Nhk Spring Co., Ltd.

The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Norio Kawashima

Katsutoshi Sasaki

Takayuki Enomoto

Takuya Nishimoto

Naobumi Kuboki

Hiroshi Matsunaga

Hiroaki Nishiguma

Atsuo Matsumoto

Shinichi Horibata

Ko Masuda

Takashi Takeshita

Yuji Tokiwa

Yuji Niikura

Osamu Tano

In a vehicle seat, a central support member typically consisting of wire mesh or grid and supports most of the load of the vehicle occupant via spring members, and undergoes a relatively large displacement when the occupant is seated in the seat. Thus, by detecting the displacements of various parts of the central support member, preferably peripheral parts thereof, the magnitude of the total load and distribution of the load can be evaluated both reliably and accurately. Additionally, displacement sensors for measuring such large displacements are relatively inexpensive and easy to handle. Also, such sensors would not interfere with the existing seat designs, and would not be adversely affected by the equipment of the seat such as seat heaters.

Vehicle seat incorporated with an occupant sensor

A card conveying structure for card accessing devices, comprising: a casing defining a card inlet and a card guideway; a drive pulley and a driven pulley supported on one side of the card guideway by a first pivot axis and a second pivot axis, respectively, defining a zero or small angle relative to a vertical line perpendicular to a major surface of a card guided by the guideway; and an endless belt passed around the two pulleys, effective diameters of the first and second pulleys being selected in relation with spacings of the pivot axes relative to the card guideway so that a linear span ofthe belt may extend along the guideway and abut the major surface of the card. By urging the linear span of the belt against the card, the card may be conveyed by the movement of the belt. Alternatively, by slanting at least one of the pulleys towards the guideway until its periphery or the belt passed around it comes into contact with the card, the movement of the belt or the pulley can be transmitted to the card. In either case, elimination of the need for pulleys having piovt axes perpendicular to the card conveying direction and in parallel with the card conveying plane leads to a substantial reduction in the vertical dimension of the card accessing device.

Card conveying structure for card accessing devices

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Norio Kawashima