American Seating Company

David William Raymond

William Rudolph Van Loo

Arthur L Van Ryn

A compactible, storable seating apparatus of the type which yields way to accommodate a wheelchair user. The apparatus has a seat bottom and seat back which rotate about a common axis to compact in a vertical position. The seat bottom and back are mounted to a common cantilevered beam which is pivotal about a single stanchion. The seating apparatus can be used in a conventional manner or can be easily pivoted about the stanchion to yield way to a wheelchair user.

Equal access seating

A row construction for a telescoping seating system includes a rear riser beam having a continuous horizontal slot receiving and encapsulating the rear edge of the footrest panel and a nose beam having a similar slot encapsulating the front edge of the footrest panel. The nose beam is then secured to support members which are mounted to the rear riser such that assembly of these members forces the footrest panel under compression into the opposing slots on the front and rear structural beams. Thus, the footrest panel, the front and rear structural beams and the support members form a horizontal truss. The truss construction is extended to corresponding rows of laterally adjacent sections by extending the footrest panel to bridge the joint between these adjacent sections. Thus, the corresponding rows for a number of laterally adjacent telescoping sections are constructed to form a long continuous truss which extends the complete length of the adjacent rows and moves as a unit between the extended and retracted positions.

Row structure for telescoping seating systems and method of assembling

A seating system having a number of rows which may be extended for use or retracted for storage is provided with individual chairs. As each row is moved forwardly relative to the next higher row, the chair backs pivot to the upright or use position where they are latched. As each row is moved rearwardly relative to the next higher row, the latches holding the chair backs in the use position are released and the chair backs are engaged by the deck of the next higher row to fold the chair backs downwardly and forwardly to the closed or storage position so that they may be stored in the space between adjacent decks.

Growing community of inventors

Champaign, IL, United States of America

David William Raymond