Vehicle seat with headrest movement responsive to seat back tilting

• US 4,040,661 A
• Filed: 12/19/1975
• Issued: 08/09/1977
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/1974
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: PTC Aerospace Incorporated Bantam CT 06750 A Corporation
• Original Assignee: UOP Llc (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Hogan, Gerard T., Weik, Kirby B.
• Primary Examiner(s): McCall, James T.
• Application Number:
  US05/642,520
• Time in Patent Office: 599 Days
• Field of Search: 297/61, 297/284, 297/85
• US Class Current: 297/284.4
• CPC Class Codes: A47C 1/036 the parts including a head-rest
• CPC Class Codes: A47C 7/38 for the head adjustable coupled to reclining or easy chairs A47C1/036
• CPC Class Codes: A47C 7/462 adjustable by mechanical means
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/66 Lumbar supports
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/838 Tiltable
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/853 characterised by their adjusting mechanisms, e.g. electric motors

Abstract

A tilting, adjustable passenger seat back is provided with an angularly adjustable upper headrest section which has tilting linkage and a hinge connection to the upper part of the seat back such that when the back is in a generally upright position, the headrest section is back and out of the way of a passenger'"'"'s head and shoulders; however, when the seat back is moved to a recline position, the headrest section will rotate forward to provide support for the head while the passenger is in the recline position. A modified construction also has additional linkage which provides for a lumbar support that moves along with recline movement to be primarily effective to adjust seat back cushioning for upright positioning of the seat back and out of the way for the recline position.

Claims

1. In a vehicle passenger seat having a seat section, seat support framing and a reclining seat back, the improved construction to provide a movable headrest section, which comprises in combination,

a. an elongated tilting seat back section having a hinged connection at its lower end to a fixed location on non-moving seat support framing,

b. a relatively short tilting headrest section having a hinged connection from its lower portion to the rearward part of the upper end portion of said seat back section and forming an extended portion for the latter,

c. a fixed length, linking member connecting to a fixed position, non-translating, lower pivot means on the non-moving seat support framing at a position spaced upwardly from said hinged connection for said back section, and said linking member extending upwardly to an upper pivot means on said headrest section which is spaced from and positioned forward of the hinged connection between the upper part of said seat back section and said headrest section,

d. said linking member positioned to be generally parallel to the tilting seat back section, such that as the latter is tilted from a generally upright position to a recline position there is a resulting translation of the top end portion of the seat back section relative to said upper pivot point means between said linking member and said headrest section and a resulting forward tilting of the latter section with respect to the back section, and

e. a transverse lumbar support bar extending across the lower portion of said tilting seat back section in the zone of the lumbar region of a seat occupant, said support bar having fixedly connected arm members which extend downwardly to pivotally connect with the seat support framing to thereby provide for an arcuate movement of the lumbar support bar about the connection points to the framing, longitudinal slot means being provided in the midportions of each of the arm members from the lumbar support bar, and fixed pin means from each side portion of said seat back section being provided to extend through the respective slot means for said arm members whereby the tilting movement of the seat back section provides a relative movement between the seat back framing and said arm members from the fixed pin means in said slot means and there is a resulting translation of the connecting lumbar support bar to move with respect to the framing for the seat back section.

2. The seat of claim 1 further characterized in that a linking member is provided along each side portion of said seat back section for connection to said headrest section, whereby the latter is operated from two spaced linking members.

3. The seat of claim 1 further characterized in that a stiff but movable pressure distributing member is used in combination with said lumbar support bar to move seat back cushioning in and out responsive to the degree of projection of said lumbar support bar.