US3696771A - Decorative seat welt - Google Patents

Abstract

A decorative seat welt for securement to the upholstry fabric covering automobile-type seats, formed of a long, narrow strip of thick, double creped paper upon which is centered a thicker strip of resilient foam plastic material, covered by a cloth-like strip. The side edges of the foam strip are spaced a short distance inwardly from the side edges of the paper strip, and the side edges of the cloth-like strip are bent around the side edges of the paper strip to overlap the edge portions of the rear face thereof. A line of stitches arranged closely adjacent to each of the side edges of the plastic strip secures the edges of the cloth-like and paper strips together. The assembled welt is then stitched to the upholstry cloth covering the seat, for decorative purposes.

Description

United States Patent Ambrose [451 0a. 10, 1972 [54] DECORATIVE SEAT WELT 3,560,321 2/1971 Magid ..l6l/l 19 [72] Inventor: Jere B. Ambrose, Pontiac, Mich. FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1731 Assignee= Norther" Fibre Products Company 538,254 3/1957 Canada ..161 /104 Birmingham, Mich.

221 Filed; June 21 1971 Primary ExaminerAlfred R. Guest Attorney-Daniel G. Cullen et al. [21] Appl. No.: 155,161

[57] ABSTRACT g 161 A decorative seat welt for securement to the upholstry [51] Int. Cl. ..B32b 7/08 fabric covering automobile-type seats, formed of a [58] Field of Search ..1 12/418, 423, 425, 426, 413, long, narrow strip of thick, double creped paper upon 112/417, 52,137,419;297/DIG. 1; 161/104, which is centered a thicker strip of resilient foam 105, 119, 120 plastic material, covered by a cloth-like strip. The side edges of the foam strip are spaced a short distance in- [56] References Cit d wardly from the side edges of the paper strip, and the side edges of the cloth-like strip are bent around the UNITED STATES T T side edges of the paper strip to overlap the edge por- 1,2s3,372 10/1918 Vanderslice ..112/417 the rear .face there A Smhes ranged closely ad acent to each of the slde edges of 1,594,612 8/1926 Gillies ..1 12/417 2 090 442 8/1937 E t 1 12,418 X the plast1c strip secures the edges of the cloth-hke and 2O93083 9/1937 F em 112 I 423 paper strips together. The assembled welt is then 'I stitched to the upholstry cloth covering the seat, for 2,839,020 6/1958 Hopkms ..112/417 X decorative purposes. 3,086,216 4/1963 Brooks et al ..l61/119 3,226,284 12/ 1965 2 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures Curtis ..161/140X PMENTEDom 10 m2 INVEN TOR.

JERE B. AMBROSE.

CULLEN FIG. 4

SETTLE, SLOMAN 8 CANT OR ATT'YS.

1 DECORATIVE SEAT WELT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I In manufacturing seats for automobiles, as well as similar type seats, it is conventional to sew narrow bands or welts on selected portions of the upholstry fabric covering the seat, for decorative purposes. Such bands or welts have been made of a contrasting fabric or cloth-like material, either of the woven type or nonwoven type. In some instances a suitable padding strip has been positioned between the welt and theupholstry fabric to give a slightly padded or bulged effect.

However, the previously used welts have been relatively difficult to assemble to the upholstry fabric, requiring considerable hand labor and particularly in mass production and in addition, tend to pucker and crease and lose their bulge after a period of use.

Thus, this invention relates to an improvement to decorative seat welts of the type described above.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION The invention herein contemplates forming a decorative seat welt or band assembly out of a long, narrow strip of double-creped, thick paper, upon which a thicker strip of resilently compressible foam material is centered so that the opposite edge portions of the paper strip is exposed, and then covering these with a wider strip of cloth or clothlike fabric whose edges are wrapped around the edges of the paper and stitched thereto by a line of stitches located closely adjacent to each of the side edges of the resilent strip. Thus, the resilent strip is compressed and held against the paper strip by the covering cloth-like material. The entire assembly may then be stitched to conventional upholstry fabric used to cover the seats.

With this construction, the welt may be preassembled and used when needed, being rapidly stitched to the seat fabric. Additionally, it presents a bulged appearance and maintains this appearance as well as its compressibility, and is substantially wrinkle-free and pucker-free due to the above mentioned construction with the relatively stiff paper strip, at all times backing the resilent strip and the covering cloth-like material. Welts formed in this manner are relatively soft and compressible to the touch and present a neat, long lasting decorative addition to the seat.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent, upon reading the following description, of which the attached drawings form a part.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automobile seat with the decorative bands or welts secured thereon.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross sectional view taken in the direction of arrows 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, perspective view of a portion of the decorative welt.

FIG. 4 is an elevation, end view of the three parts making up the welt, shown disassembled.

FIG. 5 shows the welt with additional decorative stitched patterns formed thereon, and

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view taken in the direction of arrows 6--6 of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional automobile bench type seat 10 having an upright seat back portion 11 and a substantially horizontal seat portion 12. The seat is constructed of suitable frame work, covered by padding, in turn covered by a conventional upholstry fabric 13.

The decorative seat welt 15 is shown as secured to both the seat back and the horizontal seat portion. However, it may be arranged in other manners upon the seat or may be applied only to the seat back itself, etc. The location and the number used is generally determined by the designer of the seat.

The welt is formed of a thick, double-creped paper strip 16 which is long and narrow. For example, it may be approximately one thirty-second of an inch in thickness and approximately 3 inches in width, and of whatever length is required. Such type of paper is creped both along its length as well as transversely of its length, thus being known as double-creped paper and is relatively soft and bendable but tends to remain flat and avoids wrinkling. Generally it tends to recover its flat shape upon being bent. Such type of paper is commercially available.

The paper strip 16 is covered with a thicker strip 17 of resilently compressible foamed plastic material which is generally rubber-like in its compressibility. The resilent strip is narrower than and is centered upon the paper strip so as to leave opposite exposed edge portions on the paper strip which form side sewing flange portions 18.

An example of a suitable plastic strip is one which is about one quarter of an inch in thickness and formed out of a suitable foamed polyurethane.

A cloth-like cover strip 19, which may be formed of a conventional woven cloth or of a non-woven, plastic type sheeting, is arranged over the plastic strip 17 and is of sufficient width so as to be bent around the side edges of the paper strip, with its three edge portions 20 overlapping the rear face of the paper strip.

The cloth-like strip 19 and the paper strip 16 are secured together by an line of stitches 21 located closely adjacent to the side edge ofthe plastic strip 17, on each side, with the stitches 21 passing through the three layers of cloth, paper and then cloth again as illustrated in FIG. 3. Thus, the cloth strip 19 slightly compresses and holds the plastic strip against the paper strip. This completes the basic assembly.

In use, the assembled welt may be stitched to the upholstry fabric of the seat by running additional lines of stitches either over or parallel to the lines 21. The result is a decorative, outwardly bulged band upon the exposed portions of the seat in the pre-selected areas.

Decorative designs may be added to the welt, as illustrated in FIG. 5, by lines of stitching 23 arranged in patterns along selected portions of the welt. The lines of stitches 23 compress the cloth and underlying plastic strip portions against the paper strip to form valleys or lines of compression 24 between which are bulges 25 caused by the uncompressed portions of the plastic strip (see FIG. 6). The lines of stitching 23 are not readily visible, particularly if thread of a color to match the color of the cloth strip 19 is used. Thus, the appearance of the welt is that of decorative indentations with decorative bulges between them.

As can be seen, the plastic strip-is generally free of connection-to both the cloth strip and the paper strip, except in those areas where decorative stitches 23 may be used. Also, the exposed sewing flange portions 18 on the paper strip provides an area for fastening the parts together as well as fastening the welt to theseat fabric to simplify manufacture as well as to border the bulged center portion of the welt.

Having fully described an operative embodiment of this invention, I now claim:

1. A decorative seat welt assembly comprising:

a long, narrow strip of thick, double-creped paper having a narrower strip of thicker, resiliently compressible, foamed plastic material centered thereon, with the side edges of the plastic strip spaced a short distance inwardly of the side edges of the paper strip, so that the side edge portions of the paper strip form exposed, integral sewing flanges;

a wider, cloth-like strip covering the exposed faces of the plastic strip and the sewing flanges and folded around the edges of the paper strip and overlapping the opposite faces of the sewing flanges, and compressing the plastic strip in face to face contact with the paper strip;

a line of stitches arranged closely adjacent to each side edge of the plastic strip and extending through and stitching together each of the sewing flanges and their adjacent cloth strip edge portions, with the sewing flanges thus being between two layers of cloth, to thereby form the welt assembly;

with the three strips being otherwise substantially free of securement to each other;

whereby the welt assembly may be sewn by lines of stitches along its side edge portions upon selected portions of the upholstry fabric used to cover a seat, to form a narrow, soft feeling, outwardly bulging, compressible decorative welt upon the seat.

2. A decorative welt assembly as defined in claim 1 above, and including decoration forming lines of stitching located between the sewing flange lines of stitching and extending through and tightly compressing together the cloth, plastic and paper strips to form decorative patterns thereon defined by the compressed lines caused by the decoration forming lines of stitching and the bulges between said compressed lines.

Claims (2)

1. A decorative seat welt assembly comprising: a long, narrow strip of thick, double-creped paper having a narrower strip of thicker, resiliently compressible, foamed plastic material centered thereon, with the side edges of the plastic strip spaced a short distance inwardly of the side edges of the paper strip, so that the side edge portions of the paper strip form exposed, integral sewing flanges; a wider, cloth-like strip covering the exposed faces of the plastic strip and the sewing flanges and folded around the edges of the paper strip and overlapping the opposite faces of the sewing flanges, and compressing the plastic strip in face to face contact with the paper strip; a line of stitches arranged closely adjacent to each side edge of the plastic strip and extending through and stitching together each of the sewing flanges and their adjacent cloth strip edge portions, with the sewing flanges thus being between two layers of cloth, to thereby form the welt assembly; with the three strips being otherwise substantially free of securement to each other; whereby the welt assembly may be sewn by lines of stitches along its side edge portions upon selected portions of the upholstry fabric used to cover a seat, to form a narrow, soft feeling, outwardly bulging, compressible decorative welt upon the seat.

2. A decorative welt assembly as defined in claim 1 above, and including decoration forming lines of stitching located between the sewing flange lines of stitching and extending through and tightly compressing together the cloth, plastic and paper strips to form decorative patterns thereon defined by the compressed lines caused by the decoration forming lines of stitching and the bulges between said compressed lines.

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