Delta Tooling Co., Ltd.

Delta Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Soichi Makita

Etsunori Fujita

Yumi Ogura

Seiji Kawasaki

Ryuji Kuwano

Shigeyuki Kojima

Eiji Sugimoto

Hideyuki Yamane

Seiya Yoshida

Shigeru Maeda

Yasuhide Takata

Shinichiro Maeda

Shigeki Wagata

Jun Fukuda

Atsushi Nishida

Ryoji Matsukawa

Yuji Hattori

Masahiro Mashino

Shogo Masumura

Masaru Oka

A body weight adjustment mechanism for automatic adjustment to a balanced point is provided to improve vibration absorption characteristics and impact absorption characteristics. A torsion angle of a lower frame-side torsion bar when an upper frame is at a balanced point is found in advance, a torsion angle of the lower frame-side torsion bar in a state in which a person is seated is detected, the detected torsion angle is compared with the aforesaid balanced point torsion angle, a control signal is sent to an elastic force adjusting unit, and torsion angles of upper frame-side torsion bars are adjusted so that the torsion angle of the lower frame-side torsion bar becomes equal to the balanced point torsion angle. The upper frame can be set to an appropriate position in an initial state and a static state in which a person is seated and vibration and impact absorption characteristics are improved.

Seat suspension mechanism

There are improved a vibration absorption characteristic and an impact absorption characteristic. A seat suspension mechanism set so that links of a first link mechanism on a base frame side and links of a second link mechanism on a seat support frame side, between which an intermediate frame is put, differ in operating angles, that is, so that the links of the second link mechanism operate in the range of an angle closer to a vertical to a front-rear direction of a vehicle body. This allows front-rear movement of the seat support frame through the second link mechanism to mainly respond to input vibrations of front-rear movement to thereby improve a vibration absorption characteristic and an impact absorption characteristic in the front-rear direction.

There are improved a vibration absorption characteristic and an impact absorption characteristic. In a suspension mechanismof the present invention, first and second dampers () are suspended in parallel between an upper frame () and a lower frame () with mounting angles different from each other. For this reason, the smaller mounting angle the damper has, the smaller a vertical component of damping force becomes, and the damping force which acts on the upper frame () and the lower frame () which move up and down relatively is moderate in effectiveness as compared with a case of disposing all the dampers at the same mounting angle. Thus, a sense of incongruity in which strong damping force acts abruptly is suppressed and the vibration absorption characteristic and the impact absorption characteristic are improved, which leads to improvement in ride comfort.

Suspension mechanism, multi-suspension mechanism and damper

A vehicle seat includes a tension structure extended on a back frame with a configuration in which a natural frequency in the right-and-left direction of the back frame is set lower than the natural frequency in the front-and-rear direction. Thereby, the structure can easily deflect in the right-and-left direction. Therefore, since an impact load larger than a predetermined level inputted in the front-and-rear direction due to front-and-rear/pitching vibration or a rear collision and the like becomes a force of deflecting the back frame in the right-and-left direction, the vibration/impact energy is consumed by that, and moreover, rearward displacement of the back frame consumes vibration/impact energy. Thus, absorbing performances of the vibration/impact energy are higher than before.

Vehicle seat

To achieve weight reduction while providing elasticity sufficient in a cushioning member for a vehicle seat, an elastic member made of expanded resin beads includes an elastic covering material having stretching properties stuck to an outer face of an expanded bead body. Therefore, when the elastic member made of expanded resin beads is bent or compressed, the respective beads themselves configuring the expanded bead body are elastically deformed according to stretching or compressing of the elastic covering material, and since the elastic deformation is not such deformation that a gap between beads of the expanded bead body largely expands, a crack occurring between beads or permanent deformation does not occur so that bending or compressing becomes possible. Accordingly, the elastic member made of expanded resin beads is suitable as a cushioning member utilizing an elastic recovering force in a bending direction and a thickness direction thereof.

Elastic member made of expanded resin beads, laminated elastic structural body, and seat structure

A structural material is provided, the strength and toughness of which are well-balanced at a high level, suitable in particular for seat frames in automobiles, aircrafts and the like. Specifically disclosed is a structural material produced by integrally joining thin steel members in a part thereof and, after joining, thermally heating a part thereof so that the heat-treated part differs from the other parts in strength and toughness. Unlike a structural material, the strength of which as a whole has been uniformly improved by heat treatment, the above-described structural material consists of a part having a high strength and a part having low strength. Thus, a structural material, the strength and toughness of which are well-balanced at a high level can be obtained. Since the strength and toughness are well-balanced at a high level, the structural material is suitable particularly for seat frames in automobiles, aircrafts and the like.

Structural material

A seat has a configuration in which, in each side frame of a cushion frame, an inner frame and an outer frame which have flanges extending along peripheral edges thereof are faced to each other with a space therebetween at least partially, and the flanges are fixed by hemming process along the entire peripheral edges thereof. Since the entire peripheral edges are hemmed, the inner frame and the outer frame are securely fixed. Additionally, since the inner frame and the outer frame which are thin-plate-shaped are used, reduction in weight of each side frame can be achieved. Further, since the inner frame and the outer frame are faced to each other with a space therebetween at least partially, a compressive/tensile strength required as a side frame can be secured by inserting an expanded bead body into the space.

Seat

Growing community of inventors

Hiroshima, Japan

Soichi Makita