US 6,161,231 · Granted 2000-12-19
The Air Mattress Sofa That Keeps You From Rolling Off the Edge
Imagine a couch that transforms into a bed — but instead of a lumpy fold-out frame, it uses an inflatable air mattress with smart pressure zones. The edges pump up extra firm to stop you from tumbling onto the floor, and if you're sharing the bed, a center ridge keeps your sleep partner from drifting into your space.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a sleeper sofa design that combines a hinged panel frame with a multi-chamber air mattress. What's protected here is the specific arrangement of the air mattress with independently controlled pressure zones — firm outer edges to prevent edge-rolling, a reinforced center divider to separate sleeping areas, and the telescoping frame that supports the mattress while the sofa transitions between sitting and sleeping positions. The design also includes elastomeric straps inside the mattress cover to help deflate specific zones.
Why it matters
This patent addresses a real comfort problem with air-bed sleepers: people sliding off edges or one sleeper's weight sinking while the other stays high. By building pressure zones directly into the mattress design and pairing them with a smart hinged frame, Sleeptec created a sleeper sofa that mimics a traditional couch's comfort while solving the practical failures of cheaper blow-up beds. The innovation made air mattresses feel more intentional and engineered rather than like inflatable afterthoughts.
Real-world use
When you pull out a sleeper sofa at a friend's house and feel the firm, stable edges that won't let you roll onto the floor, or notice that two people can sleep at different firmness levels without rolling together, you're experiencing this patent's engineering.
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 6,161,231
- Filing date
- 1999-03-11
- Grant date
- 2000-12-19
- Assignee
- Sleeptec, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- KRAFT; DIETER H., MCKIM; DARREN M., LARSON; TROY W., FLANEGAN; JAMES A.
- CPC class
- A47C27/081
Want to file your own patent?
If you're designing a furniture innovation of your own, check whether similar comfort-tech designs already exist by scanning your sketches through our free patent tool.
Free patentability scan