US 6,572,190 · Granted 2003-06-03
The Lumbar Support Clip That Made Office Chairs Ergonomic
This invention is a simple clip system that grabs the fabric on the back of an office chair and pulls it forward in the lower back area, creating a supportive bulge right where your spine curves. It slides up and down so you can position it at exactly the height that feels best for your back.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a lumbar support apparatus consisting of a vertical post mounted behind a chair's flexible back, paired with a sliding horizontal bar that has grip devices on both ends. These grippers clamp onto the edges of the chair's fabric and pull those edges forward in the lumbar region, creating ergonomic support. The key protection is the specific combination of the vertical post, the sliding transverse member, and the opposing grippers working together to reshape the chair back.
Why it matters
Office workers spend eight hours a day in chairs, and back pain costs employers billions in lost productivity and healthcare. This patent tackles a real problem: most chair backs are flat and don't support the natural curve of the spine. By making lumbar support adjustable and easy to retrofit onto existing chairs, Hon Technology addressed a major ergonomic gap without requiring expensive chair redesigns, making better posture support affordable and accessible.
Real-world use
When you sit in an office chair and feel that padded bulge in the lower back area supporting your spine, you're likely experiencing this exact mechanism gripping and reshaping the chair's fabric.
Original USPTO abstract
A lumbar support for a chair having a flexible back, includes at least one generally vertical support member disposed to the rear of the chair back. A transverse member engages the vertical support and has opposed ends provided with grippers for gripping opposed edges of the flexible back. The transverse member is configured to force the opposed edges of the flexible back forwardly of the chair back in the lumbar region of the user to provide support therefor. The transverse member may also be configured to slide on the vertical support to provide for height adjustability of the lumbar support of the fabric.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,572,190
- Filing date
- 2001-06-15
- Grant date
- 2003-06-03
- Assignee
- Hon Technology Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- KOEPKE MARCUS C., MACHAEL JAY R., PHILLIPS MATTHEW J., SCHROEDER DOUGLAS A., SCHULTZ CRAIG H., STEFFENSEN ERIK A.
- CPC class
- A47C7/282
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