It is usually desirable for a young child to eat at a table at which adults are dining in order to permit one of the adults to assist the child in the eating process, as well as to facilitate the development by the child of proper eating habits. While conventional floor-supported infant chairs, or "high-chairs", are of course well-known, such chairs do not permit the child to dine at the dining table due to the fact that the elevated seat structure cannot be accommodated beneath the dining table. Consequently, the child does not in fact dine at the dining table but only within the vicinity of the table. As a result, proper assistance and instruction for the child is not conveniently administered.
Other infant chairs have of course been marketed within recent years in order to overcome the aforenoted disadvantages of conventional "high-chairs", and it is particularly noted that one general type of such improved infant chairs is able to be self-supporting from the dining table. As a result of such structure, the child is able to be ideally positioned relative to the dining table in order to facilitate the eating process of the child in a manner quite similar to the eating process performed by the dining adults.
Such self-supporting chairs usually comprise an upper set of laterally spaced arms, and a lower set of one or more arms which cooperate with the upper set of arms so as to define a channel therebetween into which a projecting edge portion of the dining table is disposed. In this manner, the table surface defines the sole supporting structure for the chair which is, in turn, supported from the table in, in effect, a cantilevered manner.
A serious drawback of the aforenoted self-supporting infant chairs has proven to be the manner in which the support arms are secured to or within the chair. In such conventional chairs, the arms are often secured to the chairs simply by means of nut-and-bolt assemblages, wing nut-and-bolt assemblages, and the like. Experience has proven that with usage, the nut-and-bolt assemblies tend to loosen, the nuts become lost, and the bolts withdraw. The assemblages are no longer rigidified and they become unsafe for the infant child in view of the fact that the rigid structures are self-supporting. The non-rigid structure obviously cannot support the loads impressed thereon by means of the infant's weight. In a similar manner, other conventional chairs of the same type have their arms secured within the chair framework simply by means of a slidable, friction-type fitting. This manner of securing the arms within the chair framework is likewise unsatisfactory for experience has likewise proven that within a particular period of time, the support arms have withdrawn from their support structures due to the various stress forces, bending moments, and the like impressed thereon.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds