Patent Application
20070296257
The present invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. However, other features of the present invention will become more apparent and the present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompany drawings in which:
a-9b illustrate operation of the trigger assembly in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention.
Referring to
The wire 26 connects to a trigger plate 27 such that actuation of the wire 26 in the downward direction causes the trigger plate 27 to move in a counter-clockwise direction and to over come spring biasing provided by a chaser spring 29 in an opposite, locking direction. A power plate wire 31 connects a power plate 33 to the latch lever 20 such that a power plate spring 25 instigates counter-clockwise rotation of a power plate 33 in an actuation direction in order to cause the latch lever 20 to pivot in similar counter-clockwise manner about pivot 46. A reset wire 35 connects to power plate 31 and can be tensioned with rotation of the seat back 14 in order to facilitate resetting the power plate 31, as described below in more detail.
First and second mirroring wires 37 and 39 actuate mirroring features on an opposite side of the seat 10 so as to perform mirroring operations associated with actuating a mirroring latch lever (not shown). The mirroring operations essentially facilitate releasing the opposite side of the seat in a manner similar to the illustrated side of the seat, but optionally without a second trigger assembly 15.
Referring to
The latch lever 20 is secured to the lever pivot pin 46 which is in turn secured to a latching follower 56. The seat back support bracket 38 includes a step 58 that is engaged by the latching follower 56 when the seat is in its latched position. After the seat is unlatched, the latching follower 56 follows an arcuate cam surface 60 on the support bracket 38 as the support bracket 38 pivots about pivot pin 40 into a position where a seat back 12 is folded over the seat base 14.
Referring now to
A cable sleeve bracket 64 secures the sleeve 24 to seat base 14 or other supporting structure. seat spring 30A handle 70 is provided at the opposite end of the latch lever 20 from the lever/cable anchor 66. The handle 70 is intended to be grasped directly or indirectly by a person for manually manipulating the latch lever 20. The latch is lifted to cause the latching follower 56 to clear the step 58 and seat back 12 to move forwardly with the force applied by the seat spring 30, thereby allowing the seat back 12 to rotate to a folded over position as the latching follower 56 follows the arcuate cam surface 60.
While not shown, the handle 70 may be provided with an enlarged handle cover to make the handle 70 easier to grasp and to provide a finished appearance. As shown in
Referring to
When the lever actuator 20 is rotated about the pivot pin 46 from the retained position to the released position the latching follower 56 disengages the step 58 as previously described. When the latching follower 56 clears the step 58 the seat back support bracket 38 moves from the position shown in phantom lines in
Optionally, as shown in
As the seat back 12 folds to or is folded up from the folded position (fold flat, flipped forward, etc.), the reset cable 35 tightens from its slack position to rotate the power plate 33 from its released position (
A chaser spring 29 may be attached to the reference plate 80 and the trigger plate 27 such that the chaser spring 29 causes the trigger plate 27 to rotate in a clockwise direction relative to the reference plate 80. A power spring 102 may be attached to the reference plate 80 and the power plate 33 such that the power plate spring 25 causes the power plate 33 to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction relative to the reference plate 80. As described below in more detail, the counter-clockwise rotation of the power plate spring 25 may be used to actuate the power plate 33 and the connected latch lever 20 from the retained position (loaded position) to the released position (fired position). Similarly, the clockwise rotation of the chaser spring 29 may be used to return the trigger plate 27 from the fired position to the loaded position.
a-9b illustrate the interaction of ball bearing 94 with one of the corresponding apertures 86 in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention.
From the loaded position, the fired position may be obtained with movement of the trigger plate 27 in a counter-clockwise direction, such as with actuation of the trigger wire 26. This movement aligns the aperture 86 of the trigger plate 27 with the corresponding aperture 86 of the reference plate 80. Because the power plate 33 is under force from the power plate spring 102, the power plate is urged against the ball bearing 94 such that once the trigger plate 27 is aligned with the reference plate 80, the ball bearing 95 travels along an incline 106 and into the apertures 86 of the reference plate 80 and trigger plate 27, thereby freeing the power plate 33 to move in the counter-clockwise direction, which as described above actuates the latch lever 20 from the retained position to the released position.
From the fired position, and once tensioning on the trigger wire 26 is removed or decreased below the force of the chaser spring 29, the chaser spring 29 forces the trigger plate in a clockwise direction such that an incline 108 on the trigger plate 27 forces the ball bearing 94 in a downward direction, once the power plate 33 is properly aligned to receive the ball bearing 94. The power plate 33 may receive the ball 94 if it is reset, i.e., returned to the positioning shown in
In the illustrated embodiments, the seat backs 12 are disclosed as examples. The seat back may be more generically referred to as a latched member. Other types of latched members may include a seat base, a combination of a seat base and seat back, a headrest, a flat screen video display, a compartment cover, a glove box door, a hood, a deck lid, a seat back tilt adjustment armature, and the like. Another example in which more than one latched member is controlled by the latch and trigger is that of a seat back that folds over a seat base, and then the folded over seat is tumbled forward for storage, ingress, and egress. With any of those arrangements the trigger is electrically actuated and a movement of the latched member is executed to reset the trigger.
As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The present invention fully contemplates its application in any number of environments, including those associated with U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/278,295, filed Mar. 3, 2006, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated in its entirety. The figures are not necessarily to scale, some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for the claims and/or as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.
While embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation, and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
