US2988770A - Furniture support - Google Patents

Description

.June 20, 1961 H. ARENSON FURNITURE SUPPORT Filed April 27, 1959 Illll INVENTOR. Herbert Arenson.

A 'T'I'ORNEYS.

Uni ed St te e Of 2,988,770 FURNITURE SUPPORT Herbert Arenson, Childlore Co., 210 W. 15th St.,

' Kansas City, Mo.

Filed Apr. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 809,067

4 Claims. .(CI. 1642) I ,This invention relates to furniture supports and the like, and more particularly to a novel glide for the legs of a piece of furniture or the like.

The principal objects of the present invention are to provide a novel glide molded of synthetic resin with a portion for sleeving over and resiliently gripping the lower end of a leg of furniture or the like; to provide such a furniture glide. that is easily installed on a piece of furniture, for example, a tubular metal leg, and which will be securely held in position without marn'ng the leg; to provide such a glide with pivotally connected portions to permit an article of furniture to be tilted while maintaining a glide surface engaged with a floor or other supporting surface; to provide such a glide with a member adapted to be connected to the furniture leg, said member having a recess therein adapted to receive an upstanding connector portion of a base member adapted to rest on a supporting sin-face; to provide such a glide wherein the recess is spherical and the upstanding portion has spherical portions to form a swivel connection between the base member and leg engaging member; to provide such a glide structure with a shape and wall thickness whereby the portions are moldable without danger of failures from shrinkage as frequently occurs when there are portions of large volume adjacent portions of small volume; to provide a furniture glide that is simple in construction and easily and inexpensively manufactured and assembled.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein are set forth by way of illustration and example certain embodiments of this invention.

FIG. ,1 is a side elevation of a glideembodying the features of the present invention and applied to a leg of a piece of furniture or the like. v

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view throughthe glide and leg taken on the line 22, FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a transverse sectional view through the glide and leg on the line 3-3, FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a disassembled perspective view of the leg and glide sections.

FIG. 5 is a side elevation of the upper glide section applied to a furniture leg.

Referring more in detail to the drawings:

'1 generally designates a furniture glide comprising of a base member 2 and a socket member 3 adapted to be secured to a furniture leg 4. The base member 2 and socket member or ferrule 3 are connected by a swivel connection 5 which permits the base member to maintain contact with a supporting surface or floor When the furniture leg is tilted relative thereto. The base member and socket member are both preferably molded or otherwise suitably formed of material capable of Withstanding a great deal of stress without failure, that has long life, no age hardening and that is substantially inert.

These members are preferably molded from a synthetic resin such as polyethylene, and it has been found that low pressure, high density polyethylene, frequently called Linear Polyethylene, is particularly adapted for making of these glide members. Other flexible plastics may be used, but should. be characterized by the thicker.

50am J 6 having a flat floor-engaging bottom surface 7 with the outer periph ery 8 of the foot portion sloping upwardly and outwardly providing an inclined edge facilitating movement'of the foot portion over slight upward projections in the floor or supporting surface. The upper surface 9 of the foot portion slopes inwardly and upwardly to provide a substantially frusto-conical surface. .While the foot portion 6 is shown as having a periphery that is circular, it may be of any geometric shape without departing from the scope of the invention. The base 2 has an upstanding neck 10 extending upwardly from the apex of the frustoconical portion 9 of the foot member whereby the neck- 10 is substantially axially of said foot portion. The neck portion 10 terminates at its upper portion in a spherical or ball-like portion 11, the sides of which are recessedor cut-away as at 12 to form oppositely directed rib portions 13. The recesses or cut-away portions 12 preferablyterminate in spaced relation from the upper end of the ball-like member 11 to leave a spherical section 14 having a load-bearing surface to function as later described. The rib portions 13 extend upwardly from adjacent the neck portion 10 to a horizontal plane above the center of said ball-like portion or head 11. The rib portions 13, at their outer edges or circum'ferentially of said head 11 along a horizontal plane through the center of the head, each have a width less than the width of the recesses 12 with the total width of the outer edges of all of said rib-portions .being less than the total width of all of the recesses at the circumference of the head as shown in FIG. 3.

The base section is of such structure that it can be produced in a two-piece mold having a parting line in an axial plane that extends through the center of oppositely directed ribs 13, the sides of the ribs and the bottom of the spherical portion being such that when the mold sections are separated the portions forming the recesses 12 will freely move therefrom.

The socket member or ferrule 3 is shaped to engage the outer surface of the lower portion of the leg 4 and since said leg is being shown as made of tubular metal, the socket member 3 has a thin wall 15 forming a body portion 16 that is. substantially circular in cross section and slightly tapered with a thicker wall at its lower end. The body portion has the lower end closed by a bottom wall 17 to define a socket 18 opening from the upper end of the body portion 16. It is preferable that the socket member. be applied to the leg 4 without other fastening means and, therefore, it is preferable that the inner surface 19 of the wall 15 of the body of the socket member be slightly less in diameter than the outer surface of the leg 4. It is also preferable that the wall 15 be slotted as at 20 whereby the slots extend downwardly from the. upper end 21 but terminate as at 22 is spaced relation to the bottom wall as illustrated in FIG. 2. This slotted arrangement adds resiliency to the upper por tion of the socket member walls to aid in applying the socket member to the leg, but the walls and leg are so proportioned that there is a gripping action that retains the socket member on .the leg.

The bottom wall 17 has an upstanding portion 23 adapted to extend into the bore 24 of the leg and substantially engage the inner surface thereof as illustrated in FIG. 2, said upstanding portion 23 having a domeshaped portion 25 extending upwardly and axially therefrom.

The socket member 3 is provided with a recess or cavity 26 extending upwardly therein from the bottom surface 27 of the bottom wall. Said cavity 26 is substanthe radius of the, ball-like portion 11 on the base member 2. vAlso,.the plane of the bottom face 27 is below. the center of the sphere of the cavity 26 whereby the Patented June 20, 1961 3 opening 28 to the cavity 26 is slightly less in diameter than the maximum diameter of the sphere, and is also greater in diameter than the neck 10.

In assembling a glide constructed as described, with the socket member 3 and base member 2 separated, the ball-like portion 11 is moved to alignment with the opening 28 and pressure is then applied to the two members to force the ball-like portion 11 into the socket or cavity 26. The relative diameter of the opening 28 and the ball-like member 11 is such that substantial force is required to move the ball-like portion through the opening, and it would probably be impractical if the ball-like portion 11 were fully spherical. However, the cut-away portions forming the ribs 13 being of substantial width only the ribs 13 engage the socket member 3 at the open ing 28 as said socket member is forced on the ball-like portion 11 and deform the edges defining said opening and thereby reduce the resistance in the assembly operation, making it possible to snap the two pieces together to form the swivel connection, and yet when assembled there is a gripping action by the socket member 3 due to the thickness of the wall adjacent the opening 28 that makes it almost substantially impossible to separate the members. When the base member and socket member are assembled as illustrated, the socket member is then moved to align the end of the leg 4 with the socket 18 and the leg pushed therein as far as possible, and then a blow can be struck on the surface 7 of the base member to drive the socket member onto the leg whereby the lower end of the leg engages the bottom wall of the socket member, as illustrated in FIG. 2. When assembled on a leg and pressure is applied thereto, the engagement of the upper portion 14 of the ball-like member 11 with the upper inner surface of the spherical socket provides a load-bearing contact to distribute the load in a manner that the furniture can be tilted without damage to the inner surface of the socket cavity 26 or outer surface of the ball-like member 11. The glide when applied is not subject to corrosion, is wear-resistant, capable of withstanding great stress and will have long life without danger of marring or damaging a floor or other supporting surface.

In the form of the invention illustrated in FIG. 5, the socket member 3 is applied to the leg 4 of the furniture and grips same in the manner described relative to the socket member shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 inclusive, and the base member 2 is omitted whereby the socket member 3 forms a glide wherein the bottom surface 27 will engage a floor or other supporting surface.

It is to be understood that while I have illustrated and described certain forms of my invention, it is not to be limited to the specific forms or arrangements of parts herein described and shown except insofar as such limitations are included in the claims.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A furniture glide comprising, a base member and a socket member both made of resilient material, said base member having a floor-engaging bottom surface, an upstanding axial neck member on said base member and terminating in an enlarged substantially spherical head of greater diameter than the neck portion, said head having a plurality of recesses extending laterally therein to define spaced rib-like portions in said spherical head extending upwardly from adjacent said neck to a plane above the center of said head, said rib-like portions being of lesser width than said recesses at the circumference of the head adjacent a horizontal plane through the center of the head, said socket member including a body member, said body member having a lower end, means securing said socket member to a leg of an article of furniture, and a spherical recess in the bottom portion of the socket member and being substantially of the same diameter as the diameter of the spherical head on the base member, the center of the spherical recess being above the plane of the bottom of the socket member to provide an opening from the bottom of the socket member into the recess of less diameter than the maximum diameter of the recess, said socket member and head being sufliciently resilient whereby insertion of said head through said bottom opening into said socket recess is permitted by engagement of the ribs on said head with edges of the bottom opening deforming the opening during such insertion and with the head in said socket recess it is retained therein and provides a pivotal connection between the base member and socket member.

2. A furniture glide comprising, a base member and a socket member both made of resilient molded synthetic resin, said base member having a floor-engaging bottom surface, an upstanding axial neck member on said base member terminating in an enlarged substantially spherical head of greater diameter than the neck portion, said head having a plurality of recesses extending laterally therein to define spaced rib-like portions in said spherical head extending upwardly from adjacent said neck member to a plane above the center of said head, said rib-like portions being of lesser width than said recesses at the circumference of the head adjacent a horizontal plane through the center of the head, said socket member including a body member having thin side walls defining an upwardly opening socket therein, said body member having a closed lower end, said upwardly opening socket being substantially cylindrical and dimensioned to tightly receive a tubular metal leg of an article of furniture therein, and a spherical recess in the bottom portion of the socket member and being substantially of the same diameter as the diameter of the spherical head on the base member, the center of the spherical recess being above the plane of the bottom of the socket member to provide an opening from the bottom of the socket member into the recess of less diameter than the maximum diameter of the recess, said socket member and head being sufiiciently resilient whereby insertion of said head through said bottom opening into said socket recess is permitted by engagement of the ribs on said head with edges of the bottom opening deforming the opening during such insertion and with the head in said socket recess it is retained therein and provides a pivotal connection between the base member and socket member.

3. A furniture glide comprising, a base member and a socket member both made of molded synthetic resin that is rigid in thick sections and resilient in thin sections, said base member having a floor engaging bottom surface, an upstanding axial neck member on said base member terminating in an enlarged substantially spherical head of greater diameter than the neck portion, said head having a plurality of recesses extending laterally therein to define spaced rib-like portions in sides of said spherical head and upwardly from adjacent said neck member to points above the center of said spherical head, said riblike portions being of lesser width than said recesses at the circumference of the head adjacent a horizontal plane through the center of the head, said socket member including a body member having thin side walls defining an upwardly opening socket therein, said body member having a closed lower end, said upwardly opening socket being substantially cylindrical and dimensioned to tightly receive a tubular metal leg of an article of furniture therein, said side walls having diametrically oppositely disposed slots therein extending downwardly from the upper end and terminating in spaced relation to the bottom of said socket member to facilitate spreading of the upper portion of the body member for insertion of the tubular leg in the socket, and 'a spherical recess in the bottom portion of the socket member and being substantially of the same diameter as the diameter of the spherical head on the base member, the center of the spherical recess being above the plane of the bottom of the socket member to provide an opening from the bottom of the socket member into the recess of less diameter than the maximum diameter of the recess, said socket member and head being sufficiently resilient whereby insertion of said head through said bottom opening into said socket recess is permitted by engagement of the ribs on said head with edges of the bottom opening deforming the opening during such insertion and with the head in said socket recess it is retained therein and provides a pivotal connection between the base member and socket member.

4. A furniture glide comprising, a base member and a socket member both made of molded synthetic resin that is rigid intbick sections and resilient in thin sections, said base member having a floor-engaging bottom surface, an upwardly extending frusto-convex portion on said base member, an upstanding axial neck member terminating in an enlarged substantially spherical'head of greater diameter than the neck portion, said head having a plurality of recesses extending laterally therein to define spaced rib-like portions in said spherical head extending upwardly from adjacent said neck member to a plane above the center of said head, said rib-like portions being of lesser width than said recesses at the circumference of the head adjacent a horizontal plane through the center of the head, said recesses in the head terminating at their upper ends in spaced relation to the upper end of said head, said socket member including a body member having thin side Walls defining an upwardly opening socket therein, said body member having a closed lower end, said upwardly opening socket being substantially cylim drical and dimensioned to tightly receive a tubular metal leg of an article of furniture therein, said side walls having diametrically oppositely disposed slots therein extending downwardly from the upper end and terminating in spaced relation to the bottom of said socket member to facilitate spreading of the upper portion of the body member for insertion of the tubular leg in the socket, a spherical recess in the bot tom portion of the socket member and being substantially of the same diameter as the diameter of the spherical head on the base member, the center of the spherical recess being above the plane of the bottom of the socket member to provide an opening from the bottom of the socket member into the recess of less diameter than the maximum diameter of the recess, said socket member and bead being sufliciently resilient whereby insertion of said head through said bottom open ing into said socket recess is permitted by engagement of the ribs on said head with edges of the bottom opening deforming the opening during such insertion and with the head in said socket recess it is retained therein and provides a pivotal connection between the base member and socket member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,183,422 Anderson May 16, 1916 2,644,978 Becker July 14, 1953 2,733,085 Latzen Jan. 31, 1956 2,820,240 Matys Jan. 21, 1958 2,885,719 Nordmark et al. May 12, 1959

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