Aircraft Seat Backrest Wall With Sliding Stowable Table
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aircraft seat designs face challenges in integrating multiple accessories like multimedia monitors, functional surfaces, and storage compartments while minimizing bulk and ensuring passenger ergonomics, with current solutions often requiring complex electronic components and compromising space.
Innovation Solution
A wall for aircraft seat backrests featuring integrated storage compartments for a monitor and a table that can rotate and translate, using a hinge and lateral guide system with friction mechanisms for intuitive operation, allowing seamless integration and adjustment to passenger needs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple accessories (monitor, table, storage compartments) are integrated into the seat backrest wall, then passenger comfort and functionality are improved, but the bulk and obstruction in front of the passenger increases
Solution Approach 1:
The table is stored within the second storage compartment when not in use, and the monitor is housed within the first storage compartment. This nesting arrangement allows multiple accessories to be integrated into the seat backrest wall without significantly increasing the overall bulk, as each component is contained within dedicated compartments that fold into the wall structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The table is connected to the wall via a hinge mechanism that allows it to rotate between a stowed position (parallel to the rear surface) and an extended working position (transverse to the rear surface). This dynamic capability enables the table to provide full functionality when needed while minimizing obstruction during storage, resolving the contradiction between versatility and bulk.
2Volume of moving object
If the table is integrated into the seat backrest wall, then space efficiency is improved, but the complexity of the structural mechanism increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wall is divided into functional segments including a first storage compartment for the monitor, a second storage compartment for the table, and lateral guides for hinge movement. This segmentation allows each component to be independently designed and positioned, simplifying the overall integration while maintaining space efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
Lateral guides are introduced as intermediary elements that constrain the hinge movement to a specific path parallel to the first axis. These guides simplify the hinge mechanism by providing predefined movement paths, reducing the complexity of ensuring proper hinge alignment and movement while enabling the table to transition smoothly between stowed and extended positions.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the hinge is allowed to rotate freely, then the table positioning flexibility is improved, but the control and stability during use deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Lateral guides serve as intermediary elements that constrain the hinge rotation to a controlled path parallel to the first axis. This constraint provides stability by preventing uncontrolled movement while still allowing the table to achieve various positions along the guided path, thus maintaining both flexibility and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The hinge mechanism allows the table to change its angular parameter relative to the rear surface, transitioning from a parallel position (stowed) to a transverse position (extended). This controlled parameter change enables positioning flexibility while the lateral guides ensure the transformation occurs along a stable, predictable path.
Data Source
AI summary
A wall for backrest of aircraft seats includes a the first storage compartment can house a monitor and have two lateral portions including an upper portion and a lower portion; a hinge with a rotational rigidity; a table having a main plane and one end bound to the wall by the hinge, and a second storage compartment arranged at a lateral portion of the first storage compartment. The wall further includes a lateral guide arranged in correspondence with the lower portions of the two storage compartments. The hinge is constrained to slide on the lateral guide. In a first “closed” configuration the table is arranged inside the second storage compartment to form a single continuous rear surface. In a second “open” configuration, the table is arranged transversely to the rear surface of the wall free to translate along the lateral guide.