Vehicle Seat Vibration Absorber With Adjustable Spring Stiffness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Vehicle seats with increased mass in the seat back, such as those integrated with safety belts or comfort features, experience reduced natural vibration frequencies, leading to intense shaking and disturbing noises, affecting the vehicle's excitation frequency and compromising weight-optimized seat substructures.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle seat with an adjustable vibration-absorber featuring an absorber mass supported by elastic elements, where the spring hardness is adjustable via an actuating mechanism, allowing adaptation to different frequency ranges and seat positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the mass of the seat back is increased to integrate safety belts or comfort features, then the structural functionality and comfort are improved, but the natural vibration frequency is reduced causing intense shaking and disturbing noises
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the seat back structure by introducing a vibration absorber with adjustable mass and stiffness characteristics. This allows modification of the natural vibration frequency of the seat back without changing its overall mass, thereby reducing vibration and noise while maintaining structural functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The vibration absorber acts as an intermediary element between the seat back structure and the external vibrations. It absorbs and dissipates vibrational energy, preventing it from being transmitted to the seat back and causing shaking and noise.
2Quantity of substance
If the mass distribution in the seat back is increased in the upper region, then safety and comfort features are enhanced, but the weight-optimized seat substructure is compromised with increased perceptible vibrations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a vibration absorber with adjustable parameters (mass and stiffness) that can be tuned to counteract the harmful vibrations generated by the increased mass distribution in the seat back. This allows the system to maintain both the enhanced safety/comfort features and reduced perceptible vibrations.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a vibration-absorber is provided in the vehicle seat, then vibration damping is achieved, but the absorber is designed for only one frequency range representing a compromise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the vibration absorber dynamic by introducing an actuating mechanism that can adjust the spring hardness of the elastic elements in real-time. This allows the absorber to adapt to different frequency ranges and seat positions, eliminating the need for a fixed-frequency design and representing a significant improvement in versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The actuating mechanism changes the physical parameters of the vibration absorber, specifically the spring hardness of the elastic elements, to match different operating conditions and frequency ranges. This enables the same absorber to effectively damp vibrations across multiple frequency ranges rather than being limited to a single frequency.
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 adjustable spring hardness enables the vibration-absorber to effectively reduce natural vibrations by adapting to the seat's position and dynamic needs, enhancing comfort and reducing perceptible vibrations.
Implementation Method 1
the vibration-absorber exhibits an absorber mass which is supported relative to the backrest structure or relative to the headrest structure, respectively, by use of elastic elements
Implementation Method 2
the spring hardness of the elastic elements is adjustable by an actuating mechanism
Implementation Method 3
the occurrence of natural vibrations during vehicle operation is further reduced
Implementation Method 4
The frequency of natural vibration of the vehicle seat often affects the excitation frequency of the vehicle, resulting in vibrations of the vehicle seat that can be perceived particularly intensely
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle seat has a vibration absorber. The vehicle seat includes a seat base part and a backrest, which is disposed on the seat base part and is provided with a head restraint. The vibration absorber is disposed in the backrest or in the head restraint and is mounted there on a backrest structure or on a head restraint structure. The vibration absorber has a damper mass, which is supported relative to the backrest structure or to the head restraint structure by way of elastic elements. The spring stiffness of the elastic elements can be adjusted via an actuation mechanism.