Vehicle seat with a yielding recliner stop

Details Vehicle seat with a yielding recliner stop Vehicle seat with a yielding recliner stop

1998-10-21

2001-04-03

Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3624)

Chairs and seats

Crash seat

Force-absorbing means incorporated into back

C297S378120, C297S36700R

Reexamination Certificate

active

06209955

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle seat with a recliner and in particular to a recliner which yields in a controlled manner to absorb energy during a vehicle collision.
Many vehicle seats are equipped with a lap and shoulder belt restraint system mounted directly to the seat. This provides benefits in terms of comfort and convenience as the belt anchor points move with the seat during seat adjustment and thus stay in a fixed position relative to a seat occupant. With a shoulder belt mounted to a vehicle seat back, the seat back will experience greater loading during a front vehicle collision as compared to a seat back without the shoulder belt mounted thereto. As a result for such designs, it is necessary to provide a seat back and seat back recliner which can accommodate the shoulder belt load.
While seats with integral seat belts currently exist, it is desirable to improve such seats by increasing the energy absorption during a vehicle collision to reduce the energy absorbed by the seat occupant.
It is a feature of the present invention to provide a recliner which yields in a controlled manner during a frontal collision to absorb impact energy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention can broadly be described as a seat assembly having a seat bottom with a seat bottom frame and a seat back extending upwardly from the rear end of the seat bottom and having a seat back frame mounted to the seat bottom frame by a pivot for rotation about a transverse pivot axis. A recliner is operatively associated with the seat bottom and seat back for holding the seat back in a fixed position relative to the seat bottom. The recliner includes a lock-upper attached to the seat back frame and a lock-lower attached to the seat bottom frame. The lock-lower is movable relative to the seat bottom between a lock position in which the lock-lower engages the lock-upper to hold the seat back in a fixed position relative to the seat bottom and a release position in which the lock-lower is disengaged from the lockupper to enable the seat back frame to rotate about the pivot axis. The lock-upper has a yielding zone configured to deform under a predetermined load to absorb energy. As the lock-upper deforms, the seat back rotates about the pivot even though the lock-lower is in the lock position engaging the lock-upper. A stop is provided which engages the seat back frame upon a predetermined deformation of the lock-upper to limit the deformation of the lockupper.
The invention, as shown and described, is in the context of a pawl and sector recliner. The lock-upper is a sector, while the lock-lower is a pawl having teeth which engage teeth on the sector to hold the seat back in place. However, the invention can be incorporated in other types of recliners such as a gear reducing recliner as well as some power recliners.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claims when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
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patent: 5873630 (1999-02-01), Yoshida et al.
patent: 5882080 (1999-03-01), Houghtaling et al.
patent: 5884972 (1999-03-01), Deptolla

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