Power seat assembly with spring loaded seatback dump and motor driven design rewind and reset functionality

Abstract

A seatback assembly pivotally supported upon a seat bottom and including each of forward spring assisted dump, rewind and reset protocols. A stationary sector is affixed to the seat bottom and has an abutment edge. A seatback sector is pivotally secured to the stationary sector and is influenced relative thereto in a forward rotating dump direction. A cam is rotatably supported upon the pivoting seatback sector, the cam having an outer engaging edge in abutting contact with the abutment edge for maintaining the seatback sector in an upright design position. A rotating sector plate is arranged in stacked fashion with the stationary and pivoting seatback sectors, the sector plate exhibiting a plurality of outer circumferentially arrayed teeth. A pinion gear extends from a pivot axis established between the cam and seatback sector, the gear engaging the outer arrayed teeth of the sector plate. Upon the cam being rotated out of engagement with the stationary sector, the seatback rotates to a forward dump position, with subsequent rotation of the pinion gear rotatably displacing the sector plate and the seatback in slaved fashion to retract the seatback to the upright design position, with a concluding and counter-rotation of the pinion gear counter-rotating and resetting the sector plate independently of the seatback sector to a final reset position.