US 6,082,813 · Granted 2000-07-04
The Folding Chair That Collapses Smaller Than You'd Think
This patent describes a camping or beach chair that folds up compactly by sliding special connectors along the legs, bringing them closer together until the seat sheet goes slack. The clever part: the front legs tuck inward past the connectors, letting the whole thing collapse much flatter than a regular folding chair would.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a specific mechanism for a foldable chair where four legs each have sliding connectors (called coupling members) mounted on their middle sections. These connectors grip a flexible fabric seat and can slide up and down—when you push them toward the top, the legs angle inward and the seat goes loose, folding the chair. What's protected is this particular arrangement of sliding connectors, the way the front legs tuck inward past them, and how the armrests stay positioned between the rear and front legs during both folding and unfolding.
Why it matters
This patent protects a design innovation in portable seating. Rather than the traditional pivot-and-lock approach most folding chairs use, this design uses a sliding connector system that creates a more compact fold. The inward tuck of the front legs is the key advantage—it reduces the overall footprint when packed. For manufacturers, owning this mechanism means competitors cannot use the same sliding-connector-with-inward-tuck approach without licensing or redesigning.
Real-world use
You'd encounter this at the beach or campsite—someone unfolds one of these chairs and it goes from a tight bundle to a full seat with armrests in seconds, taking up less space in a car trunk than a traditional folding chair.
Original USPTO abstract
A foldable chair includes four supporting legs, each having a top portion, a bottom portion, and an intermediate portion, and four stretchers, each disposed to brace two adjacent supporting legs. When upper hook ends of the stretchers are slidably moved to a folded position to be proximate to the top portions, the two adjacent supporting legs are closer to each other. Four first coupling members are slidably mounted on the intermediate portions, and are connected to the upper hook ends. Four second coupling members are slidably mounted on the intermediate portions, and are disposed above and are engageable with the first coupling members. A flexible seat sheet is disposed to be grasped by gripping portions of the second coupling members and is tensed when the supporting legs are in the spread position. The length of the first coupling members of the front supporting legs is of a dimension such that, when the supporting legs are in the folded position, the top portions are disposed inwardly of the first coupling members. A pair of armrests are disposed at a desired position between the top portions of the two adjacent rear and front supporting legs for providing a satisfactory feeling of comfort when the chair is in use.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,082,813
- Filing date
- 1999-08-25
- Grant date
- 2000-07-04
- Assignee
- Chen; Kao-San
- Inventor(s)
- CHEN; KAO-SAN
- CPC class
- A47C4/286
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