US 6,108,844 · Granted 2000-08-29
The Sleeper Sofa Air Mattress That Won't Let You Roll Out of Bed
Imagine a couch that transforms into a bed using an air mattress with smart chambers—some parts inflate firmer than others to keep you from sliding around or falling off the edge. It's like having invisible walls made of air pressure that only activate where you need them.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a sleeper sofa design that combines a telescoping frame with a multi-chamber air mattress system. What's protected here is the specific way hinges limit panel movement to 90 degrees, the use of higher-pressure air chambers around the mattress edges and down the center to prevent rolling, and the integration of elastomeric straps inside the mattress cover that help deflate specific zones on demand.
Why it matters
This patent solves a real comfort problem: traditional sleeper sofas are cramped and unstable, and air mattresses often feel like you're sleeping on the edge of a cliff. By engineering the air pressure to be smarter—firmer boundaries, customizable zones—the design makes a pull-out bed actually livable for two people without anyone tumbling onto the floor at 3 AM. It's a mechanical solution to what used to be a pure engineering headache.
Real-world use
When you pull out your friend's sleeper sofa and notice you don't slide toward your sleeping partner all night, or the mattress edge stays firm instead of collapsing, that's this patent's technology at work.
Original USPTO abstract
A sleeper sofa incorporating an air mattress including a telescoping mattress frame for supporting a mattress support subassembly consisting of hinge panels. The hinges used to connect the panels limit the angular range of motion of adjacent panels to plus or minus 90° from a coplanar arrangement. The "panel" that defines the seating surface on which seat cushions rest when the sofa is in the seating position may be supported in the seating position by a pair of side rails that lack significant structure in the seating plane. This "panel" may also include a set of sinuous springs clad in padding similar to the seat-cushion support surface of a conventional non-sleeper sofa. The air mattress used in the sleeper sofa can be a multi-chamber design in which the outer edges of the mattress are inflated to a higher pressure to prevent the user from rolling off the edge of the mattress. The mattress may also include a centrally located longitudinal divider portion, inflated to a higher pressure, between individually pressure controlled sleeping portions to prevent one user from rolling from a high pressure sleeping area to the adjacent sleeping area when the adjacent area is at a lower pressure than the high pressure sleeping area. The mattress may also include a cover with internally attached elastomeric straps used to assist mattress deflation in specific areas of the mattress, like the foot end, for example.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,108,844
- Filing date
- 1999-03-11
- Grant date
- 2000-08-29
- Assignee
- Sleeptec, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- KRAFT; DIETER H., MCKIM; DARREN M., LARSON; TROY W., FLANEGAN; JAMES A.
- CPC class
- A47C27/081
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