Divided Seat Rail Bracket for Fast and Defined Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electrically adjustable vehicle seats in highly autonomous vehicles face limitations in achieving rapid longitudinal adjustment due to slow adjustment speeds and complex designs resulting from combining manual and electric adjustment rails, leading to undefined seat settings and issues with seat position memory.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle seat bracket with a divided upper rail arrangement, comprising a first upper rail module with an electromechanical drive and a second module with a releasable mechanical locking device, allowing both manual and electric adjustments without additional rails, and featuring an energy absorption element for crash protection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a long rail for manual adjustability and a shorter rail for electric adjustability are combined, then rapid adjustment and precise adjustment are both possible, but the design becomes complex due to cascading of two adjustment rails
Solution Approach 1:
The upper rail arrangement is divided into a first upper rail module for electric adjustment and a second upper rail module for manual adjustment, connected by a connecting element. This segmentation allows each module to perform its specific function while maintaining a unified structure that avoids the complexity of cascading two separate rails.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the electric adjustment mechanism and manual adjustment mechanism into a single integrated upper rail arrangement. The first and second upper rail modules are connected through a connecting element, combining both adjustment modes in one structure rather than using separate cascading rails.
2Productivity
If two adjustment rails are cascaded for manual and electric adjustability, then both rapid and precise adjustment are enabled, but undefined longitudinal seat settings occur which confuse the user and cause issues with seat position memory
Solution Approach 1:
The upper rail arrangement is segmented into electric and manual adjustment modules, with each module having defined functional boundaries. The connecting element clearly separates the electric drive domain from the manual adjustment domain, ensuring that the seat position memory can accurately track positions without confusion from overlapping adjustment mechanisms.
3Device complexity
If the upper rail arrangement is divided into separate modules for electric and manual adjustment, then both adjustment modes are enabled without additional rails, but a mechanical locking device and energy absorption element are required
Solution Approach 1:
The mechanical locking device and energy absorption element are integrated into the connecting element that joins the first and second upper rail modules. This merging approach incorporates safety and locking functions within the existing structural connection rather than adding separate independent mechanisms, thereby maintaining reliability while avoiding increased complexity.
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
Enables rapid and precise longitudinal adjustment of vehicle seats, ensuring defined seat settings and crash safety through a combination of electric and manual modes, while integrating a mechanical locking system for secure anchoring.
Implementation Method 1
The connecting element preferably has at least one energy absorption element, which is designed to convert kinetic energy into deformation and/or thermal energy. While, in a standard embodiment, the two upper rail modules are connected rigidly to one another, they are connected to one another in this preferred development of the vehicle seat bracket according to the invention by an energy absorption element that has or forms a crash absorber. In the event of a collision, this allows a deliberate reduction in the kinetic energy of the vehicle seat.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle seat bracket, with at least one lower rail which is fixed to the vehicle, and with at least one upper rail arrangement which is coupled to a vehicle seat and interacts with the at least one lower rail for the relative longitudinal displaceability in the longitudinal direction of the lower rail, is characterized in that the at least one upper rail arrangement has a first upper rail module, which is coupled to the vehicle seat, and a second upper rail module, which is connected by a connecting element to the first upper rail module. The two upper rail modules are movable along the lower rail. The first upper rail module is provided with an electromechanical drive arrangement for the longitudinal displaceability relative to the lower rail. The second upper rail module has a releasable mechanical locking device which is designed to couple the upper rail arrangement and the lower rail to one another in a locked state and to decouple them from one another in a decoupled state.