Seat apparatus

A seat apparatus having a seat cushion supported on a floor surface and a seat back attached to, and inclinable relative to, the seat cushion and moved between an upright position and a forward inclined position, comprising:

• a biasing member which biases the seat back in a forward inclined direction;
• a lock mechanism which can lock the seat back not to be relatively inclinable at the upright position;
• a lock lever which is supported on the seat cushion and switches the lock mechanism between a lock state and a lock release state, and causes the lock mechanism to be in the lock release state by being moved in a lock release direction and causes the lock mechanism to be in the lock state by being moved in a lock direction along with movement of the seat back in the lock release state to the upright position;
• a gear which is pivotally supported on the seat back, is configured to be turned in a first turning direction corresponding to the forward inclined direction and in a second turning direction, and has a first abutting portion and a second abutting portion, wherein the first abutting portion is set to abut on a stopper fixed in the seat cushion by turning of the gear in the first turning direction while the second abutting portion is set to abut on the lock lever by turning of the gear in the second turning direction thereby to move the lock lever in the lock release direction;
• a motor which has a motor shaft meshed with the gear and is attached to the seat back, and causes the gear to be turned in the first turning direction by rotating the motor shaft in a first rotating direction and causes the gear to be turned in the second turning direction by rotating the motor shaft in a second rotating direction;
• a motor controlling unit which controls driving of the motor;
• a detecting unit which detects whether or not the seat back is in the upright position;
• and
• a manipulating unit which is manipulated when the seat back is to be moved to either the upright position or the forward inclined position,
• wherein, in a case where the manipulating unit is manipulated when the detecting unit detects the fact that the seat back is in the upright position, the motor controlling unit controls driving of the motor and rotates the motor shaft in the second rotating direction until the gear turned in the second turning direction moves the lock lever in the lock release direction at the second abutting portion thereby to cause the lock mechanism to be in the lock release state, and
• in a case where the manipulating unit is manipulated when the detecting unit detects the fact that the seat back is not in the upright position, the motor controlling unit controls driving of the motor and rotates the motor shaft in the first rotating direction until the detecting unit detects the fact that the seat back is in the upright position.