Vehicle rear seat

Details Vehicle rear seat Vehicle rear seat

2002-03-13

2003-11-18

Brown, Peter R. (Department: 3636)

Land vehicles: bodies and tops

Bodies

Seats with body modifications

C297S378120, C297S188040, C297S124000, C296S069000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06648395

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle rear seat and, more particularly, to a vehicle rear seat, whose rear surface carries a retainer board.
An attempt has been undertaken to develop a vehicle provided with seats of a foldable seat back type as disclosed in
FIG. 6
which shows an example of a specifically arranged seat structure in its vehicle compartment. The vehicle compartment has a vehicle body floor
60
on which front seats (not shown), which functions as a driver's seat and a driver's assistant seat, are mounted. A first rear seat
50
is mounted rearward of the front seats, and a second rear seat
55
is mounted rearward of the first rear seat
50
. The vehicle body floor
60
is continuous with a luggage floor
61
formed at an area rearward of the second rear seat
55
. The first and second rear seats
50
,
55
include respective seat cushions
51
,
56
, and respective seat backs
52
,
57
which are mounted to rear edges of the respective seat cushions
51
,
56
, respectively. The seat backs
52
,
57
have their lower ends mounted with pivot shafts
53
,
58
through which the seat backs
52
,
57
are pivotally supported with respective angular adjustment mechanisms (not shown) and are foldable from respective upright positions, shown by phantom lines in
FIG. 6
, to respective substantially horizontal fold positions shown by respective solid lines in FIG.
6
. The first rear seat
50
is mounted on a seat adjuster
54
, fixedly mounted on the vehicle body floor
60
, for forward and rearward movements in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The second rear seat
55
is fixedly secured onto a stepped area
61
a
formed forwardly of the luggage floor
61
.
With such a structure of the rear seat, when locating a luggage in an internal space in the luggage floor
61
, the seat back
57
of the second rear seat
55
is folded forward to compel the same in a substantially horizontal fold position. In addition to the folding movement of the seat back
57
, the seat back
52
of the first rear seat
50
is also folded forward in its fold position. Under such a condition, the first rear seat
50
is operated to slide in the forward and rearward directions using the seat adjuster
54
so as to preclude a head rest of the second rear seat
55
from being brought into abutting contact with the first rear seat
50
.
FIG. 6
shows such a state where both the seat backs
52
,
57
of the first and second rear seats
50
,
55
are folded forward to compel the rear surfaces of the seat backs
52
,
57
to be aligned in substantially the same plane as the luggage floor
61
. Under this circumstance, accordingly, the vehicle compartment has a continuous large internal spacing above the luggage floor
61
and the first rear seat
50
, enabling various articles and an elongated luggage to be located over the luggage floor
61
and the rear surfaces of the first and second rear seats
50
,
55
.
Under a folded condition shown in
FIG. 6
, a spacing S is formed between both the rear seats
50
,
55
, and the luggage placed on the rear surfaces of the respective seat backs
52
,
57
tends to drop onto the floor
60
through the spacing S. To cope with such a phenomenon in the related art structure, there are some instances where a retainer board
65
is mounted to the rear surface of one of the seat backs
52
,
57
by means of a hinge member
66
with a view to closing the spacing S. The retainer board
65
is comprised of a structure described below in detail. That is, in a case where the retainer board
65
is mounted to the second rear seat
55
, an upper end of the retainer board
65
is connected to an upper area of the rear surface of the seat back
57
by means of the hinge member
66
, with a lower end of the retainer board
65
being attached to the rear surface of the seat back
57
in a detachable manner via a simple lock mechanism (not shown). On the other hand, in a case where the retainer board
65
is mounted to the rear surface of the first rear seat
50
, the retainer board
65
is connected to a lower end of the rear surface of the seat back
52
of the first rear seat
50
by means of the hinge member, with the upper end of the retainer board
65
being attached to the rear surface of the seat back
52
in the detachable manner via the simple lock mechanism (not shown). Incidentally, the location of the hinge member
66
, i.e. the mounting position of the retainer board
65
relative to the first and second rear seats
50
,
55
may be suitably settled as an upper hinge as shown by a solid line in
FIG. 6
or a lower hinge as shown by a phantom line in FIG.
6
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aforementioned measures for the spacing between the first and second rear seats are undertaken by closing the spacing S upon unfolding the retainer board
65
by means of the upper or lower hinge member
66
to compel the retainer board
65
to be placed on the seat back
52
or
57
. However, the aforementioned structure encounters various phenomena as will be described below. First, since the seat backs
52
,
57
of the rear seats
50
,
55
have outer appearances to be laminated with decorative covers involving the rear surfaces thereof, when mounting the retainer board
65
to the relevant seat back in a subsequent step, it has been a usual practice for a core member, such as a back frame contained in the relevant seat back, to be preliminarily mounted with a bracket for mounting the retainer board. Under such a circumstance, the presence of the decorative cover, which encloses the various component parts of the seat back, disables the location of the mounting bracket from being visually found, causing a degraded workability for fixing the retainer board
65
to the mounting bracket of the seat back via the hinge member
66
using fixtures screws. This results in an increase in the number of assembling steps required for the retainer board. In the presence of the retainer board mounted to the seat back, further, a portion of the hinge member is visible from outside and such a structure fails to provide an attractive outer appearance. In addition, it has been a usual practice for such a retainer board to be made of a plate like core material, such as plastic plate, which is covered with a bag-shaped decorative cover to provide a relatively simple structure that needs a troublesome selection for a fixture element suitable as the hinge member
66
. With such a structure in the related art practice as in the structure shown in
FIG. 6
, further, when unfolding the retainer board
65
, which is mounted to the first rear seat
50
, onto the seat cushion
56
of the second rear seat
55
, there is a need for the first rear seat
50
to be moved rearward using the seat adjuster
54
until the distal end of the retainer board
65
gets at the upper surface of the seat cushion
56
, with a resultant degraded usage of the retainer board.
The present invention has been made with the above studies and has an object to provide a vehicle rear seat easy to be assembled while providing its attractive outer appearance and improved usage.
To achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle rear seat comprising: a seat cushion; a seat back connected to the seat cushion and foldable from an upright position to a forwardly folded position over the seat cushion, the seat back having a body portion and a decorative cover placed over the body portion, the decorative cover having an upper decorative cover component and a rear decorative cover component; and a retainer board mounted to a rear surface of the seat back for tilting movement. The retainer board includes a core material, a decorative cover composed of one cover element and the other cover element opposing to the one cover element to enclose the core material, and a mount segment extending from the retainer board and connected to the rear decorative cover component of the seat back. The mount segment serves as a hinge to enable the re

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Vehicle rear seat does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Vehicle rear seat, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicle rear seat will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3119689