Patent Grant
11541793
The information provided in this section is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
The present disclosure relates to fold-down vehicle seats that have a headrest. Currently, middle and rear seating rows in a vehicle can include a headrest that can inhibit the complete fold down of the seat back if the headrest is not in the fully retracted position.
Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will become apparent from the detailed description, the claims and the drawings. The detailed description and specific examples are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.
A vehicle includes a passenger compartment having a first row of seats and a second row of seats disposed behind the first row of seats. The second row of seats including a seat back configured to fold forward toward the first row of seats. The seat back of the second row of seats further including at least one headrest that is movable from a retracted position to an extended position. The at least one headrest includes a retraction mechanism configured to retract the headrest to a retracted position automatically when the seat back of the second row of seats is folded forward.
The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
In the drawings, reference numbers may be reused to identify similar and/or identical elements.
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Optionally, a damper 50 can be in parallel with the spring 32, 132 to provide a smoother motion of the headrest 24 to prevent banging. The damping can be designed such that the headrest 24 can be fully retracted in time for the seat back 20 to fold completely down without interference from forward row of seats. The detent 34 can also be manually disengaged by the user so that the headrest 24 can be manually retracted as well.
According to the present disclosure, the release of an extended headrest can be accomplished through a mechanical or an electrical apparatus in order to automatically retract the headrest when a seat back is being folded forward. It should be understood that although the disclosure of the present application is described in connection with an automotive vehicle seating system, the disclosure can also be applicable to other non-automotive seating systems.
The foregoing description is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses. The broad teachings of the disclosure can be implemented in a variety of forms. Therefore, while this disclosure includes particular examples, the true scope of the disclosure should not be so limited since other modifications will become apparent upon a study of the drawings, the specification, and the following claims. It should be understood that one or more steps within a method may be executed in different order (or concurrently) without altering the principles of the present disclosure. Further, although each of the embodiments is described above as having certain features, any one or more of those features described with respect to any embodiment of the disclosure can be implemented in and/or combined with features of any of the other embodiments, even if that combination is not explicitly described. In other words, the described embodiments are not mutually exclusive, and permutations of one or more embodiments with one another remain within the scope of this disclosure.
Spatial and functional relationships between elements (for example, between modules, circuit elements, semiconductor layers, etc.) are described using various terms, including “connected,” “engaged,” “coupled,” “adjacent,” “next to,” “on top of,” “above,” “below,” and “disposed.” Unless explicitly described as being “direct,” when a relationship between first and second elements is described in the above disclosure, that relationship can be a direct relationship where no other intervening elements are present between the first and second elements, but can also be an indirect relationship where one or more intervening elements are present (either spatially or functionally) between the first and second elements. As used herein, the phrase at least one of A, B, and C should be construed to mean a logical (A OR B OR C), using a non-exclusive logical OR, and should not be construed to mean “at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C.”
In the figures, the direction of an arrow, as indicated by the arrowhead, generally demonstrates the flow of information (such as data or instructions) that is of interest to the illustration. For example, when element A and element B exchange a variety of information but information transmitted from element A to element B is relevant to the illustration, the arrow may point from element A to element B. This unidirectional arrow does not imply that no other information is transmitted from element B to element A. Further, for information sent from element A to element B, element B may send requests for, or receipt acknowledgements of, the information to element A.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20220212584 A1 | Jul 2022 | US |
