Vehicle Seat Fitting Driver Lever Segmentation for Actuation Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle seat fittings face issues with the blocking of the driver lever and actuation of the backrest release device, particularly when a microswitch fails, leading to restricted movement and safety concerns during the easy-entry function.
Innovation Solution
A driver lever with three parts - a bearing part, a driver part, and a spring part - is designed to provide enhanced degrees of freedom, allowing the driver part to pivot into a driver position and accommodate deflection, ensuring the longitudinal unlocking of the vehicle seat even in problematic cases, such as when the driver part rests against the back of the longitudinal unlocking wheel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the driver lever is designed as a single rigid component, then the structure is simple, but the lever may block when the backrest is tilted beyond a critical angle or with a failed microswitch
Solution Approach 1:
The driver lever is divided into three separate components: a bearing part, a driver part, and a spring part. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, enabling the driver part to pivot into the driver position while the spring part accommodates deflection, thus preventing blocking issues that would occur with a rigid single-component design.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring part is designed to be elastically deformable, providing dynamic adaptation to varying operational conditions. When the backrest is tilted beyond a critical angle or when a microswitch fails, the spring part can deflect to accommodate the movement, maintaining actuation reliability while the bearing part and driver part pivot into the correct position.
2Reliability
If the driver lever is designed with multiple parts and elastic components, then the actuation reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The driver lever is divided into three separate components: a bearing part, a driver part, and a spring part. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, enabling the driver part to pivot into the driver position while the spring part accommodates deflection, thus preventing blocking issues that would occur with a rigid single-component design.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the driver lever assembly have different mechanical properties tailored to their specific functions: the bearing part and driver part are designed for rigid pivoting motion, while the spring part is designed with elastic properties to accommodate deflection. This local differentiation of material and structural properties optimizes the overall system performance.
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 improved kinematics of the driver lever enable effective actuation of the longitudinal vehicle seat lock release, ensuring smooth operation and safety during the easy-entry function, even when the backrest is tilted beyond a critical angle or with a failed microswitch.
Implementation Method 1
the spring part forms a kind of cantilever beam that is subject to bending stress and is arranged between the bearing part and the driver part... the driver part has a degree of freedom relative to the bearing part corresponding to the deflection of the spring part
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a vehicle seat fitting (10) for a vehicle seat (1) with a longitudinal seat release mechanism. According to the invention, a drive lever (25) is provided, which has a bearing part (28), a drive part (26), and a spring part (27). By supporting the drive part (26) via the spring part (27) on the bearing part (28), a malfunction of the longitudinal seat release mechanism can be avoided when a drive element (30) of the drive part (26) rests against a back (38) of a longitudinal release wheel (17).