Chairs and seats – Crash seat – Bottom and back movable as unit in response to force
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-18
2001-01-30
Brown, Peter R. (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Crash seat
Bottom and back movable as unit in response to force
C297S216100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179380
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
An increasingly common battlefield hazard encountered by military vehicles is the land mine. As a consequence, much work is being done to create blast resistant vehicle floors and to create seat assemblies that protect soldiers from shocks caused by mine blasts. Typically during a blast, the floor of the vehicle buckles upward rapidly. If the soldier's feet are then resting on the floor and if the soldier's lower legs are oriented vertically above the feet, then the floor's motion will cause a force transfer up the legs to the soldier's knees. A sufficient force will severely injure the knees. I have developed an improvement to seat assemblies that prevents such a force transfer and thereby protects the soldier's knees.
SUMMARY
My improved seat assembly mounts to the floor of a vehicle and includes lower and upper seat members. Connected to the floor and the lower seat member is a mechanism for absorbing the impact of the vehicle floor as it buckles upward. The assembly includes a plate and is attached by a hinge to the lower seat member. The plate is disposed just behind the legs of the occupant. In its normal position, the plate extends down from the seat toward the floor. But when the floor buckles upward, the plate swings outward relative to the seat, carrying the occupant's legs with it. A pad on the plate cushions the legs when the plate swings. Since the legs are swung upward, no vertical load transfers from the floor up the soldier's legs to the knees and injury to the knees is averted. Preferably there is attached to the plate a device to limit the swing speed and swing distance of the plate so that the plate does not throw the legs too forcefully or too far.
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Brown Peter R.
Kuhn David L.
Taucher Peter A.
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of
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