Seat for vehicles

Details Seat for vehicles Seat for vehicles

2000-02-29

2001-07-31

Barfield, Anthony D. (Department: 3636)

Chairs and seats

Supplemental seat

Back-connected

C297S250100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06267442

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is related to and claims priority, under 35 U.S.C. § 119, to Japanese Parent Application No. 11-233089 filed on Aug. 19, 1999 and Japanese Patent Application No 11-348797 filed on Dec. 8, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat for vehicles with a child's seat fixed to it. For clarification, hereinafter, the former and the latter are referred to as “vehicle seat” and “child's seat”, respectively.
2. Discussion of Background
Conventionally, a child's seat is generally fixed to a vehicle seat such that its lower portion of fastened on the vehicle seat by for example a seat belt. It has been proposed that an upper portion of the child's seat is also fastened such that a hook on an upper end of the child's seat is engaged with a tether anchor on a rear surface of a seatback of the vehicle seat or at an other position inside the vehicle.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a vehicle seat
1
of the type as described above in which reference numeral
2
represents a seat portion;
3
, a seatback foldable with respect to the seat portion
2
; and
4
, a child's seat fixed to the vehicle seat
1
. In use of the child's seat
4
, a seat belt
6
is passed through a through hole
5
on a lower portion of the child's seat
4
and is fixed to the vehicle body. Then, a hook
8
attached via a belt
7
to an upper end of the child's seat
4
is locked on a tether anchor
9
at a rear surface of the seatback
3
. Thus, the upper portion of the child's seat
4
s fixed to an upper portion
10
of the seatback
3
.
FIGS. 2 and 3
represent a further example of a tether anchor arrangement in which the tether anchor
14
to be described below in detail is disposed on a mount
12
in the form of a parcel board
11
behind a back seat of a vehicle and is covered with a cover
13
.
More specifically, as best shown in
FIG. 3
, the cover
13
is mounted on the parcel board
11
together with the tether anchor
14
, using a bolt
16
which passes through the board
11
and an partition panel
15
below the board
11
and over which a nut
17
is screwed. The cover
13
is pivotable upward about a thinned portion
18
to uncover the tether anchor
14
which is formed with a lock hole
19
.
When the child's seat is not used, the tether anchor
14
is covered with the cover
13
so as not to be seen from outside. When the child's seat is to be used, the cover
13
is swung upward to uncover the tether anchor
14
; and the hook
8
attached via the belt
7
to the upper end of the child's seat
4
in a manner like to the example shown in
FIG. 1
is engaged with the lock hole
19
so that the child's seat is fixed.
However, in the conventional structure shown in
FIG. 1
, the tether anchor
9
is protruded from the rear surface of the seatback
3
, which gives poor external appearance and deteriorates loading ability of the vehicle seat when the seatback
3
is folded. Such projection also limits movement of an occupant in the vehicle to impair comfortability in the vehicle. Even in the conventional structure shown in
FIG. 2
which has the cover
13
to conceal the tether anchor
14
which the child's seat is not used, the cover
13
itself is protruded extensively from the parcel board
11
so that external appearance is not improved so much. Moreover, when the child's seat is to be used, the tether anchor
14
is uncovered for engagement of the hook
8
with the lock hole
19
so that the inside of the cover
13
and the tether anchor
14
are exposed. Thus, the problem of poor external appearance still remains as in the case of the structure shown in FIG.
1
.
The present invention was made in view of the above and has its object to improve external appearance of a seat for vehicles with a tether anchor which serves for fixing of an upper portion of a child's seat and to avoid deterioration of loading ability of the vehicle seat and comfortability of an occupant in the vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a seat for vehicles with a tether anchor on a rear surface of a seatback to which a hook on an upper end of a child's seat is engaged for fixing of an upper portion of the child's seat, including a seatback frame to which the tether anchor is fixed and a cover formed with a notch along a track of the hook in a locking operation such that a substantial part of the tether anchor is covered with the cover except a portion of the tether anchor on which the hook is locked.
With the arrangement as described above, the substantial part of the tether anchor except the portion thereof on which the hook is locked is covered with the cover; the hook is passed through the notch on the cover and locked on the tether anchor which is covered with the cover. As result, exposure or protruding of the tether anchor is minimized.
According to the present invention, preferably a shoulder substantially of a size adapted to a thickness of a seatback board is formed on an outer periphery of the cover except a top end thereof to provide a space for accommodating, with no interference, the hook in a locking relationship with the tether anchor which extends downwardly from top end of the cover. This will prevent the cover from being protruded beyond the seatback board and prevent the hook from being protruded after it is locked on the tether anchor.
According to the present invention, preferably a lid is provided to block the notch on the cover such that inside of the notch cannot be seen from outside at all, which will further improve the external appearance.
The lid is preferably formed integral with the cover, which will prevent the lid from being lost in use of the tether anchor and will reduce the number of the components used, leading to reduction in number of stages in the assembling procedure.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5941601 (1999-08-01), Scott et al.
patent: 6095604 (2000-08-01), Stack et al.
patent: 7-61268 (1995-03-01), None
patent: 9-11847 (1997-01-01), None

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