Mattress

Abstract

 Mattress comprising a bearing structure enclosed within an openable and closable containment envelope (4) in which the said bearing structure is made up of a plurality of individual overlapping sheets (1, 2, 3) made from a material exhibiting different bearing capacity or rigidity.

Description

[0001] The present invention refers to a mattress.

[0002] Traditional mattresses are known to be characterized by a constant bearing capacity, that is, a bearing capacity that cannot be varied according to the user's needs and preferences.

[0003] The main object of the present invention is to overcome the above said drawback.

[0004] This result has been achieved, according to the invention, by providing an apparatus having the characteristics disclosed in the claim 1. Further characteristics being set forth in the dependent claims.

[0005] The present invention makes it possible to adjust the bearing capacity of the mattress to an optimum degree in relation to the specific requirements or preferences of the user and, in case of a mattress for double beds, it is also possible to adjust the bearing capacity independently for the right and left-hand sides. Moreover, a mattress according to the present invention is relatively easy to make, cost-effective, and reliable even after a prolonged service life.

[0006] These and other advantages and characteristics of the invention will be best understood by anyone skilled in the art from a reading of the following description in conjunction with the attached drawings given as a practical exemplification of the invention, but not to be considered in a limitative sense, wherein:

• Fig. 1 is a schematic, cross-sectional view of a possible embodiment of the mattress according to the invention;
• Fig. 2 is a schematic, perspective view of a possible embodiment of a mattress for double beds, according to the invention, in which the sheath is not shown.

[0007] Reduced to its basic structure, and reference being made to the figures of the attached drawings, a mattress according to the invention comprises a bearing structure consisting of a plurality of individual sheets made from a material exhibiting different bearing capacity or rigidity, superimposed to each other and kept together by a sheath which makes up an openable and closable containment envelope. For example, reference being made to the drawing of Fig. 1, the present mattress is made up of three sheets (1, 2, 3) of foamed polyurethane which have equal height or thickness (e.g., 6.5 cm), superimposed to each other and retained by a sheath (4) that can be opened by a lateral zipper (5): each of said three sheets (1, 2, 3) having a degree of bearing capacity or rigidity other than those of other two sheets. In this way, it is possible to achieve six different values of overall bearing capacity or rigidity by merely varying the order of superimposition of the sheets (1, 2, 3).

[0008] The user is therefore able to change at will and at any time the bearing capacity of the mattress by simply opening the sheath (4) by the zipper (5) and disposing the individual sheaths (1, 2, 3) according to an overlap's order which results in the desired bearing capacity or rigidity.

[0009] To help the user in this operation, the sheets (1, 2, 3) may be differently coloured. For example, the sheet (1) having a higher bearing capacity may be white, the one having less bearing capacity may be of orange colour, and the one having an intermediate bearing degree may be of green colour. Moreover, a table like the one indicated below may be applied or stamped on the sheath (4).

[0010] The rigidity or bearing capacity of each of the layers formed by the said sheets (1, 2, 3) is constant, each layer varying its rigidity with respect to the others. The length of each of said individual sheets (1, 2, 3) corresponds to that of the mattress.

[0011] It will be appreciated that by increasing the number of the sheets which make up the mattress, the number of bearing combinations results increased as well.

[0012] With reference to the drawing of Fig. 2 relating to the case of a mattress for double beds and in which the sheath containing the sheets (1, 2, 3) is omitted for the sake of simplification, each side of the mattress comprises three stacked sheets (1, 2, 3) of the type above indicated. For each side of the mattress, the order of sheets' superimposition is chosen by the users, so that the right and left sides may also exhibit different bearing capacities which depend on the user's taste or requirements.

[0013] Possible exemplary values of the bearing capacity of each of the said sheets (1, 2, 3) are as follow:

• sheet 1: 4.4 kPa;
• sheet 2: 3.9 kPa;
• sheet 3: 2.3 kPa.

[0014] Experimental tests carried out on a mattress formed by three sheets having the bearing values above indicated and being differently overlapped - the tests being conducted by subjecting the mattress to two different compression values (P1 = 250 N/m² and P2 = 200 N/m²) - gave the following results related to the flattening (sc) of the mattress as a consequence of the applied pressure:

pressure	sc (mm)
	order of superimposition	1 2 3	1 3 2	2 1 3	2 3 1	3 1 2	3 2 1
P1		60	65	64	61	75	78
P2		35	49	45	53	55	58

Claims

1. Mattress comprising a bearing structure enclosed within an openable and closable containment envelope (4), characterized in that the said bearing structure is made up of a plurality of individual overlapping sheets (1, 2, 3) made from a material exhibiting different bearing capacity or rigidity.

2. Mattress according to claim 1, characterized in that the said sheets (1, 2, 3) are in number of three.

3. Mattress according to claim 1, characterized in that the said sheets (1, 2, 3) are of equal thickness.

4. Mattress according to claim 1, characterized in that the said sheets (1, 2, 3) are of different colours in relation to the bearing capacity of each of them.

5. Mattress according to claim 1, characterized in that the said sheets (1, 2, 3) are of foamed polyurethane.

6. Mattress according to claim 1, characterized in that the said sheets (1, 2, 3) are disposed into two side-by-side piles to form a bearing structure of a mattress for double beds.

Drawing