Chairs and seats – Movable bottom – Bottom and back movable as a unit
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-12
2001-12-25
Brown, Peter R. (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Movable bottom
Bottom and back movable as a unit
C297S232000, C248S416000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332648
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improved-motion rotating seat, particularly for a railway vehicle.
Already known in the state of the art is a seat of the type comprising a mobile upper part for accommodating at least one occupant, borne by a stationary lower part forming an underframe and means for turning the upper part round to face the other way, and back again.
Seats of this type are fitted, in particular, in railway vehicles. The means for turning a seat round allow this seat to be turned round to face the other way so that this seat and the passenger(s) occupying it, can face in the direction of travel of the vehicle, irrespective of the direction in which this vehicle is covering a route.
The seats of a railway vehicle are usually sited close to a left-hand or right-hand side wall of this vehicle.
As the space between the seats and the adjacent side wall is preferably as small as possible, the movement of turning a seat round to face the other way (and vice versa) simply by rotating the mobile upper part of the seat about a fixed vertical axis is impeded by the side wall. A seat is therefore generally turned around by first of all moving the mobile upper part away from the wall adjacent to the seat, and then by turning this mobile part about a vertical axis, and finally by bringing this mobile part back towards the wall adjacent to the seat.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to provide a seat, particularly for a railway vehicle, which is equipped with compact, lightweight and easy-to-operate turning-round means so that all of the seats of a railway vehicle can quickly be turned round to face the other way.
To this end, the subject of the invention is a seat of the aforementioned type, characterized in that the turning-round means comprise a carriage, secured to the upper part, mounted so that it can be rotated about a roughly vertical axis, connected with this carriage, and so that it can be moved in translation roughly at right angles to this axis of rotation in a straight guide borne by the underframe, means for driving the translational movement of the carriage, and meshing means for converting the translational movement of the carriage into a rotational movement of this carriage.
According to other features of this seat:
the meshing means comprise a pinion which rotates as one with the carriage, the axis of which coincides with the axis of rotation of this carriage, which is intended to cooperate with a first or second rack borne by the underframe, depending on which of two opposite directions of translational movement the carriage is moving in during an operation of turning the upper part round, the two racks running more or less symmetrically with respect to a plane containing the axis of rotation of the carriage, on each side of the pinion;
the racks are borne by an assembly which is articulated about three axes approximately parallel to the axis of rotation of the carriage, each rack being placed selectively in a position in which it is in mesh with the pinion by causing one of the axes of articulation to pass through a position in which it is coplanar with the other two axes of articulation;
the assembly comprises a support bearing the two racks, this support being articulated to the underframe about a first axis of articulation, and a member for selecting one or other of the racks, which member is articulated to the underframe about a second axis of articulation, the support and the selection member being articulated to one another about the third axis of articulation which lies approximately between the other two axes of articulation;
the selection member comprises a first end forming a rocker which is articulated about the second axis of articulation, and a second end forming an elastically deformable shank which is articulated about the third axis of articulation, the rocker being intended to cooperate with a selection finger borne by the carriage;
the shank comprises a compression spring;
the selection finger is returned elastically to a position of rest in which its plane of symmetry is the plane containing the first and second axes of articulation, so that the selection finger can move on each side of this plane of symmetry, against the action of its elastic return force;
the drive means comprise a pull cable comprising one end connected to the carriage and one end connected to an operating lever articulated to the underframe;
the carriage is returned elastically to the position of rest against a first end of the guide, the underframe and the carriage having complementary shapes which prevent this carriage from rotating when it is in the position of rest, the immobilizing shape borne by the carriage having the axis of rotation of this carriage as its axis of symmetry.
Another subject of the invention is a railway vehicle comprising a seat as defined hereinabove.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1902282 (1933-03-01), Hultgren
patent: 2123927 (1938-07-01), Bell
patent: 2147953 (1939-10-01), Staveley
patent: 2183021 (1939-12-01), Hill
patent: 2233478 (1941-03-01), Hill
patent: 2301279 (1942-11-01), Hill
patent: 355022562 (1980-02-01), None
patent: 406262971 (1994-09-01), None
Alstom Holdings
Brown Peter R.
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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