mixtures

[0044] The mixtures were prepared in a laboratory compounder GK 1.5 E (Krupp Elastomertechnik, Hamburg), temperature of cooling water 50° C., speed of blades 50 rpm, plunger pressure 6 bar, degree to which compounder is filled 70-80% with respect to volume of chamber in the compounder.

[0045] Mixing sequence: rubber introduced initially, after 1 min running time ⅓ of the constituents added, after each 1.5 minutes a further one third, compounder emptied at a batch temperature of <150° C. The peroxide was post-mixed on a roller (Krupp Elastomertechnik, roll diameter 200 mm, working width 350 mm) at 40° C. cooling water temperature.

[0046] The sheets for determining the mechanical properties were cross-linked/vulcanised between Teflon films, under the conditions cited, in a vulcanising press (Krupp Elastomertechnik).

[0047] Testing the Mixtures 3 TABLE 2 Value Properties Test Standard MDR Rheometer Dimension Progress of vulcanisation DIN 53 529 Minimum, and S′dNm Torque part 3 Maximum, or Minimum-Maximum or Max-Min Difference max/min T10, T50, T80, minutes Time for 10%, 50%, T90 80%, 90% conversion F MPa Tensile strength DIN 53 504 D % Extension at break DIN 53 504 S xxx MPa Modulus at xxx % DIN 53 504 expansion H Shore A/D Hardness DIN 53 505 LOI % Limiting index oxygen ASTM D 2863 WW N/mm Tear propagation VDE 0472 resistance ASTM D 470

Example 1

[0048] The mixture was prepared from the feedstocks described in Table 1 as described in the section “Preparing the mixture”, and tested.

[0049] The test results are given in Table 3. 4 TABLE 3 Therban A 4307 100 Apyral 40 E 150 Vulkasil N 40 Disflamoll TOF 5 Distributor oil Si 200 10 Rhenovin DDA-70 1.4 Polydispersion T(VC)D-408 6 Total parts by wt. 317.4

[0050] 5 TABLE 4 (properties) MDR Rheometer 170° C., running time 20 min Minimum (S-dNm) 6.5 Mmax-Mmin 23.6 t10 (min) 2.4 t 80 6.4 t 90 7.2 Vulcanization 20 min/170° C. F (MPa) 11.5 D (%) 515 S 50 (MPa) 1.9 S 100 (MPa) 2.3 S 300 (MPa) 4.0 H (Shore A) 75 WW (VDE) (N/mm) 46 WW (ASTM) (N/mm) 8.5 LOI (%) 43

[0051] Although the invention has been described in detail in the foregoing for the purpose of illustration, it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that variations can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention except as it may be limited by the claims.

Claims

1. A seat comprising at least one moveable, substantially vertically arranged, rubber panels which are mounted in parallel in a retention frame wherein the parallel, moveable, substantially vertically arranged, rubber panels align themselves horizontally when subjected to strain from above and form a horizontal sitting area.

2. A seat according to claim 1, wherein the rubber panels comprise one or more flame-resistant rubbers.

3. A seat according to claim 1, wherein the rubber panels comprise a composite material.