Vehicle Seat Cushion Bladder Layout for Firmness Without Sagging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional vehicle seat pneumatic bladders exert uniform force, leading to variations in seat properties and sagging of seat covers due to deformation, affecting occupant comfort and appearance.
Innovation Solution
A seat cushion with inflatable bladders encapsulated within a compressible member, allowing adjustable firmness and hardness by varying inflation pressure, and featuring a multi-cell arrangement to enhance load absorption and maintain comfort depth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional pneumatic bladders are used with single chamber uniform inflation, then the seat provides basic support, but the seat properties vary and seat covers sag due to uniform force exertion
Solution Approach 1:
The pneumatic bladder is divided into multiple chambers instead of a single chamber, allowing each chamber to be independently controlled. This segmentation enables non-uniform inflation patterns that can provide targeted support to different regions of the seat, preventing the uniform force that causes seat cover sagging while maintaining consistent support properties.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the seat cushion are provided with different inflation pressures through the multi-chamber system. This allows local adjustment of firmness and support characteristics, with higher pressure in areas requiring more support and lower pressure in areas where excessive force would cause sagging, thereby maintaining both support consistency and seat cover tautness.
2Adaptability or versatility
If inflatable bladders are added to adjust firmness, then seat comfort is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The multi-chamber pneumatic system serves multiple functions: it provides adjustable firmness control, maintains seat cover tautness, offers regional support customization, and can potentially provide massage or heating functions. By integrating these functions into a single system architecture, the patent achieves high adaptability without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adjusts seat properties by changing the inflation pressure parameter in different chambers rather than adding or removing physical components. This allows dynamic adjustment of firmness and support characteristics through simple pressure control, maintaining adaptability while minimizing structural 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
The solution provides an adaptive seat that improves comfort and appearance by maintaining effective foam depth and reducing sagging, while allowing for adjustable stiffness and hardness through controlled inflation, enhancing occupant experience and seat condition.
Implementation Method 1
The one or more inflatable bladders can be inflated to controllably adjust one or more properties of the seat cushion
Implementation Method 2
the or each inflatable bladder compresses the compressible member (nominally in a vertical axis) effectively increasing the local density of the foam where the bladder interfaces the foam
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the present invention relate to a seat cushion (1) including a compressible member (15) and at least one insert (16). The insert (16) has one or more inflatable bladders (17-n). The at least one insert (16) is at least partially encapsulated within the compressible member (15). Further aspects of the present invention relate to a method of forming a seat cushion (1); a seat assembly (2) and a vehicle (V).