Nissan Motor Company Limited

Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Ken Kamijo

Hideyuki Nagashima

Yukio Fukunaga

Kazuo Hayashi

Kouzou Maeda

Hiroshi Ueno

Hidetaka Suzuki

Hitoshi Takeda

Toshimichi Hanai

Kouzo Maeda

Harutoshi Tsujimura

Kenzo Shimizu

Yasuyuki Uekusa

A seat suspension includes a device which is responsive to a sensor which detects the condition of the road surface being traversed by the vehicle in a manner to produce relatively hard suspension characteristics when the vehicle is running on a rough road and softer characteristics when traversing a road having a smooth surface. The suspension of the vehicle if equipped with variable hardness type shock absorbers can be controlled in parallel with the seat suspension to improve the ride. Additional sensors which sense parameters such as acceleration, braking, steering angle, vehicle speed etc., can be used to control the setting of the seat suspension in addition to the basic road condition control.

Seat suspension system for automotive vehicle or the like

A seat back of a vehicular seat is movably supportable in the fore and aft direction relative to a seat cushion and lockable in its forward and rearward positions. The back side of the seat back serves as a part of a seat for a child in the forward position in which the child is restrained relative to the seat back by a seat belt assembly, while the front side of the seat back serves as a part of a usual passenger seat in the rearward position, thereby providing a sufficient comfortableness to the seated child without deteriorating the function of the usual passenger seat.

Vehicular seat

In an electrically actuated seat belt retractor including a belt take-up shaft on which a seat belt is retractable, and an electric motor which rotates the belt take-up shaft in at least one of the belt retracting direction and the belt feeding direction when energized, there is disposed an extra belt retracting device which can effect the belt retracting work of the belt take-up shaft when the electric motor fails to run.

Seat belt retractor

A seat belt retractor comprises a take-up shaft which is spring biased in a belt retracting direction; a planetary gearing having a sun gear nonrotatably mounted to the take-up shaft, a ring gear and a planet pinion; a mechanical tensionless mechanism which prevents the planet pinion from orbiting in the same direction as the belt retracting direction; and a motor actuated slack control mechanism meshing with the ring gear, wherein the tensionless state is established by preventing the orbiting movement of the planet pinion and the slack control is effected by rotating the ring gear.

A strap retractor assembly of a vehicular seat belt arrangement including a retaining strap to be fitted to a vehicle occupant, comprising a reel shaft having the strap anchored thereto at one end of the strap, a spring urging the reel shaft to turn in a direction to have the strap re-wound on the reel shaft, a ratchet wheel rotatable with the reel shaft, a pawl member movable into and out of a position engaging the ratchet wheel and prohibiting the reel shaft from being turned in the aforesaid direction, a switch unit to produce first pulses in response to rotation of the reel shaft in one direction and second pulses in response to rotation of the reel shaft in the opposite direction, a pulse counter to count the first pulses forwardly and the second pulses backwardly, a comparator to compare the number of the pulses counted by the counter with a predetermined number of pulses and to produce a control signal when the former equals the latter, and a solenoid-operated actuator to drive the pawl member into the aforesaid position in response to the control signal.

Strap retractor assembly

A strap retractor assembly of a seat belt arrangement including a retaining strap to be fitted to an occupant of a seat in a vehicle, comprising a reel shaft having the retaining strap anchored thereto; a drive motor for driving the reel shaft for rotation in direction to have the retaining strap unwound from and re-wound on the reel shaft; pulse generators to produce first pulses in response to rotation of the reel shaft in one direction and second pulses in response to rotation of the reel shaft in the other direction; a pulse counter to count the first pulses forwardly and the second pulses backwardly for producing an information signal representative of the number of the pulses counted; a reference signal generator to produce a reference signal variable with a preselected parameter and representative of a number of pulses corresponding to a desired degree of slackness of the strap; comparators to produce a signal when the number of the pulses represented by the information signal is in a predetermined relationship to the number of pulses represented by the reference signal; and a signal processing network to process the signals and pulses delivered from the pulse generators and comparators and to produce, on the basis of the signal from the comparators, a signal to actuate the motor into operation driving the reel shaft in either direction.

An automatic seat positioning device for a vehicle driver's seat wherein a reversible motor is engaged with one of electromagnetic clutches and rotates so that an associated seat member actuating mechanism moves one of the seat members to a desired position for a specific driver from an initial position upto a maximum movable end. In such an automatic seat positioning device of the construction described above, a seat position detector corresponding to the seat member for detecting that the seat member arrives at a specific position at which the detector is located and a preset control circuit for presetting a counter, which indicates the set position of the seat member by counting the number of rotations of the motor, to a value corresponding to the number of rotations of the motor by which the seat member is moved from an initial starting position to the specific position are provided so that an indication error of the counter can be canceled due to slips which occur whenever the motor is repetitively started and stopped, engaged with the electromagnetic clutch. In addition, the automatic seat positioning device stores the positional data of the seat member set at the desired position from the counted value of the counter in a memory provided therewithin in order to return the current set position of the seat member to an originally set position on a basis of the stored data. In this case, a memory correction circuit is provided which corrects an erroneous stored data to an accurate value corresponding to the actual position in response to the presetting of the counter according to the number of times by which a manual switch which energizes the motor in a normal or reverse direction is operated. Therefore, the seat member can more accurately be returned to the originally set position.

Automatic seat positioning device for a vehicle driver seat

An first device is securely connected to at least one of a sliding mechanism of a seat assembly and a seat proper frame and has a rigidly constructed extreme end portion which extends outwardly toward the door opening in the vicinity of the side sill. A second device is provided on a hinged side door and positioned at a portion of the door which faces the extreme end portion upon normal closing of the side door. When the side door tends to be driven into the vehicle cabin by a violent external force applied thereto, the second device is brought into secure engagement with the extreme end portion of the first device thereby preventing the door from continuing the driving-in motion.

Collision resistant construction for a door of a vehicle

A seat position automatic adjusting device used for an automotive vehicle motor-powered front seat comprises a single reversible motor for actuating the adjusting mechanism to adjust each seat member to a desired position. A control circuit counts and stores the number of rotations of the reversible motor and outputs a control signal by calculating the difference between the current seat position data from the stored value and the original seat position data. A drive circuit drives the reversible motor to automatically return the current seat position to the original seat position to the original seat position in response to the control signal from said control circuit.

Seat position automatic adjusting device for an automotive vehicle

A safety restraint system for an occupant of a vehicle seat provided with adjusting means for varying the seat position and/or seatback inclination. The system comprises a seat belt, a retractor having a reel constantly biased toward retraction of the belt and a tension-eliminating mechanism including an electric actuator for inhibiting the reel from turning in the belt-retracting direction when the seat belt is worn by the occupant to cause closing of a primary control switch. The improvement resides in the provision of secondary control switch(es) coupled with the seat adjusting mechanism to make the tension-eliminating mechanism ineffective during operation of the adjusting means, thereby allowing the occupant to accomplish adjustment of the seat without the need of unfastening the seat belt and automatically adjusting the amount of protraction of the belt from the retractor in compliance with the change in the position or posture of the occupant.

Safety restraint system having tensionless type belt retractor adapted

A seat belt retractor with a belt tension eliminator comprises a belt take up reel, a retracting spring, means for producing a belt fastening signal, and a tension eliminator which prevents retraction of the belt with a measure of slack in the same, so that the tension or stress exerted on the body of the belt wearer by the belt fastened is eliminated by rendering the force of the retraction spring to be inactive in the normal driving position and posture assumed by the belt wearer.

Seat belt retractor with a tension eliminator

A seat reclining device of a vehicle is provided with a position memory function. The device includes a position memory wheel having an integrally formed reset cam and a reset lever engaging therewith. The reset lever is urged onto the periphery of the reset cam of the position memory wheel by spring force and normally contacts therewith at least two points.

Seat reclining device

A position memory device to be used for the power driven seat of a vehicle. The device comprises a memory wheel and memory switches to be engaged with the memory wheel at a selected position of the seat. Return to the selected position is identified by the re-engagement of the switches against the memory wheel at the memorized position and where the current supply circuit to the driving motor is interrupted.

Position memory device

A seat belt retractor having a tension eliminating mechanism and a belt position memorizing mechanism comprises a shaft on which the belt is wound up when the shaft rotates in one direction, biasing means biasing the shaft to rotate in the one direction, a sun gear fixedly mounted on the shaft, a stationary internal gear mounted around the shaft, a planetary gear operatively interposed between the sun gear and the internal gear, a discal carrier coaxial with the shaft and having thereon a stud on which the planetary gear is journaled an external gear coaxial with the shaft and having a projection which is engageable with another projection formed on the discal carrier when the carrier is rotated relative to the external gear, biasing means biasing the discal carrier to rotate in a direction to allow the projection on the carrier to engage the projection on the external gear, a stopper meshingly engageable with the external gear to lock the same, and an actuator causing the stopper to engage with the external gear when the webbing takes a passenger restraining position.

Seat belt retractor with tension eliminating mechanism

A seat belt retractor with a belt tension eliminator comprises a retractor shaft, a retracting spring, means producing a belt fastening signal, and a tension eliminator which prevents retraction of the belt with a measure of slack in the same, so that the tension or stress exerted on the body of the belt wearer by the belt fastened is eliminated by rendering the force of the retraction spring to be inactive in the normal driving position and posture assumed by the belt wearer.

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Zushi, Japan

Ken Kamijo