Vehicle seat reclining apparatus
AssigneeAisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorYukifumi Yamada
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A vehicle seat reclining apparatus includes a first member attached to one of a seat cushion and a seatback and having an inner gear, a second member attached to the other of the seat cushion and the seatback for rotatably supporting the first member, a locking member having outer teeth facing the inner gear and movable in a radial direction, a guide wall portion provided at the second member, the guide wall portion being configured to guide the locking member in the radial direction by interposing the locking member from a first portion, and a second portion, of the locking member, the first portion and the second portion being defined in a circumferential direction of the locking member, and an outer teeth portion provided at the guide wall portion and facing the inner gear distantly in the radial direction.
Claims23
A vehicle seat reclining apparatus comprising:
- a first member attached to one of a seat cushion and a seatback and having an inner gear;
- a second member attached to the other of the seat cushion and the seatback for rotatably supporting the first member;
- a locking member having outer teeth facing the inner gear and movable in a radial direction;
- a one-piece first guide wall portion comprising a first guide wall facing a first side wall of the locking member in a circumferential direction and a first outer teeth portion integrally formed with the first guide wall and facing the inner gear distantly in the radial direction, a one-piece second guide wall portion comprising a second guide wall facing a second side wall of the locking member in the circumferential direction and a second outer teeth portion integrally formed with the second guide wall and facing the inner gear distantly in the radial direction, the first guide wall portion and the second guide wall portion being configured to guide the locking member in the radial direction by interposing the locking member between the first guide wall and the second guide wall, the first guide wall portion being configured to be deformed by a pressure applied in the circumferential direction for meshing the first outer teeth portion with the inner gear, the second guide wall portion being configured to be deformed by a pressure applied in the circumferential direction for meshing the second outer teeth portion with the inner gear;
- wherein a relative rotation of the first member and the second member being inhibited at a time that the outer teeth of the locking member is meshed with the inner gear, whereby an inclination of the seatback relative to the seat cushion is held, and wherein the relative rotation of the first member and the second member being allowed at a time that the outer teeth of the locking member is released from a meshed condition with the inner gear, whereby the inclination of the seatback relative to the seat cushion is released from being held.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.