Vehicle seat with occupant protection devices

Details Vehicle seat with occupant protection devices Vehicle seat with occupant protection devices

2001-07-17

2002-09-17

Brown, Peter R. (Department: 3636)

Chairs and seats

Crash seat

Force-absorbing means incorporated into back

C296S068100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06450574

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle seat and more particularly to a vehicle seat having safety devices to protect an occupant in an event of a side impact.
2. Background Art
Generally, when a side impact is applied to a vehicle, side body components such as a door, a center pillar, a side sill and the like are damaged and then the deformed door, the deformed center pillar and the like come into the passenger compartment of the vehicle. Then, an occupant sitting on a seat on the impacted side might be injured by the incoming body components.
Various countermeasures have been proposed and put into practical use such as reinforcing center pillars, side sills and the like or incorporating reinforcement beams in doors to prevent these side body structures from coming into the passenger compartment and damaging an occupant sitting in a seat on the impact side. However, these countermeasures are still insufficient for protecting a seat occupant.
One solution is to reinforce the vehicle seat so as to withstand its deformation when the seat has an impact from such incoming side body members.
As shown in
FIG. 10
, an example of a conventional seat has a pipe member
2
extending in the widthwise direction of the vehicle at the bottom of a cushion frame
1
constituting a seat cushion.
Further, there is provided a reinforcement
3
extending horizontally at the inner side of the cushion frame to protect an occupant from a frontal impact. When an impact is applied to the vehicle from front, an occupant sitting on the seat falls forward due to inertia force and as a result a downward force is generated at the front portion of the seat. The reinforcement
3
is for supporting the force from underneath.
In
FIG. 10
, numerals
4
A,
4
B denote a slide rail slidably movable in the forward and backward direction and connected with the cushion frame
1
.
The pipe member
2
is secured to the cushion frame
1
but is not directly connected with the slide rail
4
A,
4
B for connecting the seat to the floor of the vehicle. Accordingly, on a side impact, these side rails
4
A,
4
B falls sideways, causing so-called “tumbling”.
Further, due to the clearance gap “s” between both ends of the pipe member and the slide rail
4
A or
4
B, the traveling speed of the door which comes into the compartment on an impact can not be reduced.
Further, since the reinforcement
3
is just connected at both ends thereof with the inner wall of the cushion frame
1
, the cushion frame
1
can not be prevented from being deformed due to a side impact.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object to provide a vehicle seat capable of protecting the seat occupant by preventing the deformation of the seat in an event of a side impact.
Such vehicle seat comprises a cushion frame member provided in a seat cushion, an outer seat supporting member provided under the seat cushion on a door side of the vehicle for connecting the seat with a vehicle floor, an inner seat supporting member provided under the seat cushion on the center side of the vehicle for connecting the seat with a vehicle floor, a front reinforcement member laterally provided under the front part of the seat cushion, connected with the cushion frame, connected at a door side end thereof with the outer seat supporting member and connected at a center side thereof with the inner seat supporting member, and a rear reinforcement member laterally provided under the rear part of the seat cushion, connected with the cushion frame, connected at a door side end thereof with the outer seat supporting member and connected at a center side end thereof with the inner seat supporting member.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4512604 (1985-04-01), Maeda et al.
patent: 5328234 (1994-07-01), Daniel et al.
patent: 5435618 (1995-07-01), Sacco et al.
patent: 5584525 (1996-12-01), Nakano et al.
patent: 5716094 (1998-02-01), Bhalsod et al.

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