Seat Garnish Assembly for Gap-Free Opening Retention
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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
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an annular plate as an intermediary component between the skin member and the garnish. This annular plate distributes the tension forces evenly across the skin member, preventing localized deformation and gaps. The annular plate acts as a mediator that transfers and disperses the mechanical stress, resolving the contradiction between maintaining shape and preventing gaps.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the structural parameters by adding the annular plate with specific geometric features (projections and engagement structures). This modifies the stress distribution parameters in the skin member, transforming the concentrated tension into distributed forces, thereby preventing deformation and gap formation while maintaining the opening shape.
2Strength
If projections are used to engage the skin member to ensure secure attachment, then attachment security is improved, but excessive tension may tear the skin member at the projection holes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the engagement structure by adding an annular plate that distributes the tension forces. This changes the stress concentration parameter at the projection holes into a distributed stress pattern across the entire annular plate-skin member interface, reducing the risk of tearing while maintaining secure attachment.
Solution Approach 2:
The annular plate serves as a cushioning element that is installed beforehand to prevent excessive tension concentration. It absorbs and distributes the tensile forces before they can concentrate at the projection holes, thereby preventing tearing while maintaining attachment security.
3Strength
If the skin member is engaged by projections from the shape retaining member, then attachment is secured, but gaps may still form when tension is applied to the pad or skin member
Solution Approach 1:
The annular plate serves as a mediator between the projections and the skin member. It maintains the engagement security provided by the projections while simultaneously preventing gap formation by distributing tension forces evenly across its structure, thus resolving the contradiction between secure attachment and gap prevention.
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.