Vehicle seat, especially aircraft passenger seat

• US 20050269844A1
• Filed: 04/14/2005
• Published: 12/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Recaro Aircraft Seating GmbH & Company KG (Martin Putsch,)
• Original Assignee: Recaro Aircraft Seating GmbH & Company KG (Martin Putsch,)
• Inventors: Abt, Hans Dieter
• Granted Patent: US 7,393,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 297/16.200
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/045 Longitudinal adjustment by means of articulated rods supporting the seat, e.g. parallelogram mechanisms B60N2/38 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 11/064 Adjustable inclination or position of seats
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 11/0648 Lower frame constructions

Abstract

In a vehicle seat, especially an aircraft passenger seat, with at least one seat component which can be adjusted in its position, such as a seat part which can be mounted with its seat frame structure (3) by way of swivelable support legs (7, 11) above a floor structure (1), the support legs (7, 11) acting on the seat frame structure (3) in pairs in the area of the front edge (9) and rear edge (5) of the seat of the seat part, and with an actuating mechanism which is connected by action to a pair of support legs (7, 11) for producing a swiveling motion of the support legs (7, 11) which causes a change in the position of the seat part, the actuating mechanism is coupled to the assigned pair of support legs (7, 11) by way of a differential mechanism (13) which converts the swiveling motion of the support legs (11) into a change of the effective length of the assigned pair of support legs (11), which length determines the vertical distance between the seat frame structure (3) and the floor structure

Claims

1. Vehicle seat, especially an aircraft passenger seat, with at least one seat component which can be adjusted in its position, such as a seat part which can be mounted with its seat frame structure (3) by way of swivelable support legs above a floor structure (1), the support legs (7, 11) acting on the seat frame structure (3) in pairs in the area of the front edge (9) and rear edge (5) of the seat of the seat part, and with an actuating mechanism (39, 41) which is connected by action to a pair of support legs (7, 11) for producing a swiveling motion of the support legs (7, 11) which causes a change in the position of the seat part, characterized in that the actuating mechanism is coupled to the assigned pair of support legs (7, 11) by way of a differential mechanism (13, 31) which converts the swiveling motion of the support legs (11) into a change of the effective length of the assigned pair of support legs (11), which length determines the vertical distance between the seat frame structure (3) and the floor structure (1):

2. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 1, wherein the seat part can be adjusted between an initial position which is the rear position relative to the direction of travel, and an end position which is displaced forward, and wherein the differential mechanism (13, 31) matches the effective length of the support pair (11) which is connected to it to the effective length of the other support pair (7) which can be changed when the position is adjusted.

3. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 1, wherein the differential mechanism is formed by a mechanical lever mechanism (13, 31).

4. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 3, wherein the lever mechanism for each support leg (11) of the assigned pair has a bell crank lever (13), one lever arm (25) of which is articulated to the end of the pertinent support leg (11), which end is adjacent to the floor structure (1), and its other lever arm (23) is articulated to the floor structure (1).

5. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 4, wherein the lever arms (23, 25) of the bell crank levers (13) include an obtuse angle with one another and are permanently connected to one another at a distance from their coupling points (29, 15) to the support leg (11) and to the floor structure (1) by a shaft (31) which extends through between the support legs (11) and imparts common motion to the bell crank levers (13).

6. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 5, wherein the actuating mechanism has a controllable power drive (41) which acts on the shaft (31) and with the bell crank levers (13) connected to it applies an actuating force which produces a torque for the swiveling motion of the bell crank levers (13) around their coupling point (15) to the floor structure (1).

7. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 6, wherein the power drive is a linear drive (41) with a driving element (39) which is articulated at a distance from the axis of the shaft (31) to a projection (35) which extends away from the shaft.

8. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 6, wherein an actuating force can be applied to the bell crank levers (13) by means of the linear drive (41) of the actuating mechanism and this force causes a displacement motion of the seat part forward by way of the assigned pair of support legs (11).

9. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 5, wherein a second power drive (49) acts on the shaft (31) and applies a reset force to the bell crank levers (13), which force seeks to produce motion of the pairs of support legs which causes displacement motion of the seat part backwards.

10. The vehicle seat as claimed in claim 9, wherein there is an energy accumulator, especially a pressurized spring (49), as the second power drive.