GB2168890A - Garden furniture - Google Patents

Abstract

An item of garden furniture has a rigid panel-supporting frame (14) surrounding a support panel (18) for the supine human body; the support panel (18) is constituted by a waterproof flexible laminar mesh material extended tautly in the frame by one or a plurality of elongate filamentary members (19), which may be extensible or inextensible, wound around the support frame (14) and laced through holes (20) in the edges of the mesh panel (18). The furniture item may be a rigid or collapsible sunbed or chair. The mesh panel may be of plastics material. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Garden furniture The present invention relates to garden furniture, namely to structures for providing a support surface for a reclining or supine human body and adapted for outdoor use. Such furniture is used on the beach, in gardens and parks, and other outdoor locations such as on patios and pool sides.

Garden furniture items are usually formed as lightweight aluminium alloy frames over which are stretched canvas or other flexible membrane material. The lightweight alloy frames are made in several parts so as to be collapsible for storage.

Indeed, storage of garden furniture in the collapsed form is often considered so important as to dominate the design requirements thereof making it less satisfactory when erected than it would otherwise be from the point of view of dimensional adequacy and support comfort.

There are circumstances, however, where it may not be necessary for garden furniture to be collapsible. For example, public or municipal areas are frequently provided with deckchairs for hire to the public. This occurs commonly at beaches and other public places where large numbers of people collect, but not many would wish to carry their own sun beds or deckchairs.

For public or municipal use, particularly for hiring to the public, the conventional deckchairs or folding sun beds are not satisfactory both from the point of view of their lightness and therefore relative lack of robustness, and also because the provision of moving parts leads to the possibilty of accidents, trapped fingers or the like, which increases the liability of the hirer making expensive insurance an essential part of the commercial operation.

The present invention seeks to provide garden furniture is suitable for use in such circumstances, which will have no moving parts and therefore be much easier to use, which because it is not collapsible will be free from the risk of pilfering, and which is so designed that it can be left in the open without deterioration during inclement weather.

This problem has been one which has encouraged the development of collapsible and folding garden furniture such as sun beds. When an item of seating or lying accommodation is left in the rain, it becomes saturated and is then unsuitable for further use until it has been left to dry in the sun for a considerable period. However, in the British climate where sunny periods are frequently interspersed with rain showers, it is often not possible to leave a sun bed or garden chair out in the open because it is not possible to use it immediately after a rain shower and thereby take advantage of any intervening sunny spells.The present invention seeks, therefore, to provide garden furniture in which this major problem is overcome, allowing the garden furniture to be made rigid if required, or at least, if collapsible, for it to be unnecessary to fold it up and take it indoors whenever a rain shower threatens to soak the furniture.

According to one aspect of the present invention, therefore, garden furniture such as a chair or sun bed as herein defined, comprises a panel-supported frame surrounding a support panel for the seated or supine human body, the said support panel being constituted by a waterproof flexible laminar mesh material suspended tautly from the frame.

Although the present invention is equally applicable to chairs or sun beds, and likewise equally applicable to collapsible or rigid furniture, it will be described hereineafter with specific reference to the construction of a rigid sun bed.

Preferably the support panel has rigid elongate reinforcing members along at least the longitudinal edges thereof. Such reinforcing members serve to provide both physical support for the panel when it is in use, and also assist in attachment of the panel to the support frame as will be described in more detail hereinbelow.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention the support panel is attached to the panel support frame by elongate filamentary members. These elongate filamentary members may be extensible or inextensible to provide a rigid or elastic support as required by the exigences of the particular structure. For example, a sun bed may be beneficially formed by attaching a mesh panel with extensible filamentary members so that it is effectively "sprung" on the support frame to provide a comfortable surface which shapes itself to the body.

By contrast, at least the seat squab of a chair may require to be secured by inextensible filamentary members in order to avoid sagging.

The advantage of utilising the waterproof flexible laminar mesh material lies in the fact that the garden furniture so produced can be left in the rain without deterioration and, after the rain, can be made ready for immediate use simply by giving the furniture a sharp jolt or knock, such as by raising it a few inches and dropping it onto the ground, which will have the effect of shaking free any particles of water which may be lying on the mesh panel. This is then substantially dry for immediate use.

The mesh panel may be attached to the panel support frame by lacing the filamentary members through holes in the edges of the mesh panel and around the frame members. For this purpose the edges of the mesh panel are preferably reinforced with rigid elongate members housed in pockets extending at least along the longitudinal edges of the panel so that such lacing passes both around the rigid panel reinforcing members and the frame members.

It is preferred that the mesh panel is made from a plastics material having a high angle of contact with water. This ensures that no wetting of the mesh takes place when it is left in the rain and it is a simple matter to shake free any water droplets, leaving the panel ready for use immediately after rain.

The rigid panel support frame of one embodiment is supported on the ground by leg frames each made from a single rod-like or tubular member by bending. Alternative arrangements, particularly for garden chairs are, of course, possible. In the sun bed embodiment in which the leg frames are formed by bending, however, it is preferred that these are of W-shape and attached to the said panel support frame on the outer lateral sides thereof to permit stacking of a plurality of sun beds one above the other with the panel support frames of adjacent sun beds touching.

The panel support frame of the sun bed may define two inclined, generally flat planes which join along a line extending transversely of the length of the frame and approximately midway between its ends.

This form has been found to be particularly comfortable, with the two ends raised slightly above the centre portion.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a sun bed formed as an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 is a side view of the embodiment of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is an end view of the embodiment of Figure 1.

Referring now to the drawings, the embodiment shown comprises a rigid sun bed although it will be appreciated that collapsible sun beds and/or chairs or other garden furniture can be made utilising the principles of the present invention. The embodiment illustrated comprises the generally rectangular surrounding panel-support frame, generally indicated 11 and comprising two parallel end portions 12, 13 and two generally parallel lateral portions 14, 15 each of the latter of which is formed, as can be seen in Figure 2, in two parts which are inclined at a shallow angle to one another and indicated with the sub-scripts a and b re- spectively.

On the lateral edge of the longitudinal frame members 15, 14 are attached two W-shape leg frame members 16, 17 made from hollow tubes bent to the appropriate shape. The leg frames 16, 17 are attached to the lateral edges of the longitudinal panel support frame members 14, 15 by welding or any other suitable technique. Conveniently the frame members are made from aluminium or an aluminium alloy which is both light and strong and which with suitable welding techniques can be joined securely by welding.

The panel support frame 11 provides a boarder for a mesh support panel 18 which is made from plastics material and has an open mesh with apertures in the region of 1 cm, although apertures from 14 cm to 5 cm may be employed. The mesh panel has an imperforate boarder 19 formed as longitudinal pockets within which are housed rigid reinforcing members (not shown) in the form of battens which prevent the edges of the panel from folding. Rows of apertures 20 extend around the periphery of the mesh panel on the inside with respect to the pockets housing the reinforcing battens and an elongate filamentary member 21 is laced over the panel-support frame and through the apertures 20 and encircling the reinforcing battens to attach the panel 18 to the panel support frame 11.

This construction makes it easy to attach a replacement panel should this become necessary and at the same time provides a comfortable and resilient support for the supine human body. To increase the resilient of support the filamentary member 21 may be extensible, for example, in the form of an elastic braid or the like.

Claims (12)

1. A stackable sun bed as herein defined comprising a rigid panel-supporting frame surrounding a support panel for the supine human body, the said support panel being constituted by a waterproof flexible laminar mesh material suspended tautly from the frame.

2. A stackable sunbed as claimed in Claim 1, in which the support panel has rigid elongate reinforcing members along at least the longitudinal edges thereof.

3. A stackable sun bed as claimed in Claim 1, or Claim 2, in which the support-panel is attached to the panel support frame by elongate filamentary members.

4. A stackable sun bed as claimed in Claim 3, in which the said elongate filamentary members are extensible.

5. A stackable sun bed as claimed in Claim 3, in which the said elongate filamentary members are inextensible.

6. A stackable sun bed as claimed in any of Claims 3, 4 or 5, in which the said panel is attached to the panel-support frame by lacing the filamentary members through holes in the edges of the mesh panel and around the frame members.

7. A stackable sun bed as claimed in Claim 6, in which the edges of the mesh panel are reinforced with rigid elongate members housed in pockets extending along at least the longitudinal edges of the panel.

8. A stackable sun bed as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the said mesh panel is made of a plastics material.

9. A stackable sun bed as claimed in any preceding Claims, in which the said rigid panel-support frame is supported on the ground by leg frames each made from a single rod-like or tubular member by bending.

10. A stackable sun bed as claimed in Claim 9, in which the said leg frames are W-shape and attached to the said panel-support frame on the outer lateral sides thereof to permit stacking of a plurality of sun beds one above the other with the panel-support frames of adjacent sun beds touching.

11. A sun bed as claimed in any preceding Claims, in which the panel-support frame defines two inclined generally flat planes which join along a line extending transversely of the length of the frame and approximately mid-way between its ends.

12. A sun bed substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.