Chairs and seats – Movable bottom – Tiltable
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-20
2001-05-22
Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3624)
Chairs and seats
Movable bottom
Tiltable
C297S331000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06234574
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a seat supporting apparatus suitable for an automobile seat capable of being freely folded up or erected (or molded down) as well as being attachable and detachable with respect to an automobile floor panel.
According to a vehicle such as a van type one, when the number of passengers is large, an auxiliary seat is fixed onto a floor panel of the vehicle and when the number of loaded articles is large, the auxiliary seat is removed to thereby keep the large loading space. As proposed by, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 86230/1997 or Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 58453/1993, an attachable and detachable seat of this kind has a basic structure in which a seat supporting member is made attachable to and detachable from a pair of strikers fixed to a floor of a vehicle. Whereas a rear striker is simply attached to and detached from a front hook portion of the seat supporting member, a rear striker is attached to and detached from a ratchet mounted to the seat supporting member and movement of the ratchet is controlled by a pawl.
According to the seat supporting apparatus of the above-described conventional examples, whereas when a seat is forwardly tilled or collapsed, the front striker is brought into contact with a U-like groove of the hook portion fixed to a base member and the seat is folded forwardly centering on the point of contact, in erecting the seat, the rear seat is tied to the front seat by using a string or the like to thereby maintain the folded state of the seat. Or, another means for keeping the seat from returning to the original position, newly changing the seat position, moving the gravitational center of the seat forward.
Such a means is not favorable for elevating (or collapsing) the seat in a safe state because it cannot firmly prevent the seat from rocking or returning to the original position unexpectedly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Hence, it is the problem of the invention to resolve the disadvantage of the conventional technology, mentioned above.
According to the invention, in order to resolve the above-described problem, basically, there is provided means for parallely installing U-like shape and C-like shape hook portions for receiving a pair of strikers at front of the base member and moving a pivot center of the seat from a point of contact between the U-like groove and the first striker to a point of contact between the C-like groove and the second striker in elevating the seat.
Specifically, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a vehicular seat supporting apparatus having a front hook portion and a rear ratchet capable of freely engaging with a front striker and a rear striker fixed to the floor of a vehicle and suitable for supporting a seat, the seat supporting apparatus comprising a base member supporting the seat and attachable and detachable to and from the rear striker fixed to the floor of the vehicle, the ratchet able to engage with and disengage from the rear striker, and pivoting at the base member's 2 hook portions in the front having a U-like shape and a C-like shape engageable with and disengageable from a first striker and a second striker in the front, wherein in installing the base member, a center of pivoting the base member is moved from a point of contact between the first striker and the U-like groove to a point of contact between the second striker and the C-like groove.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4865377 (1989-09-01), Musser et al.
patent: 5282662 (1994-02-01), Bolsworth et al.
patent: 5498051 (1996-03-01), Sponsler et al.
patent: 5-58453 (1993-08-01), None
patent: 9-86230 (1997-03-01), None
Hoshihara Naoaki
Yamada Yukifumi
Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha
Burns Doane , Swecker, Mathis LLP
Jr. Milton Nelson
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