Stowable Aircraft Seat With Pivoting Pan And Track Translation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional aircraft cabin seats are non-ergonomic, causing discomfort for crew members and have limited space for reclining, which can hinder emergency ingress and egress.
Innovation Solution
A stowable seat design with a pivoting seat pan that translates along tracks, allowing the backrest and seat pan to adjust angles to increase comfort while maintaining compactness, featuring a crossbar to limit rotation and apertures to regulate translation, enabling the seat to recline and adjust to various positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the seat is designed to recline into a more comfortable position, then comfort is improved, but the space required increases and emergency ingress/egress may be hindered
Solution Approach 1:
The seat is divided into multiple functional segments: a backrest that pivots independently, a seat pan that translates along tracks, and a footrest that can be positioned separately. This segmentation allows each component to move in a controlled manner, achieving a reclined comfortable position while maintaining compact overall dimensions when stowed.
Solution Approach 2:
The seat components are designed to nest within each other when in the stowed position. The footrest folds beneath the seat pan, and the backrest pivots to align with the seat pan, creating a compact nested configuration that minimizes space requirements while preserving the ability to extend into a comfortable reclined position when needed.
2Ease of operation
If the seat pan is fixed in position, then structural simplicity is maintained, but ergonomic comfort is reduced due to non-ergonomic geometry
Solution Approach 1:
The seat pan is designed to be dynamic rather than fixed, translating along guided tracks as the backrest pivots. This dynamic movement allows the seat pan to adjust its position and orientation to match the ergonomic requirements of different seating positions, improving comfort while using relatively simple mechanical components (tracks and pins).
Solution Approach 2:
The geometry of the seat pan position is changed through controlled translation along tracks with specifically positioned apertures. By varying the aperture positions along the tracks, the system achieves multiple ergonomic configurations without requiring complex active control mechanisms, thus improving comfort while limiting structural complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the backrest and seat pan are rigidly connected, then structural simplicity is maintained, but the ability to adjust to various positions for comfort is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The connection between the backrest and seat pan is segmented into two independent degrees of freedom: the backrest pivots on a pivot axis, and the seat pan translates along tracks. This segmentation allows each component to adjust its position independently, achieving versatile multi-position capability while using simple mechanical connections (pivot joints and track-guided translation).
Solution Approach 2:
The tracked connection acts as an intermediary mechanism between the pivoting backrest and the seat pan. The tracks with apertures and pins provide a simple mechanical mediation that converts the rotational motion of the backrest into the translational motion of the seat pan, enabling position adjustment without requiring complex direct coupling mechanisms.
4Ease of operation
If the seat is designed for full recline capability, then comfort is improved, but the stowed position volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of having the seat pan rotate backward during recline (which would increase stowed volume), the system inverts the motion sequence: the backrest pivots forward first, which then drives the seat pan to translate forward along the tracks. This inverted motion sequence allows the seat to achieve full recline capability while maintaining a compact stowed position, as all components fold forward rather than backward.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A
AI summary
A stowable seat (100) is provided. The stowable seat (100) may comprise a housing (102) and a first track coupled to the housing (102). A backrest (110) may be slidably coupled to the first track. A seat pan (112) may be rotatable relative to the backrest (110). A second track may be in operable communication with the seat pan (112). An angle between the seat pan (112) and the second track may increase as the seat pan (112) translates away from the housing (102).