Abstract:
Components of knock-down furniture and modules of sectional furniture are equipped with interlocking brackets, connector frames and a shelf assembly at the time of manufacture to provide for a method of assembling the components that avoids the difficulty heretofore experienced in adjusting the positions of components when needed to align and connect brackets to interlock the furniture components.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates to apparatus for manufacturing components of knock-down furniture and to a method for assembling those components.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Permanently connecting the components of furniture and the modules of sectional furniture often results in furniture of such size and weight that it is difficult to handle and expensive to ship.  
           [0003]    It is known that knock-down furniture overcomes the problems of size and weight. Knock-down furniture is furniture wherein its components are individually manufactured and, after being manufactured, the individual components are shipped to a desired destination where they are assembled into a piece of furniture.  
           [0004]    For example, the components of an upholstered chair are the seat, the back, and the arms. When the chair is made as a piece of knock-down furniture, each component of the chair is completely manufactured as an individual item. The manufactured components are not connected to each other at the time of manufacture. The seat, the back, and the arms of the chair are individually shipped to a desired destination, where the seat, back, and arms are assembled into an upholstered chair, as a piece of knock-down furniture.  
           [0005]    Several advantages of knock-down furniture are shown in the prior art.  
           [0006]    Healy U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,889 recognizes these advantages: (1) a user is able to replace any component of knock-down furniture without having to replace the entire piece of furniture; (2) individual components of knock-down furniture can be re-upholstered or re-covered at materially less cost than re-upholstering or re-covering an entire piece of furniture; (3) a consumer is able to choose the desired length of a sofa from among a selection of seat and back units of different length. This is also an advantage to the retailer because there is no need to stock a large number of sofas of different lengths.  
           [0007]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,049 to Adams et al. is for a separable recliner chair assembly which includes an all metal unitized seat spring and frame assembly having insert brackets attached to its side and rear portions. Corresponding slide brackets are attached to the arms and to the rear of the seating product. The insert brackets are inserted into the slide brackets as the arms and back are placed downwardly adjacent the sides and back of the seating product. The structure of Adams et al. has the economic advantage of enabling a dealer or user to change the appearance of the arms or back by making several different styles of those components with different upholstery or padding but all of them with slide brackets positioned to mate with the insert brackets on the frame assembly. Accordingly, the different styles are interchangeable.  
           [0008]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,767 to Chang provides upholstered sofa components that can be combined to form different sofa assemblies having varying numbers of seats.  
           [0009]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,317 B1 to Wu is for a modular chair construction in which the back and arms are mounted removably on the seat so the back and arms can be easily disassembled for transport and for replacement.  
           [0010]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,880 B1 to Niederman shows a modular upholstered furniture construction that enables consumers to easily replace or recover modules which have become worn, stained or have gone out of style.  
           [0011]    These patents teach a number of ways for the components of knock-down furniture to be connected after the components have arrived at their destination, including the use of interlocking brackets.  
           [0012]    The use of interlocking brackets in assembling knock-down furniture is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,182,610 issued May 19, 1916 to Wiesman for Furniture Fastening, U.S. Pat. No. 2,793,407 to Johnston, and the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,049 to Adams et al.  
           [0013]    The prior art use of interlocking brackets to assemble knock-down furniture has experienced chronic difficulty in adjusting the position of components as needed to align and connect the brackets. The re-positioning of a component when needed to align and connect the two pieces of an interlocking bracket has proven to be so time consuming and uneconomical that the use of interlocking brackets to assemble knock-down furniture has virtually ceased.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0014]    Knock-down furniture made and assembled with interlocking brackets in accordance with this invention has all of the advantages known in the prior art. In addition, knock-down furniture made in accordance with this invention avoids the difficulty experienced in the prior art of aligning and connecting interlocking brackets.  
           [0015]    This invention uses a novel shelf assembly in a distinctive method of assembling detachable components of knock-down furniture with interlocking brackets without the alignment difficulty experienced in the prior art.  
           [0016]    The shelf assembly becomes a component of the knock-down furniture that is assembled according to the invention, and loosely supports the rear of the seat to enable adjustment of the seat as needed to align and connect the two pieces of an interlocking bracket on adjoining components.  
           [0017]    A prime object of the invention is to improve the method of assembling components of knock-down furniture with interlocking brackets. The improved method of assembly includes the placement of receiver brackets and slide brackets at specific locations on components during the manufacture of those components for knock-down furniture, and use of the shelf assembly to loosely support the rear of the seat to make the seat easily adjustable when needed for alignment of slide brackets with receiver brackets.  
           [0018]    Another object of this invention is to provide a novel connector frame that expands the number of combinations that can be made with the same modules of sectional furniture. The connector frame is used to connect armless components of knock-down furniture. The arms on furniture are the only components that are permanently RAF or LAF (right arm facing or left arm facing). All other components are neither LAF or RAF, so by using connector frames with the components that are neither LAF or RAF those components can be arranged in any desired configuration. This is an advantage to the retailer as it allows him to sell many different configurations from the same inventory of components. It is also an advantage to the user, who can make different configurations of sofas, chairs, loveseats, or sectionals as their changing needs may require. The user also has the advantage of buying only selected components instead of having to buy a complete piece or pieces of furniture. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 is a side view and a front view of a pair of interlocking brackets, showing a slide bracket aligned for connection with a receiver bracket;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the top and one side of a connector frame;  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 3 is a top view of the connector frame shown in FIG. 6;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the connector frame, illustrating its capability of supporting accessories for a piece of knock-down furniture connected to the connector frame;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a knock-down upholstered easy chair after its assembly in accordance with the invention;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view, with parts broken away, of the chair shown in FIG. 5, showing the apparatus that was used to assemble components of the chair;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of an armless reclining chair, with parts broken away, illustrating the apparatus that was used to assemble components of the chair;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the front and sides of a prior art sectional sofa;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a sectional sofa having the same appearance as the prior art sofa in FIG. 8, but made with detachable modules in accordance with the invention;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the sectional sofa shown in FIG. 9 with a different arrangement of the modules;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a sectional sofa with armless chairs that has been assembled with connector frames in accordance with the invention; and  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view of the sectional sofa shown in FIG. 11 prior to its assembly with connector frames. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0031]    A pair of interlocking brackets is broadly indicated at  10  in FIG. 1. One of the interlocking brackets is a receiver bracket  11 . The receiver bracket  11  is formed with a base  12  that tapers downwardly in FIG. 1, and preferably tapers downwardly in use. Correspondingly tapered flanges  13  and  14  extend inwardly over the base  12  from its narrow end  12 A to its wide end  12 B and at an acute angle from opposite sides of the base  12 . Circular openings  15  extend through the base  12  to receive bolts for fastening the receiver bracket  11  to either an arm of knock-down furniture (FIG. 6), a connector frame (FIG. 7), or a module of sectional furniture (FIG. 9).  
         [0032]    The other bracket in the pair of interlocking brackets  10  is a slide bracket  20 . The slide bracket  20  is formed with a base  21  that tapers at an angle corresponding to the tapering angle of the base  12  on the receiver bracket. Correspondingly tapered flanges  22  and  23  extend outwardly at an obtuse angle from opposite sides of the base  21 . Circular openings  24  extend through the base  21  for the reception of bolts to fasten the slide bracket  20  to the seat and back of a chair (FIG. 6), to the shelf assembly (FIG. 7), and to a module of sectional furniture (FIG. 9).  
       The Connector Frame  
       [0033]    The connector frame is broadly indicated at  30  in FIGS. 2, 3, and  4 . The connector frame  30  comprises a tubular steel front leg  31  and a tubular steel rear leg  32 . A lower rectangular bar  33  and an upper rectangular bar  34  extend in vertically spaced parallel relation to each other between the front leg  31  and the rear leg  32 . The lower bar  33  is welded, as at  35  and  36 , respectively, to the lower portions of the front leg  31  and rear leg  32 , and the upper bar  34  is welded as at  37  and  38 , respectively, to the upper portions of the front leg  31  and rear leg  32 . Circular feet  31 A and  32 A are welded to the bottoms of the legs  31  and  32 . The upper ends of the tubular front and rear legs are open as at  31 B and  32 B.  
         [0034]    A flat flange  32 G extends rearwardly from the rear leg  32  in closely spaced relation to the top of the leg, and a flat flange  31 C extends forwardly from the front leg  31  between the lower and upper bars  33  and  34 . Two receiver brackets  11  are suitably fastened in back-to-back relation to each other, as by bolts, on opposite sides of the rear flange  32 G. Two receiver brackets  11  are similarly fastened to the front flange  31 C.  
         [0035]    The receiver brackets  11  on the connector frame are spaced from each other the same way and the same distance as the receiver brackets  11  are spaced from each other on a chair arm. See the spacing of receiver brackets  11  on the chair arms  53  in FIG. 6 and see the corresponding spacing of receiver brackets  11  on the connector frame  30  in FIG. 7.  
         [0036]    A short length of steel tubing  32 C, with a closed bottom and an open top  32 D, is welded to the front of the rear leg  32  between its open top  32 B and the upper bar  34  to receive a shouldered rod  32 E (FIG. 4) that may be used to support a furniture accessory, such as a console  39 .  
         [0037]    The open ends  31 B and  32 B on the front and rear legs  31  and  32  of the connector frame are also intended to receive shouldered rods, indicated at  31 F and  32 F in FIG. 4. The shouldered rods provide the user with options for installing accessories to be used with furniture assembled with the connector frame. As seen in FIG. 4, the shouldered rods  31 F and  32 F can support accessories such as a cantilevered table  39 A and another desired accessory, such as a lamp, indicated at  39 B in FIG. 10.  
       The Shelf Assembly  
       [0038]    The shelf assembly  40  comprises a rectangular frame generally indicated at  41  and a pair of support boards  42 . The rectangular frame  41  includes a bottom wall serving as a shelf  43 , side walls  44 , a rear wall  45 , a top wall  46 , and ledges  47 . The rectangular frame  41  is built into the back  51  of an upholstered easy chair  50  (FIG. 6), and is located beneath the back  62  and behind the seat  61  of an upholstered recliner  60  (FIG. 7). The support boards  42  extend rearwardly from the seat  52  of chair  50  (FIG. 6) and rearwardly from the side frames  64  in the recliner  60  (FIG. 7). The support boards  42  are placed loosely on the shelf  43 , without attachment, to support the rear of the seat during assembly of the components and continue to rest on the shelf after assembly of the components is completed.  
         [0039]    The chair  50  and recliner  60  were made in accordance with this invention, and the exploded views of the chairs in FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate the necessary locations of the receiver brackets  11  and the slide brackets  20  for assembling the chair  50  and recliner  60  according to the invention.  
         [0040]    The two slide brackets  20  on the shelf assembly and the two slide brackets  20  on the seat  52  are carefully positioned to register during assembly with receiver brackets  11  that are positioned as shown on the inner surfaces of both arms  53 .  
         [0041]    As shown in FIG. 6, the shelf assembly  40  is built into the back  51  of the upholstered chair  50 , with the cross brace of the back  51  serving as the shelf  43  in the shelf assembly, and the side frames of the back  51  serving as the side walls  44  of the shelf assembly  40 .  
         [0042]    [0042]FIG. 7 shows the shelf assembly  40  with an armless recliner broadly indicated at  60 . The recliner comprises a seat  61 , a retractable back  62 , and a motion assembly  63  supported on side frames  64 . Slide brackets  20  on the reclining back  62  connect with receiver brackets  11  extending from the rear of the seat  61 . Support boards  42  extend rearwardly from the side frames  64  to rest loosely on the shelf  43  during and after assembly of the recliner  60 .  
         [0043]    The armless recliner  60  is flanked by connector frames  30 . Positioned as shown in FIG. 7, slide brackets  20  on the side walls  44  of the shelf assembly  40  and slide brackets  20  on the side frames  64  will be connected during assembly with the proximal receiver brackets  11  on the rear legs  32  and front legs  31  of the two connector frames  30 .  
       Method of Assembly  
       [0044]    The difficulty of connecting interlocking brackets on adjoining components without “wiggle room” has significantly minimized the use of interlocking brackets on knock-down furniture, as evidenced by the prior art use of other devices to detachably connect components of knock-down furniture.  
         [0045]    The difficulty of connecting interlocking brackets on knock-down furniture because of the loss of “wiggle room” is overcome by using the shelf assembly when assembling components of knock-down furniture according to the method of this invention. That method of assembly is explained in the following description of the steps taken to assemble the chair  50 .  
         [0046]    With the shelf assembly  40  installed in the back  51  of the chair  50  as described and shown in FIG. 6 and the receiver brackets  11  and slide brackets  20  positioned as described and shown in FIG. 6, the method of assembling the chair  50  is as follows:  
         [0047]    1. Lay the back  51  on the floor with the shelf assembly  40  facing up;  
         [0048]    2. Lay the arms  53  on the floor with the fronts of the arms facing up and with their rear-most receiver brackets  11  near the slide brackets  20  on the shelf assembly;  
         [0049]    3. Insert the slide brackets  20  on the shelf assembly into the rear-most receiver brackets  11  on the arms  53 ;  
         [0050]    4. Lay the seat  52  on the floor with its front facing up and with the support boards  42  resting on the upturned edge of the shelf  43 ;  
         [0051]    5. Rotate the loosely assembled back  51  and arms  53  forwardly and position the foremost receiver brackets  11  on the arms  53  near the slide brackets  20  on the upturned seat  52 ;  
         [0052]    6. Adjust the position of the seat as needed to align and install the slide brackets  20  on the seat into the foremost receiver brackets  11  on the arms  53 ;  
         [0053]    7. Rotate the loosely assembled back  51 , arms  53  and seat  52  forwardly into sitting position with the support boards  42  on the shelf  43 ; and then  
         [0054]    8. Apply pressure to the seat  52 , as by sitting on it, to press the slide brackets  20  on the seat all the way into the foremost receiver brackets  11  on the arms  53 , and to press the slide brackets  20  on the shelf assembly  40  all the way into the rearmost receiver brackets  11  on the arms  53 .  
         [0055]    After completion of Step # 8  the interlocking of the brackets is complete and the chair is assembled.  
         [0056]    While performing Step # 6 , the seat  52  of the chair  50  was not connected to anything. The front of the chair was on the floor and the rear of the chair was only loosely supported by the support boards  42  resting on the shelf  43 . This freedom of the seat provided the “wiggle room” that made it possible to easily adjust the position of the seat  52  relative to the position of the arms  53  as needed to align and connect the slide brackets on the seat with the foremost receiver brackets on the arms.  
         [0057]    Ledges  44  above the bottom wall  43  of the shelf assembly  40  serve to restrict excessive movement of the support boards  42  and seat  52  during use of any “wiggle room” necessary to adjust the seat for alignment and connection of the slide brackets  20  on the seat with the foremost receiver brackets  11  on the arms  53 .  
         [0058]    The method of assembly is the same for both the chair  50  and the recliner  60 , except that assembly of the recliner  60  requires the additional step of connecting the back  62  to the seat  61  with interlocking brackets. Also, the slide brackets  20  on the seat  61  and shelf assembly  40  in the armless recliner  60  will be connected with receiver brackets  11  on connector frames  30  instead of the arms  53 .  
       Disassembling the Knock-Down Furniture  
       [0059]    The knock-down furniture can be taken apart even after the slide_brackets  20  and receiver brackets  11  are fully connected to become interlocking brackets  10 . The interlocking brackets can be separated by concussion, as by directing blows with a heavy rubber hammer toward the narrow ends of the brackets.  
         [0060]    The assembled chairs  40  and  60  can be taken apart with the following steps:  
         [0061]    1. Rotate the chair rearwardly to place the back of the chair and the shelf assembly, on the floor;  
         [0062]    2. Using a heavy rubber hammer, direct blows against the bottom of the front part of the seat to remove the slide brackets on the front part of the seat from the foremost receiver brackets on the arms or connector frames; and  
         [0063]    3. Use the hammer to direct blows against the ends of the shelf assembly to remove the slide brackets on the shelf assembly from the rearmost receiver brackets on the arms or connector frames.  
       The Sectional Sofa  
       [0064]    Using the connector frames with sectional sofas greatly enlarges the variety of arrangements that can be made with the same modules.  
         [0065]    The sectional sofa broadly indicated at  70  in FIG. 8 and at  70 A in FIG. 9 has six modules: (1) an arm  71 ; (2) a RAF chair  72 ; (3) an armless chair  73 ; (4) a comer wedge  74 ; (5) a LAF sofa  75 ; and (6) an arm  76 .  
         [0066]    The modules  71 - 76  in the prior art sectional sofa  70  of FIG. 8 were joined together with nuts and bolts, permanently bonding together the components of all the modules and permanently bonding together the modules  71 - 72  and  75 - 76 .  
         [0067]    The sectional sofa  70 A in FIG. 9 shows the modules  71 - 76  in the same arrangement as in the prior art sofa  70  in FIG. 8, but the modules  71 - 76  in the sofa  70 A are connected by slide brackets and receiver brackets instead of being permanently joined together with nuts and bolts, as is the prior art sofa  70 .  
         [0068]    Receiver brackets  11  (not shown) on the connector frame  30  receive slide brackets  20  on the armless chair  73  and on the RAF chair  72  to detachably connect those two modules. The arm  71  is joined with the chair  72  by receiver brackets  11  on the arm  71  and slide brackets  20  on the chair  72 , as in the chair  50  in FIG. 6.  
         [0069]    Receiver brackets  11  on the comer wedge  74  join with slide brackets (not shown) on the chair  73  and sofa  75  to detachably connect those modules. Slide brackets  20  on the sofa  75  connect it with receiver brackets  11  on the arm  76 .  
         [0070]    The detachable modules  71 - 76  in the sofa  70 A can remain separate as shown in FIG. 9 or they can be joined together to make the sectional sofa  70  of FIG. 8, or taken apart and rearranged to make the sectional sofa  70 B of FIG. 10, or otherwise as desired.  
         [0071]    The sectional sofa  70 B in FIG. 10 shows a different arrangement of the same modules shown in the sectional sofa  70 A in FIG. 9. The rearrangement illustrates an advantage of the invention: the detachable modules can be removed and replaced at any time by simply disconnecting and reconnecting the interlocking brackets.  
         [0072]    The components of the modules in sofa  70 A were assembled by the method described for assembling the components of the chair  50  (FIG. 6).  
         [0073]    [0073]FIGS. 11 and 12 show a sectional sofa  80  with recliners  82 ,  84 , and  85  that were built and assembled by the same method described for the chair  60 . The three armless recliners  81 ,  82  and  83  were built and assembled like the chair  50 , except with connector frames  30  instead of arms  53 .  
         [0074]    [0074]FIG. 12 shows the sofa  80  with its modules positioned for assembly with the connector frames  30  between them to become the assembled sofa  80  of FIG. 11. The manner of assembling the modules of sofa  80  is the same as described for assembling the components of the recliner of FIG. 7.  
         [0075]    The receiver brackets on the connector frames serve the same function as the receiver brackets on the arms of furniture. The size and shape of the connector frames enables them to be placed between armless chairs of any shape in any desired arrangement without the obstruction of an arm.  
         [0076]    The chairs  81  and  83  are angled to provide a curved sofa, but they could be straight like the chair  82 , or all the chairs could be angled for a semi-circular sofa.  
         [0077]    There is thus provided a shelf assembly and a connector frame that serve as the basis for an advantageous method of assembling knock-down furniture with interlocking brackets.  
         [0078]    The scope of the invention is defined in the following claims.