Vehicle seat
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorMatthew J. Harden
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle seat movable between a seating mode, an ingress/egress mode, and a cargo mode includes a vehicle seat rotation controlling apparatus. The vehicle seat rotation controlling apparatus allows a seat back to be rotated toward a seat bottom into the ingress/egress mode while holding the seat bottom in an elevated position. Further, the vehicle seat rotation controlling apparatus allows the seat back to be rotated further toward the seat bottom into the cargo mode while rotating the seat bottom into a lowered position. When the vehicle seat is moved from the cargo mode to the seating mode, the seat back is rotated away from the seat bottom while the vehicle seat rotation controlling apparatus causes the seat bottom to rotate into the elevated position.
Claims20
A vehicle seat rotation controlling apparatus for controlling a rotation of a vehicle seat bottom relative to a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
- a seat bottom height controlling mechanism operably connected to a seat back so as to hold the seat bottom in an elevated position while the seat back is in a rotational position corresponding to a seating mode and an ingress/egress mode and to rotate the seat bottom to a lowered position in response to the seat back being rotated to a rotational position corresponding to a cargo mode.
A vehicle seat having a seat back and a seat bottom rotatably movable between a seating mode, an ingress/egress mode, and a cargo mode, rotation of the seat back and seat bottom being controlled by a vehicle seat rotation controlling apparatus, comprising:
- a seat bottom height controlling mechanism operably connected to the seat back so as to hold the seat bottom in an elevated position while the seat back is in a rotational position corresponding to the seating mode and the ingress/egress mode and to rotate the seat bottom to a lowered position in response to the seat back being rotated to a rotational position corresponding to the cargo mode.
A method of changing a mode of a vehicle seat between a seating mode, an ingress/egress mode, and a cargo mode, comprising the steps of:
- from the seating mode, rotating a seat back toward a seat bottom within a first predetermined range of rotation while holding the seat bottom in an elevated position to place the vehicle seat in the ingress/egress mode;
- from the ingress/egress mode, rotating the seat back further toward the seat bottom past the first predetermined range of rotation while rotating the seat bottom into a lowered position to place the vehicle seat in a cargo mode;
- and
- from the cargo mode, rotating the seat back away from the seat bottom while rotating the seat bottom into the elevated position to place the vehicle seat in the seating mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.