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US 5,207,471 AGranted
Vehicle VDU workstation
AssigneeMercedes-Benz AG
InventorsJurgen Mutschler, Gerd Seidenfaden, Johann Tomforde
Life of this patent
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AssigneeMercedes-Benz AG
InventorsJurgen Mutschler, Gerd Seidenfaden, Johann Tomforde
Estimating the term…
A vehicle VDU workstation is matched to specific safety requirements in a motor vehicle and essentially comprises, as physical elements of a working unit, a keyboard and a flat screen which can be folded onto the latter. A sliding guide allows those parts, on one hand, to be stowed in the glove compartment of the vehicle in a space-saving manner and, on the other hand, also placed in a use position on the folded-out glove compartment door. In the stowed position, the working unit is located behind the glove compartment door. Special mounting elements, some of which at least can be stowed in the glove compartment, allow the VDU workstation also to be used in other seats in the vehicle by being suspended behind backrests of vehicle seats from headrest supports and, to this extent, placed there in a use position. Vibrations of the working unit are weakened by damping elements. When at least one accident-specific force is exerted, either deformation and/or predetermined break points are triggered in order to change the configuration of the VDU workstation into a less cumbersome one.
A VDU workstation in a vehicle, comprising a working unit having at least a keyboard and a flat screen configured and operatively connected with the keyboard so as to be pivotable out of a stowed position in which the screen lays on the keyboard into an upright reading position, wherein the operatively connected keyboard and screen are dimensioned and configured to be, when in a folded-together state in a position which is essentially parallel with a closed door of a correspondingly-shaped glove compartment of the vehicle, lowerable into the glove compartment, and means operatively connected with the keyboard and the glove compartment door for, on one hand, permitting the keyboard to be at least one of mounted and locked on the inner face of the door and, on the other hand, diminishing vibrations of the door.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.