Baby Bouncer with Adjustable Height Mechanism

Abstract

An adjustable infant chair includes a base, arm or middle frame, joined to the base and a seat rotatable joined to the arm or middle frame. The infant chair is adjustable up and down, relative to the base by increasing an angle between the arm and the base, while maintaining an angle between the seat and the base. Advantageously, in one form, the infant seat includes a bouncer or vibration mechanism.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/139,206, filed on Mar. 27, 2015, herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a height adjustable chair for a baby or infant and in particular a baby or infant chair with height adjustable mechanism and advantageously a baby or infant bouncer chair with height mechanism.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Bouncers for infants such as baby bouncers have been developed which provide a soothing bouncing or soothing vibration for an infant. Typically, a baby bouncer is placed on the floor with the space for an infant to be placed being located at a distance of a few inches above the floor.

One disadvantage with prior baby bouncers is that since bouncers typically are placed on the floor a few inches above its surface, one must bend down in order to interact with the baby or infant in the baby bouncer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present baby or infant chair, collectively referred to as a bouncer chair, advantageously includes a vibrator motor to provide vibration or bouncing action to the chair similar to that in prior known baby bouncers. A seat of the present baby chair can be raised and lowered relative to the floor. In addition, a seat of the present baby bouncer chair can be laid relatively flat over a base or lower frame of the bouncer chair when an infant is not placed in the seat to allow for a compact collapsed orientation. Further, the mechanism which allows the seat to be raised and lowered relative to a base or lower frame of the bouncer chair, while maintaining a constant angle of the seat of the bouncer chair relative to the base or lower frame and thus at a constant angle relative to the floor.

In one further advantageous form, a turn-knob adjusts the height of the bouncer seat up and down relative to the floor. A linkage mechanism transforms the bouncer chair from its collapsed orientation, in which the seat lies flat or parallel with the base or lower frame, to a set angled position when the bouncer chair is in its operational position for receiving an infant or baby in its seat.

The present invention in one form thereof relates to a height adjustable infant chair. The chair has a base, an arm rotatably joined to the base and a seat rotatably joined to the arm. The infant chair is adjustable up and down, relative to the base, by increasing an angle between the arm and the base while maintaining an angle between the seat and the base. As a result, the angle of the seat with the base is maintained as the chair is raised and lowered relative to the base.

In one further advantageous form, the arm is rotatably joined to the base at a first end of the arm and the seat is rotatably joined to the arm at a second end of the arm, opposite the first end of the arm.

In one alternative further form, the seat comprises a wire frame rotatably joined to the arm and a fabric material is disposed over the wire thereby forming the seat to receive a baby.

In yet another further advantageous form, a mechanism is provided for applying vibration motion to the seat and in yet another alternative form, a speaker provides sounds.

In still yet another further form, the chair has a collapsed position in which the base and arm are substantially parallel to each other along respective longitudinal planes. In a further form, in the collapsed position, the seat has its longitudinal plane which is substantially parallel to the longitudinal plane of the base.

In yet another further advantageous form, a knob is rotatable to change an angle between the base and the arm thereby causing the seat to be raised and lowered relative to the base. In one further form, a rod is operatively associated with the knob and operatively associated with a first linkage that is associated with the base and a second linkage that is associated with the seat such that turning the knob, causes translational motion to the rod, resulting in the first linkage to rotate in one direction which simultaneously results in the second linkage to rotate in the opposite direction, thereby changing an angle between the arm and the base while simultaneously changing the angle between the arm and the seat, to thereby maintain a constant angle of the seat relative to the base.

The present invention, in another form thereof, relates to a height adjustable infant chair. The chair has a lower frame, a middle frame and an upper frame. The middle frame has a first end and a second end, opposite the first end. The first end is rotatably joined to the lower frame. The upper frame is rotatably joined to the middle frame at the second end of the middle frame. A seat is affixed to the upper frame. Rotation of the middle frame, relative to the lower frame in a first direction causes the upper frame to rotate, relative to the middle frame in an opposite direction to that of the first direction, thereby keeping an angle between the upper frame and the lower frame constant.

The infant chair in one further advantageous form has the lower frame with a front portion and a rear portion and the first end of the middle frame is rotatably joined to the rear portion of the lower frame. In a further advantageous form, the upper frame has a front portion, positioned over the front portion of the lower frame and the upper frame has a rear portion positioned over the rear portion of the lower frame.

The height adjustable chair in yet another advantageous form has a knob rotatable to change an angle between the lower frame and the middle frame, thereby causing the upper frame to be raised or lowered relative to the lower frame. In one further advantageous form, a rod is operatively associated with the knob and operatively associated with a first linkage associated with the lower frame and a second linkage associated with the upper frame such that turning the knob, causes translational motion to the rod resulting in the first linkage to rotate in the first direction which simultaneously results in the second linkage to rotate in the second direction which is opposite the first direction. As a result, the angle change between the middle frame and the lower frame is changed at the same time as the angle between the middle frame and the upper frame is changed to thereby maintaining a constant angle between the upper frame and the lower frame.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an infant chair with height adjustment shown in its fully raised position in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is the infant chair of FIG. 1 viewed from a side elevation.

FIG. 3 shows the infant chair of FIG. 1, shown lowered halfway down, relative to the position shown in FIG. 1, in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows the infant chair of FIG. 1 in its lowest position with its arm or middle frame substantially parallel to a base or lower frame of the chair in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows the infant chair in its collapsed position with its seat or upper frame being parallel to the arm or middle frame and the base or lower frame in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows an electronics panel of the infant chair in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a partial sectional side elevation view of the infant chair with the seat in a partially raised position in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a partial sectional view of the arm or middle frame in perspective view with the infant chair with the seat in a partially raised position in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged view of the portion drawn in the circle in FIG. 8 with a bracket over a height adjustment mechanism removed, adjacent an adjustment knob in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a similar view of FIG. 9 showing how to disengage the seat mechanism to allow the seat to lay flat on top of the base or lower frame in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a partial sectional side elevation view of the infant chair in its lowermost position, relative the floor, with the upper frame for the seat in its operational position in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a top plan view of the infant chair shown in FIG. 11.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description of the infant chair will be provided with reference to the figures. Referring specifically to FIG. 1, infant chair 10 has a lower frame or base 20, a middle frame or arm 40 and an upper frame or seat wire 60 to which a seat 80 is attached. The seat 80 is composed of a fabric cover 82 disposed over wire 60. A harness 83 is attached to the fabric cover 82 to hold an infant or baby in place when placed in the seat 80. Although shown as a three-point harness, a five point harness or other style may be used instead. A toy 84 is attached to the seat wire 60 positioned over the seat 80.

The seat 80 is raised or lowered relative to the base 20 by turning knob 41 clockwise or counterclockwise. Turning the knob 41 causes the arm 40 to pivot or rotate on lower shaft 49 and for the seat wire 60 to rotate relative to the arm 40 to thereby change the angle between the base 20 and arm 40 at the same time the angle between the upper frame 60 and the arm 40 is changed, thus keeping the angle of the seat 60 relative to the floor or base 20 constant as the seat 80 is raised and lowered relative to the base 20. Advantageously, the infant chair 10 has an electronics control panel 61 with a number of buttons which perform functions including activating vibration motion to the seat 80 and to play sounds through a speaker associated with the electronics control panel 61.

Referring to FIGS. 2-4, FIG. 2 shows the infant chair 10 with seat 80 in its uppermost position, FIG. 3 shows the seat 80 in its middle position and FIG. 4 shows seat 80 in its fully lowered position. The change in height is achieved by turning knob 41. As is apparent in FIGS. 2-4, the angle of seat 80 relative to the base 20 is constant or maintained as the seat 80 is lowered from its uppermost position as shown in FIG. 2 to its intermediate or middle position shown in FIG. 3 to its completely lowered position as shown in FIG. 4. Further, as the seat 80 is lowered from the position in FIG. 2 to the position in FIG. 3, and from the position in FIG. 3 to the position shown in FIG. 4, the angle between the base 20 and the arm 40 is decreased, and the angle between the upper frame 60 and the arm 40 is also decreased to thereby maintain a constant angle between seat 80 and the base 20 as the seat 80 is raised and lowered relative to the base 20.

Referring now to FIG. 5, the seat wire 60 with seat 80 can lay relatively flat or parallel to the longitudinal plane of both the base 20 and the arm or middle frame 40 when the infant chair is in its collapsed position. In FIG. 5, the fabric cover 82 over the seat wire 60 is omitted to more clearly see how the longitudinal plane of the seat wire 60 lies over the arm 40 and is substantially parallel to the base 20 when in its collapsed position.

Referring now to FIG. 6, the electronics control panel 61 includes a vibration power on/off button 62, a volume up/volume down toggle switch 63, a song 1 button 64, a song 2 button 65, a rainforest sound on/off button 66 and waves sound on/off button 67. Sounds associated with buttons 64-67 are played through a speaker (not shown). Pressing button 62 toggles on and off vibration to the seat 80.

Referring now to the adjustment mechanism for raising and lowering the seat 80 relative to the base 20 in more detail, reference is made to FIGS. 7-13, with specific reference to FIG. 8 and an enlargement of the section drawn in the circle in FIG. 8 shown in FIG. 9 along with FIGS. 11 and 12. It is noted that in FIG. 9, bracket 58, shown in FIG. 8, has been removed from the view in FIG. 9 in order to more easily see elements of the knob adjustment. Turn-knob 41 is connected to a threaded shaft 42 which threadedly engages with nut 43. Thread shaft 42 has a trapezoid thread which causes nut 43 to translate in the same direction 91 (FIG. 11) as the axial movement of thread shaft 42 when turn-knob 41 is turned clockwise/counterclockwise in directions 90. The nut 43 causes the triangular bracket 44 to rotate in directions 92 around the pin 45. This causes the pin 46 to translate back and forth as indicated by arrows 94. Pin 46 is also connected to rod 47, so rod 47 will be forced to translate in the same direction 95 when turn-knob 41 is turned. The frame 48 of arm 40 (which also acts as a bar of the 4-bar-linkage system) starts to rotate around the lower shaft 49 of the lower linkage 53 resulting in a change in height to arm 40 and thus to seat 80. A pair of springs 52 compensate for the weight of the moving parts of the product, so that the user can easily and conveniently adjust the height of the seat 80.

The seat wire 60 is connected to rod 47 by means of bar 50. The length of rod 47 and bar 50 is equal to the length of the frame 48. The angle of the seat wire 60 relative to base 20 will thus remain constant while changing the angle of the frame 48 relative to seat wire 60 and base 20.

Referring now to FIG. 10 with FIG. 12, the seat 80 can be laid substantially flat on the arm 40 so that respective longitudinal planes of the seat 80 and arm 40 are substantially parallel to each other when the infant chair 10 is in its collapsed position by releasing the upper linkage (i.e., the bar 50 engaging with seat wire 60). The disengagement is achieved by pressing bar 50 with a key 59 through hole 51 (FIG. 12) in direction 55 which disengages the upper linkage (i.e., bar 50 from seat wire 80, portion 60a) which is biased to a housing of the arm 40 via spring 56. Disengaging the upper linkage from the seat wire 60 allows the seat wire 60 to pivot or rotate in direction 57 down towards the middle frame or arm 40 to allow the seat wire 60 with seat 80 to lay substantially flat as shown in FIG. 5. That is one applies pressure to the bar 50 via key 59, bar 50 is lifted from the seat wire 60 and the portion 60a can be folded backwards in direction 57. This will result in a flat package for storage and transport of infant chair 10. To return the infant chair 10 to its operational position, one pulls up on the seat wire which results in bar 50 automatically engaging the seat wire 60 and seat wire 60 is safely kept in position via biasing pressure applied by the spring 56.

Referring now to FIGS. 11-13, in order to have a further understanding of the mechanism for raising and lowering the seat 80, these figures show the infant chair 10 without the fabric material 82 formed over the seat wire 60 and with partial cutaway views of the arm 40 in order to see the height adjustment mechanism more easily. FIG. 11 shows the infant chair 10 with seat 80 in its lowermost position. The infant chair 10 has the seat wire 60 with seat 80 in their operational position so as to allow one to place an infant in the chair.

To raise the position of seat 80, knob 41 is turned in the direction of the arrow 70 resulting in the rod 47 being pulled in direction 71 resulting in lower linkage 53 to rotation on lower shaft 49 and rotate to an upper shaft 54. Continuing to turn knob 41 in direction 70 continues to rotate the lower linkage 53 in direction 72 raising the seat 80 to its highest position.

It will now be clear to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention has features and advantages not found in prior infant chairs, including bouncers. The present infant chair allows the seat to be raised or lowered relative to the base. Further, the present infant chair maintains a relative angle of the infant seat 80 relative to the base 20 or the floor so that as the infant chair is raised or lowered by pivoting its frame about the base, the infant seat angle remains constant relative to the floor or base.

Although the invention has been described with respect to a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is capable of numerous modifications and variations, apparent to those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A height adjustable infant chair, said chair comprising:

a base,

an arm rotatably joined to the base, and

a seat rotatably joined to the arm,

the adjustable infant chair being adjustable up and down, relative to the base by increasing an angle between the arm and the base while maintaining an angle between the seat and the base.

2. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 1, wherein the arm is rotatably joined to the base at a first end of the arm and the seat is rotatably joined to the arm at a second end, opposite the first end of the arm.

3. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 1, wherein the seat comprises a wire frame rotatably joined to the arm and a fabric material over the wire.

4. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 1, further comprises a mechanism for applying vibration motion to the seat.

5. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 1, further comprises a speaker for playing sounds.

6. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 1, wherein the chair has a collapsed position in which the base and arm are substantially parallel to each other along respective longitudinal planes.

7. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 6, wherein, in the collapsed position, the seat has its longitudinal plane which is substantially parallel to the longitudinal plane of the base.

8. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 1, further comprising a knob rotatable to change an angle between the base and the arm, thereby causing the seat to be raised or lowered relative to the base.

9. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 8, further comprising a rod, operatively associate with the knob, and operatively associated with a first linkage associated with the base and a second linkage associate with the seat, such that turning the knob, causing translational motion to the rod, resulting in the first linkage to rotate in one direction which simultaneously resulting in the second linkage to rotate in the opposite direction, thereby changing an angle between the arm and the base, and an angle between the arm and the seat, to thereby maintaining a constant angle of the seat relative to the base.

10. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 1, further comprising an infant safety harness for holding an infant in the seat.

11. A height adjustable infant chair, said chair comprising:

a lower frame;

a middle frame having a first end and a second end, opposite, thereof, the first end rotatably joined to the lower frame;

an upper frame rotatably joined to the middle frame at the second end of the middle frame; and

a seat affixed to the upper frame,

wherein rotation of the middle frame, relative the lower frame in a first direction causes the upper frame to rotate, relative the middle frame in an opposite direction to that of the first direction, thereby keeping a relative angle position of the upper frame with the lower frame constant.

12. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 11, wherein the lower frame has a front portion and rear portion, and the first end of the middle frame is rotatably joined to the rear portion of the lower frame.

13. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 12, wherein the upper frame has a front portion, positioned over the front portion of the lower frame and the upper frame has a rear portion positioned over the rear portion of the lower frame.

14. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 1, wherein the chair has a collapsed position in which the lower frame and middle frame are substantially parallel to each other along respective longitudinal planes.

15. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 14, wherein, in the collapsed position, the upper frame has its longitudinal plane which is substantially parallel to the longitudinal plane of the base.

16. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 11, further comprises a knob rotatable to change an angle between the lower frame and the middle frame, thereby causing the upper frame to be raised or lowered relative to the lower frame.

17. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 16, further comprising a rod, operatively associate with the knob, and operatively associated with a first linkage associated with the lower frame and a second linkage associate with the upper frame, such that turning the knob, causing translational motion to the rod, resulting in the first linkage to rotate in the first direction which simultaneously resulting in the second linkage to rotate in the second direction which is opposite the first direction, thereby changing an angle between the middle frame and the lower frame the same amount as the angle changed between the middle frame and the upper frame, and thereby maintaining a constant angle of the upper frame relative to the lower frame.

18. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 11, wherein seat comprises a fabric material affixed to the upper frame.

19. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 11, further comprises a mechanism for applying vibration motion to the seat.

20. The height adjustable infant chair of claim 11, further comprising an infant safety harness for holding an infant in the seat.