Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Paul A Glinski

David Charles Viano

David P Kolena

Mladen Humer

Richard J Neely

Robert Scott Crane

A vehicle seat is providing including a seat bottom frame; a generally U-shaped seat back frame with an upper cross member with legs pivotally mounted with respect to the seat bottom frame, the seat back cross member being generally at least approximately 470 millimeters along a line generally parallel to the torso of a seated occupant from an H point of the seated occupant, and the cross member being concavely bowed if under approximately 525 millimeters from the H point of the seated occupant; and a deformable lower cross member having ends fixably connected to the seat back legs being concavely bowed, the cross member having a major dimension oriented generally parallel to the torso of the seated occupant, the lower cross member having an upper and a lower end, the lower cross member upper end being vertically above the H point of a seated occupant when the seat back frame is positioned in a normal seating position and where in a rear crash situation, the lower cross member deforms to pivot its lower end further away from the seat back frame legs than its top end to capture the seated occupant's pelvic region between the lower cross member and the bottom frame.

Vehicle seat with perimeter frame and pelvic catcher

A seat bottom and a seat back are pivotally mounted for movement between a normal seating position and a cargo floor position. A seat belt includes a strap having one end anchored on the vehicle body, a buckle attached to the other end of the strap, and a plastic stiffening boot which extends through the gap between the seat back and the seat bottom to position the buckle element in an occupant accessible position. A spring urges the boot into engagement with the seat back to establish the boot and buckle in a normal position in which the seat bottom may be pivoted between the normal seating position and the pivoted position without interference with the boot or buckle. The spring yields when the seat back is pivoted forwardly to the cargo floor position and then returns the seat belt to the normal occupant accessible position when the seat back is returned to its normal seating position.

Growing community of inventors

Chesterfield, MI, United States of America

Paul A Glinski