Steering Wheel Support for Rotated Vehicle Seat Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
During a frontal collision, vehicles with driver seats rotated 180° experience increased collision loads, causing the seat back and headrest to deform and potentially increasing the vehicle's weight when reinforced for protection.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle occupant protection device that includes a seat, steering wheel, and a steering moving mechanism, where the steering wheel is moved to a support position using existing tilt and telescopic mechanisms to support the seat back and headrest from the front side, preventing deformation and weight increase, while maintaining minimal part count.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the seat back and headrest are reinforced to prevent deformation during frontal collision, then the protection performance is improved, but the seat weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The steering wheel is moved to a support position before collision occurs, positioning it to support the seat back and headrest from the front side. This preliminary positioning prevents deformation during collision without requiring reinforcement of the seat back and headrest structures, thereby avoiding weight increase while maintaining protection performance
Solution Approach 2:
The steering wheel acts as an intermediary protective element between the occupant and the collision force. By positioning the steering wheel to support the seat back and headrest, it mediates the collision load, preventing direct transmission to the seat back and headrest structures, thus avoiding the need for structural reinforcement and associated weight increase
2Reliability
If the steering wheel is moved to support position using additional mechanisms, then the protection function is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The existing tilt and telescopic mechanisms of the steering wheel are made multi-functional by programming them to automatically position the steering wheel at a support position when the seat is rotated 180 degrees. This allows the same mechanisms to serve both their original steering adjustment function and the new collision protection function, avoiding the need for additional dedicated mechanisms and maintaining minimal part count
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle occupant protection device includes a vehicle seat, a steering wheel, a steering moving mechanism, and a control unit. The vehicle seat includes a seat back and a headrest, the vehicle seat being configured to turn between a position where the vehicle seat is directed toward a vehicle front side and a position where the vehicle seat is directed toward a vehicle rear side. The steering wheel is provided ahead of the vehicle seat in a vehicle front-rear direction. The steering moving mechanism is configured to change a position of the steering wheel. The control unit is configured to move the steering wheel to a support position where the seat back and the headrest are supported by the steering wheel from the vehicle front side, by the steering moving mechanism, when the vehicle seat is directed toward the vehicle rear side.