Actuator for an occupant support
AssigneeFaurecia Automotive Seating, LLC
InventorsCedric Ketels, Jeffery T. Bonk, Tristan Vanfossen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An occupant support adapted for use in a vehicle includes a seat bottom coupled to a floor of the vehicle and a seat back configured to pivot about a seat-back pivot axis relative to the seat bottom. The occupant support further includes a seatback-motion controller configured to control movement of the seat back relative to the seat bottom between a blocked arrangement and a freed arrangement.
Claims16
An occupant support comprising
- a vehicle seat including a seat bottom and a seat back coupled to the seat bottom to extend upwardly away from the seat bottom and move relative to the seat bottom,
- a seatback-motion controller arranged to extend between and interconnect the seat back and the seat bottom, the seatback-motion controller including a rotation-control unit coupled to the seat back to move relative to the seat back and change between a blocked arrangement in which movement of the seat back relative to the seat bottom is blocked and a freed arrangement in which movement of the seat back relative to the seat bottom is permitted, a trigger gear coupled to the rotation-control unit to move relative to the rotation control-unit between a first position in which the rotation-control unit is blocked from changing from the blocked arrangement to the freed arrangement, a second position in which the trigger gear has rotated in a first direction to cause the rotation-control unit to change to the freed arrangement, and a third position in which the trigger gear rotates further in the first direction to allow the rotation-control unit to change to the blocked arrangement, and a trigger-gear actuator coupled to the trigger gear to move the trigger gear between the first, second, and third positions,
- wherein the trigger-gear actuator includes a shape-memory alloy wire coupled to the trigger gear to move the trigger gear in response to changes in length of the shape-memory alloy wire between a first length associated with the first position, a relatively smaller second length associated with the second position, and a relatively smaller third length associated with the third position, a power supply coupled to the shape-memory alloy wire and configured to selectively provide power to the shape-memory alloy wire, and a control system coupled to the power supply and configured to apply varying amounts of power from the power supply to the shape-memory alloy wire to cause the shape-memory alloy wire to change between the first, second, and third lengths in response to receipt of an input to the control system.
A motion controller for use between two components of a vehicle seat, the motion controller comprising a rotation-control unit configured to change between a blocked arrangement in which movement of a first component relative to second component is blocked and a freed arrangement in which movement of the first component relative to the first component is permitted, a trigger gear coupled to the rotation-control unit to move relative to the rotation-control unit between a first position in which the rotation-control unit is blocked from changing from the blocked arrangement to the freed arrangement, a second position in which the trigger gear has rotated in a first direction to cause the rotation-control unit to change to the freed arrangement, and a third position in which the trigger gear rotates further in the first direction to allow the rotation-control unit to change to the blocked arrangement, and a trigger actuator coupled to the trigger gear to move the trigger gear between the first, second, and third positions,
- wherein the trigger actuator includes a shape-memory alloy wire coupled to the trigger gear to move the trigger gear in response to changes in length of the shape-memory alloy wire between a first length associated with the first position, a relatively smaller second length associated with the second position, and a relatively smaller third length associated with the third position, a power supply coupled to the shape-memory alloy wire and configured to selectively provide power to the shape-memory alloy wire, and a control system coupled to the power supply and configured to apply varying amounts of power from the power supply to the shape-memory alloy wire to cause the shape-memory alloy wire to change between the first, second, and third lengths in response to receipt of an input to the control system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.