Vehicle Seat Garnish Attachment with Annular Plate
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle seat designs with openings for seat belts or ventilation often result in gaps between shape-retaining members and the skin, leading to aesthetic issues and the risk of tearing due to uneven tension distribution.
Innovation Solution
A seat design featuring a garnish with a tubular portion, flange, and engagement claw that securely attaches to an annular plate and back board, preventing movement and maintaining contact with the skin member even under tension, while an annular plate sewn to the skin member distributes stress and prevents tearing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If a shape retaining member made of harder plastic material is used to maintain the opening shape, then the opening shape is maintained, but the skin member may deform and create gaps between the shape retaining member and skin member under tension
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a frame member as an intermediary component between the skin member and the shape retaining member. This frame member absorbs and distributes the tension forces, preventing direct stress concentration on the skin member that would cause deformation and gaps. The frame member acts as a mediator that protects the skin member while maintaining the opening shape.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the material parameters by using a softer, more flexible material for the frame member compared to the harder plastic shape retaining member. This parameter change allows the frame member to deform elastically under tension, absorbing stress and preventing the skin member from deforming enough to create gaps.
2Reliability
If projections are used to secure the attachment between the skin member and shape retaining member, then attachment security is improved, but excessive tension may tear the skin member at the projection holes
Solution Approach 1:
The frame member serves as an intermediary that carries the attachment projections, positioning them away from the skin member. This allows the projections to secure the shape retaining member to the frame member without directly engaging the skin member, thereby preventing tearing at projection holes while maintaining attachment security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the attachment system into multiple components: the skin member, the frame member (with attachment projections), and the shape retaining member. This segmentation allows the attachment projections to be located on the frame member rather than directly on the skin member, distributing the mechanical stress and preventing concentration at single points.
3Device complexity
If the skin member is directly engaged by projections from the shape retaining member, then attachment is simplified, but the skin member is vulnerable to tearing under excessive tension
Solution Approach 1:
The frame member is introduced as an intermediary component that bears the attachment projections. This adds a component to the system but protects the skin member from direct engagement by projections, preventing tearing while maintaining relatively simple attachment through the frame member structure.
Data Source
AI summary
A seat is provided with: a frame; a pad supported by the frame; a skin member covering a front surface of the pad and provided with a first opening; an annular plate having a second opening and attached to a part of the skin member surrounding the first opening so that the first opening opposes the second opening; and a garnish including a tubular portion passed into the first opening and the second opening, and retained onto the pad, a flange provided at a front end of the tubular portion and having a larger outer diameter than the tubular portion, and an engagement claw projecting from an outer periphery of the tubular portion, and engaging the annular plate between the flange and the engagement claw.