Patent Application
20150375647
The present invention relates to a vehicle seat suitable, in particular, for a vehicle seat for a motor vehicle and provided with a protection device for protecting against sliding beneath a seat belt.
Restraint systems like safety belts mounted on vehicle seats serve, inter alia, to restrain a person sitting in the vehicle seat in the event of a rapid deceleration of the vehicle, in particular, a front crash. Hereby, the seat occupant due to its inertia is accelerated forward in the vehicle seat and caught by the restraint system, e.g. at his/her torso region.
Hereby, generally, the seat occupant, depending on position and seat adjustment, may also be pressed into the cushion elements of the vehicle seat and slide beneath the buckled seat belt or e.g. get caught in a safety belt by his/her head.
In order to prevent such problematic sliding action protection systems against sliding beneath a seat belt or “anti-submarining systems” respectively are known, creating a counter surface for catching the seat occupant. To that end, generally, a support member is provided in the seat cushion, in particular, in or upon the structure of the seat cushion beneath the cushion elements. Hereby, adjustable support members are also known.
The document DE 102 56 100 A1 discloses a vehicle seat with such a protection means against sliding beneath a seat belt. The support member is provided vertically moveably on the seat cushion or a frame of the seat cushion in order to be vertically adjusted upwards on activation thereby moving a soft cushion element disposed on top of it upwards correspondingly. The adjustment of the support member is coupled to an inclination position of the back rest so that the support member is lowered when the back rest pivots forward.
The document FR 2 847 862 A1 describes an adjustment of a structure element of a protection means against sliding beneath a seat belt, the element being coupled to a belt tightener. Thus, the support member may be adjusted depending on the belt adjustment.
It is an object of the invention to create a further vehicle seat with a protection device for protecting against sliding beneath a seat belt allowing an automatic adjustment of the protection means against sliding beneath a seat belt.
This object is achieved by a vehicle seat according to the invention set forth herein. The specification, including drawings and claims, describes preferred further embodiments.
Generally, the invention is based on the finding that, in particular, with persons of smaller sizes, sliding beneath a seat belt may be problematic. Restraint systems and systems protecting against sliding beneath seat belts are generally designed with persons in mind that have sizes within a certain normal range; thus, for example, the attachments and the path of a safety belt and the position of the protection device against sliding beneath the seat belt are adapted to usual dimensions, e.g. for a normal range covering about 95 percent of the persons to sit in such seats. For smaller persons, however, this adjustment may be problematic with the danger of sliding beneath the seat belt remaining.
Thus, according to the invention, the position of the seat cushion itself is utilised for adjusting the protection device against sliding beneath the seat belt. According to the invention, the adjustment device is thus provided for adjusting the support element depending on a position of the seat cushion. This position of the seat cushion, generally, is primarily a position relative to another component; in particular, it may be a position relative to the upper or lower rail of the vehicle seat or, alternatively, a bearing block of the vehicle seat.
The position or relative position respectively may, in accordance with one embodiment, be a longitudinal position of the longitudinally adjustable vehicle seat, i.e. a longitudinal position of the seat cushion together with the upper rail accommodating the seat cushion in relation to a lower rail to be mounted on or mounted on the vehicle.
This embodiment is based on the thought that persons which require adjustment of the protection device against sliding beneath the seat belt, generally, due to their smaller bodies, tend to select longitudinally forward positions of the longitudinal adjustment device of the vehicle seat in order to operate the pedals, the steering wheel and, if applicable, further operating elements in the dashboard area more easily. Thus, it can be inferred from a longitudinally forward positions of the longitudinal adjustable vehicle seat that in this case the protection device against sliding beneath the seat belt must be adjusted to accommodate for a smaller person.
According to a further embodiment according to the invention the protection device against sliding beneath the seat belt may be adjusted depending on a vertical adjustment of the seat cushion, in particular, on the vertical position of the seat cushion in relation to the upper rail or an attachment on the chassis. Hereby, in particular, the support member may be adjusted to its activated position when the user selects a higher vertical adjustment.
This, in turn, is based on the thought in accordance with the invention that the persons or seat occupants respectively relevant for the protection against sliding beneath the seat belt generally tend to select, due to their smaller body size, a higher seat position, in particular, in order to improve usability of the dashboard area and to allow for better vision through the windshield of the vehicle.
These two adjustment concepts, i.e. based upon the longitudinal position on the one hand and based upon the vertical position on the other, may be provided alternatively or complementarily.
Thus, in particular, the support member may serve already in its non-adjusted or, respectively, non-activated default position as protection device against sliding beneath the seat belt for a person inside a normal range and may be adjusted to an activated position by corresponding adjustment of the seat cushion in which the support member is in a position more adapted to smaller persons, in particular, by device of raising the support member and/or adjusting it backwards towards the back rest.
In the case of activation based on the vertical position the support member may be coupled to the rocker arms hinged between the seat cushion and the lower attachment, i.e. lower rail or bearing attachment, for vertical adjustment. Hereby, in particular, a fixed coupling of the support member to the rocker arms is possible. This is in recognition of the fact that the pivoting motion of the rocker arms during vertical adjustment already allows for an upwards adjustment of a support member in relation to the seat cushion. To that end, the support member is preferably attached between the two lateral front rocker arms extending e.g. as a curved or cranked tube in perpendicular direction. Thus, in this case, the rocker arms may directly serve as adjustment device.
In particular the case of activation based on the longitudinal position the adjustment may happen via a coupling device extending from the rail area to the seat cushion. Thus, the adjustment device as such can be provided in the area of the lower rail and/or the upper rail and activates the adjustment of the support member via the coupling device. Hereby, the adjustment device may be designed mechanical, pneumatical or hydraulical or even electro-mechanical. This, in the case of a pneumatic or hydraulic solution, advantageously, a fluid pipe is made to extend from the rail area upwards to the seat cushion. In the case of the electro-mechanical solution, a wire rope may be made to extend from the rail area upwards to the seat cushion or an electrical line to an electric motor adjusting the support member in the seat cushion.
Such adjustment device may be provided for several adjustments, in particular, both for the support member and for a comfort adjustment like longitudinal or vertical adjustment. Thus, the support member can be adjusted correspondingly by an adjustment device existing anyway via a coupling device.
In the case of a mechanical solution, in particular, a construction using a wire rope, e.g. as a Bowden cable, is advantageous. Hereby, the wire rope may be attached at one end to the support member and at its other end to another component against which the seat cushion is adjusted, e.g. in the case of longitudinal adjustment to the lower rail. Thus, the adjustment motion of the seat cushion can be directly utilised for adjusting the support member in relation to the seat cushion.
Hereby, it is possible to adjust the support member e.g. by means of a ramp provided in the seat cushion adjustably housing the support member, in particular, extending from the front and the bottom towards the back and upwards.
The protection device against sliding beneath the seat belt may be activated e.g. only at one end region of the adjustment, e.g. an upper third of the vertical adjustment and/or a front third of the longitudinal adjustment. One or more activated positions may be provided, i.e. intermediate positions, if applicable, may be provided between the default position and a fully activated position.
Relative terms such as left, right, up, and down are for convenience only and are not intended to be limiting.
Subsequently, the invention is illustrated by means of the accompanying drawings in several embodiment examples. Therein is shown as follows:
A vehicle seat 1 comprises lower rails 2 to be attached to a vehicle bottom, upper rails 3 adjustable on the lower rails 2 in the longitudinal direction x, a seat cushion 4, vertically adjustable in relation to the upper rails 3 by use of a front rocker 5 and a back rocker 6, and a back rest 8, indicated in
On the seat cushion 4 a support member 10 for an anti-submarining function is provided in an adjustable manner. Here, the support member 10 is designed e.g. as support plate in a suitable shape lying, in its default position shown in
In the embodiment of
In
In
Hereby, a continuous adjustment of the support member 10 may be provided; alternatively, there may be no adjustment in a first, back adjustment are, with adjustment happening only in a second, front are, e.g. in a front third. To that end a follower system may be provided in the wire rope 16 or the wire attachment 30.
Complementary or alternatively to an adjustment of the support member 10 depending on the longitudinal position of the upper rails 3 with the seat cushion 4 in relation to the lower rails 2, an adjustment depending on the vertical position of the seat cushion 4 in relation to the upper rails 3 is possible, as shown in
The seat cushion 4 is coupled, via two front rockers 5 and two back rockers 6, vertically adjustably to the upper rail 3 or even directly to the vehicle chassis; here, the left rockers 5, 6 are shown. Thus, in a known manner, the joints 5a, 6a, 5b, 6b form a parallelogram; however, the embodiment is also conceivable with other types of four bar linkages for seat adjustment. In a central region of the two rockers 5, i.e. between their joints 5a, 5b, a curved tube is firmly attached, e.g. welded, as a support element 11 extending in perpendicular direction y between the two rockers 5 and thereby through the seat cushion 4. Hereby, the support element 11 is bent in a U shape and extends in a central region with a part 11a, whose relative position in the seat cushion 4 therefore changes depending on the pivoting position of the front rockers 5. In the default position of
While this invention has been described as having a preferred design, it is understood that it is capable of further modifications, and uses and/or adaptations of the invention and following in general the principle of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as comes within the known or customary practice in the art to which the invention pertains, and as may be applied to the central features hereinbefore set forth, and fall within the scope of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2013 101 540.9 | Feb 2013 | DE | national |
This application is a continuation of application no. PCT/DE2014/100023, filed 29 Jan. 2014, which claims the priority of German Application No. 10 2013 101 540.9, filed 15 Feb. 2013, and each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/DE2014/100023 | Jan 2014 | US |
| Child | 14824895 | US |
