Vehicle Seat Hinge Intermediate Riser Angular Offset Correction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vehicle seat hinge mechanisms often experience incomplete locking due to slight angular offsets between side-plates, especially in seats with high stiffness frames, making it difficult for occupants to fully lock the mechanism, which is crucial for safety.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating an intermediate riser with lower stiffness than the seatback frame, mounted on the seat-bottom frame and connected to the hinge mechanism, which can deform to correct angular offsets and ensure full locking by rotating the side-plates into proper alignment, allowing easy deformation with minimal force from the occupant.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the seatback frame is made with high stiffness to ensure structural strength, then the strength is improved, but the hinge mechanism cannot fully lock due to angular offsets between side-plates
Solution Approach 1:
The seatback frame is segmented into a rigid seatback frame and a separate intermediate riser with lower stiffness. This segmentation allows the intermediate riser to independently deform and correct angular offsets in the hinge mechanism, while the main seatback frame maintains its required strength and stiffness.
Solution Approach 2:
The intermediate riser acts as an intermediary element between the seatback frame and the hinge mechanism. It mediates the angular offset problem by deforming to realign the side-plates, enabling full locking without compromising the overall structural strength of the seatback frame.
2Ease of operation
If the intermediate riser has low stiffness to correct angular offsets, then the ease of operation is improved, but the structural rigidity is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Different parts of the seatback structure have different stiffness properties: the main seatback frame maintains high stiffness for structural stability, while the intermediate riser has locally reduced stiffness to enable deformation for correcting angular offsets. This local quality differentiation resolves the contradiction between operational ease and structural rigidity.
3Reliability
If the occupant applies torque to correct angular offset, then the locking reliability is improved, but the force required increases
Solution Approach 1:
The intermediate riser's stiffness parameter is specifically designed to be lower than the seatback frame, creating a compliant element that requires minimal torque from the occupant to deform. This parameter change enables reliable locking with moderate force, as the intermediate riser naturally deforms to realign the hinge mechanism under small applied torques.
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 intermediate riser effectively corrects small angular offsets, ensuring complete locking of the hinge mechanism regardless of the seatback frame's stiffness, enhancing safety and usability by allowing easy adjustment with moderate torque from the occupant.
Implementation Method 1
the intermediate riser, having a lesser stiffness, can be slightly deformed, because of the restoring system internal to the articulation mechanism, in order to bring the first and second side-plate in a correct positioning
Data Source
AI summary
The vehicle seat comprising a seat-bottom frame; a seatback frame comprising at least one first lateral riser mounted pivoting relative to said seat-bottom frame around a transverse axis; a first discontinuous type hinge mechanism with a first side-plate rigidly fixed to the seat-bottom frame and a second side-plate; an intermediate riser mounted on the seat bottom frame, pivoting around the transverse axis, by means of the first hinge mechanism where the intermediate riser and the second side-plate are securely connected in rotation around the transverse axis; where the intermediate riser is fixed to the first lateral riser at a distance from the transverse axis; where the intermediate riser has a stiffness less than the stiffness of the first lateral riser of the seatback frame.