Vehicle seat

Details Vehicle seat Vehicle seat

1999-02-03

2001-02-20

Barfield, Anthony D. (Department: 3636)

Chairs and seats

With heat exchanger or means to provide fluid or vapor...

Power source propels air for heat exchange

C297S180130, C297S452420

Reexamination Certificate

active

06189966

ABSTRACT:

This application claims the priority of German patent application No. 198 04 100.4, filed Feb. 3, 1998, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle seat having a cushion integrated in a seat part and/or in a backrest. A ventilation layer through which air can flow is provided in the seat part, the backrest, or both the seat part and the backrest, and an air-permeable cushion cover spans the cushion surface facing a sitting person. The seat has at least one electrically driven ventilator for blowing air into the ventilation layer.
Ventilated vehicle seats of this type are used for improving a conditioned sitting comfort when a parked vehicle which had been overheated by extended sun radiation is entered and over longer driving periods.
In a vehicle seat of this type (German Patent Document DE 196 28 698 C1), a cushion layer or so-called ventilation layer, which consists of a wide-meshed spaced knit and through which air can flow, covers the whole surface of a cushion support made of rubberized hair or foam which rests on a cushion carrier, such as a spring core. The cushion layer is covered on its top or front side facing away from the cushion support by an air-permeable pressure distribution layer made of a spaced knit, nonwoven or open-pore foam. The pressure distribution layer is spanned by a cushion cover, and a cover stuffing is worked in between the cushion cover and the pressure distribution layer. For ventilating the ventilation layer, a plurality of electrically driven miniature fans or miniature ventilators are provided which are inserted into the air ducts worked into the cushion support. These air ducts are arranged to be distributed over the cushion surface.
In a limited area above the air duct mouths, an air-impermeable intermediate layer, such as a foil, is in each case arranged on the top side of the ventilation layer facing away from the air duct mouth so that here the air blown by way of the air duct into the ventilation layer does not immediately exit through the pressure distribution layer and the cushion cover but is deflected and flows through the ventilation layer. The miniature fans take in air from the area of the occupant space situated below the seat part and blow this air into the ventilation layer. In the ventilation layer, the air can spread in all directions and, when the seat is unoccupied, flows through the pressure distribution layer and the cushion cover into the air space above the seat surface, causing a rapid cooling of the seat surface heated, for example, by sun radiation. When the seat is occupied, the air flows along in the ventilation layer and exits again at the open ends of the ventilation layer. In the process, it generates a temperature and air humidity gradient and discharges the air moistened by the sitting person.
It is an object of the invention to improve, in the case of a vehicle seat of the initially mentioned type, the efficiency and rapidity of the seat ventilation when reducing heated seat surfaces to comfortable temperatures and to permit a structural shape of the vehicle seat which is as compact as possible.
In a vehicle seat of the type mentioned above, this object is achieved according to the invention by constructing the ventilator such that it takes air in axially and blows air out at least radially, and by arranging the ventilator in the ventilation layer with an intake opening which is exposed on a side of the cushion facing away from a cushion cover.
The vehicle seat according to the invention has the advantage that, because of the direct integration of a ventilator in the ventilation layer which blows at least radially all around, even when the dimensioning of the ventilator is small and its power is low, a sufficiently high air flow rate is achieved in the ventilation layer which cools a cushion heated by sun radiation to comfortable temperatures within a short time when the seat is unoccupied. For cooling of the cushion in the seat part and/or in the backrest, only a few ventilators are required. In an extreme case, only a single ventilator which is arranged in the center of the cushion surface is provided. Furthermore, integration of the ventilator in the ventilation layer, within limits, permits an optional placing of the ventilators so that they can be accommodated better in a cushion zone where the necessary space is available. The space normally required under the cushion for accommodating the ventilators is not required, which is a significant advantage for modern seats because this space is needed for housing so-called anti-submarining wedges or ramps and for electronic and pneumatic automatic seat adjustment systems.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the ventilation layer is an air-permeable cushion support which rests on the cushion carrier only by way of an intermediately placed air-impermeable pressure distribution layer. In the pressure distribution layer, an air inflow is constructed which is congruent with the intake opening of the at least one ventilator. By constructing the cushion in this way, a low-cost vehicle seat is achieved which can be used in vehicles of the medium and low price classes. Simultaneously, an extremely compact vehicle seat is created which, in addition, requires no space under the cushion of the seat part or behind the cushion of the backrest.


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Office Action from the Japanese Patent Office, dated Oct. 26, 1999.

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