Chairs and seats – Movable bottom – Bottom and back movable as a unit
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-10
2003-04-08
Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Movable bottom
Bottom and back movable as a unit
Reexamination Certificate
active
06543848
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to rotating vehicle seats that are designed so that passengers, such as elderly or handicapped persons, can easily get in or out of a vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A rotating seat of this type has been constructed to be rotated to the side of a door opening with an occupant held in a seated position (as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 61-57047 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 62-
173343).
The rotating vehicle seat is typically disposed as far to the rear as possible in order to provide a wide space close to the occupant's feet. Therefore, the seats in the front and the rear, for example in a four-door sedan car, are disposed such that the seats are masked beside the center pillars and the rear pillars.
Therefore, if the seat is rotated while in the initial seated position, the pillar that is positioned beside the seat interferes with the rotation of the seat to the entry/exit position. Therefore, with the known rotating seat, the rotating seat is first moved forward in order to be moved outside of the range of interference with the pillar. Thereafter, the seat is rotated to the door opening side.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
Thus, the known rotating seat is inconvenient to use because it requires troublesome operations of moving the rotating seat forward and then rotating it to the side of the door opening. Further, if the seat is positioned near the front, such that the seat can be rotated while in the seated position, the space close to occupant's feet will be sacrificed and the occupant will be forced to sit in an uncomfortable position.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its object is to provide a rotating vehicle seat that is convenient to use without sacrificing the space close to the occupant's feet.
To this end, the invention according to claim
1
provides a rotating vehicle seat that comprises a rotating support base for supporting a seat body in a manner that permits rotation around a center of rotation that is located at a point displaced to a door opening side with respect to a center of a seat cushion, a longitudinal support base for supporting the rotating support base to permit movement in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and coupling means for coupling the rotational movement and the longitudinal movement of the seat body, the coupling means including a pinion gear mounted beneath the seat body to the interior side of the center of rotation and a rack mounted on and extending in a longitudinal direction of the longitudinal support base, the rack engaging the pinion gear via an intermediate gear.
According to this rotating vehicle seat, when the seat body is rotated to the door opening side by means of the rotating support base, the seat body moves forward while rotating by engagement between the pinion gear and the rack via the intermediate gear. Therefore, even if the seat body is located in the rearmost position in order to provide a wide space close to the occupant's feet, the seat body can rotate by a simple rotational operation to the door opening side without interfering with a pillar or other portions of the vehicle. In other words, unlike the known rotating seat, it is not necessary to perform two operations of rotating the seat body and moving the seat body forward. Consequently, with the rotating vehicle seat according to claim
1
of the invention, it is possible to greatly improve ease of use while providing a wider space close to the occupant's feet.
Further, because the center of rotation of the seat body is located at a point that is displaced to a door opening side with respect to the center (HP: hip point) of the seat cushion, a pinion gear having a larger diameter can be mounted under the seat body to the interior side with respect to the center of rotation. Because the pinion gear having a larger diameter has a larger circumferential length, the distance of the longitudinal movement of the seat body, which is coupled to the rotational movement of the seat body, can be longer. Thus, the seat body can be moved a longer distance while rotating, for example, by about 90°. Therefore, the seated position of this rotating seat can be positioned more rearward so as to provide a wider space close to the occupant's feet, so that this rotating seat can be reasonably applied to various types of vehicles.
The pinion gear having a larger diameter can be also mounted to the door opening side with respect to the center of rotation when the center of rotation of the seat body (rotating support base) is located to the interior side with respect to the center of the seat cushion. In this case, however, when the seat body is rotated to the door opening side, the center of the seat cushion is displaced rearward. Therefore, the center of rotation, which is located more to the interior side, makes it more difficult to move the center of the seat cushion a long distance forward. In this respect, with the construction according to claim
1
, because the center of rotation is located to the door opening side with respect to the center of the seat cushion, the moving distance of the center of the seat cushion is a total of the forward displacement by the rotation of the seat body plus the forward moving distance of the rotating support base. Therefore, the center of the seat cushion can be moved a longer distance forward.
The invention according to claim
2
provides the rotating vehicle seat as defined in claim
1
, further comprising a lateral support base for moving the seat body in a lateral direction of the vehicle and a stopper member for preventing longitudinal movement of the seat body during lateral movement of the seat body, wherein the stopper member is disposed on the longitudinal support base to permit movement into and out of a longitudinal travelling path of the seat body, such that the stopper member moves out of the travelling path of the seat body to thereby allow the seat body to move longitudinally when the longitudinal support base is moved to an interior side end of the lateral support base, while the stopper member moves into the travelling path of the seat body to thereby prevent longitudinal movement of seat body when the longitudinal support base moves from the interior side end to the exterior side of the lateral support base.
According to this rotating vehicle seat, unlike the known rotating seat, a stopper member for restricting the longitudinal movement of the seat body is disposed on the longitudinal support base and not on the lateral support base. Therefore, whether the longitudinal support base is moved by the lateral support base in a horizontal direction, or in an inclining direction as the known rotating seat, the seat body can be prevented from moving longitudinally while moving laterally with respect to the vehicle.
Further, in the known rotating seat, the stopper means was provided on the lateral support base and thus required a size change according to the lateral moving distance of the longitudinal support base, which is not desirable for simplifying the construction or reducing the weight of the present rotating vehicle seat. With the construction according to claim
2
, because the stopper member is provided on the longitudinal support base that moves laterally, the construction can be made compact irrespective of the lateral moving distance of the longitudinal support base, and thus the weight can be reduced.
The invention according to claim
3
provides the rotating vehicle seat as defined in claim
1
, further comprising a lateral support base for moving the seat body in a lateral direction of the vehicle, the lateral support base being disposed between the rotating support base and the seat body and being constructed to move the seat body to a lower position as the seat body moves to the outside in the lateral direction of the vehicle.
According to this rotating vehicle seat, because the lateral support base is rotated by the rotati
Fujita Chikanori
Hijikata Takafumi
Iwao Masanori
Iwatani Masamitsu
Kagei Hiroyuki
Patterson, Thuente Skaar & Christensen
Toyota Shatai Kabushiki Kaisha
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