Cushion member and seat structure

• US 9,022,481 B2
• Filed: 03/23/2012
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Delta Tooling Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Delta Tooling Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Fujita, Etsunori, Ogura, Yumi, Kawasaki, Seiji, Arita, Yuki
• Primary Examiner(s): WHITE, RODNEY BARNETT
• Application Number:
  US14/005,276
• Publication Number:
  US 20140001814A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 297/452.27, 297/452.48
• US Class Current: 297/452.27
• CPC Class Codes: A47C 27/22 with both fibrous and foamed material inlays
• CPC Class Codes: A47C 31/006 Use of three-dimensional fabrics
• CPC Class Codes: A47C 7/18 having foamed material included in cushioning part foamed material mattresses A47C27/14
• CPC Class Codes: A47C 7/287 with combinations of different types flat type tensioned springs
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/64 Back-rests or cushions B60N2/2222 takes precedence

Abstract

A cushion member includes an intermediate layer, and an upper layer and lower layer stacked and fixed thereto. The cushion member is fixed to a frame by bending an end part of the cushion member so that the upper layer comes to the front side and the lower layer comes to the back side. The intermediate layer is subjected to shear force and the upper layer and the lower layer are subjected to compressive and tensile stress. With the spring characteristic of the intermediate layer, residual stress of the tension and compression is applied to the upper and lower layers from the intermediate layer. Thus, the cushion member can have a restoring property, generation of creases during no load application can be reduced, permanent setting is made less likely, and a compression characteristic in the thickness direction is increased.

Claims

1. A cushion member comprising:

a multilayer structure including at least one intermediate layer and an upper layer and a lower layer stacked above and below the intermediate layer, wherein

the intermediate layer includes a resin foam with a predetermined thickness;

the upper layer and the lower layer are fixed to a front surface side and a back surface side of the resin foam included in the intermediate layer, respectively;

the cushion member is provided as a tensile structure by being stretched between frames disposed apart from each other by a predetermined distance so that the upper layer on a front side has higher tension than the lower layer in a plane direction;

at least one of the upper layer or the lower layer comprises a three-dimensional cloth;

the three-dimensional cloth includes a pair of ground knits disposed apart from each other and a number of connecting strands for connecting the pair of ground knits by going back and forth between the pair of ground knits; and

a part of the resin foam included in the intermediate layer in the thickness direction intrudes into a gap at least between ground strands forming one ground knit from one ground knit side of the three-dimensional cloth adjacent to the intermediate layer, and an amount of intrusion is in a range of not having contact with at least a part of the other ground knit of the three-dimensional cloth.

2. The cushion member according to claim 1, wherein the cushion member is stretched between the frames by bending an end part so that the upper layer at the end part comes to the front side and the lower layer at the end part comes to a back side, and the upper layer has higher tension than the lower layer in the plane direction.

3. The cushion member according to claim 1, wherein the resin foam and the upper layer, or the resin foam and the lower layer are fixed to each other in a manner that a part of the resin foam in a thickness direction intrudes into a gap between strands of cloth included in the upper layer or the lower layer.

4. The cushion member according to claim 1, wherein a knit texture of at least one ground knit of the three-dimensional cloth has a honeycomb shape.

5. The cushion member according to claim 1, wherein the amount of intrusion of a part of the resin foam included in the intermediate layer in the thickness direction from the one ground knit side of the three-dimensional cloth is in the range of ⅓

to ⅔

of the thickness of the three-dimensional cloth.

6. The cushion member according to claim 1, wherein the resin foam included in the intermediate layer is a polyurethane foam.

7. The cushion member according to claim 1, wherein the upper layer and the lower layer having the intermediate layer interposed therebetween are stacked so that a mutual positional relation based on a roll direction as a winding direction of a roll thereof is set to a predetermined positional relation, thereby setting a tension characteristic of the plane direction to a predetermined characteristic in the range of anisotropy to isotropy.

8. The cushion member according to claim 1, wherein:

two or more of the intermediate layers are provided; and

a layer interposed between the intermediate layers is a layer which serves as both a lower layer of an upper intermediate layer and an upper layer of a lower intermediate layer.

9. The cushion member according to claim 1, wherein the cushion member is stretched for each frame of a seat cushion part, a seat back part, a head rest part, an arm rest part, or an ottoman part with a seat structure.

10. A seat structure having the cushion member according to claim 1 stretched for each frame of a seat cushion part, a seat back part, a head rest part, an arm rest part, or an ottoman part, wherein the cushion member is provided as a tensile structure by being stretched between frames disposed separate from each other by a predetermined distance among the frames so that the upper layer on the front side has higher tension than the lower layer in the plane direction.

11. The seat structure according to claim 10, wherein the cushion member is stretched between the frames by bending the end part of the cushion member so that the upper layer at the end part comes to the front side and the lower layer at the end part comes to the back side.