Transformable Vehicle Seatback Workspace With Ergonomic Knee Space
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current automotive vehicle seat designs lack sufficient workspace for large tools and are ergonomically challenging for users, particularly when trying to use the center seat as a work surface from side seats, due to limited fold-down tray surfaces and the need for awkward posture.
Innovation Solution
A set of seats with a second seat that can transform from a seated position to a table position, allowing the second seatback to serve as a work surface while creating a knee space opposite the first seat, enabling users to work comfortably without rotating their vertebral column, through mechanisms like rotation around a vertical axis and tilting mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of moving object
If fold-down trays are used on seatbacks, then workspace is provided for rear seat users, but the surface area is limited and work with large volume tools is difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The seatback is made dynamically transformable between a vertical seated position and a horizontal table position. This dynamic reconfiguration allows the same physical structure to provide both seating and extended workspace functions, resolving the contradiction between limited tray surface area and the need for large tool workspace.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions the seatback from a two-dimensional vertical surface to a horizontal surface by rotating it 90 degrees. This dimensional change creates a much larger effective workspace area while maintaining the same physical structure, enabling comfortable use of large volume tools.
2Area of moving object
If the center seatback is used as a work surface from side seats, then workspace is provided, but the user is forced to twist the vertebral column which is not ergonomic
Solution Approach 1:
The seatback dynamically reconfigures from a vertical to horizontal position, creating a workspace that is naturally accessible to side seat users without requiring vertebral column twisting. The dynamic transformation eliminates the ergonomic problem while maintaining workspace availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The transformable seatback acts as an intermediary structure that mediates between the side seat user and the workspace needs. By positioning the work surface horizontally adjacent to the user, it eliminates the need for awkward twisting postures while providing adequate workspace.
3Ease of operation
If the second seat transforms to a table position, then workspace increases and ergonomics improve, but the device complexity increases due to rotation and tilting mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The seatback structure serves multiple functions: it provides seating support in vertical position and workspace surface in horizontal position. This multi-functionality justifies the added mechanism complexity by eliminating the need for separate tray tables and fold-down surfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The dynamic transformability of the seatback consolidates multiple static components (seats, trays, tables) into a single multi-position structure. While the mechanism complexity increases, the overall device count decreases, and the system becomes more versatile.
Data Source
AI summary
A set of seats for an automotive vehicle, where the set of seats comprises a first seat and a second seat, where the first seat is provided with a first seatback and a first seat bottom, where the second seat is provided with a second seatback and a second seat bottom, the set of seats is configured in order to have:a road configuration in which the first seat bottom extends substantially horizontally and the first seatback extends substantially vertically; anda relaxed configuration in which the second seat is in a table position in which the second seatback extends substantially horizontally and the second seat bottom extends substantially vertically, where the second seatback and the second seat bottom delimit a knee space.