Vehicle seat

Abstract

To provide a vehicle seat having high usability.SOLUTION: A vehicle seat comprises: a seat cushion 2 located in front of a rear wheel house 11 of a vehicle, for supporting buttocks and thighs of an occupant; a seat back 3 for supporting a back of the occupant; a reclining mechanism part 4 for tilting the seat back 3 relative to the seat cushion 2; and a raising / lowering mechanism part 5 which can raise / lower the seat cushion 2 in a vertical direction relative to a vehicle floor surface, and which, when seat arrangement is being changed by the reclining mechanism part 4 toward a backward brought-down state where the seat back 3 is brought down backward, raises the seat cushion 2 in the vertical direction in conjunction with tilting of the seat back 3 into the backward brought-down state so that the seat back 3 is located above the rear wheel house 11 so as to avoid interference with the rear wheel house 11. The seat back 3 comprises an armrest on one side part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle seat for a rear seat of a vehicle. [Background technology]

[0002] In a vehicle seat for the rear seat of a vehicle, it is known that the seat back of the rear seat can be tilted backward to be as nearly horizontal as possible (hereinafter, simply referred to as a flat state) (see, for example, Patent Document 1). By changing the seat arrangement to such a flat state, it becomes possible to use the interior of the vehicle more spaciously. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 2-76533 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, in Patent Document 1, when attempting to fold back the rear seat backs, a part of the seat back (side back 13 in Figures 1 and 2 of Patent Document 1) interferes with the rear wheel house of the vehicle (tire house 4 in Figures 1 and 2 of Patent Document 1). For this reason, in Patent Document 1, only this part and the remaining part of the seat back that can be separated (center back 12 in Figures 1 and 2 of Patent Document 1) can be put into a flat state. In other words, in Patent Document 1, the entire seat back cannot be put into a completely flat state, and the interior of the vehicle cannot be used to the maximum extent.

[0005] Thus, further ingenuity is required to improve the usability of vehicle seats for the rear seats of a vehicle.

[0006] In consideration of the above circumstances, the present invention aims to realize a vehicle seat that is highly usable, and in particular, has an object to provide a vehicle seat that allows for wide use of the rear space of the vehicle even after the seat arrangement is changed to a completely flat state. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a vehicle seat, comprising: A vehicle seat for a rear seat of a vehicle, a seat cushion located in front of a rear wheel house of the vehicle and supporting the buttocks and thighs of an occupant; A seat back that supports the back of the occupant; a reclining mechanism that tilts the seat back relative to the seat cushion; a lifting mechanism capable of lifting and lowering the seat cushion along a vertical direction relative to a vehicle floor surface, the lifting mechanism raising the seat cushion along the vertical direction in conjunction with tilting of the seat back to the backward-tilted state so that the seat back is positioned above the rear wheel house avoiding interference with the rear wheel house when the seat arrangement is changed by the reclining mechanism toward the backward-tilted state in which the seat back is tilted backward, The seat back is characterized in that it has an armrest on one side of the seat back, on which the occupant's arm is placed when the seat back supports the occupant's back.

[0008] The invention described in claim 2 is the vehicle seat described in claim 1, The vehicle seat is arranged in a plurality of rows independent of each other along the vehicle width direction, and each of the plurality of lifting mechanisms lifts and lowers the seat cushion to be lifted and lowered independently of each other.

[0009] The invention described in claim 3 is the vehicle seat described in claim 1 or 2, The armrest is rotatable about an end of the armrest as a rotation axis between an upright state in which the armrest protrudes in a direction intersecting with a surface of the seat back that extends opposite the back of the occupant and a non-upright state in which the armrest extends along the surface of the seat back, The seat back further includes an armrest storage groove portion in a groove shape capable of storing the armrest in the non-upright state.

[0010] The invention described in claim 4 is the vehicle seat described in claim 3, The armrest is characterized by having a shade storage section capable of storing a shade that functions as a partition or sunshade inside the vehicle.

[0011] The invention described in claim 5 is the vehicle seat described in claim 3, The armrest is characterized in that it has an attachment mounting portion at its tip for mounting a specified attachment.

[0012] The invention described in claim 6 is the vehicle seat described in claim 3, The armrest storage groove has a power supply port at its bottom for supplying power to an electronic device. Effect of the Invention

[0013] According to the invention described in claim 1, the seat cushion has a lifting mechanism that can lift and lower the seat cushion vertically relative to the vehicle floor surface, and when the seat back is tilted backward by the reclining mechanism to change the seat arrangement, the lifting mechanism can be used to adjust the height of the seat cushion to a position where the seat back does not interfere with the rear wheel. As a result, the height of the seating surface of the seat cushion and the seating surface of the seat back can be made the same, and no step is created. This allows the seat arrangement to be changed to a completely flat state (full flat state), and the rear space of the vehicle can be used as widely as possible after the change.

[0014] According to the invention described in claim 2, the height of adjacent rear seats can be changed relatively, for example, the height of the seat cushion can be adjusted so that it is at the eye level of a parent and child lying down.

[0015] According to the invention described in claim 3, the armrest can be conveniently switched between standing and retracted positions as required.

[0016] According to the invention described in claim 4, there is no need to prepare a separate place to store the shade when not in use, which contributes to saving space inside the vehicle.

[0017] According to the invention as recited in claim 5, it is possible to facilitate the use of a specific attachment that an occupant desires to use in a vehicle interior that has become spacious due to the seat arrangement in the backward tilted state.

[0018] According to the invention described in claim 6, when the armrest is erected and there is space in the armrest storage groove, electronic devices that need to be charged, such as smartphones, can be placed in the space and connected to the power supply port for charging. This eliminates the need to secure a separate place to place the electronic devices when charging, contributing to space saving inside the vehicle. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0019] [Figure 1] 1 is a front view showing a schematic configuration of a vehicle seat according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of the configuration of the vehicle seat in FIG. 1. [Diagram 3] 10A to 10C are diagrams illustrating the effects of the present embodiment. [Figure 4] 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams for explaining the function of an armrest in the present embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0020] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the following embodiment, and that appropriate design changes, improvements, etc. may be made based on the ordinary knowledge of a person skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0021] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic front view of the configuration of a vehicle seat 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic side view of the configuration of the vehicle seat 1 of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a schematic diagram of the effect of this embodiment.

[0022] The vehicle seat 1 is a vehicle seat for use in the rear seat of a vehicle, and includes a seat cushion 2, a seat back 3, a reclining mechanism 4, and a lifting mechanism 5.

[0023] The seat cushion 2 is located in front of the rear wheel house 11 of the vehicle, and is a part of the vehicle seat 1 that supports the buttocks and thighs of an occupant. The seat cushion 2 has a cushion main body 21 made of a cushioning material that absorbs shock when an occupant sits on it, and a cushion frame 22 made of a rigid member that supports the cushion main body 21 from the inside.

[0024] The seat back 3 is a part of the vehicle seat 1 that supports the back of the occupant. Like the seat cushion 2, the seat back 3 has a seat back main body 31 made of a cushioning material that absorbs shock, and a seat back frame 32 made of a rigid member that supports the seat back main body 31 from the inside. The seat back 3 is connected to the rear end of the seat cushion 2 via a reclining mechanism 4, which will be described later.

[0025] The reclining mechanism 4 is a part of the vehicle seat 1 that tilts the seat back 3 relative to the seat cushion 2. The reclining mechanism 4 also plays a role in connecting the seat back 3 to the rear end of the seat cushion 2.

[0026] The lifting mechanism 5 is a part of the vehicle seat 1 that can raise and lower the seat cushion 2 in the vertical direction (the up-down direction in Figs. 1 and 2) relative to the vehicle floor surface 14. When the reclining mechanism 4 changes the seat arrangement toward a reclined state in which the seat back 3 is reclined backward, the lifting mechanism 5 lifts the seat cushion 2 in the vertical direction in conjunction with the tilting of the seat back 3 toward the reclined state so that the seat back 3 is positioned above the rear wheel house 11 while avoiding interference with the rear wheel house 11. More specifically, in Fig. 2, the lifting mechanism 5 lifts the seat cushion 2 together with the seat back 3 connected to the rear end of the seat cushion 2 in the direction B in the figure in conjunction with the seat back 3 rotating in the direction A in the figure and approaching the reclined state.

[0027] In this specification, the term "backward tilted state" means that the seat back 3 is in a state close to being nearly horizontal with respect to the vertical direction. In addition, in this specification, the term "linked to the tilting to the backward tilted state" means that the seat back 3 is linked to the tilting of the seat back 3 after the seat back 3 has tilted and approached the backward tilted state to a predetermined level, in other words, after the seat back 3 has rotated to a predetermined angle with respect to the seat cushion 2. In other words, the seat cushion 2 does not start to rise only when the upward facing seat back 3 shown by the solid line in FIG. 2 is slightly tilted backward. In fact, the lifting mechanism unit 5 can lift the seat cushion 2 in the direction B while maintaining the upward posture of the seat back 3 shown by the solid line in FIG. 2 (i.e., without tilting the seat back 3).

[0028] Here, the lifting mechanism 5 is connected to the cushion frame 22 in the seat cushion 2, and the seat cushion 2 is lifted by pushing up the cushion frame 22 in the direction B in the figure using a gear mechanism (not shown) that transmits the rotational driving force of a motor or the like. As such a gear mechanism, a conventional seat height adjustment device mechanism such as those described in JP-A-2006-182039 and JP-A-2001-138780 can be used. In this case, as the above-mentioned interlocking mechanism, for example, a mechanism is considered in which, when the seat back 3 rotates beyond the above-mentioned predetermined angle, a switch of the rotational driving source such as the motor is turned on and the rotational driving force is transmitted to the gear mechanism.

[0029] In this embodiment, the lifting mechanism 5 uses such a gear mechanism, but the present invention may use a lifting mechanism using another lifting mechanism. For example, a lifting mechanism using hydraulic pressure, pneumatic pressure, or the like may be used.

[0030] In FIG. 3, the vehicle seat 1 in the seat arrangement before the seat back 3 is tilted backward, in other words, in the seat arrangement in which the seat back 3 is in an "inverted state" with respect to the vehicle floor surface 14 (or in the "normal seat arrangement"), is shown by a dotted line. Also, the vehicle seat 1 in the seat arrangement in the backward state is shown by a solid line vertically above the position of the vehicle seat 1 shown by the dotted line and above the rear wheel house 11. As the seat back 3 approaches the backward state, the seat cushion 2 rises, so that the seat back 3 can be linearly connected to the seat cushion 2 in the horizontal direction without a step while avoiding interference with the rear wheel house 11 as shown in FIG. 3. In this case, unlike Patent Document 1, the entire seat back 3 is in a completely flat state. As a result, it is possible to use the vehicle rear space 7 in the vehicle to the maximum extent so that the occupant can lie on his / her stomach in the vehicle as shown in FIG. 3, and a highly usable vehicle seat is realized.

[0031] Here, it is preferable that a plurality of vehicle seats 1 are arranged side by side independently of one another along the vehicle width direction, and that each of the plurality of lifting mechanism units 5 lifts and lowers the seat cushion 2 to be lifted and lowered independently of one another.

[0032] In this preferred embodiment, in a normal seat arrangement, the height of adjacent rear seats can be changed relatively to match the eye level of people of different builds (for example, a parent and child). Also, when placing a child seat (junior seat) on the rear seat, the height of the child seat can be directly adjusted to a desired position without having to use a separate cushion or the like to raise the child seat height.

[0033] The armrest of the seat back 3 will be described below.

[0034] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the function of the armrest 6 in this embodiment.

[0035] In the vehicle seat 1 of this embodiment, the seat back 3 has an armrest 6 on the side of the seat back 3 on which the occupant's arms are placed when supporting the occupant's back, i.e., when the occupant sits in the vehicle seat 1 in the normal seat arrangement.

[0036] Here, as shown in FIG. 4, it is preferable that the armrest 6 is rotatable about an end of the armrest 6 as a rotation axis between an upright state in which the armrest 6 protrudes in a direction intersecting with the surface of the seat back 3 that extends opposite the back of the occupant, and a non-upright state in which the armrest 6 extends along the surface of the seat back 3, and that the seat back 3 further has a groove-shaped armrest storage groove portion 6a in which the armrest 6 in the non-upright state can be stored.

[0037] According to this configuration, the armrest 6 can be conveniently switched between standing (the position of the armrest 6 shown in FIG. 4) and stored as needed. The armrest 6 in the standing state in the normal seat arrangement performs the original function of an armrest, that is, a place for the passenger to rest their arms. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, the armrest 6 in the standing state in the seat arrangement in the reclining state performs a predetermined convenient function (described later) in the spacious interior of the vehicle in addition to the original function. When it is not necessary to perform such a predetermined function, the armrest 6 can be stored in the armrest storage groove portion 6a so that the presence of the armrest 6 does not become an obstacle to effective use of the interior space of the vehicle. FIGS. 1 to 3 show the state of the vehicle seat when the armrest 6 is stored in the armrest storage groove portion 6a.

[0038] As the rotation mechanism of the armrest 6, for example, a conventionally known rotation mechanism such as the mechanism of the reclining mechanism 4 that tilts the seat back 3 can be used.

[0039] In the above-described preferred embodiment, it is further preferable that the armrest 6 has a shade storage section 8 capable of storing a shade (not shown) that functions as a partition or sunshade inside the vehicle.

[0040] According to this configuration, there is no need to prepare a separate place to store the shade when not in use, which contributes to saving space inside the vehicle.

[0041] In the above-mentioned preferred embodiment, it is further preferable that the armrest 6 has an attachment mounting portion 9 at its tip for mounting a predetermined attachment (not shown).

[0042] According to this configuration, a specific attachment that a passenger desires to use in the vehicle interior that has become more spacious due to the seat arrangement in the reclining position can be attached to the tip of the armrest 6 in the upright position and used.

[0043] Here, examples of the predetermined attachment include, as simple examples, wall hangings with pockets for storing small items, hangers for hanging towels, wall calendars, and other items that are used for hanging. In this case, the attachment mounting part 9 may be, for example, a hook-shaped mounting member or a pinch-shaped mounting member for holding small items, or it may even be a simple screw.

[0044] Furthermore, by providing the attachment mounting portion 9 with not only a physical attachment function but also a power supply function, it becomes possible to extend the above-mentioned specific attachment to an appliance or device that consumes power. For example, it becomes possible to use the attachment mounting portion 9 as both a physical attachment portion and a power supply portion for small electronic appliances such as lighting and small display devices that display images, which are examples of the above-mentioned specific attachment.

[0045] In the above description, the function of the armrest 6 has been described, but the armrest storage groove portion 6a in which the armrest 6 is stored may have a similar function.

[0046] For example, in the above-mentioned preferred embodiment, it is further preferable that the armrest storage groove 6a has a power supply port 10 at the bottom for supplying power to the electronic device.

[0047] 4, when the armrest 6 is erected and there is space in the armrest storage groove 6a, an electronic device that needs charging, such as a smartphone, can be placed in that space and charged by connecting it to the power supply port 10. This eliminates the need to secure a separate place to place the electronic device when charging, which contributes to saving space inside the vehicle.

[0048] The above is a description of the embodiment of the present invention.

[0049] In the above embodiment, the vehicle seat 1 for the rear seat of a vehicle has been described, but the term "rear seat" here simply means a seat behind the driver's seat. Therefore, in the case of a vehicle in which multiple seats are lined up in the traveling direction of the vehicle (for example, in the case of a long and narrow vehicle such as a bus), the present invention can be applied to seats other than the rearmost seat. [Industrial Applicability]

[0050] The present invention is useful for realizing a vehicle seat with high usability. [Explanation of symbols]

[0051] 1 Vehicle seat 2 Seat cushion 3 Seat back 4 Reclining mechanism 5 Lifting mechanism 6 Armrest 6a Armrest storage groove 7. Rear space of vehicle 8 Shade storage area 9 Attachment mounting part 10 Power supply port 11 Rear wheel house 14 Vehicle floor surface 21 Cushion body 22 Cushion Frame 31 Seat back body 32 Seat back frame

Claims

1. A vehicle seat for a rear seat of a vehicle, a seat cushion located in front of a rear wheel house of the vehicle and supporting the buttocks and thighs of an occupant; A seat back that supports the back of the occupant; a reclining mechanism that tilts the seat back relative to the seat cushion; a lifting mechanism capable of lifting and lowering the seat cushion along a vertical direction relative to a vehicle floor surface, the lifting mechanism raising the seat cushion along the vertical direction in conjunction with tilting of the seat back to the backward-tilted state so that the seat back is positioned above the rear wheel house avoiding interference with the rear wheel house when the seat arrangement is changed by the reclining mechanism toward the backward-tilted state in which the seat back is tilted backward, The vehicle seat, wherein the seat back has an armrest on one side of the seat back on which the occupant's arm is placed when the occupant's back is supported.

2. The vehicle seat according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of the vehicle seats are arranged side by side independently of one another along a vehicle width direction, and each of the plurality of lifting mechanisms lifts and lowers the seat cushion to be lifted and lowered independently of one another.

3. The armrest is rotatable about an end of the armrest as a rotation axis between an upright state in which the armrest protrudes in a direction intersecting with a surface of the seat back that extends opposite the back of the occupant and a non-upright state in which the armrest extends along the surface of the seat back, 3. The vehicle seat according to claim 1, wherein the seat back further comprises an armrest storage groove portion capable of storing the armrest in the non-upright state.

4. 4. The vehicle seat according to claim 3, wherein the armrest has a shade storage section capable of storing a shade that functions as a partition or a sunshade inside the vehicle.

5. 4. The vehicle seat according to claim 3, wherein the armrest has an attachment mounting portion at a tip thereof for mounting a predetermined attachment.

6. The vehicle seat according to claim 3 , wherein the armrest storage groove portion has a power supply port portion at a bottom portion thereof for supplying power to an electronic device.

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