US 2026/0116540 A1Published application

Vehicle operator seat incorporating pivoting hip armor

AssigneeAMI Industries, Inc.

InventorsDouglas E. Hoover, Chad R. Pacheco

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Abstract

A seating assembly for a pilot or operator of a rotorcraft, aircraft, or other vehicle includes a seat base comprising base side panels, each panel having a cam surface on its forward face capable of accepting a cam follower. A seat bucket translates relative to the seat base, adjustably up or down through a tracking region and down through a stroking region in response to an impact event; the cam surfaces likewise include an upper portion corresponding to the tracking region and a lower portion corresponding to the stroking region. The seating assembly includes hip armor panels connected to the seat bucket and coplanar with the base side panels, each armor panel including a cam follower translatable along the cam surface such that when the seat bucket tracks through the stroking region the cam followers translate through the lower portion of the cam surface, pivoting the hip armor panels upward.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A vehicular seating assembly, comprising:

a seat base mountable to a floor of a vehicle via at least one base side panel, wherein each base side panel includes a cam surface facing in a forward direction;
a seat bucket configured for supporting an operator of the vehicle, the seat bucket configured for translation relative to the seat base through a tracking region associated with an adjustment of the seat bucket relative to the seat base and a stroking region associated with an impact event;
wherein the cam surface comprises an upper portion corresponding to the tracking region and a lower portion corresponding to the stroking region;
and
at least one armor panel pivotably connected to the seat bucket on a left or right side of the seat bucket;
wherein each armor panel is coplanar with the at least one base side panel;
wherein each armor panel includes a cam follower configured for translation along the cam surface as the seat bucket translates relative to the seat base;
and
wherein each armor panel is configured to pivot in an upward direction relative to the seat bucket as the seat bucket translates through the stroking region.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.