made inflectingly operable

14:21 Aug 6, 2014 

I suggest that the author's use of "portions", makes it sound like a pudding and is another example of their limited familiarity with the English language. In translating this into your target language, it might be worth bearing that in mind and assuming they should have used "sections" or "parts".

11:52 Aug 6, 2014 

@Tony M: The first suggestion - to ask the customer - is still the best. I would have to study the pictures more in depth; from what I saw, there were a couple of articulated joints that allowed the assembly to swivel left and right . Clearly, the headrest changes position in several ways. Perhaps, this is all that the asker needs.

11:04 Aug 6, 2014 

I've a feeling one part swivels and the other part bends.

10:58 Aug 6, 2014 

Working with what we've got (the patent) and the mode of movement described in Fig. 7A, the headrest swivels left and right. Deflect would have been a better choice.

10:48 Aug 6, 2014 

Although we're all pretty much guessing in the dark here, I wouldn't personally interpret 'inflectable' as 'rotatable' — for which we already have 'turnable'.

Given the underlying meaning of the root 'flect', I think it simply means that at this particular articulation, the parts are able to bend (say forwards and back), as distinc from the rotating movement of the other articulation.

10:36 Aug 6, 2014 

From the pictures in the patent and the statement - hus, the pair of leg portions 32A and the middle portion 32B are coupled to be relatively turnable, and the headrest frame 32 is made inflectingly operable (deformable) at the joint portions 32C between the pair of leg portions 32A and the middle portion 32B -
it appears that the headrest can "swivel sideways" - is articulated.

09:08 Aug 6, 2014 

"The pair of leg portions (32 A. 62 A. 72 A) and the middle portion (32B. 62B. 72B) are coupled to be relatively turnable at the joint portions (32C. 62C. 72C). and are thereby made inflectingly operable"

17:20 Aug 5, 2014 

I usually answer in a different forum, hence my misguided missives.

16:26 Aug 5, 2014 

I think that the authors are Japanese (http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US20120086255) and the English seems a bit odd, so best to find out from the client what they meant.