Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Akira Takinami

Kohshi Katoh

Tetsuya Nagai

Masatoshi Hada

Osamu Oda

Takashi Sugimoto

Yuji Yamada

Kenji Iida

Ryunosuke Seki

In the vehicle seat, rear suspension members are provided at two positions spaced away from each other in a lateral direction on an edge of a seat cushion near a seatback, and support the seat cushion while the seat cushion is suspended from a seat cushion support frame so that the seat cushion is movable in the lateral direction. A front suspension member is provided at one position or two positions spaced away from each other in the lateral direction on ahead of the rear suspension members, and supports the seat cushion while the seat cushion is suspended from the seat cushion support frame so that the seat cushion is movable in the lateral direction.

Vehicle seat for supporting seat cushion while permitting lateral movement

A vehicle seat includes a lock-to-neutral-position mechanism that locks a seat cushion at a neutral position, and an immediate lock mechanism that locks the seat cushion immediately at a current position when locking is required. A steering sensor senses a steering angle and a steering angular velocity. The immediate lock mechanism performs the locking when the steering angle is large, whereas the lock-to-neutral-position mechanism performs the locking when the steering velocity is high. When the steering wheel is at the neutral position, the locking by the immediate lock mechanism is released and the locking is switched over to the lock-to-neutral-position mechanism that is in a lock ready state.

Vehicle seat

A seat cushion is swingable about an axis A with respect to a seat cushion support frame that is a part of a main frame. A cushion return spring that is a flat spring is disposed between the seat cushion and the seat cushion support frame so that an elastic force of the cushion return spring returns the seat cushion to a neutral position. A pair of clamp rollers that clamps the cushion return spring is disposed. The clamp rollers are movable along a longitudinal axis of the cushion return spring. Changing of a clamping position by moving the clamp rollers changes an effective length of the cushion return spring. In this way, a swingable range of the seat cushion and a force to return the seat cushion to the neutral position are changed.

A locking block is fixed with respect to a seat cushion. A locking pin which can advance and retract relative to the locking block is provided on a main frame side. A V groove shape receptacle is formed on the locking block. When the locking pin is advanced into the receptacle portion, the locking pin is guided by a receiving inclined surface of the receptacle portion forming the V-shape groove, and advances to a bottom of the receptacle portion. With this process, the locking block moves in a rotational direction B, and when the locking pin engages the bottom, the seat cushion is fixed.

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Toyota, Japan

Akira Takinami