Rigid carpet vehicle seat backer arrangement and vehicle seat with rigid carpet seat backer arrangement

A vehicle seat comprising:

• a vehicle seat back frame and/or back panel;
• and
• a carpet backer assembly comprising:
• a carpet piece with a predefined carpet perimeter contour and comprising an upper carpet portion and a lower carpet portion;
• and
• a resin/fiber material, the upper carpet portion and the resin/fiber material being joined and molded to form a resin/fiber, upper carpet, panel portion of a defined shape, wherein the lower carpet portion is not joined with the resin/fiber material and forms a flexible toe-kick portion with a seamless transition between the upper carpet portion of the resin/fiber, upper carpet, panel portion and the lower carpet portion of the flexible toe-kick portion, wherein the resin/fiber, upper carpet, panel portion of the defined shape is formed by at least partially heating the resin/fiber material and molding at least a portion of the heated resin/fiber material together with the upper carpet to press together and fuse together at least a portion of the heated resin/fiber material and the upper carpet portion.

A method comprising the steps of:

• providing carpet piece having a predetermined size and shape;
• providing a resin/fiber panel material having a predetermined size and shape;
• heating at least a portion of the resin/fiber panel material;
• placing at least an upper carpet portion of the carpet piece along with at least a portion of the heated resin/fiber panel material in a molding press and, with the molding press, pressing a backside of the carpet piece to the resin/fiber panel material in the molding press to form a resin/fiber, upper carpet, panel portion of a defined shape;
• and
• removing the resin/fiber, upper carpet, panel portion from the molding press.