Chairs and seats – Movable bottom – Tiltable
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-10
2003-05-13
Cuomo, Peter M. (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Movable bottom
Tiltable
C297S331000, C297S334000, C297S344100, C296S065030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06561583
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention concerns a removable automobile seat with a tilting seat pan. It concerns more specifically a mechanism for joining the front of such a seat to the floor of an automobile vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Removable seats are generally designed so that they can be fixed to the floor of the vehicle in a removable manner, and therefore with the greatest possible ease of installation and removal, but also with the highest possible level of security regarding their anchoring to the floor. The means of fixing these seats to the floor must therefore be easy to use but also guarantee reliable and strong anchoring to the floor.
Moreover, a common goal is also to be able to fold these seats when not in use to increase the available floor space. It is known to this end to have folding and tilting seats, where first the seat back can be folded down onto the seat pan, and then the entire seat assembly tilted and raised forwards, in a position we will call the “stowed” position, by pivoting around a transverse axis situated towards the front of the seat pan. The seat must be able to be maintained in this raised position without any risk of falling accidentally rearwards by pivoting in the opposite direction, which is ensured in certain vehicles by an attaching system, such as elastic luggage cables (of the Sandow® type), joining the raised seat to another seat located in front of it, or to any other fixed element of the vehicle. This type of attaching system is not very satisfactory however, because it requires performing additional actions to attach the elastic cables holding the seat in the stowed position. If one forgets to attach the cable, the seat is not held in position and risks falling back inopportunely, which is detrimental to safety.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,391 shows a removable seat that can be tilted by pivoting the seat pan forward. The seat is held in the raised tilted forward position by a hinged lug which is kept under the seat pan when the seat is in the position for normal use and is unfolded to form a strut bearing on the floor to support the seat in the stowed position. This lug is deployed manually by a handle which can be either specifically for this purpose or be common to the control for releasing the rear feet of the seat and tilting the seat pan. Whatever the case, the positioning of this supporting lug requires a user action, and therefore the risk of forgetting it cannot be excluded. Furthermore, the positioning of this lug governs the locking of seat foot anchoring to the vehicle floor by means of a pivoting hook, such that the seat stays held on the floor when in the stowed position.
This locking system serves no purpose in the seat mentioned in the above document when in the normal utilization position, because the front feet are anchored by engaging a groove in the foot, that opens out towards the front of the foot, with an anchoring rod attached to the floor, with the groove extending horizontally when the seat pan itself is in the horizontal sitting position. Consequently, the lower edge of this groove forms a hook that engages beneath the said anchoring rod, with no possibility of disengaging upwards when the seat pan is in the sitting position, and is also blocked horizontally by the connection between the rear foot and the floor. The seat pan pivots around the anchoring rod, which allows the seat to be removed when the seat pan is raised, which brings the groove in the foot to a roughly vertical position thereby allowing the foot to be upwardly disengaged from the anchoring rod. The pivoting hook, which is operated at the same time as the lug for maintaining the seat in the stowed position thus serves to prevent said disengagement when the seat has to remain connected to the floor in this position.
Such a system is complex and requires numerous hinged parts, which can be sources of noise and entail high costs in parts and assembly labour, as well as increasing the weight of the seat. As a specific manoeuvre is required to maintain the seat in the raised position, it does not ensure adequate safety due to the risk of omitting to block it after tilting the seat. In addition, the system in the above mentioned document is designed for seats that tilt by pivoting of the feet with respect to the vehicle floor, and is not well suited to seats whose front feet, as it is the case with the seats targeted by the invention, are rigidly connected to the floor in the locked position, and where the seat pan pivots with respect to the said feet.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aims to solve the problems mentioned above and propose a simple attaching system that ensures both reliable maintaining of the seat in the stowed position and locking of the seat-to-floor anchoring mechanism, when the seat is in the normal utilization position.
With these aims in view, the subject of the invention is a removable automobile vehicle seat with a tilting seat pan, featuring at least one device for connecting the front of the seat to the floor of vehicle, this device comprising:
an anchoring foot comprising suitable positioning means for positioning the foot on an anchoring part that is attached to the floor, and a pivoting lock on the foot that engages in a locking position with the anchoring foot so as to immobilize the foot on the floor, and
a lug for connecting seat pan frame to the foot, the connecting lug being joined to the seat frame and mounted to pivot on the foot around a transverse axis to allow the seat pan to pivot between a roughly horizontal position of normal use and a tilted forward position.
In accordance with the invention, the seat is characterized in that the said lug comprises:
an arm designed to be able to bear against a stop on the pivoting lock to cause it to pivot towards the locking position when the seat pan is moved towards the normal utilization position, and block the lock in the locking position as long as the seat pan is maintained in the normal utilization position,
a cam-shaped section that works in conjunction with a locking latch mounted on the foot, the latch featuring spring return means that cause automatic engagement of the latch with the cam when the seat pan is pivoted to the tilted forward position, to prevent pivoting of the cam in the opposite direction and maintain the seat in the tilted position.
As already understood by one skill in the art, the cam and latch system enables the seat to be automatically maintained in its stowed position when it is tilted sufficiently far forward for the latch to engage in the cam locking position, which prevents it from pivoting rearwards. The seat cannot be tilted to return the seat pan to the normal utilization position until the latch has been disengaged from the spring return mechanism, in a position allowing pivoting of the cam and hence of the seat pan. During the manoeuvre to place the seat in the stowed position, the pivoting of the seat pan is accompanied by the pivoting of the connecting lug and therefore of the cam, which firstly pushes back the latch against the spring return mechanism, then, when the contact point of the latch has passed the “summit” of the cam, lets the latch return beneath the cam to the locking position.
Moreover, when the seat is in the normal utilization position, the arm of the connecting lug prevents the pivoting lock from disengaging, thereby ensuring total protection against any risk of separation of the seat from the floor. The seat cannot be removed until the seat pan has been pivoted sufficiently far forward to disengage the lug from the stop of the pivoting lock, thereby allowing the lock to pivot, enabling the foot to be raised off the floor.
Moreover, when reinstalling the seat in the vehicle, for example, it suffices, with the seat pan tilted forward, to position the foot correctly in the corresponding anchoring part of the floor, and then tilt the seat pan rearwards, which engages the arm with the stop of the pivoting lock and, by making it pivot, brings it automatically into the locki
Connolly Bove & Lodge & Hutz LLP
Cuomo Peter M.
Edell Joseph
Faurecia Sieges d'Automobile S.A.
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