Supports – Resilient support – Including load sustaining bearing or guide
Patent
1989-03-13
1990-07-17
Ramirez, Ramon O.
Supports
Resilient support
Including load sustaining bearing or guide
248161, 248421, 296 651, F16M 1300
Patent
active
049416413
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION:
The invention relates to an air-sprung vehicle seat having a seat frame which is supported, in such a manner that it is able to move vertically, on a base frame associated with the vehicle structure, by way of scissor members arranged on the seat frame and with the interposition of an air spring.
Vehicle seats of this type have the advantage that they can be adjusted to different static heights (that is the central position about which the seat moves with the weight of a driver=mid-ride position) merely by altering the internal pressure of the air spring (so-called integrated height adjustment).
In general, vehicle seats of this type are also required to have a locking device by means of which the vertical movement of the seat can be blocked, for example in case the vehicle seat moves too much on very bad roads or on rough terrain, or, for example, in case the air-spring system becomes defective and the seat has a tendency to sink to its lower stops in a position near the floor in which the driver is no longer able to control the vehicle.
A known locking device for air-sprung vehicle seats comprises, for example, a catch hook which at a static height predetermined by the design catches a bolt secured to the scissor members or to the seat frame or base frame opposite it and thus locks the vertical movement of the seat (see, for example, DE-OS 35 34 378). Such catch hooks have the disadvantage, however, that they are only ever able to lock the seat when it is at a height predetermined by the design and therefore often force the driver to sit when actuating the locking device at a static height that is not at all the static height desirable for his body size that has been set by means of the integrated height adjustment.
The same disadvantage is encountered with another previously known locking device in which semimounted frames are used in combination with the removal of all the air from the air spring. The semimounted frames lie flat in the base frame of the seat during normal operation of the vehicle seat and assume an upright position only when a hand-operated lever that activates the locking device is acutated, with the result that the seat is able to sink onto the semimounted frames at the same time as all the air leaves the air spring. Of course, for that purpose the semimounted frames must be at a lower level or at any rate at the same level as the lowest static height to which the vehicle seat can be set using the integrated height adjustment, as otherwise it would not be possible for the seat to be locked at all, or to be placed on the semimounted frames, when set at a low static height when the vehicle is not in motion. It is also a fundamental disadvantage that with such a semimounted locking device the seat is not fixed, with the result that, for example in the case of driving on difficult terrain, seat and driver can be thrown upwards in spite of the supposed locking of the vertical movement of the seat, with the result that the driver may lose control of his vehicle.
The problem on which the invention is based is to provide a locking device for vehicle seats of the above type which ensures that the driver is able to fix the seat at any static height that he selects by means of the integrated height adjustment and effectively to lock all vertical movement upwards and downwards.
This problem is solved according to the invention as follows: the locking device has a fixing element that is articulated to the scissor members and is moved by the scissor members in accordance with the vertical movement of the seat, which fixing element can be fixed by way of a fixing device that acts on a fixing section of the fixing element, and the fixing section of the fixing element is the same size as or larger than the maximum vertical movement of the seat occuring at all height settings.
Such a fixing element may, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, be in the form of a rod that moves axially, the fixing device being designed as a clamping device that acts on the fixing secti
REFERENCES:
patent: 4148518 (1979-04-01), Vilbeuf
patent: 4384701 (1983-05-01), Barley
patent: 4573657 (1986-03-01), Sakamoto
patent: 4589620 (1986-05-01), Sakamoto
patent: 4640488 (1987-02-01), Sakamoto
patent: 4659052 (1987-04-01), Nagata
patent: 4729539 (1988-03-01), Nagata
Granzow Manfred
Mischer Hans-Peter
Gebr. Isringhausen
Ramirez Ramon O.
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