Chairs and seats – Movable back – Tiltable
Patent
1998-05-22
1999-08-17
Cuomo, Peter M.
Chairs and seats
Movable back
Tiltable
297367, 29737814, B60N 202
Patent
active
059382864
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to locking mechanisms for folding or removable vehicle seating, to seating incorporating the same, and in particular to means for ensuring that such seating cannot be used except when the seating is correctly engaged with suitable latching points on the vehicle.
It is commonplace to provide vehicles with additional seats which may be folded or collapsed in situ for compact storage within the vehicle, or which may be completely removed from the vehicle when not in use. Similarly, some seats may be folded in order to form part of an increased load carrying area. Many different types of latching mechanisms are available to secure the seating to various suitable anchorage points in the vehicle. Such seating will generally be referred to hereinafter as folding seats.
Recently, it has also become well known for vehicle seating to incorporate integrally mounted seat belts, ie. wherein at least some, if not all of the anchorage points of the seat belt are directly connected to the seat structure itself, and not directly to the vehicle body. With such arrangements it is desirable that any folding seat is correctly secured to the vehicle body prior to use, as failure to do so can render the seat belt completely or partially inoperative.
Therefore it is highly desirable to provide a folding seat with a safety device which prevents the seat from being used unless it is correctly installed with anchorage or latching points firmly engaged.
Various safety devices have been described in the prior art in which a back rest of a folding seat is prevented from being raised to a substantially upright position (ie. in which the seat may be used in a seating mode) unless the seat is correctly engaged with a floor staple or the like. An example of such a device is given in GB-A-2251183. Such prior art examples are generally of quite complex construction and typically require at least two parts of the mechanism to engage with a floor staple and convey this to a third part mounted on the seat back rest; the first part comprises a releasable hook for engagement with the floor staple and the second part senses the presence of the floor staple. The first and second parts are suitably interlinked with each other and to the third part in such a manner to ensure that the seat back rest cannot be returned to an upright condition unless the floor staple is sensed and engaged.
In the prior art systems, there is no provision for ensuring that once the seat back is placed in a folded condition, it remains in the folded position until released. Although this can clearly be provided by a separate latch mechanism, it would be desirable to have a single mechanism which fulfils the locking of the seat back rest in both upright and folded positions, as well as providing a latching point release mechanism.
In the prior art systems, there is no provision made for remote operation of the engagement mechanism, nor for remote sensing of the latching points.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simplified mechanism which prevents movement of a first member (such as a seat back rest) between two positions (eg. upright and folded) unless a second member (eg. a floor staple latch) is in a predetermined position.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the simplified mechanism with means to lock the first member in both of the two positions.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a mechanism as a general purpose type which may be coupled to a latching point and/or a release lever either directly or remotely.
According to one aspect, the present invention provides a seat locking mechanism comprising: shallow detent; the delatch arm is engaged in the deep detent and lockable in a second position when the delatch arm is engaged in the shallow detent; sensing member having a first position representative of when the anchorage is disengaged and a second position representative of when the anchorage is engaged; and second positions except when the delatch arm is in the deep
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Jones Neil H. L.
MacAndrew Kenneth D. A.
Cuomo Peter M.
Rover Grouup Limited
Tricom Automotive Limited
White Rodney B.
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