WO2002032270A1

WO2002032270A1 - Writing tablet

Info

Publication number: WO2002032270A1
Application number: PCT/AU2001/001343
Authority: WO
Inventors: David John Fisher; Adam William Fisher
Original assignee: Camatic Pty. Limited
Priority date: 2000-10-19
Filing date: 2001-10-19
Publication date: 2002-04-25
Also published as: AUPR088600A0

Abstract

A writing tablet assembly for use with a chair which includes a first member adapted to be connected to or associated with a chair which includes a generally forwardly directed arm and a second, tablet, member which is connected to this arm characterised in that the arm of tablet has a socket which receives a ball which is in connection with the other member, the ball being able to rotate relative to the socket and characterised in that the ball is constrained for movement relative to the socket to permit the tablet to be moved only between a storage position where it is located adjacent the arm to a use position where it extends outwardly therefrom. The arrangement is such that the movement from the storage position causes the tablet to move beside the user and when this reaches a certain position, it rotates to a position in front of the user presenting a flat horizontal face to the user.

Description

WRITING TABLET

This invention relates to a writing tablet for use in association with chairs and, in particular, the use in association with chairs in an auditorium, theatre or other place where chairs are in the fixedly located, particularly in rows.

It is not unusual to provide writing tablets in association with chairs in, say, lecture theatres, auditoria or the like and the term of writing tablet relates to a flat surface which is adapted to be moved from a position where it extends over the legs of a user in the chair so that it can be used to carry material on which writing is being effected or for other purposes for location or holding materials or articles such as computers. It is, of course, essential for such devices that they are able to be removed from position in front of a user to enable ingress to and egress from the chair.

The simplest forms of writing tablets simply comprised a flat member which was pivotly attached to an arm or an extension on one side of the chair so it would normally extend across the chair, could be lifted by a user whilst they sat upon the chair and then lowered.

There have subsequently been many more sophisticated versions of writing tablets.

Many of these had two forms of joint, effectively at right angles, so that an arm could initially be moved into a position from a rest position to one extending therefrom and which has a tablet member connected thereto which could then be rotated relative to the arm to adopt a final position.

The mechanical movements on these have generally been rather complex and they are often not satisfactory in that they do not permit ready egress from the chair under emergency situations, such as should the area in which the chair is located need to be evacuated quickly. The object of the present invention is to provide a tablet which satisfies these requirements.

The invention includes a writing tablet assembly for use with a chair which includes a first member adapted to be connected to or associated with a chair which includes a generally forwardly directed arm and a second, tablet, member which is connected to this arm characterised in that the arm or tablet has a socket which receives a ball which is in connection with the other member, the ball being able to rotate relative to the socket and characterised in that the ball is constrained for movement relative to the socket to permit the tablet to be moved only between a storage position where it is located adjacent the arm to a use position where it extends outwardly therefrom.

It is preferred that the socket is associated with the arm and the ball with the tablet.

It is also preferred that the ball has an outwardly extending nose which extends through the socket into a recess in the arm.

In the preferred embodiment, the ball is provided with at least one groove which is in connection with a member associated with the socket so that the movement between ball and socket is controlled by the member passing along the groove. The member associated with the socket is a ball which enters a recess in the socket, the diameter of the ball and the recess and the cross-sectional shape of the groove is such as to permit the ball to pass freely along the groove and this the tablet to move between its two stable positions.

The assembly is arranged so that the movement of the tablet relative to the arm is initially a rotation about a generally horizontal axis transverse to the seat so the tablet moves upwardly beside the user of the seat and when at the top of the movement the tablet rotates about a generally horizontal axis normal to the seat back so the tablet lies in a generally horizontal plane in front of the user. This arrangement is such that should a user need to leave the seat rapidly when the tablet is in its use position, the user rising will cause the tablet to move upwardly to permit escape and when the tablet reaches it uppermost position it will fall under gravity to its storage position.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood we shall describe, in relation to the accompanying drawings, one particular form of the tablet.

In these drawings;

Fig 1 shows a side elevation of the tablet assembly, looking from the user's seat, with the tablet in its writing position;

Fig 2 is a plan view of the assembly of Fig 1 ;

Fig 3 is an underneath plan view of the assembly of Fig 1 ;

Fig 4 is a side elevation from the other side;

Fig 5 is a section through the assembly along 5-5 of Fig 2 showing the location of the ball and the ancillary parts;

Fig 6 is a perspective view of the ball;

Fig 7 is an end elevation of the ball;

Fig 8. shows four side elevations of the ball; and

Fig 9 is a section through line 9-9 of the second elevation of Fig 8. Referring initially to Fig 1 to Fig 4, the tablet assembly has an arm 10 which is adapted to be fitted to the chair with which the tablet is being used or associated therewith.

In the illustrated form of the invention, the arm has a connector 1 1 which is adapted to be connected to a bar to which the chair is also connected but this is not part of the invention.

The arm 10 may be made of an aluminium die-casting or in other ways and, as shown, may have reinforcing ribs 12 formed therein.

The arm can be considered to have two major parts, an upwardly directed portion 13, the shape of which will vary depending upon the method of connection relative to the chair, and a forward portion 14 which can constitute an arm rest and is preferably more or less horizontal.

In this particular arrangement the arm is adapted to be connected to the right side of a chair and the outer surface 16 of the arm can be finished to provide a good aesthetic appearance.

Also, if required, an arm rest pad 17 can be provided on the upper surface of the arm.

The tablet 20 has a body member 21 the upper surface of which is that on which articles can be rested when the tablet is in use.

The body member 21 is connected to the arm 20 by means of a ball and socket assembly 30 which will be described more fully hereafter.

The assembly 30 gives the tablet a capability of being moved relative to the arm from the use position, which is illustrated in Fig 1 to Fig 5 to a rest position at which it is located beside the seat of the chair and adjacent the inner surface of the arm 10. As illustrated, the assembly is adapted to be located on the right side of the chair seat so that, from an aesthetic point of view, when the tablet is in its non-use position the outer surface 16 of the arm, which is directed towards the adjacent scat, has a good finish and the inner surface, which is what is seen in Fig 1 , is basically occluded by the tablet 20. When a person is sitting in the seat and using the tablet, then the inner surface of the arm is largely obscured.

The arrangement of the ball and socket assembly is shown in Fig 5 and the actual formation of the ball is shown, in perspective, in Fig 6, in end elevation in Fig 7, four side elevations in Fig 8 and in section in Fig 9.

The end 14 of the arm has integral therewith portion 31 of the socket which is effectively hemispherical in form 32 and has a slot 33 through which an extension from the ball, as will be described, can extend.

The ball assembly 40 is spherical in form with a radius equal to the hemisphere 32 on the arm and has a forwardly directed nose 41 which may be formed with a key or the like 42 to be described hereinafter and which has a threaded aperture 43 which passes axially into the nose and is adapted to receive a restraining bolt 55. This bolt passes through an aperture 71 in a recess 70 of the tablet arm 60 before the body member 21 is affixed thereto.

At its inner surface the ball 40 has a pair of grooves 43 and 44.

A cover 34 which has an inner surface 35 which is a spherical surface having the same diameter as the ball, is arranged for location in the open end of the socket 31. It is shown as being connected thereto by stud 36. This cover has part spherical recesses 37 and 38 which are adapted to receive balls 45 and 46 which are adapted to also be received in grooves 43 and 44 on the ball respectively. The diameters of the balls 45 and 46, which are preferably the same correspond to the diameters of the part spherical recesses 37,38 and the grooves 43 and 44 have similar diameters. When the cover 34 is located then the ball 40 is fully constrained within the socket and is constrained for movement by the location of the balls 45 and 46 moving along the grooves 37 and 38.

The grooves 33 & 44 are formed to provide stops when the arm reaches its two extreme positions.

The outer surface 50 of the socket is also part spherical in form.

The tablet arm 60 which may be a diecast or engineering plastics material has an inner portion 61 which is generally spherical in form and an outer portion 62 to which the tablet assembly 20 is connected, as shown by screws 22.

The inner portion may also have a relieved area in which a nylon or the like annular bush 63 can be located.

This bush serves two purposes. It provides a low friction contact between the outer surface 60 of the socket, which is also spherical in form, and the tablet arm and it also acts as a cover for the slot 33 through which the nose 41 of the ball passes.

The recess in the tablet arm 60 which receives the nose 41 of the ball, and the nose 41 of the ball can be tapered and provided with a flat side which cooperates with a corresponding flat in the aperture in the tablet arm, as shown generally at 42, so that the tablet arm and the nose can only be interconnected in the right orientation one relative to the other and there will be an inherent resistance to rotation of these one relative to the other.

The bolt 55 holds the two components together with the portions 42 engaged to assist in preventing any tendency for rotation about the axis of the nose. The operation of the tablet is that in its normal rest position, the tablet lies beside the chair arm, between the arm and the seat of the chair and this, as mentioned earlier, provides a neat appearance.

Also as the tablet is stowed beside the arm it is possible to make the tablet of such a size 5 that it can receive a lap top computer and, also, so it can extend far enough across the user's body to readily be useable by both right and left handed occupants.

When the tablet is to be used, it is rotated about the arm, in a plane effectively parallel to the arm until it reaches a predetermined position at which time the tablet is caused to rotate by the balls 45 and 46 following the grooves 43 and 44 the rotation being about l o effectively a horizontal axis which permits it to move from a position at which its surface is lying substantially vertically to one in which it lies substantially horizontally and extends over the legs of the occupant of the chair.

Because of the arrangement of the ball 40 in the socket 32, and specifically the balls 45 and 46 in the grooves 43 and 44, the tablet arm, and thus the associated tablet can move is between these two positions in a smooth movement and the movement is constrained at all times.

When it is required to again stow the tablet arm it is only necessary that this be raised and it will automatically follow the required movements to its rest position.

This is particularly important where the occupant needs to rapidly leave the seat, such as 0 under a panic situation, where movement of the person will tend to lift the tablet which is a commencement of this folding action, and once the tablet reaches its uppermost position, then it will fall under gravity to its rest position beside the chair. Even before it reaches its final position, of course, the space in front of the user of the chair is effectively free and the user can leave the chair. Further, the fact that as the tablet must be first raised against gravity, the tablet is effectively protected against accidental movement and where, say, a lap top computer is being used, it is basically secure from damage by being dropped from the tablet.

When the tablet reaches its extreme position, the use position shown in Fig 5 and its stored position, the location of the balls 45 & 46 relative to the grooves 43 & 44 in the ball 40 act as stops and retain the tablet in the required position until physically moved therefrom.

If required a carrying a three pin power receptacle and a data cable termination can be located on the inner side of the arm and cables can be run up inside the arm to the receptacles to provide connection to mains power and to, say a network so that a laptop computer or the like could be used on the tablet.

Whilst we have described one specific form of tablet and its operations, it is to be understood that variations can be made in the actual formation of the socket arrangement and ball and indeed, if required, the socket could be on the tablet arm rather than on the main arm.

The operation could be directly equivalent.

Claims

We claim:

1. A writing tablet assembly for use with a chair which includes a first member adapted to be connected to or associated with a chair which includes a generally forwardly directed arm and a second, tablet, member which is connected to this arm characterised in that the arm or tablet has a socket which receives a ball which is in connection with the other member, the ball being able to rotate relative to the socket and characterised in that the ball is constrained for movement relative to the socket to permit the tablet to be moved only between a storage position where it is located adjacent the arm to a use position where it extends outwardly therefrom.

2. The assembly of claim 1 wherein the socket is associated with the arm and the ball with the tablet.

3. The assembly of claim 2 wherein the ball has an outwardly extending nose which extends through the socket into a recess in the arm.

4. The assembly of claim 3 wherein there is an annular bush between the ball and the socket and located about the outwardly extending nose.

5. The assembly of claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the nose, and this the ball is held to the arm by a restraining bolt which passes through part of the arm.

6. The assembly of any one of claims 2 to 5 wherein portion of the socket is integral with the arm and which is formed to receive the ball, the ball being restrained by a cover which fits over and is connected to the integral portion of the socket after the ball is located therein.

7. The assembly of any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the ball is provided with at least one groove which is in connection with a member associated with the socket so that the movement between ball and socket is controlled by the member passing along the groove.

8. The assembly as claimed in claim 7 wherein the member associated with the socket is a ball which enters a recess in the socket, the diameter of the ball and the recess and the cross-sectional shape of the groove is such as to permit the ball to pass freely along the groove and this the tablet to move between its two stable positions.

9. The assembly as claimed in claim 8 wherein there are two grooves and two balls to provide stable movement of the balls relative to the sockets.

10. The assembly as claimed in any preceding claim wherein stop means are provided on the arm and the tablet to restrain the tablet at at least one end of its movement, the stop means being so formed as to prevent loading of the balls and sockets at the end of the movement.

1 1. The assembly as claimed in claim 10 wherein there are stop means at each end of the movement.

12. The assembly as claimed in any preceding claim wherein a power receptacle is provided on the arm.

13. The assembly as claimed in any preceding claim wherein a data connection is provided on the arm.

14. The assembly as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the movement of the tablet relative to the arm is initially a rotation about a generally horizontal axis transverse to the seat so the tablet moves upwardly beside the user of the seat and when at the top of the movement the tablet rotates about a generally horizontal axis normal to the seat back so the tablet lies in a generally horizontal plane in front of the user.

15. The assembly as claimed in claim 14 wherein should a user need to leave the seat rapidly when the tablet is in position, the user rising will cause the tablet to move upwardly to permit escape and when the tablet reaches it uppermost position it will fall under gravity to its storage position.