Supports – Stand – Horizontally movable support surface
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-05
2001-07-24
Ramirez, Ramon O. (Department: 3632)
Supports
Stand
Horizontally movable support surface
Reexamination Certificate
active
06264159
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a car seat-adjusting slide rail structure, and more particularly to a universal car seat-adjusting slide rail structure which can be durably used and widely applied to various kinds of car seats.
The seat in a car is generally assembled with a slide rail structure including a slide frame and a slide bar. By means of the slide rail structure, the seat can be slided back and forth or even left and right.
FIG. 1
shows a conventional slide rail structure for adjusting the position of a car seat. The slide rail structure is composed of a slide frame
20
and a slide bar
10
slidably fitted in the slide way of the slide frame
20
via two plastic balls. The slide bar
10
is formed with two opposite locating holes
11
. A screw is passed through the locating hole
11
to lock the slide bar
10
with the bottom of the seat. The slide frame
20
is formed with two opposite through holes for a screw to pass therethrough to lock and locate the slide frame
20
on the chassis of the car. In order to slidably engage and locate the slide bar
10
within the slide frame
20
, one side of the slide frame
20
is formed with a perforation
21
and disposed with a clutch control bar
22
having an engaging section
23
. A middle portion of the clutch control bar
22
is locked and fixed on the slide frame
20
by screws. The engaging section
23
passes through the perforation
21
to engage with the teeth
12
of the slide bar
10
. The clutch control bar
22
is further disposed with a resilient member
24
, whereby when depressing one end of the clutch control bar
22
, the engaging section
23
is controllably disengaged from the teeth
12
. When released, the resilient member
24
will resiliently make the engaging section
23
re-engaged with the teeth
12
. Therefore, a user can conveniently operate the slide rail structure.
However, the above slide rail structure has some shortcomings as follows:
1. The locating holes of the slide bar have fixed distance so that the slide bar can be only installed on a specific car seat. Therefore, the application of the slide rail structure is limited and thus the slide rail structure can be hardly widely used.
2. Only two plastic balls are disposed between the slide bar and the slide frame, serving as bearings and achieving a balancing effect. However, the two plastic balls only provide two contact points and are subject to wearing. Therefore, with the worn plastic balls, a gap will exist between the slide bar and the slide frame. This will result in linear deflection of the slide rail. As a result, when a user sits on the seat, the seat will swing to make the user feel uncomfortable.
FIG. 2
shows an improved seat-adjusting slide rail structure in which the slide bar
10
via several ball members (not shown) is slidably fitted in a slide channel of the slide frame
20
serving as a slide rail. One side of the slide frame
20
is formed with a perforation
21
and disposed with a clutch control bar
22
. One end of the clutch control bar
22
is formed with an engaging section
23
passing through the perforation
21
to engage with the teeth
12
of the slide bar
10
. The engaging section
23
is connected with a resilient member
24
for resiliently restoring the engaging section
23
to its home position. The other end of the clutch control bar
22
is formed with a U-shaped insertion section
25
for an arch rod
26
to insert therein and formed with a projection
27
for fitting into a through hole formed at the end of the arch rod
26
. Accordingly, a user can force the arch rod
26
to make the engaging section
23
of the clutch control bar
22
disengaged from the teeth
12
and permit the slide bar
10
to freely slide along the slide frame
20
. When releasing the arch rod
26
, the resilient member
24
serves to resiliently make the engaging section
23
re-engaged with the teeth
12
and locate the slide bar
10
. In this slide rail structure, several ball members are used instead of the plastic balls so that the problem of unbalancing and linear deflection caused by the wearing of the plastic balls is eliminated. However, such slide rail structure still has some shortcomings in durability and safety as follows:
1. The arch rod is located in the U-shaped insertion section of the clutch control bar and the end of the arch rod fitted with the projection of the clutch control bar serves as the fulcrum of the arch rod for swinging, whereby the arch rod can be operated to engage the clutch control bar with the slide bar or disengage the clutch control bar from the slide bar. Such arch rod is subject to detachment due to collision. This will make the arch rod lose its function. In addition, the force application point of the arch rod is the U-shaped insertion section so that this section tends to break off.
2. The resilient member (as shown in
FIG. 2
) has two bent hook sections at two ends, which are hooked and hung on the engaging section. In use, the resilient member may be bounded out. Under such circumstance, it is impossible to resiliently restore the clutch control bar to its home position. Therefore, the resilient member has very poor durability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a universal car seat-adjusting slide rail structure which has good durability and can be widely applied to various kinds of car seats.
According to the above object, the surface of the slide bar of the slide rail structure is formed with multiple locating holes, whereby the slide bar can be directly locked on the bottom face of the car seat in accordance with the type thereof. Alternatively, two connecting lugs formed with several through holes are respectively detachably locked at two ends of the slide bar by screws, whereby the slide bar can be locked on the front and rear sides of the car seat. Still alternatively, with the connecting lugs removed, an L-shaped auxiliary board can be locked at the locating holes of the slide bar, whereby through the L-shaped auxiliary board, the slide bar can be locked on left and right sides of the car seat. Therefore, the slide bar can be widely applied to various kinds of car seats. In addition, the clutch control bar is locked on a fixing section on one side of the slide frame for engaging with or releasing the slide bar, One end of the clutch control bar is disposed with a pivot section on which an arch rod for controlling the adjustment of the car seat is fitted. A fixing spring is passed through the pivot section to prevent the arch rod from detaching from the clutch control bar. The other end of the clutch control bar is formed with an engaging section for engaging with the teeth of the slide bar. A resilient member is disposed between a fixing section of the slide frame and the clutch control bar. One end of the resilient member is wound and fixed on the fixing section, while the other end thereof is fixedly engaged with the clutch control bar in reverse direction so as to prevent the resilient member from dropping and losing its function.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein:
REFERENCES:
patent: 6036267 (2000-03-01), Downey et al.
patent: 6059345 (2000-05-01), Yokota
patent: 6102478 (2000-08-01), Christopher
patent: 6126133 (2000-10-01), Timon et al.
Pro-Glory Enterprises Co., Ltd.
Pro-Techtor Inter-national Services
Ramirez Ramon O.
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