Importance

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Abstract

This chair fold flat for storage and shipment, or unfolds and configures for use, in only a few (e.g., three to five) seconds. Even though it is very strong and stable, the chair can be made from one very simple blank of five rectangular panels, two smaller auxiliary panels and a glue tab, using only two glue joints. Its lower portion is a rectangular glued tube with a vertical seat-support panel across the inside, parallel to two of the outer walls of the tube--so that the support panel, though preglued in place, folds and unfolds with the tube. The upper part of the chair is an extension of the tube, but the front panel folds inward, backward, and downward to form a seat that spans the tube, supported by the front panel and by the seat-support panel. The upper part of each side also folds inward and downward, but only above a diagonal fold line running from the upper rear corner of the chair downward and forward to meet the fold line of the front-and-seat panel. The sides double over along this diagonal fold; hence the seat is in effect hung from the diagonal top folds, and receives some slight additional support in this way. The back is also scored to allow deformation of the tube in a buckling mode, for added comfort of the occupant.

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First Claim