US3848926A - Occupant seat - Google Patents

Abstract

An occupant seat of vehicles including a spring structure having a buffer body mounted thereon, said spring structure including a plurality of spring elements juxtaposed in a horizontal plane, each of which is integrally formed of supporting hooks disposed at both ends and a pair of coil spring portions positioned near the hooks.

Description

United States Patent 1191 1111 3,848,926 Kuroishi Nov. 19, 1974 OCCUPANT SEAT 3,107,944 10/1963 Baermann 297/452 3,142,073 7/l964 Stern 297/452 X [75] Inventor. Kenltiro Kurolshl, Yokohama, 3,586,375 6/197] Rathbun I I I 297/452 Japan 3,653,712 4 1972 Sarvas 297/452 Assignee: p g Co. Ltd. 3,674,31 l 7/1972 Miller 297/452 Yokohama-shi, Japan FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 22 Filed; 2 1972 1,933,75l 6/1970 Germany 297/452 422,520 1/1935 Great Britain 297/452 [21] Appl. No.: 318,661 I Primary Examiner-Paul R. Gilliam 30 For i A l-cafio P i0 D ta Assistant ExaminerDoris L. Troutman 1 e gn pp r n y a Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Kemon, Palmer &

Mar. 3, 1972 Japan 47-26272 Estabrook Mar. 3, 1972 Japan..... 47-26274 Mar. 3., I972 Japan 47-26275 ABSTRACT 52 US. 01. 297/452 An Occupant Seat of vehicles including a Spring struc- [51] Int. Cl. A47c 7/02 ture having a buffer y mounted thereon Said [58] Field 6: Search 297/452, 455; 5/247, 266 Spring structure including a plurality of spring e ments uxtaposed 1n a horlzontal plane, each of wh1ch [56 References Ci is integrally formed of supporting hooks disposed at UNITED STATES PATENTS both ends and a pair of coil spring portions positioned near the hooks. 2,633,185 3/1953 Emberson 297/452 3,084,980 4/1963 Lawson 297/DIG. l

3 Claims, 14 Drawing Figures This invention relates to an occupant seat including a spring structure.

Heretofore, the occupant seat of vehicles, for example, automobiles includes a spring structure constructed by a large number of zigzag spring elements arranged in a horizontal plane and a buffer body prepared from synthetic resin foam, for example, polyurethane foam and mounted on said spring structure. With such seat, some spring elements of the structure are forcefully expanded in a longitudinal direction due to the occupants load being concentrated at the hip, causing the spring elements of the central portion of said spring structure to be widely separated. Accordingly, the elastic force of the spring structure is not applied uniformly all over the seat. Further, the occupants hip feels clamping under the repulsive force of the expanded spring structure and also a hard touch due to the widely separated spring elements, causing seating discomfort to the occupant. For elimination of such drawbacks, the spring structure would have to be considerably reinforced using complicated arrangement, presenting difficulties in manufacture and in consequence resulting in high cost.

It is accordingly the object of this invention to provide an occupant seat of simple construction and easy manufacture offering great seating comfort.

According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an occupant seat comprising a frame; a spring structure fitted to the frame; and a seating section mounted on the spring structure, the spring structure including a large number of single wire spring members, each of which is integrally formed of hooks disposed at both ends of said wire for engagement with the frame, two coil spring portions positioned near the hooks and a central straight portion defined between said coil spring portions.

The present invention can be more fully understood.

from the following detailed description when taken in connection with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an occupant seat according to an embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view on line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a wire-frame embedded in a buffer body;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the spring structure of the occupant seat as shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view on line 6-6 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a side view of a spring member included in the spring structure;

FIG. 8 is a fragmental plan view of a modified spring structure;

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a spring member included in the spring structure of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a side view of the same as shown in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a fragmental side view of hook members of the spring structure;

FIG. 12 is a plan view of a spring member according to another modification;

FIG. 13 is a sectional view of an occupant seat according to still another modification; and

FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the spring structure of FIG. 13.

There will now be described by reference to FIGS. 1

to 6 an occupant seat according to an embodiment of this invention.

Throughout the figures, numeral 20 denotes an occupant seat comprising a frame 21 formed by bending a metal tube in square form, a spring structure 22 supported by the frame 21 and a seating section of a cushion or buffer body 23 prepared from synthetic resin foam and mounted on the spring structure 22.

The mutually facing side tubes 21a of the frame 21 are perforated with a plurality of engagement holes 24 arranged at a prescribed space. With the mutually facing ones of said engagement holes 24 are engaged hooks 25a integrally formed at both ends of the spring members 25 constituting the spring structure 22. Said spring members 25 have a pair of coil spring portions I 25b positioned near the hooks 25a. An intermediate part of each spring member 25 defined between the coil spring portions 25b forms a central straight line 25c. Namely, the spring member 25 is constructed simply by bending a single straight steel wire at both ends to form hooks 25a and further winding the portions of the spring member 25 near the hooks 25a several times into -coil springs 25b, thus enabling quantity productron.

The spring structure 22 is constructed by engaging the hooks 25a of a plurality of the spring members 25 with the engagement holes 24 of the frame 21 so as to arrange said spring members 25 parallel at a prescribed space in a horizontal plane. In this case, it is possible to make the spring member 25 shorter than the span of the frame 21, and fit it to the frame 21 with the coil springs 25b near both end portions of said spring member 25 so stretched as to be subjected to an initial tension, that is, to use said coil springs 25b as a tension type. If the coil springs 25b are formed of a prescribed number of turns, then there will be imparted a required tension to the spring member 25 as a whole. Or the spring member 25 may have the same length as the span of the frame 21 without being subjected to any particular initial tension.

The spring members 25 are collectively provided with means which, when an occupant sits on a seat, prevents the spring members 25 from being displaced, namely, having their distance excessively widened. According to this embodiment, said means consists, as

shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, of three pairs of polyvinyl chloride tapes 26, which are firmly attached to the upper and lower sides of the central straight lines 25c of the spring members 25 at the mid point and both ends of said central straight lines 25c so as to intersect them at right angles. Both ends of each tape 26 extend sufficiently beyond the central straight lines of the spring members 25 constituting both edges of the spring structure 22. Said tapes 26 are bonded together except for the central straight lines 250, thereby holding the spring members 25 securely in place so as to prevent their displacement under load. The bonding of said tapes 26 may be effected by application of high frequency waves or adhesive.

A buffer body or cushion 23 mounted on the spring structure 22 of the above-mentioned arrangement consists of a soft polyurethane foam pad in which there are embedded a wire frame 27 constituting the outline of the cushion and a sheet of cheesecloth.

The occupant seat of the aforesaid construction includes a spring structure simply consisting of spring members and connectors or polyvinyl chloride tapes for preventing their displacement thus enabling easy manufacture. Further, when an occupant sits on the seat, the spring members are not displaced in a longitudinal direction due to the presence of said tapes, offering a uniform cushioning property by the joint action of the spring structure and cushion body.

According to the foregoing embodiment, the intermediate portion of the spring member 25 defined between the coil springs 25b is formed of a straight wire. Obviously, said intermediate portion may be made into a zigzag form in a horizontal plane.

A modified spring structure illustrated jointly by FIGS. 8 to 11 comprises a plurality of horizontally juxtaposed spring members 30 connected at both ends to the frame 21 and a plurality of connectors 31 so disposed as to connect the adjacent ones of said spring members 30 for prevention of their expansion in the longitudinal direction of the spring element. The spring member 30 is integrally formed of hooks 30a disposed at both ends, a pair of coil springs 30b positioned near said hooks 30a, and an intermediate wave portion 30c defined between the coil springs 30]). The connector 31 consists of a wave portion 31a matching the wave'portion 30c of the spring member and joining portions 31b formed at the crests and roots of said wave portion 31a. The spring structure 22 is assembled by engaging the crests and roots of the individual waves of the wave portion of the spring member 30 with the joining portions 31b formed at the crest and root of the wavesha'ped connectors 31. The spring structure constructed as described above not only displays the aforementioned advantage but also allows the occupants load to be well distributed due to its mesh form, attaining an increased cushioning property.

The wave portion 30c of the spring member 30 need not always be formed of acute angle waves indicated in FIG. 9 but may consist of, for example, rectangular waves shown in FIG. 12.

The preceding two different spring structures have the spring members 25 provided with additional means such as polyvinyl chloride tapes 26 and connectors 31 respectively for preventing the expansion of said spring members 25. Instead, such means may be incorporated in the cushion body itself as in the following embodiment. According to the embodiment illustrated jointly by FIGS. 13 and 14, a soft polyurethane foam cushion 23 has a large number of lateral grooves 40 formed in its underside 23a fully across at a prescribed interval. Said grooves 40 can be provided by foaming said polyurethane cushion so as to shape its bottom into an undulated pattern in cross section. The spring structure 22 shown in FIG. 14 is of exactly the same arrangement as that of the preceding embodiment of FIG. 5 except for the polyvinyl chloride tapes 26 used in FIG. 5. When the cushion 23 is mounted on the spring structure 22 with the spring members 25 thereof fitted into the grooves 40, the displacement of said spring members 25 in the lateral direction of the spring structure 22 is prevented by said grooves 40, attaining the same effect as the preceding embodiments.

What is claimed is:

1. An occupant seat comprising a frame. a spring structure fitted to the frame and a seating section mounted on the spring structure, said spring structure including a plurality of parallel, unconnected spring members consisting of a single wire having a hook at both ends for engagement with said frame, a coil portion adjacent each end and a straight central portion between said coil portions, said seating section comprising a buffer body, the underside of said buffer body including a plurality of parallel grooves so located in said underside that each of said spring members extends into one of said grooves, such arrangement of said spring members and grooves serving to prevent lateral displacement of the spring members.

2. The occupant seat of claim 1 wherein said buffer body is a cushion molded of foam material.

3. The occupant seat of claim 2 wherein said cushion includes an embedded wire frame across which extends a fabric web.

Claims (3)

1. An occupant seat comprising a frame, a spring structure fitted to the frame and a seating section mounted on the spring structure, said spring structure including a plurality of parallel, unconnected spring members consisting of a single wire having a hook at both ends for engagement with said frame, a coil portion adjacent each end and a straight central portion between said coil portions, said seating section comprising a buffer body, the underside of said buffer body including a plurality of parallel grooves so located in said underside that each of said spring members extends into one of said grooves, such arrangement of said spring members and grooves serving to prevent lateral displacement of the spring members.

2. The occupant seat of claim 1 wherein said buffer body is a cushion molded of foam material.

3. The occupant seat of claim 2 wherein said cushion includes an embedded wire frame across which extends a fabric web.

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