Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Seats with body modifications
Patent
1987-05-18
1989-03-28
Pedder, Dennis H.
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Seats with body modifications
297241, 297349, 248299, 248430, 414921, B60N 104, B60N 108
Patent
active
048157856
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a movable seat arrangement which is particularly suitable for the disabled. Entry into and exit from vehicles by disabled or handicapped persons pose extreme difficulties. To enable handicapped persons to enter or to leave a vehicle, systems have been proposed in which a seat is moved substantially forwards, backwards, and/or sideways, with respect to the vehicle, with the addition in one proposal of swivel means which are fitted to the seat in order to enable the seat to be rotated into a position which enables the person either to leave or to sit on the seat more easily.
The previously proposed systems still present disabled persons with difficulties. For example, movement between a vehicle seat and a wheelchair by a disabled person alone is virtually impossible and requires a considerable degree of help from and substantial effort by another person.
In an embodiment of the invention to be described below, a vehicle seat may be moved from within the confines of the interior of a vehicle along a curved path to a position substantially outside and either towards the front or the rear of a vehicle door opening. In this position outside the vehicle the seat faces either backwards or forwards according to the arrangement of the curved path, and an invalid may move with comparative ease from a wheelchair on to the seat whereupon the whole seat assembly can be swung back into the vehicle. Similarly, movement from a vehicle seat in a position outside a vehicle to a wheelchair is comparatively easy.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a partially exploded view of a mechanism for use with a seat assembly.
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the mechanism shown in FIG. 1, illustrating stages in its operation,
FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view through a further beam mounting arrangement,
FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic end view of a part of the support for a seat,
FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic plan view of the arrangement shown in FIG. 3, and,
FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic plan view of an angular adjusting arrangement.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a supporting floor pan 1, which supports the mechanism and is bolted to the floor of a vehicle. Upon the pan 1, there is mounted a cured base plate 2, which carries support wheels 3, which are pivoted for rotation about shafts 4. The support wheels 3 extend into grooves in the respective opposite sides of a curbed beam 5. The beam 5 is able to move with respect to the base 2 between the wheels 3 into a position indicted by dash-dot lines 6.
The curved beam 5 has second grooves in its opposite edges in which there run support wheels 7 which rotate about shafts 8 extending from a carriage 9, thereby enabling the carriage 9 to run along the beam 5.
A seat mounting plate 11 indicated by dash-dot lines carries shafts 12 which extend from the underside of the plate 11 and which carry seat mounting plate support wheels 13 which run in a groove in the edge of the carriage 9. the seat mounting plate 11 is thus rotatable via the wheels 13 about the carriage 9. A drive wheel 14 which is mounted on the seat mounting plate 11 engages a flange (not shown) on the carriage 9 for rotating the seat mounting plate 11 about the carriage assembly by means (not shown).
A seat indicated at 16 by broken lines, is mounted on the seat mounting plate 11, by means not shown.
Means for locking the beam 5 to the supporting floor pan 1 is indicated diagrammatically at 17 as a bolt which may be operated, by means not shown, to extend upwards from beneath the pan 1 through one of a number of holes in the beam 5 in order to lock the beam 5 in one of a number of desired positions, between that in which it is shown and the dash-dot position 6.
The pan 1 is arranged with its edge 18 adjacent the door of a vehicle and its edge 19 towards the rear of the vehicle.
Considering the arrangement shown in FIG. 2, in particular, the pan 1, which is fixed to the floor of
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Goodall Melvyn J.
Kemp Colin N.
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