Vehicle Seat Damper with Variable Passage for Impact Adaptation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current vehicle seat dampers fail to effectively absorb impacts at low speeds while providing sufficient stiffness at high speeds to reliably support the head during collisions, and they are not compactly integrable into the backrest.
Innovation Solution
A damper design featuring a vessel with a viscous fluid, hampering walls, a rotatable partitioning member, and flow limiting means, including an annular elastic member, which adjusts the passage cross-sectional area to control fluid flow and damping force based on rotation speed, allowing soft impact absorption at low speeds and increased stiffness at high speeds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the damper uses a fixed passage cross-sectional area, then the structure is simple, but the damping force cannot adapt to different impact speeds
Solution Approach 1:
The passage cross-sectional area is made dynamically adjustable through the elastic member that moves between the first and second positions based on impact speed. This dynamic adjustment allows the damper to provide appropriate damping force for both low-speed and high-speed impacts, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The passage cross-sectional area parameter is changed based on impact conditions. At low speeds, the elastic member remains in the first position providing a larger passage area for softer damping. At high speeds, the elastic member moves to the second position reducing the passage area for stiffer damping, thus adapting the damping characteristic to different operating conditions.
2Force
If the passage cross-sectional area is large, then low-speed impact absorption is soft, but high-speed impact absorption becomes insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic member dynamically adjusts the passage area based on impact speed. During low-speed impacts, the larger passage area allows soft absorption. During high-speed impacts, the reduced passage area increases damping force, ensuring adequate protection across different speed ranges.
Solution Approach 2:
The passage cross-sectional area parameter is varied with impact speed. The system transitions from a larger passage area at low speeds to a smaller passage area at high speeds, optimizing the damping force for each speed condition and resolving the contradiction between soft low-speed absorption and sufficient high-speed absorption.
3Volume of moving object
If the damper structure is compact, then installation space is reduced, but the discrimination between collision and non-collision scenarios may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The damper is divided into functional segments: the viscous fluid chamber, the elastic member mechanism, and the passage system. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall compactness, ensuring reliable collision discrimination without excessive volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The elastic member is nested within the vessel structure, and the passage system is integrated into the wall structure. This nested arrangement maximizes space utilization, allowing the damper to maintain compact dimensions while preserving the functional integrity needed for reliable collision detection and response.
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 damper effectively absorbs impacts softly at low speeds and becomes stiff to hold the head reliably at high speeds, while being compactly installable in vehicle seats, enabling proper discrimination between collision and non-collision scenarios.
Implementation Method 1
a vessel (4) for accommodating a viscous fluid (3) in its interior (2)
Implementation Method 2
an annular elastic member (86) surrounding the variable passage (12) and disposed between the end face (84) and the side face (75), so as to brake the relative rotation
Data Source
AI summary
A damper includes a vessel for accommodating a viscous fluid in its interior; hampering walls for hampering the flow of the viscous fluid; a partitioning member which partitions each of interior portions into two chambers and is provided rotatably; a communicating hole formed in the partitioning member so as to allow the two chambers to communicate with each other via a variable passage whose passage cross-sectional area changes; a flow limiter to limit the flow of the viscous fluid in the chamber into the chamber through the communicating hole, when the internal pressure of the viscous fluid accommodated in the chamber has exceeded a fixed value on the basis of the rotation of the partitioning member; and a resilient structure to resiliently urge the partitioning member in a direction with respect to the vessel.