Intensive Use Water Repelling Chair

Abstract

The invention is water repelling chair molded in a plastic outer shell comprising a chair seat attached to a chair back by a back channel disposed in a convex orientation whereby fluids on the chair are urged by gravity to flow to the back channel and off the chair at a left back channel end or the right back channel end. The water repelling chair having accessible ballast chamber and plurality of ganging sockets to gang multiple chairs together in a fixed configuration.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a Water Repelling Chair and more particularly to a water repelling chair or grouping thereof, especially suitable for use in an incarceration facility.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is desirable that furniture have durability and be comfortable. It is also desirable that furniture be suited for the purpose desired as well as aesthetically pleasing. An especially difficult situation is to develop furniture suitable for use in intensive use environments that may be inside or out of doors. These intensive use environments may be prisons, shelters, barracks or health facilities. The users may use the furniture for long periods demanding comfort, including a dry clean surface to support users for a short period or a lifetime.

Furniture for intensive use facilities has special requirements. The use requires a tough outer shell that is flexible to offer comfort to the user while resisting tearing, cutting or ripping. The chair must be able to repel liquid in the form of rain, drinks or bodily fluids to provide an easily cleaned piece of furniture.

Cleanliness is difficult to maintain. A Water Repelling Chair that does not collect fluids helps maintain a good environment while reducing manpower to keep clean. Durability and suitability as well as comfort, aesthetic and ergonomic utility are required. It is difficult to achieve proper aesthetics and ergonomics or comfort, when the primary goal is durability and suitability.

Furthermore, it is desired that furniture used in an intensive use environment prevent improper use of that furniture. For example, any furniture must lack a place of concealment. The furniture should not have facilities where a user may try to conceal drugs, weapons or other contraband. Further, the furniture should not have removable parts that may be used to try to make a weapon, including a fastener or a portion that may be torn off the from a part of the furniture.

Additionally, mobility or ease of movement is required while limiting the ability to use the furniture itself as a weapon. The furniture may be mounted on glides to allow sliding on the floor while being ballasted with weight to prevent being picked up. Alternatively, the chair may have provisions to attach to the floor or wall or joined to another chair or table to create configurations of joined chairs, needing minimum maintenance.

By combining the durability of the one piece molded shell with comfort and aesthetically pleasing characteristics, certain psychological advantages can be obtained. For one, the aesthetic pleasure with corresponding comfort can reduce the mental strain on both the prisoners and the staff. This factor can inherently result in a safer environment. The availability of a relatively clean, dry chair, requiring minimum effort to keep clean of debris or liquids may also reduce the physical and mental strain on both the users and the staff.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Among the many objectives of this invention is the provision of a Water Repelling Chair which can be rotationally molded to have an enclosed outer shell configured to a proper shape for comfort, functionality and aesthetics, while being durable in a design engineered to resist puddling of liquids. The Water Repelling Chair may have an outer shell manufactured in one piece to reduce contraband concealment and dirt and water accumulation. The Water Repelling Chair may comprise a chair base, a chair seat, a chair back channel and a chair back.

The chair base may comprise a left base leg portion and opposing generally mirror image right base leg portion. The chair base is formed as part of the one piece outer shell having a ballast formed chamber therein. A ballast chamber port on the bottom surface of the chair base may provide access to the ballast chamber for the purpose of adding or removing ballast material such as sand or water. The bottom surface of the base may further comprise glides disposed to rest on the floor and ganging sockets adapted to enable ganging with other chairs to form a sitting assembly. The base front portion may be indented to allow the user to comfortably extend their legs downward to the floor.

The chair seat may be formed as part of the outer shell on top of the base having a generally convex shape to resist contamination by liquids or debris pooling on the chair seat thus making the chair aesthetically pleasing and comfortable. For the purpose of this description the term convex shall describe a curved shape extending outward from the chair base or the surface the base is sitting on such as a floor. The chair seat may comprise a raised center portion, a front seat portion, a pair of opposing seat sides and a convex shaped back seat portion sealingly enclosing the base.

The chair back may comprise an outside back portion, a back support portion, and a back top. The back support portion extends from the back top to a chair back bottom portion.

The back channel is a convex shaped channel disposed between the chair back bottom portion and the chair seat back portion. The back channel may comprise a chair seat side, a chair back side, a center Water Repelling Chair, a first end and a second end. The back channel seat side may be disposed on the chair seat back portion. The back channel back side may be disposed on the chair back bottom portion as part of the one piece outer shell. The left leg portion and right leg portion may be disposed on a respective one of the first and second back channel ends. The back channel center portion is disposed above each of the first and second back channel ends, thus forming the back channel in a convex shape adapted to use gravity to direct liquids to flow toward one of the first back channel end or second back channel end.

The dome shaped center seat portion may be adapted to cause liquid to flow away from the center seat portion. The back channel may be adapted to direct liquids spilling from the chair seat or the chair back to flow by gravity from the center portion to one of the first and second back channel ends

Water Repelling Chair may have a seat formed in an undulating design wherein fluids are urged by gravity to flow over the seat to the convex back channel thereby eliminating the need for a drain hole. The back channel may comprise a generally convex shape to a concave channel portion. The concave channel portion having a back side on the chair back bottom portion and a seat side on the chair seat back portion. The concave channel spaced from the Chair seat and the chair back and adapted to capture fluids and direct such fluids by gravity along the convex back channel from the center portion to the first or second back channel ends. The back channel center portion disposed at a position whereby a high point is established in the center portion between the left rear leg and the right rear leg. This downward curved convex shaped back channel captures fluid from the chair seat and the chair back and directs it by gravity to the left chair side or the right chair side wherein a drain hole is not required to shed fluids from the seat area. The generally horizontal convex chair seat is disposed between the generally vertical left chair side and right chair side.

The above description sets forth, rather broadly, the more important features of the present invention so that the detailed description of the preferred embodiment that follows may be better understood and contributions of the present invention to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described below and will form the subject matter of claims. In this respect, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of the construction and to the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or as illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of the indoor/outdoor chair.

FIG. 2 is a back elevation view thereof.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view thereof.

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view thereof with a second indoor/outdoor chair attached at the ganging sockets.

FIG. 5 is a right side elevation view thereof.

FIG. 6 is a left side elevation view thereof.

FIG. 7 is a front top perspective thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this application. The drawings show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. (It is to be understood that the specific devices and processes illustrated in the attached drawings, and described in the following specification are simply exemplary embodiments of the inventive concepts defined in the appended claims. Hence, specific dimensions and other physical characteristics relating to the embodiments disclosed herein are not to be considered as limiting.) It should be appreciated that the invention can be used for any suitable device attachable to a magnetic surface,

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the water repelling chair 10 may comprise a back 12, a seat 14 a base 16 and a back channel 18. The base 16 may comprise a right leg portion 20 a left leg portion 22, a bottom surface 24. The back channel 18 may comprise a back channel peak 30, a right back channel end 34 and a left back channel end 36 to direct fluids away from the back channel peak as indicated by the arrows labeled by the character F. The seat 14 may comprise a front seat portion 38, a raised seat portion 42 and a first and second side portions 44. The seat back 12 may comprise a seat back top 50, and a seat back support portion 56 and a seat back bottom portion 57. The seat back bottom portion 57 may be integrally formed with the back channel 18 being part of the one piece outer shell 46.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 5 and 6, the water repelling chair 10 may further comprise a ballast chamber 60 formed between the two opposing side portions 20, 22, the bottom surface 24 and the seat 14. The ballast chamber 60 may be enclosed in the outer shell 46. A ballast port 48 may be disposed on the bottom surface 24. The chair back 12 may have a base back portion 26 on the base 16. The chair seat 14 may further comprise a back seat portion 40. The back channel 18 is disposed between the seat back bottom portion 57 and the back seat portion 40 and is adapted to receive fluids from the chair back 12 or the chair seat 14 and direct the fluids by gravity to the floor 70 as indicated by the arrows labeled by the character F.

Referring to FIG. 4, feet or glides 62 may be disposed on the bottom surface 24 to support the water repelling chair 10. Ganging sockets 64 may be formed in the bottom surface 24 to adapt the water repelling chair 10 to be ganged together with a second chair 10a using a flange 66 having fastener holes 67 adapted to align with the ganging sockets 64 and receive fasteners 68 to fix together with the water repelling chairs 10, 10a.

Referring to FIG. 6, the water repelling chair 10 is shown in section along the lines of 6-6 of FIG. 1. Back channel 18 extends from channel peak 30 to second back channel end 36. one piece outer shell 46 surrounds ballast chamber 60. Back 12 is disposed in a generally vertical orientation. Chair seat 14 is orientated to urge fluid 69 to flow off in the direction indicated by arrow F by gravity. As it relates to the floor 70, the raised seat portion 42 of the chair seat 14 is at a seat height 42h. The channel peak 30 of the back channel 18 is at a channel peak height 30h which is lower than seat height 42h. Left back channel end 36 is at a back channel end height 36h which is lower than channel peak height 30h and generally similar to the height of right back channel end 36 (not shown)

Referring ti FIGS. 1-7, the water repelling chair 10 has a generally convex shape with respect to the chair base 24. Fluids 69 are directed off the water repelling chair as indicated by the arrows labeled by the character F. The back channel 18 is in fluid communication with the chair seat and the chair back. The back channel peak 30 is in fluid communication with the left and right back channel ends 36, 34.

Although the description above contains many specifications, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but as merely providing illustrations of some of the embodiments of this invention. Thus, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents rather than by the examples given. Further, the present invention has been shown and described with reference to the foregoing exemplary embodiments. It is to be understood, however, that other forms, details, and embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which is defined in the following claims.

Claims

1. A water repelling chair for setting on a floor comprising one piece enclosed outer shell configured to comprise a chair base on a chair seat and a chair back, the chair base comprising a left leg portion and a right leg portion, the chair seat comprising a chair seat back portion, the chair back comprising a chair back bottom portion, the water repelling chair further comprising:

a back channel disposed between the chair seat back portion and the chair back bottom portion, the back channel comprising a back channel peak, a back channel left end and a back channel right end, the back channel left end on the left leg portion, the back channel right end on the right leg portion, the back channel disposed in a convex orientation whereby the back channel peak portion is spaced from the floor at a channel peak height, the back channel left end and the back channel right end spaced from the floor at a back channel end height, whereby the back channel peak height is larger than the back channel end height.

2. The water repelling chair of claim 1, wherein the chair seat further comprises a chair seat raised portion, the chair seat raised portion disposed at a chair seat height, the chair seat height larger than the channel peak height.

3. The of claim 2, wherein the chair seat further comprises a convex shape extending away from the base.

4. The water repelling chair of claim 1, wherein the back channel further comprises a convex shape extending away from the floor.

5. The water repelling chair of claim 1, wherein the back channel provides fluid communication between the chair back and the chair seat, the back channel further comprising a concave shape between the between the chair back and the chair seat extending into the base.

6. The water repelling chair of claim 5, wherein the back channel further comprises a convex shape between the left back channel end or the right back channel end.