Stackable wheeled chair

Claim 1

A stackable wheeled chair comprising: seat means; supporting frame means carrying said seat means; said frame means including: a pair of laterally spaced generally inverted U-shaped leg means, and transversely extending stringer means having laterally spaced ends secured respectively to said leg means, said seat means being carried by said stringer means intermediate said ends; said leg means each comprising: a front and a rear normally upstanding leg member each having upper and lower ends, a connecting member connecting said upper ends of said front and rear leg members of each pair to each other to form said generally inverted U-shaped leg means; a stacking member spanning said front and rear leg members in each leg means below said connecting member, and caster means carried by said lower end of each front and rear leg member; said front and rear leg members of each leg means diverging from said upper ends to said lower ends thereof whereby said upper ends of said front and rear leg members are closer to each other than said lower ends; said front leg member including an upper portion terminating in said upper end and extending downwardly and forwardly therefrom, a lower portion terminating in said lower end and extending generally vertically, and an intermediate flared portion interconnecting said upper and lower portions and extending downwardly and forwardly at a greater angle to the vertical than said upper portion, each rear leg member including an upper portion terminating in said upper end and extending downwardly and rearwardly therefrom, a lower portion terminating in said lower end and extending generally vertically, and an intermediate flared portion extending downwardly and rearwardly at a greater angle to the vertical than said upper portion, said caster means each including a caster member comprising a wheel member, a generally horizontally extending axle rotatably supporting said wheel member, an offset wheel support member carrying said axle and including a generally vertically extending pin, said pin being rotatably supported about a generally vertically extending axis in said lower end portion of its respective leg member; each of said stacking members comprising a generally horizontally extending portion adapted to rest on the upper surface of a connecting member of the next lower chair in a stack and a generally vertically extending portion adapted to engage against the outer side surface of a connecting member of the next lower chair in a stack to provide side-to-side security to a stack of chairs, and each of said wheel members being adapted to engage against the upper surface of said flaring portion of a leg member of the next lower chair in a stack when the front and rear offset supports extend fowardly and rearwardly, respectively, to provide front-to-back security to a stack of chairs; said leg means, connecting member, stacking members, flaring portions, and wheel members being so arranged and constructed that contact between leg means of stacked chairs substantially only occurs at the points at which said stacking members engage said connecting members and said wheel members engage said flaring portions to thereby preclude wedging of stacked chairs.