Seat-contact switch

• US 4,806,713 A
• Filed: 03/30/1988
• Issued: 02/21/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/1987
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Inventors: Krug, Martin, Motting, Gotz, Dahm, Horst
• Primary Examiner(s): Tolin, Gerald P.
• Application Number:
  US07/175,339
• Time in Patent Office: 328 Days
• Field of Search: 307/105 B, 307/119, 200/34, 200/85 R, 200/85 A, 200/290, 200/291, 200/318, 200/323, 340/667, 180/273
• US Class Current: 200/85.00A
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/002 Seats provided with an occupancy detection means mounted therein or thereon detection means responsive to presence or absence of children B60N2/266
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0031 mounted on the frame
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/0032 mounted on springs
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2210/46 Electric switches
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 3/141 Cushion or mat switches
• CPC Class Codes: H01H 3/166 Self-adjusting mountings, transmissions and the like

Abstract

A seat-contact switch for generating a "seat occupied" signal is combined into a compact constructional unit with an axially resilient actuating device, which extends in a straight line between the seat suspension and the seat frame and which automatically compensates for elastic and permanent deformation or settling phenomena of the seat suspension resulting in a reduction of its unloaded length and which utilizes an adjusting screw connected between the seat and seat frame which screw causes adjustment of the point of make-break contact for the "seat occupied" signal.

Claims

1. A seat-contact switch for generating a "seat occupied" signal when a seat suspension approaches a seat frame as a result of seat loading, utilizing an actuating device which has a moveable means articulatable on the seat suspension and a base part fastenable to the seat frame and which, as a result of relative movement between the moveable part and its base part, brings switch contacts into and out of conductive contact and which is self-adjusting to compensate both for elastic and permanent deformations of the seat suspension in order to prevent continuous actuation of the seat-contact switch when the seat suspension undergoes permanent deformation, comprising:

that said moveable means of said actuating device is connected to its base part to be coaxially displaceable;

said moveable means being prestressed by a spring means extending from the base part towards the seat suspension against a stop means on said base part;

said actuating device including an adjusting means whose unloaded natural length is adjusted by means of a mechanically driveable adjusting screw means comprising an adjusting nut and a threaded bolt, one of which is non-rotatably connected while the other is rotatably connected to a free-wheel and which exerts a blocking effect on the rotatable one of the nut or bolt to prohibit rotation in a return direction; and

wherein a difference in length between the distance from the seat suspension to the seat frame caused by deformation of the seat suspension and said unloaded natural length of the actuating device are compensated up to a maximum value by insertion of a deformation elastic member means on said adjusting nut and acting on said adjusting bolt; and

wherein after the maximum value is reached, the elastic member means is moved at least partially into a changed position along the threaded bolt, when the seat suspension is relieved of its seat loading.

2. A seat-contacl switch according to claim 1, wherein first switch contact means are guided in said base part for displacement away from a base part stop against a spring force;

and wherein another switch contact means are moveable by said moveable means as a result of displacement of the moveable means relative to the base part under seat loading to cause the first and other switch contact means to initially be brought into electrical contact with one another and then to have the first switch contact displaced away from its base part stop.

3. A seat-contact switch according to claim 1, wherein a first switch contact means is fixedly arranged on the base part, and another switch contact means is connected with said moveable means, and wherein the first switch contact means are electrically connected when the seat suspension is unloaded and are separated when the moveable means moves relative to the base part upon seat loading.

4. A seat-contact switch according to claim 2, wherein the another switch contact means is located on a moveable contact carrier means which, when the seat suspension is unloaded, is prestressed against a stop on the base part as a result of bias by another spring.

5. A seat-contact switch according to claim 4, wherein said other spring is stretched between the moveable contact carrier and a spring mounting on the moveable means.

6. A seat-contact switch according to claim 4, wherein said another spring is stretched between the moveable contact carrier and a spring mounting on the base part;

and wherein a further spring is stretched between the spring mounting on the base part and a spring mounting on the moveable means.

7. A seat-contact switch according to claim 4, wherein said moveable contact carrier is non-rotatably guided in the base part.

8. A seat-contact switch according to claim 1, wherein said adjusting screw means of the adjusting device is rotated as a result of the displacement of the moveable means relative to the base part by means of a coarse-pitch helical gear.

9. A seat-contact switch according to claim 8, wherein the coarse pitch helical gear is limited in rotation direction by a free-wheel means.

10. A seat-contact switch according to claim 9, wherein drive means for rotating the helical gear are provided on the base part, and wherein said adjusting nut is screwable on said threaded bolt, and wherein said helical gear includes a sleeve with a coarse thread attached to the free-wheel means.

11. A seat-contact switch according to claim 10, wherein said threaded bolt is articulated to the seat suspension in a non-rotating manner relative to its longitudinal axis, and wherein said adjusting nut is fixedly connected to the sleeve.

12. A seat-contact switch according to claim 10, wherein said threaded bolt is fixedly connected to said sleeve, and said adjusting nut is non-rotatably articulated to said seat suspension.

13. A seat-contact switch according to claim 9, wherein said free-wheel means comprises spring pawl means engaging in saw teeth on a toothed ring.

14. A seat-contact switch according to claim 13, wherein said spring pawl means are connected to the coarse pitch helical gear and said toothed ring is mounted on a moveable contact carrier means carried by the base part.

15. A seat-contact switch according to claim 13, wherein said spring pawl means are connected to the moveable contact carrier and said toothed ring is connected to the coarse pitch helical gear.

16. A seat-contact switch according to claim 10, wherein said base part is a hollow cylinder surrounding the sleeve, and wherein said drive means are spring hooks projecting into said hollow cylinder and engaging into flights of the coarse thread arranged on the outside of the sleeve.

17. A seat-contact switch according to claim 16, wherein said flights of the coarse thread are saw-toothed-shaped, to allow for the drive means to jump from one flight to the next when said free-wheel mean exerts its blocking effect and the seat suspension is unloaded.

18. A seat-contact switch according to claim 17, wherein said flights of the coarse thread extend at a pitch angle of 45°

or less, relative to the longitudinal axis of the sleeve.

19. A seat-contact switch according to claim 10, wherein said threaded bolt has a fine thread screw.

20. A seat-contact switch according to claim 10, wherein said adjusting nut of the adjusting screw is configured as a disc with an internal thread center and having several radial slots, starting from the nut thread and extending radially outward toward, but stopping short of the outer edge of the disc;

portions of the disc between the radial slots acting as resilient sector means which are elastically deformable for compensating for the difference in length of the adjustable means after a maximum value of said difference in length is reached, which causes said sector means to snap back automatically along the threaded bolt and again bring said internal thread into engagement with the bolt thread.