Abstract:
A stackable wire core assembly for a bedding foundation which may be nestably stacked with numerous other such assemblies for transportation, thereby avoiding the need to compress and tie the assembly for shipping. The wire core assembly includes corrugated formed support wires having inverted U-shaped channels formed at the bottom of the corrugated formed support wires adapted to be wrapped over and secured to slats of a wooden base frame.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    This invention relates generally to bedding, and more particularly, to a formed wire bedding foundation. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Bedding foundations or so-called box spring assemblies generally comprise spaced border wires between which are disposed coil or bent wire spring modules. As thus manufactured, these box spring assemblies are bulky for shipping to a manufacturer where padding and covering are applied thereto. In order to reduce shipping space requirements, it is customary to compress the assemblies to reduce their individual thicknesses and, when compressed, to tie them in their compressed state. This involves providing presses and ties which are expensive, and the extra operations of pressing and tying the assemblies. At the delivery end, the manufacturer must cut and discard the ties before applying the covering. These additional material and handling costs increase the end cost of box spring assemblies. 
         [0003]    In U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,064, there is disclosed a nestably stackable bedding foundation assembly which overcomes the manufacturing and shipping problems characteristic of the more traditional coil or modular spring bedding foundations. The bedding foundation assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,064 comprises a rectangular border wire and transversely spaced, parallel and longitudinally extending support wires parallel to the border wire sides and having ends connected to the border wire. These support wires are generally corrugatedly formed along their lengths, having peaks and valleys with the peaks being generally co-planar with the plane defined by the border wire and the valleys being displaced beneath and intermediate of the peaks. Longitudinally spaced, parallel and transversely extending upper connector wires, parallel to the border wire ends, are connected along their lengths to the peaks of the support wires. Longitudinally spaced, parallel and transversely extending lower connector wires, parallel to the border wire ends, are connected to the valleys of the support wires. The longitudinal voids between the peaks of the support wires are of a greater dimension than the valleys of the support wires. This configuration enables one nestably stackable bedding foundation assembly to be nestedly stacked atop a second assembly since the support wire valleys of the first assembly may enter into the voids between the peaks of the support wires of the second assembly. Such a nestedly stacked arrangement results in a total height dimension which is less than the sum of the individual assembly height dimensions. 
         [0004]    The primary advantage of the bedding foundation assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,064 is that it enables relatively inexpensive bedding foundation wire cores to be tightly compacted and shipped in a minimum of space to an assembly destination, thereby reducing the ultimate cost of the core to the assembler. The bedding foundation of U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,064 also has the advantage that it may be rapidly loaded by a manufacturer for transportation to the destination of assembly without the need for compressing and tying the assemblies. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    The present invention is directed to a nestably stackable wire core bedding foundation which has all of the advantages of the bedding foundation of the &#39;064 patent, but which is of greater compressive support to the complete foundation unit than is characteristic of the wire core bedding foundation of U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,064. In the present invention, as in the foundation disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,064, the foundation comprises a rectangular border wire and lengthwise or transversely extending parallel support wires connected at opposite ends to opposite ends or opposite sides of the border wire. And, as in the &#39;064 patent, these support wires are generally corrugatedly formed along their lengths, having peaks and valleys with the peaks being generally co-planar and in the plane of the border wire and the valleys being displaced beneath and intermediate of the peaks. And, also as in the &#39;064 patent, there are multiple, parallel connector wires extending normal to the support wires in the plane of the border wire, which connection wires are fixedly attached at their opposite ends to the border wire and are attached intermediate of their ends to the peaks of the support wires. But unlike the support wires of the &#39;064 patent, the valleys of the support wires of the present invention have an inverted U-shaped channel formed therein, which channel is sized and shaped to wrap around the top and sides of slats of a foundation base to which the valleys of the support wire are attached. Thereby, the resulting foundation is given additional compressive strength which has not been characteristic of prior art wire core bedding foundations. 
         [0006]    In one embodiment of the present invention, the valleys of the support wires of the wire core assembly are stapled to the top surface of the slats. In another embodiment of the present invention, the sides of the channels formed in the valleys of the support wires have barbs formed on the inside surface of the wire such that the complete wire grid may be pressed onto wooden slats of the base frame to secure the grid to the base frame without the need for any staples to make that securement. 
         [0007]    In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the support wires are welded to the connector wires in pairs with the valleys of the support wires of a pair sloping downwardly and inwardly toward one another at an included angle of approximately 35° so as to optimize the ease of stacking of multiple wire cores for purposes of storing and shipping stacks of nestably stacked wire core assemblies. 
         [0008]    The primary advantage of the invention of this application is that it increases the compressed load strength of a bedding foundation incorporating this wire core assembly over prior art nestably stackable wire core bedding foundations by transferring compressive forces on the wire core from the wire core assembly to the underlying slats of the foundation base. 
         [0009]    These and other advantages of the present invention will more readily become apparent from the description of the drawings herein, in which: 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0010]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view, partially broken away, of a bedding foundation assembly embodying the invention of this application; 
           [0011]      FIG. 2  is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of the bedding foundation of  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0012]      FIG. 3  is a view taken along line  3 - 3  of  FIG. 1 , but with the covering materials removed for purposes of illustrating the corrugatedly formed support wires; 
           [0013]      FIG. 4  is a view taken along line  4 - 4  of  FIG. 2 ; 
           [0014]      FIG. 5  is a view like  FIG. 4 , but illustrating two unmounted wire core assemblies stacked and nested one within the other for shipment; 
           [0015]      FIG. 6  is a view of a portion of a support wire mounted upon a slat of a base frame wherein the slat is nailed on edge to the base frame of a bedding foundation assembly; and 
           [0016]      FIG. 7  is a view similar to  FIG. 6 , but of another embodiment of the support wire. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0017]    Referring first to  FIG. 1 , a bedding foundation  1  is illustrated. The foundation  1  has a rectangular wooden base frame  2  on which are attached transverse wooden slats  3 . Atop these transverse slats  3  is the nestably stackable assembly or wire core  4 . A foam pad  5  overlies the nestably stackable assembly  4 , and a fabric covering  6  overlies the foam pad  5  and surrounds the nestably stackable assembly  4  and the base frame  2 . 
         [0018]    Describing the nestably stackable assembly  4  now in more detail, it comprises a rectangular steel border wire  10  having two parallel sides  11 ,  11  and two parallel ends  12 ,  12 , with the parallel sides  11 ,  11  being longer than the parallel ends  12 ,  12 . Transversely spaced, parallel and longitudinally extending steel support wires  13  are parallel to the border wire sides  11 ,  11  and have ends  14  which are crimped around the ends  12 ,  12  of the border wire  10 . These support wires  13  are formed so as to be generally corrugatedly shaped along their lengths, having peaks  15  and valleys  16  (see  FIG. 3 ). These peaks  15  are generally co-planar with the plane defined by the border wire  10 , with the valleys  16  being vertically spaced beneath and intermediate of the flattened peaks  15 . 
         [0019]    Longitudinally spaced, parallel and transversely extending steel upper connector wires  19  extend parallel to the border wire ends  12 ,  12  and have ends  20  which are crimped around the border wire sides  11 ,  11 . These upper connector wires  19  are welded intermediate of their ends along their lengths  21  to the flattened peaks  15  of the support wires  13 . 
         [0020]    The valleys  16  of each support wire  13  have an inverted U-shaped channel  17  formed therein. Each channel  17  has a flat upper section  18  from which side sections  19  extend downwardly. These side sections  19  are connected to the lower ends  21  of the riser sections  22  of the support wires  13 . 
         [0021]    With reference now to  FIGS. 2 and 3 , it will be seen that each channel-shaped section  17  of each support wire  13  fits over and wraps around the top surface and sides of a slat  3  of the base frame  2 . In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in  FIGS. 1-4  and  6 , the top upper section  18  of each channel  17  of a support wire is secured by staples  23  to the top surface of a slat. But the channels of the support wires  13  could be connected to the slats by other connectors as, for example, as illustrated in  FIG. 7 , by barbs  24  formed on the inside edge of the downwardly extending sections  19  of the channels  17  formed in the valleys  16  of the support wires  13 . In the event that barbs formed in the channels  17  of the support wires are used to connect the wire core  4  to the base frame  2 , the completely assembled core may be simply pressed downwardly onto the base frame  2  to secure the assembled wire core to the base frame with the barbs  12  locked into the sides of the slats  3 . 
         [0022]    With particular reference now to  FIGS. 2 and 4 , it will be seen that the support wires  13  are arranged in pairs with each pair having riser sections  22  extending downwardly and inwardly from the top peak sections  15 . In one embodiment of the invention, these pairs of support wires define an included angle of approximately 35° therebetween. As illustrated in  FIG. 5 , this included angle between the pairs of support wires  13  facilitates nestable stacking of the assembled wire cores for shipment or storage before these assembled wire cores  4  are secured to base frames. 
         [0023]    With reference to  FIGS. 6 and 7 , the slats  3  of the base frame  2  are there illustrated as being secured on edge as, for example, by nails (not shown) to the side boards  26  of the base frame  2 . This differs from the slat of  FIGS. 1-4  wherein the slats are illustrated as lying flat on the side boards. The advantage of this on-edge securement of the slats to the side boards is that it increases the height of the resulting foundation without any appreciable increase in cost of materials or assembly. 
         [0024]    The metal core portion of a bedding foundation is generally manufactured by a supplier, who then ships it to an assembler. The assembler adds to the metal core a wooden base  2 , slats  3 , padding  5  and upholstery  6  to make a completed product. 
         [0025]    With reference to  FIG. 5 , it will be seen that a first stackable assembly or core  4  may be placed upon a surface with the valleys  16  of the support wires  13  oriented downwardly and the flattened peaks  15  of the support wires  13  oriented upwardly. Next, a second like assembly  4  may be placed atop the first assembly  4 , with its support wire valleys  16  and flattened support wire peaks  15  likewise oriented downwardly and upwardly, respectively. The valleys  16  of the second assembly  4  are thereby allowed to enter into the voids between the flattened peaks  15  of the first assembly  4 . The second assembly  4  nestles downwardly within the first assembly  4  until the outside dimension of the valleys  16  of the second assembly  4  is equal to the inside dimension of the valleys  16  of the first assembly  4 . At this point, the second assembly  4  comes to rest within the first assembly  4 , with the overall height of the nested assemblies being substantially less than the sum of the individual heights of the assemblies. Of course, any number of assemblies may be nested and stacked together for storage or shipment. 
         [0026]    The primary advantage of the invention of this application is that it facilitates storage and shipment of the nestably stackable wire core assemblies  4  and the resulting improved compressive strength of the foundation when the wire core is assembled onto a base frame. This improved compressive strength derives from any load or force placed atop the wire core being transferred by the wire core to the slats of the base frame about which the valleys of the support wires of the core are wrapped. 
         [0027]    While we have described several embodiments of our invention, those persons skilled in the art will readily recognize modifications and changes which may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Accordingly, we intend for our invention to be limited only by the following