Mobile Flange Structure for Lightweight Seat Recliners
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current seat reclining devices for vehicles face challenges in reducing manufacturing costs, size, and weight while maintaining strength and durability, particularly in the design of the mobile flange, which is critical for adjusting and stabilizing the seatback angle.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a mobile flange with a gear unit, a central collar, and a flange part featuring radially disposed inclined and plane portions, along with protrusion recovery portions, which securely connect the collar and gear unit, allowing for reduced blank size and weight during cold forging, enhancing strength and durability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the mobile flange is designed with a conventional flange structure, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the strength and durability are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The flange part is designed with varying radial cross-sections at different locations to provide different mechanical properties where needed. Specifically, inclined portions are provided at the outer peripheral region to increase strength and durability for supporting the input device, while the central region maintains a conventional structure for ease of manufacturing. This local differentiation resolves the contradiction by providing enhanced strength only where required rather than throughout the entire component.
2Weight of moving object
If the blank size is reduced for cold forging, then the manufacturing cost and weight are reduced, but the strength and durability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile flange design concentrates material and structural complexity only where needed - the inclined portions are localized to the outer peripheral region where they are most needed for strength, while the central region uses less material. This allows the overall blank size and weight to be reduced while maintaining sufficient strength and durability at critical locations.
3Strength
If the radial cross-section of the flange part is made uniform, then the manufacturing process is simpler, but the strength distribution is uneven and insufficient at critical areas
Solution Approach 1:
The flange part employs a non-uniform radial cross-section design where the inclined portions are specifically located at the outer peripheral region to address strength requirements at that location. This localized structural variation improves strength distribution without significantly complicating the overall manufacturing process, as the inclined portions can be formed through standard cold forging techniques.
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
This configuration reduces manufacturing costs, minimizes the size and weight of the mobile flange, and ensures sufficient strength and durability, while preventing material movement during forging, ensuring proper gear tooth formation and improved formability.
Implementation Method 1
a cam elastically supported by a spring is inserted between the gear plate and the mobile flange
Implementation Method 2
reducing a blank size when performing cold forging on a mobile flange
Data Source
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AI summary
Proposed is a seat reclining device having a mobile flange that includes: a gear unit having an internal gear; a collar provided at a center of the gear unit; and a flange part connecting the collar and the gear unit to each other, and that is configured such that a radial cross-section of the flange part circumferentially repeatedly changes.