Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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STACKABI~E BEDDING FOUNDATION
Background of the Invention
1. Field of the Tnvention
This invention relates generally to bedding,
. and more particularly to a nestably stackable bedding
foundation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
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 and shipping to the manufacturer
for application of padding and covering thereto is
costly because of space requirements. In order to
reduce the space requirements, it is cus',:omary to
compress the assemblies to reduce their individual
thicknesses and, when compressed, to tie them in their..
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compressed state. This involves providing presses and
ties which are expensive, and the extra operations of
pressing and tieing 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.
It has therefore been one object of the
invention of this application to construct a bedding
foundation assembly that can be stacked far shipping
without having to compress and tie the assembly.
Another object of the present invention has
been to provide a bedding foundation assembly which is
relatively simple to manufacture, and which may
substitute for a traditional box spring assembly
having coil spring modules.
Summary of the Invention
The present invention is a nestably stack- '
able bedding foundation assembly for use in place of
the traditional box spring assembly. This bedding
foundation assembly comprises a rectangular border
wire and transversely-spaced, parallel, and longi-
tudinally-extending support wires parallel to the
border wire sides and having ends connected to the
border wire ends. These support wires are generally
corrugatedly formed along their lengths, having peaks
and valleys with the peaks being generally coplanar
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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. Longi-
tudinally-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 caires 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 dimen-
sion which is less than the sum of the individual
assembly height dimensions.
A bedding foundation incorporating the
present invention comprises a rectangular base, a
nestably stackable wire core assembly according to the
present invention fixedly attached atop the base, and
spring means disposed between and connected to the
base and the nestably stackable assembly.
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The primary advantage of the present inven-
tion is that it enables relatively inexpensive bedding
foundation wire cores to be tightly compacted and
shipped in a minimum of space to an assembly destina-
tion, thereby reducing the ultimate cost of the core
to the assembler.
Another advantage of the present invention
is that bedding foundation assemblies may be rapidly
loaded by a manufacturer for transportation to the
1o destination of assembly without the need for com-
pressing and tieing the assemblies.
Yet another advantage of the present inven-
tion is that the need for costly presses and ties
necessary to compress a conventional box spring
assembly for transportation is obviated.
A further advantage of the present invention
is that bedding foundation assemblies may be rapidly
unloaded without the time consuming and labor inten-
sive tasks of clipping and discarding the tie wires
used to hold conventional box spring assemblies in a
compressed state.
These and other objects and advantages of
the present invention caill more readily become appar°
ent during the description of the drawings herein, in
which:
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Brief Description of the Drawings
Fig. 1 is a perspective view, partially
broken away, of a bedding foundation assembly
embodying the invention of this application;
Fig. 2 is a view taken along lines 2-2 of
Fig. 1 illustrating the corrugatedly formed support
wires and optional end connection wires;
Fig. 3 is a view like Figure 2 but illus-
trating two unmounted foundations stacked and nested
one within the other for shipment:
Fig. 4 is a perspective view, partially
broken away, of a bedding foundation assembly
embodying an alternative embodiment of the present
invention;
Fig. 5 is a view taken along line 5-5 of
Fig. 4;
Fig. 6 is a view like Fig. 5 but illus-
trating the alternative embodiment foundations
unmounted on base frames and stacked and nested one
within the other for shipment;
Fig. 7 is a tap plan view, partially broken
away, of a quarter of a bedding foundation assembly
including the present invention with springs disposed
between and connected to the nestably stackable
assembly and the base;
Fig. 8 is a view taken along lines 8-8 of
Fig. 7; and
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Fig. 9 is a perspective view of the bedding
foundation assembly of Fig. 7.
Description of the Preferred Embodiments
Referring first to Fig. 1, a bedding founda-
tion 1 is illustrated. The foundation 1 has a rectan-
gular 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, which is the invention of this application. 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.
Describing the nestably stackable assembly
now in more detail, it comprises a rectangular steel
border faire IO 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 caires 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 general-
ly corrugatedly-shaped along their lengths, having
peaks 15 and valleys 16. These peaks 15 and valleys
16 are flattened at their extrememost locations 17 and '
18, respectively. These flattened peaks 17 are
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generally coplanar with the plane defined by the
border wire 10, with the flattened valleys 18 being
vertically spaced beneath and intermediate of the
flattened peaks 17.
Longitudinally-spaced, parallel, and trans-
versely-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
to welded intermediate of their ends along their lengths
21 to the flattened peaks 17 of the support wires 13.
Longitudinally-spaced, parallel, and trans
versely-extending steel lower connector wires 22
extend parallel to the border caire ends 12, 12 and are
welded at their ends 23 and intermediate of their ends
along their lengths 24 to the flattened valleys 16 of
the support wires 13.
Referring now to Fig. 2, the support wires
13 have flattened peaks 17 and flattened valleys 18,
with the support wire ends 14 being crimped around the
border wire 10. In this embodiment, three upper
connector wires 19 per flattened peak 17 are illus-
trated, along with one lower connector wire 21 per
flattened valley 18. The flattened valleys 18 of the
support wires 13 are stapled or otherwise attached to
the transverse slats 3 which are in turn affixed to
the base frame 2.
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If desired, additional steel end wires 25
may be added either before or after the stackable
assembly 4 has reached its final assembly destination.
These end wires 25 have ends 26 and 27 which are
crimped around the border wire 10 and the endmost
upper connector wire 28, respectively. These end
wires 25 provide additional stiffness to the stackable
assembly 4 in an edgemost location of the ends of the
assembly 4 so as to prevent the end border wires from
deflecting and being permanently distorted when a
person sits on the end of a bed of which the founda°
tion forms a part.
The metal core portion of a bedding founda-
tion 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.
The invention of this application facili-
tates shipment of the metal core or stackable assembly
by a supplier to the assembler. With reference to
Figure 3, it will be seen that a first stackable
assembly or core 4 may be placed upon a surface with
the flattened valleys 18 of the support wires 13
oriented downwardly and the flattened peaks 17 of the
support wires 13 oriented upwardly. Next, a second
like assembly 4 is placed atop the first assembly 4,
with its flattened support wire valleys 18 and
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flattened support wire peaks 17 likewise oriented
downwardly and upwardly, respectively. The flattened
valleys 18 of the second assembly 4 are thereby
allowed to enter into the voids between the flattened
peaks 17 of the first assembly 4. The second assembly
4 nestles downwardly within the first assembly ~ 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 heighth of the nested
assemblies being substantially less than the sum of
the individual heighths of the assemblies. Of course,
any number of assemblies may be nested and stacked
together for storage or shipment.
An alternative embodiment of the present
invention is illustrated in Fig. 4. In this embodi-
ment, the optional end wires 25 have been removed and
replaced with continuous longitudinal wires 31. These
longitudinal wires 31 have their ends crimped around
the border wire ends 12. These end wires 31 may be
welded along their lengths to the upper connector
wires 19 as desired. In this embodiment, the lower
connector wires 22 of the first embodiment of Figs.
1-3 have been eliminated. This facilitates stacking
of the assemblies as illustrated in Fig. 6. In this
embodiment, the upper connector wires 19 are welded
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intermediate of their ends along their lengths to the
underneath sides of the flattened peaks 17 of the
support wires 13. This allows the longitudinal wires
31 to rest atop and be generally coplanar with the
flattened peaks 17 of the support wires 13 when the
assemblies are stacked as illustrated in Fig. 6.
With reference to Figs. 7, 8 and 9, and with
like numbers representing like components, there is
illustrated a bedding foundation 1 and further
including modular springs 50 incorporated therein.
These modular springs 50 are fully described in U.S.
Patent No. 4,000,531 to Inman, issued January 4, 1977
and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
As can be seen, each spring 50 includes a
pair of fish mouth sections 56 extending upwardly from
the wooden slats 3 and a connecting section 58 that
interconnects the fish mouth sections. Each fish
mouth section 56 includes a torsion bar 60 whose
opposite ends are connected to downwardly and upwardly
inclined spacer bars 62 and 64. The lower ends of the
downwardly extending spacer bars 62 are integrally
joined with J-shaped attaching sections 66 of the
springs which are secured by staples 68 to the associ-
ated wooden slats 3. The upper ends of the upwardly
extending spacer bars 64 are integrally joined with
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torsion bars 70 that are also integrally connected
with height spacer bars 72. An inboard main section
74 of the spring connecting section 58 is connected to
outboard end portions 76 of the connecting section by
outwardly extending wire legs 78.
As can be seen more particularly in Fig. 9,
the connecting sections 58 are secured to the trans-
versely spaced, parallel, and longitudinally extending
steel support wires 13 with sheet metal clips 80.
l0 Similarly, the inboard main portion 74 of these spring
connecting sections 58 are secured to the longi-
tudinally spaced, parallel, and transversely extending
steel upper connector wires 19 with sheet metal clips
80. The springs 50 resiliently support the support
wires 13 intermediate of the peaks 15, thereby
bridging the gap between the valleys 16 to provide
support along the entire length of the assembly.
While we have described only two 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. Specifically, those persons will
readily appreciate that springs of differing config-
urations from that of the springs 50 may be utilized
z5 in the practice of this invention. Accardingly, we
intend for our invention to be limited only by the
following claims.
