Johnson Controls Technology Company

Prince Corporation

Thomas J Dellinger

Neil J Bush

Eric Burmeister

Silvio Aebischer

Brian L Erickson

Patrick W Binish

Paul T VanderKuyl

Dennis J Beard

Danny E Campbell

Theodore W Ringold

A vehicle seat assembly having a suspension panel for the seat pad that is formed of resin impregnated compressed fibrous bat. The suspension panel is formed with corrugations and other contours to enable the suspension panel to flex in a predetermined manner to provide suspension to a seat pad. The suspension panel, when used in the seat back can also form the rear trim panel of the seat back thus reducing the number of components in the seat back as the suspension panel serves multiple functions. The fibrous panel can be reclaimed after the useful life of the seat and manufactured into a new panel thereby reducing the quantity of seat components that are scrapped after use. In addition, recycled fibers can be used originally thereby increasing the amount of recycled content in the seat assembly.

Vehicle seat assembly with thermoformed fibrous suspension panel

A vehicle seat assembly in which the seat bottom and seat back are each constructed with a two piece frame. The two pieces of the frame attach to another and trap the trim cover and a suspension panel therebetween to support the suspension panel and trim cover on the frame with a resilient pad therebetween. The two parts of the seat bottom frame and the two parts of the seat back frame have interlocking features to fasten the parts to another without separate fasteners. The seat bottom frame parts and the seat back frame parts are also held together by a pivot pin at the rear of the seat bottom and the lower end of the seat back. The same pivot pin is used to attach the seat back and seat bottom to another. The resulting seat structure is relatively simple to dismantle. By removing the pivot pin the seat assembly will essentially 'fall apart' for dismantling for reusing, reclaiming or recycling the seat components.

Twin frame seat assembly

A vehicle panel material comprises a mixture of recycled, reground thermo-formable material and reprocessed headliner material which includes fibrous bats with polyester fibers, glass fibers and a thermo-setting resin. The method of manufacturing such material includes the steps of shredding thermo-formable material into strips; shredding headliner material comprising thermo-formable fibrous bats, glass fibers and thermo-setting resin; mixing and carding the thermo-formable material and headliner material into a mat; heating the mat to at least partially melt the thermo-formable material; and shaping the mat into a vehicle panel.

Vehicle panel material

A visor, according to one embodiment, comprises a closed-cell, semi-rigid urethane foam material thermoformed from sheets into a visor core construction with a reinforced backbone mounted along an edge thereof for mounting the visor to a vehicle. The visor is upholstered utilizing an adhesive and scrim laminate and is formed by heating, pressing and cutting to assure the outer upholstery material adheres smoothly to the visor core and provides a trim edge in appearance. According to another embodiment of the invention, a blend of kenaf fibers are employed as the core material, which is laminated with upholstery material as in the first embodiment to complete the visor construction. In yet another embodiment of the invention, a butterfly-type core construction is made of high density kenaf blend and upholstered in a manner employed for other butterfly visor core constructions.

Visor and method of manufacturing

Growing community of inventors

Zeeland, MI, United States of America

Thomas J Dellinger