GB2113986A

GB2113986A - Adjustable vehicle seat

Info

Publication number: GB2113986A
Application number: GB08203176A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Richard Verner Harvey
Original assignee: Talbot Motor Co Ltd
Current assignee: Peugeot Motor Co PLC
Priority date: 1982-02-04
Filing date: 1982-02-04
Publication date: 1983-08-17
Also published as: FR2520681B1; GB2113986B; FR2520681A1

Abstract

A vehicle seat is provided with a bracket (19, 20) carrying a roller (23) which can run along a runner (44) secured to the vehicle floor to permit fore-and-aft movement of the seat. The seat is locked to the runner by a locking arm (39). To permit normal adjustment of the seat position, the locking arm can be lifted to disengage a lug (43) from a notch (51) in the track; after adjustment the lug is engaged in a different notch (51). Furthermore, to permit temporary forward movement of the seat without disturbing the normal adjustment, a releasable catch (25) on the bracket (19, 20) can be disengaged from a pin (40) secured to the rear end of the locking arm (39). The pin (40) also serves to mount a further roller (42) which runs along the runner (44) during normal adjustment of the seat. The arrangement is particularly useful for the front seats of two-door vehicles to provide temporarily increased access to the rear seats without disturbing the normal adjustment of the seat. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Adjustable vehicle seat This invention relates to a vehicle seat having an adjustable mounting for the seat base.

According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle seat having an adjustable mounting for the seat base comprising a fore-andaft directed runner on which the seat base is mounted for movement along the runner, a locking member also mounted on the runner for movement therealong, first and second releasable locking means for locking the locking member to the runner and to the seat base, one of said locking means being lockable in any of a plurality of positions to permit selection of a plurality of fore-and-aft positions of adjustment of the seat base, and the other locking means being arranged to lock in a single position so that, on release of said other locking means, the seat base can be temporarily moved along the runner, returned and re-locked without disturbing the selected position of adjustment of the seat base set by said one locking means.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view in side elevation of a vehicle front seat; Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view in side elevation of the vehicle seat shown in Figure 1 but in a different position; Figure 3 is a part sectional view in larger scale on line 3-3 in Figure 1; and Figure 4 is a part-exploded perspective view of part of the arrangement shown in Figure 3.

Referring to the drawings, an adjustable front seat 10 which can provide increased access to the rear seats on a two-door vehicle comprises a seat back 11 and a seat base 12 which is pivotably supported adjacent the front end thereof by a U-shaped tubular member 1 3, the base of which is pivotably connected to the vehicle floor 14 by a pair of spaced-apart brackets 1 5 to provide pivotable movement of the member 13 about an axis extending transversely of the vehicle. The top end of each limb 1 6 of member 13 is pivotably connected to the side of the seat base frame 1 7.

The rear of the seat base at each side thereof is provided with an inverted substantially U-section bracket 1 8 having parallel inner and outer walls 1 9, 20 respectively. Part of the outer wall nearer the base of the bracket is offset outwardly to increase the area of the base 21 which is formed concavely to abut the seat base side frame 1 7 and is welded or brazed thereto as shown. A pin 22 engages through holes in the lower ends of the walls 19, 20 to extend transversely through the walls and secured thereto by welding or brazing.

The end of pin 22 projects a greater distance from wall 20 than the outer end of the pin projecting from wall 19 and rotatably mounts a roller 23 of suitable plastics material, for example nylon, a plain washer 24 being fitted on the pin between the wall 20 and the roller 23. Each roller 23 engages for fore-and-aft movement within one of a pair of spaced-apart runners to be described in more detail later.

The other end of pin 22 projects sufficiently from the inner wall 1 9 to rotatively mount a bellcrank lever 25 comprising a substantially horizontal rearwardly extending lower arm terminating in a hook 27 and an inverted L-shaped upper arm having a vertical limb 28 and a substantially horizontal rearwardly extending limb 29. A rearwardly extending arcuate slot 30 have radiused ends is formed in the upper limb 29 along an axis comprising a radius from the centre of pin 22, the radius of the forward end of the slot being located on the intersection of the axes of limbs 28 and 29. A short pin 31 projects transversely inwardly from the inner face of limb 29 at the end thereof remote from slot 30 and is secured to limb 29 by welding or brazing. Suitably thin plain washers may be engaged over pin 22 on either side face of the bell-crank lever 25.

Each end of a transversely extending rod 32 is rotatably mounted through holes in the inner and outer walls of brackets 1 8 such that the rod passes with clearance through slot 30 in limb 29 of the bell-crank lever 25. One end of the rod projecting from the outer wall 20 adjacent the vehicle side is bent substantially at right-angles to form an operating handle 33 terminating in a knob 34. One end of a rearwardly extending lever 35 is secured to the rod 32 by welding or brazing and is located inboard of limb 29 and adjacent thereto such that pin 31 is engaged into the rearward end of a straight slot 36 formed in the other end of lever 35 along the axis thereof.A tension spring 37 connected between limb 28 and the rear of inner wall 1 9 urges the forward end of slot 30 into abutment with rod 32 which acts as a stop for lever 25 in the one direction. It should be noted that handle 33 and lever 35 are shown out of position in Figure 4 for reasons of clarity, the correct positions are as shown in Figure 3. It should also be noted that except for the handle portion 33 of rod 32, the mechanism on the opposite rear side of the seat base is duplicated as a mirror image of that described immediately above.

Means to provide normal fore-and-aft adjustment of the seat comprise a substantially U-shaped rod 38 the base of which when in-situ is located horizontally parallel to and below the front of the seat base with the limbs extending rearwardly thereof. The outer end portion 38a of each limb is bent outwardly to lie parallel to the base and the extreme outer ends of the limbs engage into holes in tongues extending upwardly from the respective forward upper edges of a pair of elongate flat arms 39 and are welded or brazed thereto such that the arms are in parallel spacedapart relationship and their axes parallel to the plane of the rod 38. A transversely extending pin 40 is engaged in a hole in the other end of each arm 39 and is welded or brazed to the arm such that the outwardly extending end of pin 40 projects further than the other end.A plain washer 41 is welded or brazed to the outwardly projecting part of pin 40 at a distance from its end to act as a stop in the one direction for a roller 42, dimensionally identical to roller 23 and of the same plastics material, which is rotatably mounted on the end of pin 40 against the washer 41. A rectangular lug 43 is welded to the inner face of each arm intermediate its ends such that it projects transversely inwards at 90 degrees to the axis of the arm.

To mount the seat rear supports for fore-andaft movement a pair of parallel spaced-apart longitudinally extending runners in the form of channel-section members are provided, qnly the outer member 44 being shown as they are substantially mirror images of each other. The channel members are mounted on suitable brackets 45, 46 secured to the floor of the vehicle and each member comprises a substantially U-section channel mounted such that the open face thereof is uppermost. The inner and outer vertical walls 47, 48 respectively are of different heights, the outer wall 48 being the longer. The upper edges of each wall are bent inwardly to form horizontal flanges 49, 50, which partly close the open face of the channel.The flange 50 on the outer wall 48 is higher than flange 49 on wall 47 and a number of axially spaced notches 51 are formed in the free edge of flange 49 to provide means for retaining the seat in a particular position of fore-and-aft adjustment. The front end of the channel is open whilst the rear end is closed by a plate 52 which may be formed integrally with the base of the channel and bent upwards or may be separate and welded to the channel.

On assembly of the seat to the channels, rollers 41 are located in their respective channel members at the rear thereof and between the base and flange 50 such that arm 39 lies within the channel adjacent the edge of flange 49, the extended portion of the lower edge of arm rests on the base of the channel, the end 38a of rod 38 is above flange 49 and lug 43 is engaged in one of the series of notches 51. Rollers 23 are then engaged within the channel in a similar manner to rollers 41 and are moved rearwardly along the channel such that the end of pin 22 on which bellcrank lever 25 is mounted is just clear of arm 39 and the hook end of arm 27 of lever 25 is engaged over pin 40 to latch the seat to the adjustment elements. The front support member 1 3 is then pivotably connected to the vehicle floor.

From the foregoing therefore, it can be seen that normal fore-and-aft adjustment of the seat is effected by lifting the base of rod 38 to pivot the arms 39 about the rollers 42 against a spring bias (not shown) and disengage lug 43 from its notch 51. As lever 25 remains latched to pin 40 the whole seat unit moves along the channels on both pairs of rollers until the new position of adjustment is reached and rod 38 with arms 39 is lowered so that lugs 43 engage into selected notches 51.

When it is required to provide increased access to the rear seats, handle 33 is lifted to rotate levers 35 on rod 32 causing pin 31 to slide down slot 36 on lever 35 and rotate bell-crank lever 25 against spring 37 to disengage the hook-end 27 from pin 40. The seat can then be moved bodily forward on front rollers 23 to the position shown in Figure 2 independently of the adjustment means carried by the rear rollers 42, these elements remaining stationary as lugs 43 remain in engagement with notches 51. Return rearward movement of the seat to its original position will automatically re-latch levers 25 to pins 40.

This arrangement therefore provides a "memory" device which permits the seat to be returned to its original position of adjustment prior to forward displacement to permit increased access to the rear seats. A further advantage is that for a considerable part of the forward displacement to provide increased access to the rear seats, the seat moves substantially horizontally and the seat can be moved bodily forward in this fashion, rather than the movement being accompanied by tilting of the seat back relative to the seat base, thus permitting the occupant to remain seated during this operation, a feature referred to in our co-pending British Patent Application No. 8125516. Additionally, the relatively high location of the transverse rod 32 gives unimpeded clearance beneath the rear of the seat for the feet of the rear seat occupant.

Various modifications can be made to the embodiment described hereinbefore without departing from the scope of the claims of the invention. For example, the channels may be spaced wider apart to further increase foot clearance for rear seat occupants and by suitable modification to the channels, rear support brackets and latching mechanism, the channels may be secured to suitable portions of the vehicle body structure. Additionally one form of spring means to bias the adjustment arms 39 towards the base of the channel members may comprise a horizontal flange on a suitable portion of the lower edge of the arm 39 and securing an upwardly directed leaf spring thereto to act against the underside of flange 49, the flange on the bottom edge of bar 39 also acting as a stop against the base of the channel when the bar is in the fully down position. Rather than using a lug 43 and notches 51 to lock the bar 39 to the runner, holes may be formed in the flange 49 to be engaged by a projection formed on the bar 39 or the end 38a of the rod 38.

Claims

1. A vehicle seat having an adjustable mounting for the seat base comprising a fore-and-aft directed runner on whcih the seat base is mounted for movement along the runner, a locking member also mounted on the runner for movement therealong, first and second releasable locking means for locking the locking member to the runner and to the seat base, one of said locking means being lockable in any of a plurality of positions to permit selection of a plurality of fore and-aft positions of adjustment of the seat base, and the other locking means being arranged to lock in a single position so that, on release of said other locking means, the seat base can be temporarily moved along the runner, returned and re-locked without disturbing the selected position of adjustment of the seat base set by said one locking means.

2. A seat as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said other locking means is arranged to re-lock automatically upon such return of the seat base to the selected position of adjustment.

3. A seat as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said one locking means acts between the locking member and the runner, and the other locking means acts between the locking member and the seat base.

4. A seat as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the runner is formed by an elongate channel-section member, the seat base having a follower which is received by and movable along the channel section member to support the seat base on the channel-section member, and the locking member being received by and movable along the channel-section member.

5. A seat as claimed in claim 4, wherein the channel-section member has a longitudinal inturned flange spaced from the base wall thereof, the locking member being mounted in the channel-section member on a roller, engaged between the base wall and the flange.

6. A seat as claimed in claim 5, wherein the locking member has a transverse spindle on which the roller is rotatably mounted, said other locking means comprising a latch member mounted on the seat base and arranged to latch on to the spindle.

7. A seat as claimed in claim 6, wherein the latch member is formed with a notch in which the spindle of the locking member is engaged to latch the seat base to the spindle, the latch member being pivotally mounted on the seat base so that the latch member can be pivoted to disengage the spindle from the notch, and means being provided to bias the latch member into engagement with the spindle.

8. A seat as claimed in any of claims 5 to 7, wherein the follower of the seat base includes a further roller engaged between the base wall and flange of the channel-section member forwardly of the roller of the locking member.

9. A seat as claimed in any of claims 4 to 8, wherein said one locking means comprises a projection on the locking member which is engageable with any of a plurality of notches or holes in a wall of the channel section member, the locking member being movable to disengage the projection from the engaged notch or hole to release said one locking means.

10. A seat as claimed in claim 9 and in the case where the locking member is mounted in the channel section member on a roller, wherein the locking means is pivotable about the roller axis to disengage the projection on the locking member from the engaged notch or hole.

11. A seat as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a further such runner and locking member and a further such first and second locking means are provided, the two runners being disposed to either side of the seat, the pair of first locking means and the pair of second locking means each having a common manually operable release member.

12. A vehicle seat substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

1 3. A two-door motor vehicle having a front seat provided by a seat as claimed in any preceding claim.