JPH10100754A - Rotary supporting device of car seat - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rotary supporting device for car seat, with which it is practicable to lessen a small number of component parts, facilitate assembly, construct in a compact structure, and eliminate risk of rattle generation even without any adjustment. SOLUTION: A seat is supported on a car floor in such a way as rotatable round a vertical axis. The first plate 15 is attached to either of the floor and seat while the second plate 10 is fixed to the other. A ring-shaped sliding member 20 which assumes a channel form as a whole and is missing partially and which is composed of a pair of flanges 20a with cross-sections opposing to each other and a coupling part 20b for coupling them, is mounted slidably in such an arrangement that the peripheral edge of the supporting edge 15a of the first plate is pinched, and the sliding member is held pinchedly by the supporting part 10a of the second plate and the press part 11a of a pressing plate 11. The sliding member consists of a thin plate 25 of composite material formed by inserting a fine wire meshing 27 into a synthetic resin 26 having a low coefficient of friction, and the resultant construction is formed corrugated in the direction across the thickness as a whole.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting a seat on a floor of an automobile so as to be rotatable about a vertical axis.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Examples of this type of rotation supporting apparatus for a vehicle seat include the techniques disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Hei 8-5640 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-11600. In each of these, a large number of bearing balls for supporting a downward load and a holder plate or shoe for supporting an upward load are provided between the fixed side member and the movable side member.

[0003]

Such a prior art rotary support device can withstand a sufficiently large load.
Although functionally satisfactory, a large number of parts and a large number of balls and holder plates or shoes are provided between the fixed-side member and the movable-side member. Therefore, there is a problem that the manufacturing cost increases. In addition, since the ball is used, the cross section of the rotation support mechanism becomes large, so that there is a problem that it is not possible to form a compact body.

The present invention solves each of these problems, and has a small number of parts, is easy to assemble, and is compact.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for supporting the rotation of an automobile seat, which does not cause play without adjustment.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for supporting the rotation of an automobile seat on a floor of an automobile so as to be rotatable about an up-down axis, and is fixed to one of the floor and the seat. A first plate having a circular support edge centered on the vertical rotation axis of the seat and a second plate having a circular support portion fixed to the other of the floor and the seat and corresponding to the support edge; It is a U-shape consisting of a pair of flange portions having a partially cut annular shape and a cross-sectional shape facing each other and a connecting portion connecting the flange portions, and the two flange portions sandwich the peripheral edge of the supporting edge portion.
A sliding member mounted on the plate; and a holding plate fixed to the second plate so as to sandwich the sliding member mounted on the supporting edge of the first plate between the supporting portion of the second plate. The sliding member is made of a composite thin plate in which a fine wire mesh is inserted in a synthetic resin having a low coefficient of friction, and is formed as a whole in a wavy shape in the thickness direction.

Since the sliding member has a wavy shape in the thickness direction, it is elastically deformed in the thickness direction when it is mounted on the supporting edge of the first plate, and the flange portions are supported at intervals. It abuts against the surface of the edge, and the middle part is slightly lifted off the surface of the supporting edge. In such a state, the sliding member is sandwiched between the supporting portion of the second plate and the pressing portion of the holding plate, so that the intermediate portion of each flange portion, which tends to rise, hits the supporting portion and the pressing portion, and The portion is further elastically deformed in the thickness direction and is interposed between the supporting edge, the supporting portion, and the pressing portion.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the seat S including the seat cushion C and the seat back B
The plate 10, the first plate 15, and the sliding member 20 are main components, and are rotatably mounted on a mounting table A fixed to the floor F of an automobile via a rotation support mechanism having a vertical rotation axis O. .

Next, the structure of the rotation support mechanism will be described with reference to FIG. The first plate 15 is substantially annular with a stepped bent cross section, and a mounting portion 15b extending outward from the upper portion is fixed to the bottom surface of the frame of the seat cushion C by bolts and the like, and extends inward at the lower portion. A support edge 15a is formed. The supporting edge portion 15a is a circular ring centered on the vertical axis O, and has a U-shaped sliding member 20 described below so as to cover its inner peripheral edge and the upper and lower surfaces following it.
Are slidably mounted.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the sliding member 20 is composed of a composite thin plate 25, which will be described later, and a pair of flange portions 20a having cross sections facing each other and a connecting portion 20b connecting the flange portions 20a. It is formed so as to have a U-shape and a partially cut annular shape as a whole, and to have a shape having a constant cross-sectional shape and undulating a small number of times in the thickness direction. The undulation height W of this waveform is, for example, about ２〜 to ／ of the height of the U-shaped cross section. 1
The distance between the pair of flange portions 20a is the first plate 15
Is slightly larger than the thickness of the supporting edge 15a. The opening angle α of the cut portion is preferably, for example, about 18 to 54 degrees, but may be smaller as long as both ends of the sliding member 20 do not overlap in the assembled state. FIG. 4 shows the sliding member 2
FIG. 2 is an exploded view as viewed from the outside, where the scale in the length direction is about half the scale in the thickness direction.

As shown in FIG. 5, a material of the sliding member 20 is a fine wire mesh 27 (for example, a wire diameter of 0.3 mm) made of bronze or the like in a synthetic resin 26 having a low coefficient of friction such as ethylene tetrafluoride resin. This is a composite thin plate 25 (having a thickness of, for example, 0.5 mm) reinforced by inserting a mesh of about 2 mm. The sliding member 20 is obtained by forming the thin plate 25 of such a composite material into an elongated band shape by roller molding as shown in FIGS.
In the shape shown in FIG. The banded material is
It may be cut into the length of one sliding member 20 and then roller-formed into a partially cut annular shape, or may be formed into a continuous coil by rolling a plurality of lengths. It may be cut to form a partially cut ring. The undulation of the waveform may be formed by forming the edge of the forming roller into a waveform, or may be formed into an annular shape in which a part having no waveform is cut off, and then formed into a waveform in another process. Composite sheet 25
Usually, as shown in FIG. 5, the wire mesh 27 is offset in the thickness direction, but the supporting edge 15a of the first plate 15 is in contact with the side where the thickness of the synthetic resin 26 is large (upper side in the figure). Or the side where the thickness of the synthetic resin 26 is small.

As shown in FIG. 2, the second plate 10 has a substantially annular cross section bent stepwise, and a mounting portion 10c extending outward from the lower portion is fixed on the mounting base A by bolts or the like. A support part 10a extending inward is formed at the upper part. A circular shallow support step portion 10b centered on the vertical axis O, which is the center of rotation of the rotary support mechanism, is formed at a radially intermediate portion of the support portion 10a.
The value is slightly smaller than the value obtained by subtracting the thickness of the sliding member 20 from the radius of the inner peripheral edge of a. The portion of the support portion 10a inside the support step portion 10b is the support edge portion 15 of the first plate 15.
It is a circle corresponding to a. The holding plate 11 for holding the sliding member 20 together with the second plate 10 is also circular and substantially annular, and a shallow holding step 11b having the same diameter as the supporting step 10b of the second plate 10 is formed at a radially intermediate portion thereof. The outside is a holding portion 11a. The sum of the heights of the supporting step portion 10b and the holding step portion 11b is set to be equal to or slightly larger than the external dimension of the two flange portions 20a of the sliding member 20.

At the time of assembling, first, a sliding member 20 having a U-shaped cross section is slidably mounted on the supporting edge 15a of the first plate 15 so as to cover the inner peripheral edge thereof and the upper and lower surfaces subsequent thereto. Since the sliding member 20 is annular, but is partially cut, such mounting is easy. Sliding member 20
Is elastically deformed in the thickness direction when it is mounted on the supporting edge 15a of the first plate 15, and the flange portions 20b are spaced apart from each other by the supporting edge. 15a, and the middle part thereof is the supporting edge 1
It slightly rises from the surface of 5a.

The first member having the sliding member 20 mounted in this manner is
As shown in FIG. 2, the plate 15 is placed on the supporting step 10 b so that the inner peripheral surface of the connecting portion 20 b of the sliding member 20 coincides with the supporting step 10 b of the second plate 10, and The sliding member 20 is supported by positioning and fixing the holding plate 11 placed thereon so as to cover the sliding member 20 to the supporting portion 10a of the second plate 10 with a plurality of rivets 12. It is sandwiched between the portion 10a and the holding portion 11a. At this time, each flange 2
The middle part, which has become slightly elevated, is the supporting part 10a.
And the pressing portion 11a, the flange portions 20b are further elastically deformed in the thickness direction, and the supporting edge portions 15 of the first plate 15 are formed.
a, the supporting portion 10a and the holding portion 11 on the second plate 10 side
a. Therefore, there is no play between the second plate 10 and the holding plate 11 and the first plate 15 supported by them.

When the sheet S and the first plate 15 rotate with respect to the second plate 10, the support edge 15a of the first plate 15 usually slides with respect to the sliding member 20, but depending on the state, the second plate 10 may rotate. In some cases, the support portion 10 a of 10 and the holding portion 11 a of the holding plate 11 may slide with respect to the sliding member 20. In either case, the first plate 15 and the second plate 10 are rotated and slid via the sliding member 20, so that the rotation of the two is smoothly performed.

In such a rotary support mechanism used for an automobile seat, there are not a few cases where the vehicle rotates under an eccentric load. In such a case, the sliding member 2
Since the synthetic resin serving as the zero flange portion 20a is slid in a state where a large load is locally applied thereto, when this is repeated, the synthetic resin of the flange portion 20a is gradually extruded in the radial direction and crushed, and the flange portion 20a is crushed. May be deformed and the rotation support function may be impaired. However, the composite thin plate 25 which is the material of the sliding member 20 of the above embodiment is used.
Is reinforced by inserting a fine wire mesh 27 such as bronze into a synthetic resin 26 having a low coefficient of friction such as ethylene tetrafluoride resin, so that it is not extruded in the radial direction and therefore crushed. Also, there is no possibility that the flange portion 20a is deformed and the rotation support function is impaired.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1 described above, in order to position the sliding member 20 in the radial direction, the supporting step 10b is formed on the second plate 10, and the pressing plate 11 is Although the step portion 11b is formed, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the support portion 10a of the second plate 10 and the holding plate 11 are flat, and a separate spacer 13 is sandwiched between the support portion 10a and the holding plate 11. Then, the three members are fixed by the rivets 12, and the sliding member 20 is fixed to the support portion 10a and the holding portion 11a as in the first embodiment.
The outer peripheral edge 13a of the spacer 13 is used for positioning in the radial direction. The thickness of the spacer 13 is the same as or slightly larger than the outer dimension of both flange portions 20a of the sliding member 20. The other configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the detailed description is omitted.

In each of the above embodiments, the first plate 15
Is the movable side (the sheet S side) and the second plate 10 is the fixed side (the floor F side).
5 may be implemented as the fixed side, and the second plate 10 may be implemented as the movable side. Further, in each of the above embodiments, the rotary sliding portion is inside and the mounting portion is outside, but the present invention may be implemented with the rotary sliding portion outside and the mounting portion inside.

[0018]

As described above, the apparatus for supporting the rotation of an automobile seat according to the present invention provides upward and downward loads only by providing an annular sliding member between the two plates serving as the fixed and movable supporting members. , The number of parts is reduced. Since the annular sliding member is partially cut, it can be easily mounted on the supporting edge of the first plate, and in this mounted state, it is sandwiched between the supporting portion of the second plate and the pressing portion of the pressing plate. Good and easy and easy to assemble. Further, since the sliding member is a thin plate having a U-shaped cross section, the cross section of the rotation supporting mechanism is small and compact. Each flange portion of the sliding member is elastically deformed in the thickness direction and is interposed between the supporting edge portion and the supporting portion and the pressing portion, so that there is no particular adjustment between the first plate and the second plate. There will be no rattling. Since the sliding member is made of synthetic resin with a low coefficient of friction,
Since the first and second plates are smoothly rotated, and the synthetic resin is reinforced by a fine wire mesh, the supporting function is not impaired even if a large load is applied locally.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall side view of an embodiment of a rotation support device for a vehicle seat according to the present invention, in which main parts are cut away.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view of the rotation support mechanism of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the sliding member of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a developed view of the sliding member shown in FIG. 3 as viewed from the outside, in which the scale in the length direction is about half the scale in the thickness direction.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged sectional view showing an example of a structure of a thin plate used as a material of a sliding member of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a view showing one modification of the rotation support mechanism shown in FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... 2nd plate, 10a support part, 11 ... holding plate, 15 ... 1st plate, 15a ... support edge part, 20 ... sliding member, 20a ... flange part, 20b ... connection part, 25 ...
Thin plate, 26 ... synthetic resin, 27 ... wire mesh, F ... floor, S ...
Sheet, O: vertical axis.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automobile seat rotation support device for supporting a seat on an automobile floor so as to be rotatable about an up-down axis, wherein the apparatus is fixed to one of the floor and the seat, and the center is about the up-down axis. A first plate having a circular support edge to be fixed; a second plate fixed to the other of the floor and the seat and having a circular support portion corresponding to the support edge; A slide having a U-shape formed by a pair of flange portions having a cross-sectional shape facing each other and a connecting portion connecting the flange portions, wherein the two flange portions are mounted on the first plate with the peripheral edge of the supporting edge portion interposed therebetween. A sliding plate mounted on the second plate so as to sandwich the sliding member mounted on a supporting edge of the first plate between the supporting portion of the second plate; The rotating member is composed of a composite thin plate in which a fine wire mesh is inserted into a synthetic resin having a low coefficient of friction, and is formed as a whole in an undulating shape in a thickness direction. .