Foam seat element, and process and mold for producing same

Abstract

There is described a padded element comprising a foam substrate having disposed therein a first internal surface and a second internal surface opposed to the first internal surface, the first internal surface being interposed between an outer surface of the foam substrate and the second internal surface, at least one of the first internal surface and the second internal surface comprising a textured portion. In a highly preferred embodiment, the pair of internal surfaces disposed within the body of the foam substrate combine to form one or more cavities in the foam substrate (e.g., by the provision of one internal surface have a textured portion and the other internal surface being untextured). The provision of such a textured surface creates a contacting interface (either at rest or when an occupant sits on the seat) between below or remote from the A-surface of the foam element. This interface has different properties than the exposed surface of the seating element. By adopting this internal interface approach to one or more zones of foam element, it is possible to confer different qualities of comfort and feel to the outer surface of the foam element (e.g., A-surface of a vehicular seat element) even though the appearance of that outer surface may be relatively non-textured. In this manner, the occurrence of “read through” described above is obviated or mitigated. A process and mold for produce the padded element are also described.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.