US3066897A - Wire fabric - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 4, 1962 w. F. RICHARDSON 3,

WIRE FABRIC Filed March 29, 1960 INVENT Afro/way.

souri Filed Mar. 29, 1960, Ser. No. 18,351 10 (Ilaims. (Cl. 245-5) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in wire fabrics, and is an improvement over the fabric disclosed in my co-pending application Serial No. 744,- 988, filed June 27, 1958, now Patent No. 3,012,742.

My above identified prior application disclosed a wire fabric which while having general applicability for use wherever a wire fabric may be desired, was described primarily for use as an upholstery accessory commonly known as an insulator pad, which is a reinforced, flexible fabric inserted between the spring assembly or deck and the padding layers of an upholstered furniture or automobile seat or the like. The primary functions of the insulator pad are to provide a smoother, more continuous base for the padding whereby to provide greater comfort and a neater appearance, and to prevent the padding itself from working into the spaces between or within the coil springs or other spring units making up the spring deck. The pad disclosed in my prior application consisted of an open, planar frame formed of heavy wire, and a series of similarly formed resilient wires attached at their ends to said frame and extending across said frame in generally parallel relation. Each of said wires was formed to present a series of closed loops joined by connecting portions of the wire, said connecting portions intersecting at the base of each loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom. Each loop extended through a corresponding loop of the next adjacent Wire, whereby said Wires were joined in a knitted fabric.

The above described fabric possessed certain advantages particularly when used as an insulator pad. It was elastic in all directions in its own plane as well as transversely to its place, as distinguished from commonly used insulator pads which, while pliable or flexible, are completely inelastic and unyieldable in their own planes. This caused a localization of deflection when a load was applied to the cushion. That is, only the portion directly beneath the area of load application would be appreciably depressed, while even closely adjacent areas would be relatively unaffected. This resulted from the fact that the fabric would stretch resiliently when tension of the wires tended to cause closure of the loops of the wires. It was a decided improvement over inelastic pads which tended to hammock and cause a localized load to depress the pad over a much greater area. Good practice requires, for greatest comfort, that the deflection resulting from a load be localized as much as possible to the actual area of load application. Another advantage was that the localization of deflection tended to prevent creeping movement of the pad and its eventual dislocation from its proper position between the spring deck and padding, said movement resulting, in inelastic pads, from tensions therein which cause bunching or wrinkling of the pad.

However, the fabric disclosed in my prior co-pending application was subject to a serious disadvantage in that it was virtually unmanageable in handling during installation, due to the fact that unless its edges were secured as in a frame, it became rolled and tangled in an unwieldy conglomeration resembling a birds nest or a tangled mass of spaghetti. Once the wires had become disarranged in this manner, it was an extremely tedious job, virtually impossible in any commercially feasible trite State atet sense, to untangle the wires and again lay the fabric out fiat. For this reason, it was necessary to affix the wires in a frame as shown, or the like, as the fabric was originally formed, in order to avoid such entanglement. This greatly limited the usefulness of the fabric, since in many applications the frame could not be used, since the frames necessarily had to be of a manageable size and could not economically be provided in all of the sizes corresponding to the fabric sizes and shapes eventually to be utilized, and since the fabric could not be supplied in continuous rolls from which the desired shapes could be cut as needed.

The principal object of the present invention is, therefore, the provision of a wire fabric of the general character described which will not roll, nor will the wires thereof become disarranged, when the edges of the fabric are free and unrestrained, but which on the contrary will lie smooth and flat, without disarrangement of any sort, when unrestrained. Generally, this object is accomplished by providing that the loops of each wire extend through the loops of the adjoining wire in alternately opposite directions. That is, one loop extends through the corresponding loop of the adjacent wire from one face of the fabric to the other, say from the back face toward the front face of the fabric, while the next loop extends through the corresponding loop of said adjacent wire from front to back, and so forth. Thus the resilient flexure of the wires resulting from each loop connection is balanced by an equal and opposite flexure at adjacent loop connections, and the fabric therefore will lie smooth and flat without restraint.

Other objects are simplicity and economy of structure, adaptability for mass production on automatic machinery, and adaptability for use in a wide variety of applications.

With these objects in view, as well as other objects which will appear in the course of the specification, reference will be had to the drawing, which is a face view of a section of wire fabric embodying the present invention.

Referring to the drawing, the numeral 2 indicates gen erally a section of wire fabric embodying the present invention. Said fabric comprises a series of similarly configurated resilient wires 4, 6, 8, i0, 12, l4, 16, etc. ex tending in generally parallel relation, horizontally of the drawing sheet. Each of such wires is formed to present a series of regularly spaced apart, generally coplanar loops each bearing a primed numeral corresponding to the numeral indicating the wire in which they are formed. Thus the loops of wire 4 are numbered 4', the loops of wire 6 are numbered 6', etc. The loops of each wire are joined by connecting portions of the wire, said connecting portions each bearing a double-primed numeral corresponding to the numeral indicating the wire of which they form parts. Thus the connecting portions of wire 4 are numbered 4", etc. The loops of each wire are closed, that is, each loop is complete, the connecting portions of the Wire adjacent said loop intersect at the base of the loop, and extend in generally opposite directions therefrom. This provides that when any of the wires is tensioned, it is longitudinally elongated by the resilient closure of the loops therein. All of the loops lie gen orally in the plane of the fabric. The connecting portions of each wire form generally parallel, scalloped lines extending across the fabric, and the loops thereof are offset laterally to one side only of said scalloped line.

The loops of each wire extend alternately upwardly and downwardly through the corresponding loops of the next adjacent wire. For example, the loops 6' of wire 6 are inserted or extend alternately upwardly and downwardly through the loops 3 of wire 8, and so on. That is, every other loop 6 extends through its corresponding spa es? loop 8 from the back to the front of said loop 8', while the alternate loops 6' extend through their corresponding loops 8' from the front to the back. Thus the loops, while they are resiliently flexed by their interengaged relationship, are flexed alternately in opposite directions, so that the resilient strain in one loop is balanced by the equal and opposite strain in adjacent loops in the same wire, and therefore there is no tendency of the fabric to roll about an axis parallel to the general direction or extent of the wires.

It is nevertheless still true that if all of the wires were joined as just described, so that a row of loops constituting the corresponding loops of each of the wires, such as a row of loops 4, 6', 8, 16, etc., at right angles to the general direction of the wires, were successively inserted through each other in the same direction, such as from the back to the front of the fabric, the fabric would still have a tendency when unrestrained to roll on an axis at right angles to the general direction of the wires. To prevent this, so that the fabric will lie smooth and flat, each row of loops 4, 6', 8', is, etc., is also arranged so that successive loops therein extend alternatively oppositely through each other. This arrangement is in direct contrast to that of my prior co-pending application as above described, wherein each loop of each wire was extended in the same direction through the corresponding loop of the next adjacent wire. In the present structure it should be noted that it is not essential that the direction of extension of the loops through each other need not be precisely alternating. For example, two successive loops could be inserted in one direction, and the next two inserted in the opposite direction. It is necessary only that substantially equal numbers of loops be inserted in each of the relatively opposite directions, and that the pattern of reversal be generally uniform over the entire area of the fabric. Also, it will be evident that the ends of the wires may be secured in any suitable manner to form a selvage edge to prevent unravelling of the fabric.

While I have shown and described a specific embodi ment of my invention, it will be apparent that many minor changes therein could be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A wire fabric comprising a series of similarly configurated wires disposed in generally parallel relation, each of said wires forming a series of spaced apart loops and connecting portions joining said loops, said connecting portions establishing a general line and said loops being ofiset laterally in one direction from said general line, corresponding loops in said wires being disposed in transverse rows extending at right angles to the general extent of said wires, all of said loops and connecting portions being disposed in a plane determining the plane of the fabric, certain loops of each of said wires extending through the corresponding loops of the next adjacent wire in a direction from a first face of said fabric toward the second face thereof, and the remainder of the loops of each of said wires extending through the corresponding loops of said next adjacent wire in a direction from said second face toward said first face of said fabric.

2. A wire fabric as recited in claim 1 wherein the loops of each of said wires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connecting portions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base of said loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom.

3. A wire fabric as recited in claim 2 wherein each successive loop of each of said wires extends through the corresponding loop of the next adjacent wire alternately in a direction from a first face toward a second face of the fabric, and in a direction from said second face toward said first face.

4. A wire fabric as defined in claim 3 wherein the loops of each of said wires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connecting portions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base of said loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom.

5. A wire fabric comprising a series of similarly configurated wires disposed in generally parallel relation, each of said wires formin a series of spaced apart loops and connecting portions joining said loops, said connecting portions establishing a general line and said loops being oilset laterally in one direction from said general line, corresponding loops in said wires being disposed in transverse rows extending at right angles to the general extent of said wires, all of said loops and connecting portions being disposed in a plane determining the plane of the frabric, certain loops of each of said transverse rows of loops extending through the next adjacent loops in said row in a direction from a first face toward the opposite face of said fabric, and the remainder of the loops in said transverse row extending through the next adjacent loops in said row in a direction from said opposite face toward said first face.

6. A wire fabric as defined in claim 5 wherein the loops of each of said wires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connecting portions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base of said loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom.

7. A wire fabric as defined in claim 5 wherein each successive loop in each of said transverse rows of loops extends through the next adjacent loop in said row, alternately in a direction from a first face toward the opposite face of said fabric, and in a direction from said opposite face toward said first face.

8. A wire fabric as defined in claim 7 wherein the loops of each of said wires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connecting portions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base of said loop and extending in generally opposite directions therefrom.

9. A wire fabric comprising a series of similarly configurated wires disposed in generally parallel relation, each of said wires forming a series of spaced apart loops and connecting portions joining said loops, said connecting portions establishing a general line and said loops being offset laterally in one direction from said general line, corresponding loops in said wires being disposed in transverse rows extending at right angles to the general extent of said wires, all of said loops and connecting portions being disposed in a plane determining the plane of the fabric, certain loops of each of said wires and in each of said transverse rows of loops, extending through the corresponding loops of the next adjacent wire in a direction from a first face of said fabric toward the second face thereof, and the remainder of the loops of each of said wires, and in each of said'transverse rows of loops, extending through the corresponding loops of said next adjacent wire in a direction from said second face toward said first face of said fabric.

10. A wire fabric as defined in claim 9 wherein the loops of each of said wires are closed in the sense that each loop is complete, the connecting portions of said wire adjoining said loop intersecting at the base of said loop and extending in generally opposite directions thererrorn.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 213,363 Wakeman Mar. 18, 1879 346,317 Scarles July 27, 1886 1,952,873 King Mar. 27, 1934 2,218,560 Stephens Oct. 22, 1940'

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