Vehicle Seat Cable-Pulley Latch Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle seating systems often have inconveniently located and difficult-to-actuate levers for folding the seat back, and require separate left-hand and right-hand levers and connecting elements, limiting interchangeability and user convenience.
Innovation Solution
A seating system with a latch arrangement that includes a rotatable actuator and flexible members, allowing for easy pivoting of the seat back by tensioning a cable and pulley system, which moves the latch from a locked to an open position, facilitating user-friendly operation and interchangeability between left and right sides.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a lever is used to facilitate the fold-forward function, then the seat back can be folded forward, but the lever may be inconveniently located and difficult to actuate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cable as an intermediary element that transmits force from the user's pulling action to the latch mechanism. This cable-mediated force transmission allows the user to actuate the seat back folding mechanism from a convenient location without directly manipulating a complex lever assembly, thereby improving ease of operation while simplifying the overall device structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the complex lever mechanism from the direct user interface and replaces it with a simple cable-pulley system. The lever function is taken out and integrated into the latch mechanism itself, allowing the user to simply pull a cable rather than manipulate a difficult-to-actuate lever, thus improving ease of operation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If separate right-hand and left-hand levers and connecting elements are used, then both left-side and right-side seats can be accommodated, but interchangeability is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs a universal cable-pulley-latch mechanism that functions identically on both left-side and right-side seats. The cable can be routed appropriately for either side, and the latch mechanism operates in the same manner regardless of seat orientation. This universal design eliminates the need for separate right-hand and left-hand lever variants, improving interchangeability while reducing inventory requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs asymmetric cable routing rather than asymmetric lever designs. The cable can be routed along different paths depending on whether it's installed on a left-side or right-side seat, but the fundamental mechanism remains the same. This approach maintains adaptability to different seat positions while using identical components, thereby improving interchangeability.
3Ease of operation
If the latch arrangement is in a locked position, then the seat back is stable, but the seat back cannot be pivoted
Solution Approach 1:
The latch mechanism is designed to be self-actuating through the cable tensioning system. When the user pulls the cable, the tension automatically triggers the latch to release and move to the open position, allowing the seat back to pivot. The system uses the user's input force efficiently to both release the latch and initiate the pivoting motion, improving ease of operation while maintaining stability when locked.
Solution Approach 2:
The latch arrangement is designed with dynamic characteristics that allow it to transition smoothly between locked and open states. The cable-pulley system provides progressive tensioning that naturally guides the latch through its transition, making the pivoting action smooth and controlled. This dynamic design maintains stability in the locked position while enabling easy pivoting when needed.
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 solution provides a user-friendly and interchangeable seating system that simplifies the folding mechanism, enhancing convenience and reducing the need for separate levers and elements, improving the overall usability and design of vehicle seating systems.
Implementation Method 1
a flexible elongate member wrapped around at least a portion of the first pulley
Implementation Method 2
a cable wrapped around at least a portion of the second pulley
Data Source
AI summary
A seating system for a vehicle includes a seat cushion and a seat back pivotably attached to the seat cushion. A latch arrangement has a locked position for inhibiting pivoting of the seat back relative to the seat cushion and an open position for facilitating pivoting of the seat back relative to the seat cushion. A rotatable actuator defines a first radius and a second radius. A first flexible member is attached to the rotatable actuator at the first radius such that tensioning the first flexible member rotates the rotatable actuator in a first direction. A second flexible member is attached to the latch arrangement and the rotatable actuator at the second radius such that rotation of the rotatable actuator in the first direction tensions the second flexible member and moves the latch arrangement from the locked position to the open position.