Return mechanism including lock lever with locking protrusion
AssigneeToyota Boshoku Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKosuke Taniguchi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided is a sliding device for a vehicle seat. The device includes a fixed rail, a movable rail, a lock portion, an operating lever, a first locking protrusion, and a lock lever. When a first contact surface among side faces of the first locking protrusion and a second contact surface among side faces of a second locking protrusion of the lock lever are in contact with each other, the operating lever is retained in one of a first position or a second position, and when a protruding-direction end of the first locking protrusion and a protruding-direction end of the second locking protrusion are in contact with each other, the operating lever is retained in the other of the first position or the second position.
Claims12
A sliding device that supports a vehicle seat in a slidable manner, the sliding device comprising:
- a fixed rail;
- a movable rail that is slidably mounted to the fixed rail and onto which the vehicle seat is fixed;
- a lock portion that is displaceable between a locking position restricting sliding of the movable rail and a non-locking position allowing the movable rail to slide;
- an operating lever that displaces the lock portion, the operating lever being rotationally dispaceable between a first position placing the lock portion in the non-locking position and a second position placing the lock portion in the locking position;
- a first locking protrusion protruding in a direction substantially perpendicular to a first axis of the operating lever, the first locking protrusion being rotationally displaced about the first axis simultaneously with the operating lever;
- and
- a lock lever comprising a rotating shaft having a second axis parallel to the first axis of the operating lever, the lock lever comprising a second locking protrusion at a position radially offset from the rotating shaft, wherein the second locking protrusion protrudes substantially in a direction intersecting with the first axis and being rotationally displaced about the second axis of the rotating shaft, wherein
- a side face on one side of the first locking protrusion is a first contact surface and a side face on one side of the second locking protrusion is a second contact surface, and
- the sliding device is configured such that, when the first contact surface and the second contact surface are in contact with each other, the operating lever is retained in one of the first position or the second position, and such that, when a protruding-direction end of the first locking protrusion and a protruding-direction end of the second locking protrusion are in contact with each other, the operating lever is retained in the other of the first position or the second position.
A return mechanism for a slidable device for a vehicle seat, the return mechanism comprising:
- an operating lever including an operating-lever protrusion, and configured to rotate about an operating-lever axis;
- and
- a lock lever including a lock-lever protrusion, and configured to rotate about a lock-lever axis, wherein
- the lock-lever axis is parallel with and non-colinear with the operating-lever axis,
- the lock-lever protrusion includes an arc-shaped upper surface substantially equidistant from the lock-lever axis such that a distance from the upper surface to the lock-lever axis is a first radius, and
- the lock-lever protrusion includes an arc-shaped lower surface substantially equidistant from the lock-lever axis such that a distance from the lower surface to the lock-lever axis is a second radius and such that the second radius is greater than the first radius.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.