Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60N—SEATS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR VEHICLES; VEHICLE PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60N2/00—Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles
  • B60N2/005—Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles, e.g. dismountable auxiliary seats
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64D—EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT; FLIGHT SUITS; PARACHUTES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF POWER PLANTS OR PROPULSION TRANSMISSIONS IN AIRCRAFT
  • B64D11/00—Passenger or crew accommodation; Flight-deck installations not otherwise provided for
  • B64D11/06—Arrangements of seats, or adaptations or details specially adapted for aircraft seats
  • B64D11/0696—Means for fastening seats to floors, e.g. to floor rails
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64D—EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT; FLIGHT SUITS; PARACHUTES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF POWER PLANTS OR PROPULSION TRANSMISSIONS IN AIRCRAFT
  • B64D11/00—Passenger or crew accommodation; Flight-deck installations not otherwise provided for
  • B64D11/06—Arrangements of seats, or adaptations or details specially adapted for aircraft seats
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64D—EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT; FLIGHT SUITS; PARACHUTES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF POWER PLANTS OR PROPULSION TRANSMISSIONS IN AIRCRAFT
  • B64D11/00—Passenger or crew accommodation; Flight-deck installations not otherwise provided for
  • B64D11/06—Arrangements of seats, or adaptations or details specially adapted for aircraft seats
  • B64D11/0619—Arrangements of seats, or adaptations or details specially adapted for aircraft seats with energy absorbing means specially adapted for mitigating impact loads for passenger seats, e.g. at a crash
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B64—AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; COSMONAUTICS
  • B64D—EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT; FLIGHT SUITS; PARACHUTES; ARRANGEMENT OR MOUNTING OF POWER PLANTS OR PROPULSION TRANSMISSIONS IN AIRCRAFT
  • B64D25/00—Emergency apparatus or devices, not otherwise provided for
  • B64D25/02—Supports or holding means for living bodies
  • B64D25/04—Seat modifications

Definitions

• the present invention belongs to the field seats to be used on board moving vehicles.
• the invention relates to a seat provided with a device for fixing the seat on the structure of a vehicle, such as an aircraft floor, capable of deformations.
• the seats In the case for example of aircraft or land vehicles, trains, coaches, the seats must ensure the safety of people in case of shocks by ensuring the maintenance of the occupant of the seat.
• This maintenance not only imposes that the occupant of the seat is itself maintained on its seat but also that the seat structure resists impact and that the seat itself does not detach from the vehicle structure especially at the level of fixations that solidify it to this structure.
• Such standards such as for example the CS and FAR standards issued by the aircraft certification authorities, define on the one hand the acceleration to which a passenger is likely to be subjected in the critical conditions of a crash case, but also impose constraints to demonstrate seat compliance with the requirements of the standards.
• the seat must withstand not only in the case of an acceleration corresponding to a case of crash (dynamic 16g forward, 14g dynamic down) but in besides this resistance must be ensured with a twisting side corresponding to a deformation of the structure of the aircraft on which is fixed the seat.
• Figure 1 extracted from this document shows that for a seat 10 fixed on two fastening lines 20, 30 at the floor of the cabin of an aircraft, it must be considered simultaneously to represent the deformation of the structure of the aircraft that one of the fastening lines 10 is subjected to twisting at a roll angle ⁇ about a longitudinal direction corresponding to the direction of movement of the vehicle and that the other fastening line 20 is deflected in the vertical longitudinal plane of a given pitch angle ⁇ .
• This deformation is globally referred to as twisting of the structure.
• the fastening lines on many aircraft models are materialized by fastening rails that adjust the position of the seats, fixed by means of two fasteners on each rail per seat or block of seats, in a cabin according to the desired configuration of the cabin.
• the fasteners are directly taken on the structure of the aircraft without using a rail.
• FIG. 1 also illustrates the consequences of twisting of the structure, of the floor in the illustrated case, on the deformation of the seat and its structure by illustrating the seat in a normal form 10 (a) before twisting and deformed 10 (b) after twisting floor.
• a first solution generally used to meet the requirements of the standard is to design the seat structure so that it maintains the necessary strength after suffering the deformations imposed by twisting of the floor.
• Another simpler solution to implement is to fix the seat or the seat block by three attachment points which allows, by fitting on suitable joints, to free the structure of the seat vis-a-vis deformations of the floor.
• the present invention proposes to fix a seat to a structure of a vehicle by two lines comprising at least two fasteners each without the disadvantages of the prior art with respect to the constraints imposed by the standards in case of deformation structures on which the seat is fixed.
• the seat which may be a group of seats carried by the same structure, intended to be fixed to the structure of a vehicle by at least four attachment points, is such that at least one of the attachment points comprises an element extensible connecting link ensuring the transmission of forces between a main structure of the seat and the vehicle structure when the seat is fixed to said vehicle structure.
• the main structure of the seat is linked to the vehicle structure by all the attachment points despite a deformation of the vehicle structure which induces the displacement of one of the points of the structure at a point of attachment relative to the other three points and in this situation the efforts, in particular consequence of acceleration to which the vehicle is subjected, are transmitted from the seat to the structure by the set of fasteners.
• the extensible connecting element in the first position transmits the forces between the main structure of the seat and the vehicle structure
• the extensible connecting element is maintained in the first position by a fuse element.
• This fuse element is destroyed in case of deformation of the vehicle structure by the forces induced by this deformation given sufficient rigidity of the main structure of the seat so that the extensible connecting element is able to take the second position.
• the extensible connecting element comprises a locking device in the second position when the extensible connecting element is in the second position.
• the extensible link element is able to transmit forces, in particular the acceleration forces in the event of a crash, in this second position, even if these efforts tend to bring the extensible link element the first position in the absence of blocking in the second position.
• the extensible connecting element of the seat comprises a guide groove of a fixed plate hinged by the axis structure, in which is guided the seat axis, or conversely a fixed plate articulated by the seat axis and in the groove of which is guided the axis structure.
• the plate ensures the transfer of forces when the seat axis and the structure axis are immobilized relative to the plate being abutted in the groove, for example to one end of the groove, and or being fixed to the plate .
• the groove comprises at least a second section extending a main section so that in the second position of the extensible connecting element, the seat axis or the structure axis guided by the groove is blocked by buttressing the plate on said seat axis or said axis structure in the second section.
• the groove comprises a plurality of secondary sections defining different lengths of extension of the extensible connecting element making it possible to ensure the transfer of forces for different values of deformation of the structure of the vehicle.
• the groove comprises at least one rack cooperating with a pawl of the seat axis, or a ratchet of the axis structure along the movable axis in the groove.
• the extensible connecting element comprises a fixed connecting rod articulated at a first end on the seat axis and at a second end on the structural axis, said connecting rod comprising mainly two rods hinged together at a connecting axis, the links forming an angle in the first position of the extensible connecting element, the links being substantially aligned in the second position of the extensible connecting element so as to increase a distance between the seat axis and the structure axis relative to the first position.
• the rod has a locking device of the connecting rod when the rods are in the second position.
• the locking device comprises a slider arranged on one of the links when the extensible connecting element is in the first position and arranged in part on each of the links when the element of Extensible connection is in the second position so that the links are immobilized relative to each other.
• the slider moves automatically when the links are substantially aligned by the action of a spring or other elastic member which pushes the slider on a stop to immobilize the slider in the desired position.
• the fuse element is for example a pin passing through an axis of the extensible connecting element which allows the extension of the element extensible linkage when said pin has been sheared.
• Such a pin has the advantage of setting by design precisely the level of effort leading to the destruction of the pin.
• the seat advantageously comprises an extensible connecting element on each of the two attachments located furthest forward by relative to the seat or on each of the two most rearward fasteners relative to the seat or on each of the two fasteners located on the same side of the seat.
• the necessary rigidity of the main structure of the seat is provided by a platinum intermediate connecting the seat to the vehicle structure, the intermediate plate incorporating all fasteners, extensible or non-extensible, the seat to the vehicle structure.
• the rest of the main structure of the seat which is also fixed on the intermediate plate can be dimensioned without taking into account the twisting requirements of the vehicle structure, for example a cabin floor.
• the interposition of a plate can absorb the deformations of the floor without introducing stress in the seat structure and without prejudice to the transmissions of the efforts between the seat and the structure of the vehicle.
• the invention also relates to an extensible connecting element for a seat of the invention.
• Such an extensible connecting element for fixing a seat to a structure of a vehicle, such as an aircraft, comprises:
• fusible means holding the expandable link member in a first position in which the seat axis and the structural axis are in a close position;
• locking means holding the extensible connecting element in a second position in which the seat axis and the structure axis are in a position remote from each other; in the first position;
• the connecting element being adapted in the second position to transmit forces between the seat axis and the structure axis.
• Figure 1 a schematic view of a seat attached to a floor before and after deformation of the floor structure according to aeronautical certification standards;
• FIG. 2a and 2b a schematic representation of a connecting element according to the invention at a level of attachment between the seat structure and the structure supporting the seat, before deformation of the support structure Figure 2a and after the deformation of the support structure Figure 2b;
• FIGS. 3a and 3b an illustration of the operation of the seat in two cases of symmetrical twisting in pitch of the same line of fasteners with a value ⁇ to be stitched of the support structure, FIG. 3a, and of a value ⁇ to pitch up the support structure, FIG. 3b;
• Figure 4 a variant of the connecting element of Figures 2;
• Figure 5 an embodiment of rack link member
• FIGS. 6a and 6b show an embodiment of the connecting element with an articulated connecting rod, in undeformed support structure position, FIG. 6a, and in deformed support structure position, FIG. 6b.
• a seat 10 comprises on the one hand a main seat structure 11 and on the other hand a device for compensating the deformations of a structure to which the seat is fixed.
• seat in the context of the present description must be understood in a broad sense as any equipment of a vehicle on which a person transported sits, in particular seats of the chair type, of the type chair or type of bench or grouping of several seats are included in the seats considered.
• the seat 10 is fixed, as illustrated in FIG. 1, to a structure of a vehicle, the parts of which correspond to rails 20, 30 forming part of the structure of a floor, by four fixing points 21, 22 , 31, 32 of the seat which transmit the forces between the seat and the structure of the vehicle.
• the structure is a floor and this example which will be used in the following description is not limiting.
• the fastening points are distributed twice 21, 22 on a right rail 20 and two 31, 32 on a left rail 30.
• the attachment points are further offset in a longitudinal direction along a length of each rail so as to determine a front attachment point 21, 31 and a rear attachment point 22, 32 for each rail 20, 30.
• the compensation device comprises at least one extensible connecting element 40 arranged to compensate for the deformation of the floor at at least one fixation of the seat while ensuring the transmission of forces between the main structure 11 of the seat and the structure of the seat. deformed floor after twisting.
• the seat structure must withstand the efforts related to accelerations of the crash case, for example of an aircraft, after the vehicle structure, the aircraft in the example, has been deformed.
• the efforts in question are transmitted from the seat, whose mass and that of its occupant are subject to acceleration, to the vehicle structure by walking through the fasteners that maintain the seat to the vehicle structure.
• the connecting element 40 comprises a plate 41, integral with a structural axis 42 connected to the floor structure so as to allow a rotational movement of said plate around of said axis structure.
• the plate 40 further comprises a groove 43 in which moves, by sliding along said groove with a minimum clearance, a seat axis 44, for example a roller or a pad, integral with the main structure 11 of the seat.
• a seat axis 44 for example a roller or a pad
• the seat axis 44 is above the structure axis 42 and in a position close to said floor axis.
• the seat axis 44 is at an upper end of the groove 43 corresponding to the end of the groove opposite the lower end.
• the seat axis 44 is above the floor axis 42 and in a position remote from said floor axis compared to the first solution.
• the groove 43 comprises a first section 431, substantially rectilinear from the lower end, whose length corresponds to substantially at an extension length Le, and has a second section 432 on the side of the upper end, said second section and the first section 431 forming an angle such that when the seat axis 44 is located in the second section 432 it is formed an arching which prevents said seat axis from moving towards the lower end of the groove 43 under the effect of forces applied to the seat 10.
• the extension length Le substantially corresponds to the theoretical relative displacement between the seat axis 44 and the structural axis 42 during the application of the twisting of the floor and when the seat structure and the floor structure retain their relative positions at the three levels. other fixing points.
• the seat axis 44 is able to move in the groove 43 between the two ends of said groove despite the angle formed by the two sections 431, 432 due to the mounting of the movable plate 41 in rotation around the structure axis 42, it being understood that the orientation of said floor axis allows the rotation of the plate in the plane of the groove 43, plane defined by the two directions of the sections 431, 432.
• the seat axis 44 is immobilized in the first position in the groove 43 relative to the plate 41 by means of a fuse element 45, such as a pin passing through the seat axis 44 and the plate 41, of which a break in shear releases the seat axis 44 which becomes able to move in the groove 43.
• a fuse element 45 such as a pin passing through the seat axis 44 and the plate 41, of which a break in shear releases the seat axis 44 which becomes able to move in the groove 43.
• a spring element 46 exerts on the plate 41 a force tending to drive said plate in rotation about the floor axis 42 in a direction favoring engagement and maintenance of the seat axis 44 in the second section 432 of the throat .
• Such a spring member 46 is for example, as shown in Figures 2a and 2b, a needle 461 pushed against the plate 41 by a spring 462 in compression and bearing on the main structure 11 of the seat.
• the seat functions, in consideration of the first embodiment which has just been described, as follows for a seat 10 fixed to the rails 20, 30 of a floor structure by four fixing points 21, 22, 31, 32 .
• One of the attachment points, the left front attachment point 31 in the example illustrated in FIG. 3a, comprises an extensible connecting element 40.
• the other attachment points 21, 22 and 32 are fixed in a conventional manner by means rigid in translation but having degrees of freedom in rotation, for example by means of ball joints, able to allow the angular deformations of the floor imposed by the case in point.
• the standards in force provides that after deformation, one of the rails, the right rail 20 in the illustrated example, is rotated in roll about its longitudinal axis by a roll angle ⁇ of ten degrees (left or right), and that the other rail, the left rail 30 in the example, is inclined in pitch relative to the initial plane of the rails by pitch angle ⁇ also by ten degrees to stitch or pitch, to stitch around the rear attachment on the rail considered in the illustrated case.
• the seat axis 44 abuts the lower end of the groove 43.
• the fuse element 45 maintains the seat axis 44 in this position as long as the said fuse element was not destroyed.
• the fuse element 45 is chosen not to be destroyed for normal efforts of use of the seat 10 so that the associated fixing point comprising the connecting element 40 in the first position behaves like a point of contact. conventional fastener and takes part of the efforts to walk between the seat 10 and the floor.
• the seat axis 44 is at the second section 432 of the groove in which it is engaged by the shape of the groove 43 and if necessary by the spring element 46 which pivots the plate 41 about the axis structure 42.
• the seat axis 44 When the seat axis 44 is engaged in the second section 432 of the groove, it is held by buttressing the plate 41 and by the spring element 46 which avoids undesired displacement of said plate, for example under the local acceleration effect as elastic returns during the deformation of the floor, and the plate 41 is able, by a dimensioning adapted to its structure, in the second position of the extensible connecting element 40, to transmit the forces in the same way as the other fasteners of the seat, without the main structure 11 of the seat has been deformed by the relative movement of the fasteners on the rails 20, 30.
• connection of the guide plate to the floor is made to accept, without introducing torsional forces, angular deviations at least equal to those expected in roll, here more or at least ten degrees, for example by means of a ball joint connection between the plate 41 and the floor axis 42.
• FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the extensible link element 40 described in a first mode.
• the groove 43 of the plate 41 comprises in addition to the first substantially vertical section 431, a plurality of second sections 432, 432a, 432b offset in height relative to each other so that the seat axis 44 can be found in one or the other of the second sections as a function of the amplitude of the deformation of the support on which the seat 10 is fixed.
• the seat axis is maintained by an element fuse 45 outside a deformation sufficient to trigger the operation of the extensible connecting element 40, and the seat axis 44 is blocked by jamming at the second throat section in which it is engaged, possibly assisted by a spring element, not shown, acting on the plate 41 and bearing on the main structure 11 of the seat.
• the seat 10 is able to take a locked position for the passage of efforts to the floor for different twisting value of the floor.
• a plate 51 fixed to the floor structure on which the seat 10 is fixed by the structure axis 42, comprises a substantially vertical groove 53 having on one at less of its edges a rack 52.
• the rack 52 comprises a plurality of teeth 521 having an asymmetrical profile to cooperate with a seat axis in the form of a pawl 54 integral with the main structure 11 of the seat.
• the profile of the teeth 521 and the shape of the pawl 54 allow, in combination with a degree of freedom in rotation of the plate 51 about the floor axis 42, said pawl to slide easily up the rack 52 and contrario d prohibit the sliding of said pawl downwards of said rack.
• the pawl 54 is secured in an initial position to the plate 51 by a fuse element 45 and the rack is applied to the pawl as far as necessary by a spring element, not shown in FIG.
• the seat 10 is able to take a locked position for the passage of forces to the floor for different twist value of the floor.
• a height of the connecting element 40 is conditioned by the amplitude Le of the relative displacement of the structure and the seat at the point of attachment.
• the embodiment of the extensible connecting element 40 shown in FIGS. 6a and 6b implements a connecting rod 61 in two articulated parts.
• the connecting rod 61 comprises a lower link 61a and an upper link 61b.
• the lower link 61a is hinged to a lower end of the connecting rod 61 on the floor structure by a structure axis 62.
• the upper link 61b is articulated at an upper end of the connecting rod 61, opposite to the lower end of said link, on the main structure 11 of the seat by a seat axis 64.
• the lower link 61a and upper 61b are hinged together by a junction axis 67.
• the floor axis 62, the seat axis 64 and the junction axis 67 are further substantially parallel so that the rod 61 is articulated in a substantially vertical plane.
• the structural axis and the seat axis are in a close position in the first position and in a position remote in the second position because of the alignment of the links in the latter position. .
• the locking element 63 is for example a slider which is situated on a body of one of the links in the first position, for example the upper link 61b as illustrated in FIG. 6a, and which is situated partly on the body of the upper link 6b and on a body of the lower link 6a in the second position so that it is no longer possible for the links to undergo a relative rotational movement about the junction axis 67.
• the slide is associated with a locking spring element 66 which, when the rods are in the second position, pushes the slide against a stop 68 of the lower link 61a.
• the extensible connecting element 40 is not deformed substantially under ordinary seat operating forces and is only triggered in cases of twisting of the floor structure. on which the seat is fixed.
• the fuse means is a pin 65 which immobilizes the articulation between the links at the junction axis 67 and which is sheared when the tensile forces on the ends of the connecting rod 61 exceeds a predefined threshold.
• the seat of the invention and in particular the extensible connecting elements can be the object of alternative embodiment without calling into question the principle of the invention, in particular for the realization of the fuse functions to release the extensible connecting element of the first position not relaxed and or to provide a form of irreversibility of the movement between the first position and the second position under the effect of efforts to be transmitted between the seat and the vehicle structure.
• the plate of the first three embodiments described can be fixed to the main structure of the seat and hinged at the seat axis, the structure axis is then guided in the groove whose shape is adapted.
• the extensible connecting elements 40 make it possible to produce a seat whose main structure is fixed to a structure, floor or the like, by at least four fasteners and which can be made with great rigidity without need to take into account deformations of the structure to which the seat is fixed.
• the seat is fixed rigidly to the vehicle structure in the various twist hypotheses of FIG. said structure of the vehicle.
• Each extensible linkage member 40 is locked in a normal operating position by a fuse element which releases the extension of the link member associated with the attachment point of the seat which is subjected to sufficient force in the direction or element Extensible link has an extension.
• the blocking of the extensible connecting element in the relaxed position allows the fastener associated with said extensible connecting element to participate with the other three fasteners in withstanding the forces of the load case considered, without the main structure of the seat having was substantially deformed during twisting of the structure on which the seat is fixed.
• the main structure 11 of said seat comprises a relatively rigid intermediate plate on which are arranged the extensible or conventional fastening elements connected to the vehicle structure.
• the intermediate plate guaranteed by sufficient rigidity that one of the extensible connecting elements will be triggered in case of sufficient kinking of the vehicle structure and this regardless of the rigidity of the rest of the main structure of the seat which may have less rigidity.
• the invention is also likely to be implemented for seats that are not only fixed to the floor. For example some fixations can be taken on a side wall against which is placed a seat as provided in the standard AC25-562 already cited which illustrates this situation ( Figure 9-4 of version 1B of 1/10/2006 of this standard) .
• the skilled person will adapt without difficulty the principles presented in this case of installation of a seat.
• the invention makes it possible to make seats of a simpler structure to be defined and manufactured which meet the standards of resistance to the crash forces of vehicles, in particular aircraft, which makes it necessary to take into account the deformations of the structures on which the seats are fixed.
• the same seat model can be, without questioning the definition of its structure, adapted to different deformation conditions of the structure to which said seat is fixed.
• the invention makes it possible to fix a seat having a very rigid main structure which should be isolated from deformations of the structure on which the seat is fixed.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Aviation & Aerospace Engineering (AREA)
• Transportation (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Emergency Management (AREA)
• Seats For Vehicles (AREA)

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• 2011
  • 2011-11-25 FR FR1160811A patent/FR2983135B1/fr active Active
• 2012
  • 2012-11-23 EP EP12805617.3A patent/EP2782829A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2012-11-23 WO PCT/EP2012/073487 patent/WO2013076255A1/fr active Application Filing
  • 2012-11-23 US US14/359,684 patent/US9889768B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2017
  • 2017-12-29 US US15/858,847 patent/US20190023154A1/en not_active Abandoned

Non-Patent Citations (2)

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