University of Michigan

Hoover Universal, Inc.

Johnson Service Company

Joseph B Benson

Mohan P Vidwans

Brian J Rahn

Leon J Eberly

Kathleen Weber

An inertia sensitive latch assembly particularly adapted for preventing forward dumping of a motor vehicle seat back. The embodiments are particularly suited for applications in station wagon vehicles having forward dumping capability of the second passenger seats. The device is enclosed within the seat back and includes a pendulum engageable with a latch hook affixed to a support structure. The pendulum engages the hook when the vehicle is subjected to deceleration loads above a predetermined level. In one embodiment of the invention, a retention clip device is provided which maintains the pendulum engaged with the latch hook after a deceleration load is relieved to maintain the seat in engagement throughout multiple impact vehicle conditions. Both embodiments are substantially enclosed within the seat back cushion structure, thus protecting them and providing an unobstructed load floor when the seat back is dumped forward.

Vehicle seat with inertial latch assembly

A vehicle seat with a mechanism in the back of the seat which provides support for the lumbar region of the back of the seat occupant, the mechanism being mechanically adjustable to vary the magnitude of the support provided the occupant's back. The mechanism is characterized by the fact that it provides two degrees of freedom to adapt the mechanism to a particular seat occupant thereby providing the desired user comfort. The mechanism consists of a support member mounted on linkage so that the support member is moveable in and out in a direction laterally of the seatback to provide one degree of freedom and is pivotally moveable about an axis extending transversely of the seatback to adapt the slope of the support to the slope of the occupant's back to thereby impart the second degree of freedom. The seatback suspension springs fasten to the lumbar linkage to prevent discontinuities in back support from developing at any position of the lumbar system. The support member is assymmetrically pivoted and spring loaded to bias the lumbar support to its upper portion and thereby provide some upper torso support. A control cam is specifically configured to enable easy adjustment of the first degree of freedom and the seat occupant is moveable in the seat to achieve the second degree of freedom.

Vehicle seat with mechanical lumbar support having two degrees of freedom

A manual two part automobile seat belt tightener which conveniently assembles and disassembles to permit intermediate attachment to a seat belt without the need to pass any of the seat belt buckle parts through the tightening mechanism. The tightener mechanism includes a non-circular bifurcated pin or reel and a complimentary non-circular aperture in the tightener frame to assure that the pin or reel cannot be rotated until the pin or reel is fully inserted in the frame. In particular, in attaching the tightener to an intermediate portion of an automobile seat belt, the tightener ratcheting mechanism cannot be rotated unless the bifurcated pin or reel is fully inserted into the ratcheting mechanism. An additional advantage to the new tightener is the significantly simple and sturdy construction that can make use of a conventional hexagonal ratchet wrench mechanism in the novel combination.

Growing community of inventors

South Lyon, MI, United States of America

Joseph B Benson