Body supporting and spacing structure

Claim 1

A supporting spacing member for use between a supporting surface and a body to be supported comprising a sheet of resilient plastic material having an upper surface and a lower surface, a body support area provided by the sheet of plastic material, the sheet of plastic material including a raised bead surrounding the body support areas, a plurality of spaced elongated protuberances permanently formed in the sheet of plastic material throughout the body support area and extending downwardly from the upper surface, the elongated protuberances being open at the top and having side walls and bottom walls, the plurality of elongated protuberances being disposed in spaced adjacent relation to one another and extending from end to end longitudinally continuously along paths each of which extend across a dimension of the body support area which is slightly less than an entire dimension of the body support area, thereby forming a ledge in the sheet of plastic material extending around the body support area between the raised bead and the ends of the elongated protuberances, portions of the sheet of plastic material which extend between the open tops of spaced adjacent elongated protuberances coating to form in the aggregate a generally flat body engaging structure, the lowermost surfaces of the bottom walls of protuberances coacting to form in the aggregate a generally flat support structure for engaging the supporting surface, each of the plurality of elongated protuberances incorporating along its length a plurality of curved direction changing portions and a plurality of portions connecting the curved direction changing portions, successive curved direction changing portions of elongated protuberances alternating in the direction of change along the paths across the body support area, alternate curved direction changing portions of spaced adjacent elongated protuberances along the paths across the body support area being in overlapping relation to each other looking in the direction the paths extend, the disposition of elongated protuberances in paths across said dimension of the body support area and the overlapping relationship of the alternate curved direction changing portions resulting in a body support area in which all planes normal to the generally flat body engaging structure will successively intersect a plurality of elongated protuberances at a plurality of spaced points across said dimension of the body support area or will repeatedly intersect alternately disposed portions connecting curved direction changing portions of a single elongated protuberance at a plurality of spaced points across said dimension of the body support area.

Claim 6

The device of any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein adjacent side walls of spaced adjacent elongated protuberances are complementary in shape along the length dimension of the elongated protuberances.

Claim 7

The device of any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein a plurality of the elongated protuberances all have the same shape and each elongated protuberance is spaced from adjacent elongated protuberances the same distance and spaced adjacent elongated protuberances are spaced from each other the same distance throughout their lengths

Claim 8

The device of any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein there are openings through the sheet of plastic material in the body engaging structure disposed throughout the body engaging structure.

Claim 9

The device of any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein the portions of the elongated protuberances connected to the direction changing portions are straight.

Claim 10

The device of any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein the paths of the elongated protuberances across a dimension of the body support area are generally parallel.

Claim 11

The device of any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein the spacing between spaced adjacent protuberances is such that the body engaging structure occupies more than one-half the area of the body support area.

Claim 12

The device of any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein the physical properties of the sheet of plastic material are such that the plurality of elongated protuberances resist extreme and permanant deformation of the body support area under the weight of the body of a human while resiliently deforming sufficiently to cushion the body.

Claim 13

The device of any one of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein the sheet of plastic material provides a second body support area and an integral connection between the two body support areas acts as a hinge therebetween whereby one body support area can form a seat cushion portion and the other body support area can form a back cushion portion.