CN113085684A

CN113085684A - Anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat and vehicle comprising the same

Info

Publication number: CN113085684A
Application number: CN202110472881.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李纯
Original assignee: Daimler AG
Current assignee: Mercedes Benz Group AG
Priority date: 2021-04-29
Filing date: 2021-04-29
Publication date: 2021-07-09

Abstract

The invention relates to an anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat, which comprises a slide way arranged in a seat headrest, a headrest air bag and a movable contact part, wherein the slide way is connected with a backrest, the headrest air bag is slidably connected with the slide way and is configured to move forwards under the guidance of the slide way when being inflated, the movable contact part is positioned in front of the headrest air bag and is used for contacting with the head of an occupant to provide support for the head, and the movable contact part is slidably connected with the slide way and is configured to move forwards along the slide way under the pushing of the headrest air bag. The anti-whiplash integrated system further comprises a back gas storage bag, the headrest gas bag is in fluid communication with the back gas storage bag, a one-way valve is arranged between the headrest gas bag and the back gas storage bag, and when the vehicle collides, the back gas storage bag is compressed due to the impact of the back of the passenger on the backrest, so that the gas in the back gas storage bag enters the headrest gas bag through the one-way valve. It also relates to a vehicle comprising the integrated system.

Description

Anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat and vehicle comprising the same

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of vehicles, in particular to a system integrating an anti-whiplash device and a massage device and a vehicle comprising the system.

Background

With the development of vehicle technology and industry, the passive safety performance of passenger vehicles is also continuously improved, and the initial life safety of passengers in the vehicles is kept, so that injuries such as whiplash injury are gradually reduced. The whiplash injury is a situation in which, in a rear-end collision of an automobile, a driver or an occupant of a crashed vehicle is damaged by a whiplash-like action of the neck portion under the combined action of a collision acceleration and a head inertial force. Accident statistics in recent years have shown that the incidence of whiplash injury is extremely high in low-speed rear collisions, and this injury has placed an increasingly severe burden on both the injured person and the society. In addition, the existing seat has single function, and cannot provide good riding experience.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present invention is to solve at least one of the above problems and disadvantages in the prior art.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat, the seat including a backrest and a headrest connected to the backrest, the anti-whiplash integrated system including a slide for being provided in the headrest, a headrest air bag, and a movable contact portion, the slide being connected to the backrest and extending in a length direction of the vehicle; the headrest air bag is slidably connected with the slide way and is configured to move forwards under the guidance of the slide way when the headrest air bag is inflated; the movable contact portion is located in front of the headrest air bag and is configured to contact with the head of an occupant seated on the seat to provide support for the head, the movable contact portion is slidably connected with the slide and is configured to move forward along the slide under the pushing of the headrest air bag, the anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat further comprises a back air bag for being disposed in the backrest, the headrest air bag is in fluid communication with the back air bag, a one-way valve is disposed between the headrest air bag and the back air bag, and the back air bag is compressed due to the impact of the back of the occupant on the seat backrest when the vehicle collides, so that gas in the back air bag enters the headrest air bag through the one-way valve.

Optionally, the anti-whiplash integrated system further includes a pre-determination device for pre-determining whether the rear portion of the vehicle will be impacted, an inflator configured to inflate the headrest airbag, and a controller connected to the pre-determination device and the inflator, respectively, to receive a pre-determination result from the pre-determination device and to control an operating state of the inflator based on the pre-determination result.

Optionally, the prejudging device is a laser radar.

Optionally, the inflation device comprises an air pump and a control valve disposed between the air pump and the headrest air bag and the back air bag to control the flow of air from the air pump to the headrest air bag and the back air bag.

Optionally, the number of air pumps is two or more.

Optionally, the inflation device is further configured to inflate the back gas bag.

Optionally, the back gas pocket is also used to support and/or massage the back of the occupant.

Optionally, the anti-whiplash integrated system further comprises a lumbar support airbag for placement in the backrest, the lumbar support airbag for supporting and/or massaging a lumbar region of the occupant, the lumbar support airbag fluidly connected to the inflator for inflation by the inflator.

Optionally, the headrest air bag, the back air bag and the lumbar support air bag are separately inflatable and/or deflatable as desired by the occupant.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a vehicle including the anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat described above.

The anti-whiplash integrated system for the seat according to the present invention can effectively protect the neck of an occupant from being injured when a rear impact occurs at the rear of a vehicle, particularly when a low-speed rear impact (24km/h) occurs. Specifically, when it is predicted that a collision will occur but the collision has not yet started, the air pump is used to pre-inflate the headrest airbag; when the collision has begun, utilize passenger and backrest's instantaneous collision contact compression back gas storage bag to further aerify the headrest air pocket, because the setting that two kinds of inflation sources combined together can improve the speed of the corresponding structure forward motion of headrest, accomplish headrest antedisplacement operation rapidly, thereby protect passenger's neck better and more in time, consequently improved the security of seat. In addition, the anti-whiplash integrated system for the seat also has a function of massaging the waist and/or the back, thereby improving the comfort of the seat.

Drawings

The invention is described in detail below by way of non-limiting examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are schematic only and not necessarily to scale, and which show only those parts which are necessary in order to elucidate the invention, while other parts may be omitted or merely mentioned briefly. That is, the present invention may include other components in addition to those shown in the drawings. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of a portion of the anti-whiplash integrated system shown in fig. 1 for placement in a seat headrest.

Detailed Description

An anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat according to an embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention to those skilled in the art. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. Furthermore, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described. Rather, it is contemplated that the invention may be practiced with any combination of the following features and elements, whether or not they relate to different embodiments. Thus, the following aspects, features, embodiments and advantages are merely illustrative and should not be considered elements or limitations of the claims except where explicitly recited in a claim.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, an anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a backrest and a headrest connected to the backrest. The headrest mainly comprises a slideway 1, a headrest air bag 2 and a movable contact part 3. The chute 1 is connected to the backrest and extends substantially in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle. The headrest airbag 2 is slidably connected to the slide 1 and is configured to move forward (i.e., the front of the vehicle) under the guidance and restraint of the slide 1 when it is inflated. The movable contact portion 3 is located in front of the headrest airbag 2 and is used to contact the head of an occupant (including a driver) seated on the seat to provide support for the head. The movable contact portion 3 is slidably connected to the slide 1 and is configured to move forward along the slide 1 under the urging of the headrest airbag 2 to reduce the distance between the head of the occupant and the headrest. The integrated anti-whiplash system for a seat further comprises a back air reservoir bag 4 for being disposed within the backrest, the back air reservoir bag 4 being in fluid communication with the headrest air bag 2 via a conduit, and a one-way valve 5 being disposed on the conduit between the back air reservoir bag 4 and the headrest air bag 2. When the vehicle is impacted from the rear, the passenger leans back to the seat backrest due to the action of inertia force, the back air bag 4 is compressed due to the impact of the back of the passenger to the backrest, so that the gas in the back air bag 4 enters the headrest air bag 2 through the one-way valve 5, the headrest air bag 2 is rapidly inflated and rapidly moves towards the head of the passenger under the guiding and restraining of the slide way 1, and the movable contact part 3 is also rapidly moved towards the head of the passenger to reduce the distance between the head of the passenger and the headrest, thereby preventing the head of the passenger from rapidly swinging backwards to be whipped, and effectively protecting the neck of the passenger, particularly achieving good and sufficient protection effect when the vehicle is impacted with low speed (such as 24 km/h). After the anti-whiplash protection is over, the movable contact portion 3 may return to its initial position, for example, under the pressure of the occupant's head.

In this embodiment, the anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat further includes a anticipation device, an inflator, and a controller. The pre-judging device is used for pre-judging whether the rear part of the vehicle is collided or not. The inflator is configured to inflate the headrest bag 2. The controller is respectively connected with the pre-judging device and the inflating device so as to receive the pre-judging result from the pre-judging device and control the working state of the inflating device based on the pre-judging result. The anticipation means can, for example, anticipate that a collision is about to occur at least 1 second in advance to provide a sufficient response time for the air pump. When the anticipation means determines that the rear portion of the vehicle will collide, the controller controls the inflator to operate to inflate the headrest airbag 2 based on the information about the rear portion of the vehicle that will collide received from the anticipation means. In this way, the headrest bag 2 is inflated by the inflator before the vehicle is struck from the rear, so that the headrest bag 2 is inflated more quickly and the volume of inflation is larger, thereby pushing the movable contact portion 3 to move more quickly and a larger distance toward the head of the occupant, to effectively protect the neck of the occupant. Furthermore, the inflation device may also be used to replenish the back reservoir bag 4 with gas, for example, when the back reservoir bag 4 is running low or out of capacity, the inflation device may be used to replenish the back reservoir bag 4 with gas for future use.

It should be noted that in this embodiment, the controller is integrated into the inflator, however, in other embodiments of the invention, the controller may be provided as a separate component or integrated into the overall control unit of the vehicle.

In one exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the anticipation device may include an information collecting unit to collect motion information of the vehicle and external environment information of the vehicle, and an analyzing unit to anticipate whether the rear portion of the vehicle will be impacted based on the related information collected by the information collecting unit. Specifically, the motion information of the vehicle may be collected by, for example, a speed sensor, a rear impact sensor, an acceleration sensor, a steering wheel angle sensor, and the like, and the external environment information of the vehicle may be collected by, for example, a radar, a camera, and the like. In order to simplify the structure, the prediction device may employ a laser radar provided at the rear portion of the vehicle, which detects the distance between the vehicle and the surroundings of the vehicle (e.g., other vehicles, obstacles, etc. behind and/or laterally behind the vehicle), and predicts whether or not the rear portion of the vehicle will collide based on the distance.

As shown in fig. 1, in this embodiment, the inflator includes two air pumps 8 and a control valve 7, and the control valve 7 is provided between the two air pumps 8 and the headrest air bag 2 and the back air bag 4 to control the flow of air from the air pump 8 to the headrest air bag 2 and/or the back air bag 4. The controller may be connected to the air pump 8 and the control valve 7, respectively, and configured to control the operating states of the air pump 8 and the control valve 7 based on the prediction result of the prediction means. The integrated anti-whiplash system for a seat can pump more gas into the headrest airbag 2 in a shorter time, for example, by using the two gas pumps 8. For example, the headrest airbag 2 according to one example of the invention needs to be inflated with 0.491L of gas to achieve a forward movement of the movable contact portion 3 by 15 mm. For this reason, after the anticipation means anticipates that a collision may occur, 0.16L of gas is pumped into the headrest bag 2 by the two air pumps 8 before the collision starts. At this time, the movable contact portion 3 of the headrest may move forward by about 5 mm; when an impact occurs, the back of the occupant impacts the back of the seat to compress the back air bag 4, so that 0.331L of air in the air bag enters the headrest air bag 2 to drive the movable contact portion 3 to move forward by 10 mm.

The number of the air pumps 8 may be one or two or more, and one control valve 7 may be provided for each of the headrest bag 2 and the back air bag 4. Further, when the anticipation means anticipates that the rear portion of the vehicle will collide, the controller may control the inflation means to inflate the headrest bag 2 and also inflate the back air bag 4. Further, when the pre-determination means determines that the rear portion of the vehicle is in the event of a collision, the inflator may continuously inflate the headrest bag 2 during the collision or even after the collision is over.

It can be seen that the head rest can be advanced to protect the neck of the occupant by inflation of the head rest airbag at the time of and during the collision, wherein the gas reservoir bag 4 can supply gas to the head rest airbag 2 via the one-way valve 5 as one of the gas sources, and the gas pump 8 can simultaneously or separately inflate the head rest airbag 2 via the control valve as the other of the gas sources.

In this embodiment, the back air reservoir bag 4 may also be used to support and/or massage the back of the occupant. Thus, the anti-whiplash integrated system for the seat integrates the anti-whiplash function and the massage function, and further improves the riding experience of a user.

In this embodiment, the anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat further comprises a lumbar support bag 6 for being disposed in the backrest, the lumbar support bag 6 being for supporting and/or massaging the waist of the occupant. The lumbar support bag 6 is also fluidly connected to an inflator for inflation by the inflator.

Further, the headrest airbag 2, the back air bag 4 and the lumbar support airbag 6 can be inflated and/or deflated, respectively, according to the needs of the occupant to achieve the most comfortable ride. For example, in a non-impact scene, the head restraint airbag 2 may be actively inflated by the inflator to adjust the distance between the head restraint and the head of the occupant, thereby obtaining a four-way adjustable head restraint. In addition, under the non-impact scene, for example, when parking and driving, the massage function of the waist support air bag can be started. The air pump can drive the waist support air bag 6 and/or the back inflatable bag 4 to work through the control valve 7 so as to massage the waist and/or the back of the passenger.

According to the anti-whiplash integrated system for the seat, disclosed by the exemplary embodiment of the disclosure, the neck of an occupant can be effectively protected when the rear part of a vehicle is impacted, the neck injury can be reduced or even avoided, and a good and sufficient protection effect can be achieved particularly when the vehicle is impacted backwards at a low speed (24 km/h). In addition, the anti-whipping integrated system for the seat also has a massage function. In addition, the device has simple structure and light weight, and can be repeatedly used.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described above are exemplary and can be modified by those skilled in the art, and that the structures described in the various embodiments can be freely combined without conflict in structure or principle.

Having described preferred embodiments of the present invention in detail, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the appended claims, and the invention is not to be limited to the exemplary embodiments set forth herein.

Claims

1. An anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat, the seat comprising a backrest and a headrest connected to the backrest, characterised in that the anti-whiplash integrated system comprises a slide for location in the headrest, a headrest air bag and a moveable contact, the slide being connected to the backrest and extending in the length direction of the vehicle; the headrest air bag is slidably connected with the slide way and is configured to move forwards under the guidance of the slide way when the headrest air bag is inflated; the anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat further comprises a back air bag for being disposed in the backrest, the headrest air bag being in fluid communication with the back air bag, a one-way valve being disposed between the headrest air bag and the back air bag, the back air bag being compressed by the impact of the back of the occupant against the backrest when the vehicle collides, so that gas in the back air bag enters the headrest air bag through the one-way valve.

2. The anti-whiplash integrated system according to claim 1, further comprising a pre-judging device for pre-judging whether the vehicle is likely to have a rear collision, an inflator configured to inflate the headrest airbag, and a controller connected to the pre-judging device and the inflator, respectively, to receive a result of the pre-judging from the pre-judging device and to control an operating state of the inflator based on the result of the pre-judging.

3. An anti-whiplash integrated system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the prejudice means is a lidar.

4. An integrated anti-whiplash system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the inflation device comprises an air pump and a control valve disposed between the air pump and the headrest air bag and the back air bag to control the flow of air from the air pump to the headrest air bag and/or the back air bag.

5. The anti-whiplash integrated system of claim 4, wherein the number of air pumps is two or more.

6. The anti-whiplash integrated system of claim 2, wherein the inflation device is further configured to inflate the back reservoir bag.

7. The anti-whiplash integrated system of claim 1, wherein the back reservoir bag is further configured to support and/or massage the back of the occupant.

8. An integrated anti-whiplash system as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 7, further comprising a lumbar support airbag for location in the backrest for supporting and/or massaging the waist of the occupant, the lumbar support airbag being fluidly connected to the inflation device for inflation by the inflation device.

9. The anti-whiplash integrated system of claim 8, wherein the headrest air bag, the back air reservoir bag, and the lumbar support air bag are separately inflatable and/or deflatable as desired by the occupant.

10. A vehicle comprising the anti-whiplash integrated system for a seat as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9.