Despite the remarkable advances made in manufacturing processes over the last several decades, conventional bed foundations have, for the most part, dated designs and are assembled using old techniques. These foundations, commonly known as box springs, consist of a plurality of wood members combined with rigid metal springs constructed and arranged to form a rectangular box which provides a relatively rigid platform on which to place a mattress. The bottom of the box spring or bed foundation, having rigid members, is capable of being supported by a bed frame having two side rails and one or two cross members.
Because these conventional bed foundations are assembled at the factory and covered with attractive ticking, they cannot be disassembled for shipping. If the manufacturer were to ship the parts of the box spring along with the cover and leave assembly up to the consumer, the consumer would likely not have the skill to properly construct the box spring. Therefore, box springs are shipped fully assembled despite the extra shipping costs charged for large packages, described in more detail below. These fully assembled box springs not only incur shipping penalties, they are difficult to handle, both during delivery to the consumer and by the consumer once in the consumer's home. For example, it is not uncommon, in the case of larger sized beds such as queen beds that a box spring is unable to fit up a stairwell or around certain corners. Thus, the bulky size of the box spring limits the number of rooms in which a homeowner can place a larger sized bed.
A few bed foundations have been conceived that may be reversibly assembled and are provided in components that can be conveniently stored and shipped prior to assembly at an end user's location. Several embodiments of such bed foundations are described in Walker, U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,706 and Shoenhair et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,140, both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present application.
Walker describes a bed foundation that is assembled from several interlocking sections. The Walker bed foundation has two center sections that are shorter than the end sections so that the center sections may be packed within the end sections.
Shoenhair et al. discloses a bed foundation that is fabricated from a pair of side rails, a pair of end rails, at least one intermediate rail, and several top panels. When disassembled, the components of the Shoenhair et al. bed foundation are relatively flat to facilitate shipment of the bed foundation to customers.
United Parcel Service (hereinafter “UPS”) has standards that provide a shipping surcharge if a container is too large in various dimensions. Shipping charges are based primarily on the weight but, in the case of large packages, also on the dimensions of the packages being shipped. UPS penalizes the shipper for containers that are large but relatively light in weight. The first surcharge called Oversized 1 (OS1) is defined as:
1. The package's combined length and girth exceeds 84 inches.
2. The packages' combined length and girth is equal or less than 108 inches.
3. The package's actual weight is less than 30 pounds.
Girth is defined as twice the width plus twice the depth of a package which has a length (or height when standing on end), a depth and a width where length is the greatest dimension. For each OS1 package, the billable weight is 30 pounds.
The second surcharge called Additional Handling, is applied to packages which exceed 60 inches in length. These packages are assessed an additional handling surcharge of $5.00 per package.
While these bed foundations provide a solution to the problem a conventional bed foundation poses pertaining to shipping a large, fully assembled box spring, these designs do require a significant amount of assembly by the consumer. Ideally, a bed foundation could be assembled without tools from components that can be packed into a standard sized container. Such a foundation would give a customer a good impression of the bed company once the customer gets the package home or has the package delivered and begins to assemble the bed. Assembly details are not easily shown in a retail setting. Bed foundations, or other products for that matter, requiring assembly, can often leave a bad impression with the customer if the assembly asked of the customer is excessive, complicated or poorly described in an instruction manual. Moreover, a kit requiring assembly and tools quite often contains a large number of screws, possibly a hexagonal wrench, a plurality of metal angle irons and corner pieces, and a plurality of wooden boards having holes already drilled at predetermined locations. It is not unusual for there to be screws missing, tools missing, holes drilled in the wrong location, and missing angle irons. These discrepancies can often create significant discontent with the customer and may even result in the customer returning the entire package and purchasing a competitor's product.
An additional problem presented by the traditional box spring is that it requires a steel rail frame assembly for supporting the box spring above the ground. These steel bed frames encounter many of the same shipping problems and expenses mentioned above. They consist of a plurality of angle irons pivotally attached to each other so that the frame may be somewhat folded for shipping. However, these angle iron pieces are unattractive and tend to damage the ticking of the box spring. Particularly unattractive are the wheeled leg members typically found on these frames. Besides being unattractive, the wheels make securing the bed in a desired location difficult and the angle iron legs can cause significant pain when kicked unintentionally.
Attempts have been made at designing wooden legs that bolt directly onto a box spring. These legs are problematic because conventional box springs are typically constructed of relatively thin pine members and do not exhibit the structural integrity required to be supported by only four, or even six, attachment points. Rather, these box springs are designed to be supported by a rail spanning substantially the entire length of the box spring.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds