The present disclosure relates to a seating system for a vehicle.
Various types of vehicle seating systems with tilting or sliding seats are known. Some are described in one or more of the following patent references: U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,500,719B2; 7,976,103B2; 8,746,773B2; 9,061,606B2; and 9,156,377B2.
Embodiments described herein may include a seating system for a vehicle having a seat bottom and a seat back connected to the seat bottom. A tilt arrangement may be manually operable to facilitate rotation of the seat back relative to the seat bottom, including dumping the seat back forward as part of an easy-entry position. A slide arrangement may be manually operable to facilitate movement of the seat bottom forward as another part of the easy-entry position, and a motor arrangement may be operable to actuate the tilt arrangement and the slide arrangement to move the seat back and the seat bottom to the easy-entry position.
Embodiments described herein may include a seating system for a vehicle having a seat bottom and a seat back connected to and manually rotatable relative to the seat bottom. The seating system may also include a manually-actuated dump-and-return arrangement for the seat back, a manually-actuated slide arrangement for the seat bottom, a motor-actuated dump-and-return arrangement for the seat back, and a motor-actuated slide arrangement for the seat bottom.
Embodiments described herein may include a seating system for a vehicle having a seat bottom and a seat back connected to and manually rotatable relative to the seat bottom. The seating system may also include a tilt arrangement having a first powertrain operable to facilitate rotation of the seat back relative to the seat bottom, including dumping the seat back forward from a use position to an easy-entry position. A slide arrangement having a second powertrain may be operable to facilitate movement of the seat bottom forward from a use position to the easy-entry position. A manual actuator arrangement may be operable to actuate at least a portion of the first powertrain and at least a portion of the second powertrain to facilitate movement of the seat back and the seat bottom from the use position to the easy-entry position. A motor arrangement may be operable to actuate at least a portion of the first powertrain and at least a portion of the second powertrain to facilitate movement of the seat back and the seat bottom from the use position to the easy-entry position.
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 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 teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention.
Positioned adjacent to or as part of the recliner mechanisms 20, 22 are biasing members, which in this embodiment are torsion springs 24, 26. The springs 24, 26 bias the seat back 14 toward a forward, folded position. More specifically, the springs 24, 26 are configured to automatically tilt the seat back 14 forward to the easy-entry position when it is released from the locked position. The first actuator 16, the cross rod 18, the recliner mechanisms 20, 22, and the torsion springs 24, 26, are part of a tilt arrangement 27, which is manually operable to facilitate rotation of the seat back 14 relative to the seat bottom 12.
The seating system 10 includes a number of different mechanical and electro-mechanical systems for moving the seat back 14, the seat bottom 12, or both. For example, the cross rod 18, the recliner mechanisms 20, 22, the springs 24, 26, the first pinion 32, and the seat-back gear 34 form a first powertrain that is operable to facilitate rotation of the seat back 14 relative to the seat bottom 12, including dumping the seat back 14 forward from a use position to an easy-entry position. As described in more detail below, the first powertrain can be actuated manually or by one or more motors of a motor arrangement.
The seating system 10 also includes a slide arrangement 42, which is manually operable to facilitate movement of the seat bottom 12 forward as another part of the easy-entry position. The slide arrangement 42 includes a second actuator, or towel bar 44, which, as explained in more detail in conjunction with
The motor arrangement 28 is operable to actuate the tilt arrangement 27 and the slide arrangement 42 such that an operator has the option for manual actuation or motorized actuation. When the tilt arrangement 27 is manually actuated, the release lever 16 is moved in a counterclockwise position as oriented in
In addition to allowing the seat back 14 to be tilted within the range of use positions, manually actuating the tilt arrangement 27 allows the seat back to be folded forward into a dump position such as shown in
When the towel bar 44 is lifted upward, a release bracket 60—see
The release bracket 60, the spring 46, the sliding rails 52, 54, the second pinion 38, and the rack 40 form a second powertrain that is operable to facilitate movement of the seat bottom 12 forward from the use position to the easy-entry position. As described in more detail below, the second powertrain can be operated manually, or by one or more motors of a motor arrangement. Portions of the second powertrain may also be operable to facilitate movement of the seat bottom 12 rearward from the easy-entry position to the use position.
When the pin 66 contacts the release lever 68, the release lever 68 rotates in a clockwise direction as shown in
Also shown in
The motor 36 may be connected to one or more controllers configured to send and receive signals to and from the motor 36, and in some embodiments, to and from the first motor 30. In some embodiments, dedicated motor controllers may be employed, and these may communicate through a controller area network or other communications system with other seat or vehicle-wide controllers. In this way, the motor 36 is operable to signal one or more of these controllers when it reaches a position in its rearward movement. A signal can then be sent to the first motor 32 reverse its operation so that the pinion 32 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction as oriented in
As noted above, the rack 40 is fixed to the fixed rail 48, which means that the motor 36 needs to be back-drivable or the pinion 38 needs to be connected to the motor 36 by a clutch that can be disconnected when the seat bottom 12 is moved forward to the easy-entry position.
The movable rack 86 is slidably connected to a structural member of the seat bottom, which in this embodiment is a fixed rail 92. Similar to the seating system 10 described above, a sliding rail 94 is movable in forward and rearward directions relative to the fixed rail 92. Also similar to the seating system 10, a seat bottom, such as the seat bottom 12, may be attached to and ride on the sliding rail 94—and an additional rail on the other side of the seat. The motor arrangement 86—and by implication its associated seat bottom—and the rack 86 are in the use position in
In
To return the seat bottom to the use position, the motor 88 is operated to rotate the pinion 90 counterclockwise as oriented in
While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended that these embodiments 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. Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may be combined to form further embodiments of the invention.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3343872 | Reinmoller | Sep 1967 | A |
3356415 | Putsch | Dec 1967 | A |
4294488 | Pickles | Oct 1981 | A |
4432583 | Russo | Feb 1984 | A |
4573738 | Heesch | Mar 1986 | A |
4657125 | Heesch | Apr 1987 | A |
4696515 | Heesch | Sep 1987 | A |
4720144 | Heesch | Jan 1988 | A |
4781415 | Heesch | Nov 1988 | A |
4986514 | Ikegaya | Jan 1991 | A |
5150632 | Hein | Sep 1992 | A |
5156439 | Idlani | Oct 1992 | A |
5163735 | Aljundi | Nov 1992 | A |
5205609 | Notta | Apr 1993 | A |
5248184 | Morris | Sep 1993 | A |
5322346 | Notta | Jun 1994 | A |
5435624 | Bray | Jul 1995 | A |
5813725 | Robinson | Sep 1998 | A |
5918940 | Wakamatsu | Jul 1999 | A |
6158811 | Hofschulte | Dec 2000 | A |
6523899 | Tame | Feb 2003 | B1 |
6540295 | Saberan | Apr 2003 | B1 |
6712430 | Ito | Mar 2004 | B2 |
6733076 | Grable | May 2004 | B2 |
7066543 | Yu | Jun 2006 | B2 |
7118178 | Daniels | Oct 2006 | B2 |
7210734 | Yetukuri | May 2007 | B1 |
7500719 | Kojima | Mar 2009 | B2 |
7661760 | Nakaya | Feb 2010 | B2 |
7726742 | Keyser | Jun 2010 | B2 |
7775594 | Bruck | Aug 2010 | B2 |
7976103 | Gamache et al. | Jul 2011 | B2 |
8056981 | Kojima | Nov 2011 | B2 |
8100478 | Ellison | Jan 2012 | B2 |
8388067 | Hida | Mar 2013 | B2 |
8746773 | Bruck | Jun 2014 | B2 |
9061606 | Mizuno et al. | Jun 2015 | B2 |
9156377 | Mixon et al. | Oct 2015 | B2 |
9789787 | Wladimirow | Oct 2017 | B2 |
9902296 | Keyser | Feb 2018 | B2 |
10195962 | Bruck | Feb 2019 | B2 |
10232741 | Takada | Mar 2019 | B2 |
10279712 | Bruck | May 2019 | B2 |
10363841 | Santillan Gutierrez | Jul 2019 | B1 |
10493865 | Ellison | Dec 2019 | B2 |
20020089223 | Yu | Jul 2002 | A1 |
20040195892 | Daniels | Oct 2004 | A1 |
20050017564 | Kayumi | Jan 2005 | A1 |
20060061183 | White | Mar 2006 | A1 |
20060131946 | Andrigo | Jun 2006 | A1 |
20110043024 | Kokubo | Feb 2011 | A1 |
20130026806 | Yamada | Jan 2013 | A1 |
20140238188 | Ito | Aug 2014 | A1 |
20150321585 | McCulloch et al. | Nov 2015 | A1 |
20160039316 | Dill | Feb 2016 | A1 |
20160121758 | Wladimirow | May 2016 | A1 |
20170334314 | Takada | Nov 2017 | A1 |
20180037140 | Gollhardt | Feb 2018 | A1 |
20180244177 | Ferre | Aug 2018 | A1 |
20180304772 | Arakawa | Oct 2018 | A1 |
20180334054 | Higuchi | Nov 2018 | A1 |
20190084453 | Petit | Mar 2019 | A1 |
20190092191 | Bouzid | Mar 2019 | A1 |
20190106018 | Rose | Apr 2019 | A1 |
20190106019 | Rose | Apr 2019 | A1 |
20190106038 | Rose | Apr 2019 | A1 |
20190143851 | Handigol | May 2019 | A1 |
20190168636 | Higuchi | Jun 2019 | A1 |
20190168641 | Higuchi | Jun 2019 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20200189421 A1 | Jun 2020 | US |