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(11) | EP 0 753 276 A1 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | Stadium seating |
| (57) A chair to be mounted on an audience seat as in a sports stadium or the like is composed
of a chair body (10) made of synthetic resin and a leg portion (20) moulded of a unique
metallic member. A vertical fixing portion (22) located under the leg portion is mounted
only by fastening nuts with anchor bolts (24) in the vertical wall of a floor step
of the audience seat. |
[0001] The present invention relates to chairs for use as audience chairs in any kind of stadium or outdoor theatre.
[0002] Conventional chairs used for audience seats in locations such as stadiums are constructed to have a pair of stands fixed on a floor, a pair of supporting rods made of two parallel pipes bridged on the pair of stands, and seat bodies placed on the supporting rods at regular intervals to form a row. This construction is illustrated in Fig. 1 of Japanese Utility Model Showa No. 52-59006. Conventionally, in order to fix the seat body to the supporting rods, the supporting rods are laid between a blanket pre-fixed on the rear surface of the seat body and a metal clamp and the supporting rods are then fastened by bolts.
[0003] The foregoing conventional chairs for audience seats are required to have supporting rods that are long enough to cover a span between the stands erected on the floor and the seat bodies located as a row. The construction of the chairs thus needs some preparatory work such as connection and cutting of pipes and locating and fixing the seat bodies on the supporting rods at regular intervals. This work increases the overall assembly steps and therefore the necessary number of workers. Further, the supporting rods are likely to be flexible so that when a person sits on a seat, vibrations take place. These vibrations are transmitted to the adjacent seat so that another person may feel uncomfortable.
[0004] The audience seating in places like stadiums is normally constructed to have a stepped floor and is formed like a fan in certain parts. Those fan-like portions inevitably provide radial passages, so that the arc length of each floor step located between the adjacent passages is longer with increasing height. For example, 16-stepped audience seats are arranged so that 5 seats are located in the front line and 12 seats are located in the top line.
[0005] This means that it is necessary to adjust the length of the supporting rods by considering the number of seat bodies located in each floor step. Hence, the work of installing the chairs has to be carried out separately for each line.
[0006] As mentioned above, conventional chairs for audience seats employ the same structure in each line though the number of the chairs located in each line is variable. In order to install a TV camera at the audience seats when a festival or an event is held or provide an extra passage or space, the chairs are required to be removed as a line unit. This is inconvenient. Besides, this is unfavourable in cleaning the floor around the chairs.
[0007] It is an object of the present invention to provide a seating system which does not suffer these drawbacks.
[0008] According to the present invention, a chair used for an audience seat includes a chair body provided with a seating portion, a horizontal receiving portion for supporting the seating portion, vertical fixing portions fixed on a vertical wall of a floor step, and a fixing leg providing the vertical fixing portions located on both ends of an inclined connecting portion. The leg portion is made of a unique member such as by moulding or by pressing of light metal.
[0009] The seat body itself may be made of any suitable material such as synthetic resin, metal or wood. It may provide only the seating portion like a bench or the seating portion combined with a chair back and arm rests.
[0010] The chair according to the present invention can be manufactured at low cost and is advantageous to install because no other fixing means except nuts are required for installing the chair on site. Moreover, since each chair is individually installed, the chair may be adjustably located on the allocated space. Further, to install temporarily a TV camera for broadcasting or to move it, the chairs can be individually and easily removed.
[0011] In general, the floor steps in audience seating are gradually made progressively higher. According to the present invention, the vertical length of the vertical fixing portion may be adjusted so that the vertical fixing portion may be mounted on the shortest vertical wall located in the front line.
[0012] Further, it is preferable to curve the inclined connecting portion with the middle portion extending upwards.
[0013] The chair according to the present invention is thus constructed of only the seat body and the leg portion, each of which is integrally formed. The chair may be manufactured at low cost and individually mounted at any position on a vertical wall of each audience seat step as in a stadium. Furthermore, the interval between adjacent chairs may be freely adjusted. Since the fixed chair may be easily removed, it is quite convenient if an extra space is required inside the audience seating. Moreover, since it is possible to replace the chairs one by one, rather than one line by one line as in the prior art, the chair is quite economical.
[0014] Further, since the leg portion of each chair is independent of the adjacent leg portions, the vibrations caused when a person sits on the chair are not transmitted to the adjacent chairs. Hence, persons seated on the chairs feel comfortable. Moreover, since the leg portion is not erected upright from the floor, cleaning work can be carried out efficiently.
[0015] The invention may be carried into practice in various ways and one embodiment will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-
Fig. 1 is a front view showing a chair according to an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a side view showing the chair shown in Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a section on the X-X line of Fig. 2;
Fig. 4 is a bottom view of the chair shown in Fig. 1; and
Fig. 5 is a section on the V-V line of Fig. 4.
[0016] In Figs. 1 to 5, numeral 10 denotes a chair body moulded of synthetic resin. Numeral 11 denotes a chair back and numeral 12 denotes a seating portion. As shown in Fig. 5, the seating portion has a drain hole 13 passing through a central concave portion 12a of the seating portion. The bottom surface of the seating portion has mounting nuts (not shown) buried when it is moulded.
[0017] Numeral 20 denotes a leg portion, which is cast from aluminium alloy or press moulded from steel. Numeral 21 denotes an inclined connecting portion and numeral 22 denotes a fixing portion to the vertical wall B of a floor step the portion 22 has a plurality of slots 23 arranged to receive anchor bolts 24 which are pre-set in the vertical wall B at the positions of the slots 23. In Fig. 4, numeral 25 denotes a receiving portion for supporting the seating portion, which has four holes 26 for bolts and a drain hole 27 located at a position corresponding to the drain hole 13 formed on the seating portion. Numeral 26a denotes a screw threaded with a nut at the holes 26.
[0018] In Figs. 1 and 2, A denotes a floor. C denotes a floor step. The length h1 of the mounting plane of the leg fixing portion 22 is set so that the leg fixing portion 22 can be mounted on the vertical wall B even with the shortest floor step H. Hence, if the height of the stepped floor C is located as indicated by the chain line in Fig. 2, the fixing portion 22 can still be mounted on the vertical wall. h2 denotes a span of 50 mm vertically spaced from the floor surface for mounting the leg fixing portion 22. L denotes the height from the floor surface to the receiving portion of the leg. The top 21a of the inclined connecting portion is curved as shown in Fig. 3. This form serves to reinforce the chair structure and makes it easy to remove dust and dirt.
1. A individual fixed chair for use as an audience seat comprising a chair body (10)
having a seating portion (12), characterised by: a receiving portion (25) having a
substantially horizontal plane for supporting the seating portion (12); a vertical
fixing portion (22) arranged to be fixed on the vertical wall (13) of a floor step;
and a fixing leg (20) having the said vertical fixing portion (22) on each end of
an inclined connecting portion (21) and being formed as a unique member.
2. A chair as claimed in Claim 1, characterised in that the inclined connecting portion
(21) has a curved upper cross section with the middle portion (21a) extending upwards.
3. A chair as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that draining means (13,27) is
provided in the chair body (12) and the receiving portion (25) of the fixing leg (22).