Damped hinge assembly for stadium seating
AssigneeHussey Seating Company
InventorsAdam Campisi, Chi Lam Yau
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A damped hinge assembly for a self-raising seat bottom for preventing the seat bottom from noticeably bouncing at its topmost position. The damped hinge assembly includes a clutch damping mechanism that is engaged at an intermediate position between its lowered position and topmost position to begin slowing the rotation of the seat bottom. The clutch damping mechanism has a number of adjacent plates with a viscous material disposed between them. When the clutch damping mechanism is engaged the plates rotate against one another and the viscous material applies a drag force that resists the rotation to slow the return of the seat bottom to its upright stored position.
Claims2
A damped hinge assembly configured to slow a seat bottom having a seat plate as it accelerates about an axle from a lower position towards a topmost position, the damped hinge assembly comprising:
- a clutch pack assembly having:
- a plurality of plates disposed about said axle and stacked against one another;
- and
- a viscous damping medium, disposed between said plurality of plates;
- and
- a clutch damper cover having:
- a clutch pack receiver;
- and
- a clutch plate having a front projection and a rear projection;
- whereby, upon rotation of the seat bottom to an intermediate position between a lowermost position and a topmost position, one of said front projection or said rear projection of said clutch plate are contacted by a seat bottom plate causing the clutch damper cover to rotate therewith;
- and
- wherein, upon rotation of the clutch damper cover, the interior of the clutch pack receiver cooperates with one or more of the plurality of plates of the clutch pack assembly to rotate at a different speed from the other plates;
- and
- wherein shear forces created by the action of rotation of the plurality of plates within the clutch pack assembly on said viscous damping medium disposed therebetween acts to slow the rotation of the seat bottom through contact with the seat bottom plate by the clutch plate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.