Deformable Vehicle Seat Backrest Impact Absorption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle seats, particularly in aircraft, face challenges in reducing volume and weight while maintaining safety and comfort, as they often transmit impacts from one passenger to another, such as from knees or elbows, due to rigid structures that do not effectively absorb or isolate such forces.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle seat design featuring a backrest and seat part with a deformable area that absorbs impacts without transmitting them to the front or upper faces, creating a clearance space to prevent the transfer of forces, thereby reducing weight and volume while enhancing safety and comfort.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rigid plates are used in the backrest to guarantee comfort and limit impact transmission, then passenger comfort is improved, but the seat weight and volume increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state and mechanical properties of the backrest material from rigid to deformable. The deformable backrest is designed to undergo controlled deformation during impact, absorbing energy while maintaining adequate protection. This parameter change allows the seat to achieve protective function with reduced weight compared to rigid plate constructions.
2Reliability
If rigid plates are used in the backrest to guarantee comfort and limit impact transmission, then passenger comfort is improved, but the seat volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the backrest from a rigid structure to a deformable structure, changing its mechanical parameters to allow energy absorption through deformation rather than requiring thick rigid plates. This enables adequate impact protection with reduced volume, allowing for better space utilization in vehicle seating arrangements.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the backrest structure is agglomerated in absorbent foam to attenuate impacts, then impact transmission is reduced, but the backrest becomes rather heavy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs composite material construction for the deformable backrest, combining materials with different properties to achieve optimal impact absorption with minimized weight. The composite structure allows the backrest to deform controllably during impact, absorbing energy while maintaining lower weight compared to conventional heavy foam constructions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The deformable area effectively attenuates impacts on the rear or lower faces of the seat without transmitting them to the front or upper faces, improving passenger comfort and safety while reducing the overall weight and volume of the seat, making it suitable for collective transport.
Implementation Method 1
a deformable area (4) which, in the event of an impact sustained on the rear face (2b) of the backrest (2), is configured so as to deform, in the event of an impact, in the clearance space (E) without transmitting the impact, respectively, in the front face (2a) of the backrest (2)
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle seat for a passenger, comprising a backrest having a front face directed towards the passenger and a rear face opposite the front face, and a seat part having an upper face directed towards the passenger and a lower face opposite the upper face, wherein the rear face of the backrest and/or the lower face of the seat part comprise(s) at least one area that is deformable in the event of an impact, towards the front face of the backrest and/or towards the upper face of the seat part respectively, and in that the front face and rear face of the backrest, and/or the upper face and lower face of the seat part are located at a distance from each other, at least at said at least one deformable area, so as to define a clearance space, said at least one deformable area of the rear face of the backrest and/or of the lower face of the seat part being configured so as to deform into the clearance space in the event of an impact on the rear face of the backrest and/or the lower face of the seat part, without transmitting the impact to the front face of the backrest and/or the upper face of the seat part respectively.