Electric heating – Heating devices – With heater-unit housing – casing – or support means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-27
2003-03-11
Pelham, Joseph (Department: 3742)
Electric heating
Heating devices
With heater-unit housing, casing, or support means
C219S545000, C219S541000, C139S42500R, C297S180120
Reexamination Certificate
active
06531687
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a two-dimensional heating element for a seat heater in a motor vehicle having a textile base material and contact conductors and heating conductors which are electrically conductive and touch one another. The present invention further relates to a method of producing the two-dimensional heating element having contact conductors and heating conductors which are electrically conductive and touch one another. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an apparatus for producing the two-dimensional textile heating element according to the invention via a knitting process.
2. Description of the Related Art
For many years, electrical two-dimensional heating elements have been known which have a textile base material and electrically conductive contact and heating conductors. In general, two contact strips are arranged opposite one another and the heating conductors run from one contact strip to the other (see EP 0 541 047 A3, EP 0463 516 A2, EP 0 548 574 B1 and DE 4124684), each contact strip comprising a number of electrically conductive contact conductors. The heating capacity of such two-dimensional heating elements is determined in particular by the number of heating conductors, the thickness of the heating conductors and the length of the heating conductors. The length of the heating conductors depends on the spacing between the contact conductors and on the pattern of the heating conductors which is generated by the movement of a guide rail of a knitting machine as the conductors are connected to the textile base material. The quality of the heating element also depends on the quality of the mechanical connection between the heating conductors and the contact conductors. If there is a deficient connection between the heating conductors and the contact conductors, a high contact resistance results which produces an increased and undesirable development of heat at the connection (the heat is certainly not intended to accumulate at these contact points but is intended to be distributed over the individual heating conductors). The heat loss in the area of the contact conductors is often too high to provide adequate heating in the desired area. Furthermore, a great deal of heating conductor material is often consumed during the manufacturing process in the spaces between the individual heating elements being manufactured.
The known two-dimensional heating elements are produced with the aid of knitting methods which exhibit no proper reproducibility between patterns to be produced and the contact conductors already applied to the base material because of the expansibility of the base material.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a two-dimensional heating element, a manufacturing method thereof, and a corresponding apparatus for production of the two-dimensional heating element via knitting which solve the problems of the prior art. More specifically, the object of the present invention is to provide a two-dimensional heating element which has a pattern adapted as far as possible to a respective use with regard to the heating capacity to be output and to provide a method and an apparatus which permit the cost-effective production of such a two-dimensional heating element.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a two-dimensional heating element for seat heaters in a motor vehicle includes a base material, electrically conductive contact conductors arranged on the base material such that the contact conductors delimit a heating area on the base material, and electrically conductive heating conductors arranged on the base material for contacting the contact conductors and creating an electric connection therebetween. The heating conductors are arranged to form a pattern defining stitch wales, wherein some portions of the heating conductors are laid in the direction of the stitch wales and the other portions of the heating conductors are laid orthogonal to the stitch wales in at least two zones of the heating area. The at least two zones include a main heating area having a first heating capacity and a secondary heating area having a second heating capacity, the first heating capacity being different than the second heating capacity.
According to another embodiment of the invention, a method of producing a two-dimensional heating element having contact conductors defining a heating area on a base material and heating conductors arranged on the base material and contacting the contact conductors includes the steps of applying the contact conductors to the base material prior to a knitting process and performing the knitting process which includes detecting one of the contact conductors and markings on the base material using a sensor system arranged upstream of needles of a knitting machine, controlling a guide rail for the needles of the knitting machine in response to the sensor system, and connecting the heating conductors to the base material and the contact conductors via the needles and guide rail of the knitting machine.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for producing a two-dimensional textile heating element via a knitting process includes at least one guide rail and needles arranged for knitting heating conductors onto a base material, the guide rail being arranged for guiding the needles during the knitting and at least one sensor system arranged for detecting one of a contact conductor and markings applied to the base material and operatively connected to the guide rail for controlling the at least one guide rail during the knitting.
The two-dimensional heating element according to the present invention has a textile base material such as, for example, a nonwoven or a textile filament material which functions as a cannier, electrically conductive contacts and heating conductors touching one another and forming an electric connection.
The contact conductors define heating areas therebetween such that the heating areas are bounded by the contact conductors. Some portions of the heating conductors are laid effectively in the direction of the stitch wales and other portions of the heating conductors are laid orthogonal to the stitch wales such that the heating area includes at least two zones functioning as a main heating area and at least as a secondary heating area, wherein the two zones have different heating capacities.
This flexible type of pattern according to the present invention allows a heating area to include a main heating area for the main seating areas such as the seat and backrest part and two secondary lateral heating areas for the secondary seating areas such as the side cheeks of a seat. Accordingly, a single two-dimensional heating element may be configured for flexible heating of a seat matched to the sitting requirements.
The two-dimensional heating element according to the present invention may be produced by an apparatus according to the present invention.
The apparatus according to the present invention for producing two-dimensional textile heating elements includes needles for knitting heating conductors onto a textile base material, at least one guide rail for guiding the needles, and at least one sensor system arranged for detecting contact conductors and/or markings applied to the textile base material to control the at least one guide rail. This apparatus ensures the reproducibility of the heating-conductor pattern already mentioned above and allows relatively free control of the guide rails to produce the two-dimensional heating elements according to the present invention.
The apparatus may include a distance-measuring device to ensure very high reproducibility of the pattern. Such a device may include a conventional rotary encoder in which the path traced by the textile base material running over a roller is determined via a rotary angle measurement of the rotated roller and the diameter of the roller.
Furthermore, the two-dimensional heating element of according to the
I.G. Bauerhin GmbH
Pelham Joseph
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