Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Seats with body modifications
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-05
2001-03-06
Hoge, Gary C. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Seats with body modifications
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196611
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for mounting and dismounting a vehicle seat, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a device for mounting and dismounting a vehicle seat, which enables the vehicle seat to be easily mounted to and dismounted from a floor panel of a vehicle as occasion demands, thereby, in the case of dismounting the vehicle seat from the floor panel of the vehicle, allowing the vehicle seat to be conveniently moved to and stored in a desired place in a state wherein a seat back of the vehicle seat is folded to a seat cushion of the vehicle seat.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a vehicle seat having a seat cushion and a seat back is mounted onto a floor panel which delimits a lower surface of a passenger compartment, thereby to render comfortableness to passengers.
However, the conventional vehicle seat suffers from defects in that, since the vehicle seat is fixedly secured to the floor panel, in the case of carrying bulky cargo, it is inconvenient to load the bulky cargo into the passenger compartment. Further, when it is required to utilize a portion of the passenger compartment as a freight loading space, space utilization efficiency is deteriorated due to the fixedly secured vehicle seat.
To cope with these problems, a device for mounting and dismounting a vehicle seat, a typical example of which is illustrated in
FIGS. 1 and 2
, is disclosed in the art. Referring to
FIGS. 1 and 2
, a pair of supporting members
20
′ are secured to a lower surface of a seat cushion
11
′ of a vehicle seat
10
′ at both sides of the lower surface, respectively. A pair of rollers
50
′ are rotatably arranged adjacent to front and rear ends of each supporting member
20
′, respectively, in such a manner that they project downward beyond a lower end surface of the supporting member
20
′. A first locker
60
′ is fastened to the front end of the supporting member
20
′ and is formed with an engaging groove
61
′. A first striker
40
′ which is disposed at a front end of a recess
31
′ defined in the floor panel
30
′, can be engaged into and disengaged from the engaging groove
61
′ of the first locker
60
′. A second locker
70
′ is fastened to the rear end of the supporting member
20
′. The second locker
70
′ can be locked to and unlocked from a second striker
40
′ which is disposed at a rear end of the recess
31
′ defined in the floor panel
30
′. The second locker
70
′ can be pivoted about a shaft by the manipulation of a lever
71
′.
In the conventional device for mounting and dismounting a vehicle seat, constructed as mentioned above, in the case that the vehicle seat
10
′ is mounted to the floor panel
30
′, the first striker
40
′ which is disposed at the front end of the recess
31
′ defined in the floor panel
30
′, is first engaged into the engaging groove
61
′ of the first locker
60
′ which is fastened to the front end of the supporting member
20
′. In this state, by locking the second locker
70
′ which is fastened to the rear end of the supporting member
20
′, to the second striker
40
′ which is disposed at the rear end of the recess
31
′, the vehicle seat
10
′ is fixedly secured to an upper surface of the floor panel
30
′. Also, in the case that the vehicle seat
10
′ is dismounted from the floor panel
30
′, the lever
71
′ is first pulled to unlock the second locker
70
′ from the second striker
40
′. Then, by raising the vehicle seat
10
′ upward to completely disengage the first striker
40
′ from the engaging groove
61
′ of the first locker
60
′, the vehicle seat
10
′ can be moved to a desired place using the rollers
50
′.
Consequently, as occasion demands, it is possible to transport bulky cargo in a state wherein it is loaded on the floor panel
30
′, whereby space utilization efficiency is enhanced.
Further, due to the fact that the dismounted vehicle seat
10
′ can be moved by being pushed in a state wherein the rollers
50
′, which are arranged adjacent to front and rear ends of the pair of supporting members
20
′, are brought into contact with the upper surface of the floor panel
30
′, it is convenient for a person to remove the vehicle seat
10
′ from the passenger compartment and move and store in a desired place.
However, the conventional device for mounting and dismounting a vehicle seat still encounters with a problem in that, because the first locker
60
′ simply serves as a rotation support shaft in a state wherein the first striker
40
′ which is disposed at the front end of the recess
31
′, is engaged into the engaging groove
61
′ formed in the first locker
60
′ which is fastened to the front end of the supporting member
20
′, if impact is applied to the vehicle due to a vehicular accident while the vehicle seat
10
′ is mounted to the floor panel
30
′ of the vehicle, the second locker
70
′ is easily unlocked from the second striker
40
′ which is disposed at the rear end of the recess
31
′, whereby the likelihood for a passenger seating on the vehicle seat
10
′ to be severely injured is increased.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the problems occurring in the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a device for mounting and dismounting a vehicle seat, which enables the vehicle seat to be securely locked to strikers in the case of mounting the vehicle seat to a floor panel of a vehicle and at the same time to be quickly and conveniently unlocked from the strikers in the case of dismounting the vehicle seat from the floor panel of the vehicle as occasion demands.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a device for mounting and dismounting a vehicle seat, the device being arranged on a pair of supporting members separately secured to a lower surface of a seat cushion of the vehicle seat thereby to allow the vehicle seat to be mounted to and dismounted from a floor panel of a vehicle as occasion demands, the device comprising: a pair of first mounting and dismounting sections each having a first locker which is connected to a front catch-release lever in a manner such that the first locker is able to be locked to and unlocked from a front striker which is disposed in a front recess defined in the floor panel of the vehicle, the front catch-release lever being elastically supported by a first spring; a pair of second mounting and dismounting sections having a pair of second lockers, respectively, which are connected with each other by a rear catch-release lever in a manner such that each of the pair of second lockers is able to be locked to and unlocked from a rear striker which is disposed in a rear recess defined in the floor panel of the vehicle, the rear catch-release lever being elastically supported by a second spring and having a rod-shaped configuration; and a pair of roller sections each located outside the first and second mounting and dismounting sections at a side of the seat cushion and each including front and rear roller plates which have front and rear rollers rotatably coupled thereto, respectively, the front and rear roller plates being connected with each other by a link in a manner such that they are able to be pivoted by manipulating a roller operating lever.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5372398 (1994-12-01), Aneiros et al.
patent: 5474311 (1995-12-01), Tyciak et al.
patent: 5547242 (1996-08-01), Dukatz et al.
patent: 5765894 (1998-06-01), Okazaki et al.
patent: 6036252 (2000-03-01), Hecksel et al.
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Hoge Gary C.
Kia Motors Corporation
LandOfFree
Device for mounting and dismounting vehicle seat does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Device for mounting and dismounting vehicle seat, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Device for mounting and dismounting vehicle seat will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2440257