Power supply unit and vehicle seat

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10589640-B2
Application number	US-201816013057-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2018
Priority date	Jun 26, 2017
Publication date	Mar 17, 2020
Grant date	Mar 17, 2020

Abstract

A power supply unit including a slide rail that has an opening at an upper side a slider that slides along the slide rail, a first connector that is fixed to one end portion of the slide rail, a second connector that is fixed to the slider, and a flexible cable that is housed inside the slide rail, that has one end connected to the first connector, and that has another end folded back and connected to the second connector.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A power supply unit comprising:
a slide rail that has an opening at an upper side;
a slider that slides along the slide rail;
a first connector that is fixed to one end portion of the slide rail;
a second connector that is fixed to the slider;
a flexible cable that is housed inside the slide rail, that has one end connected to the first connector, and that has another end folded back and connected to the second connector;
a rail cover that blocks the opening of the slide rail and that has a slit formed along a length direction of the slide rail; and
a cable guide that is installed to the slider, that grips the cable, and that leads the cable into the slide rail through the slit.

2. The power supply unit of claim 1 , wherein the cable guide is configured including a width adjuster portion that increases a width of the slit when the slider passes through to be wider than when the slider is not passing through.

3. The power supply unit of claim 1 , wherein:
the cable is a flexible flat cable; and
the cable guide is configured including a deflecting guide portion that aligns a width direction of the flexible flat cable with a length direction of the slit to insert the flexible flat cable into the slide rail through the slit, and that bends the flexible flat cable inside the slide rail such that a thickness direction of the flexible flat cable is along an up-down direction.

4. The power supply unit of claim 1 , wherein:
a first guide piece and a second guide piece with left-right symmetrical profiles to each other about a central axis of the cable guide in a seat width direction are superimposed on each other in the seat width direction to form the cable guide, and the first guide piece and the second guide piece each include an anchor portion protruding to a seat rear side from a seat rear side end portion;
the slider includes a left and right pair of slide portions disposed on either side of a central axis of the slider in the seat width direction in order to slide along the slide rail, and the slide portions each include an engaging portion formed at a seat front side end portion; and
the cable guide is installed to the slider by engaging the anchor portions and the engaging portions with each other.

5. The power supply unit of claim 2 , wherein:
the width adjuster portion is formed at a seat front side end portion of the cable guide in a fan shape gradually widening from a seat front side toward a seat rear side, and with a curving sloped face profile projecting toward a seat upper side.

6. The power supply unit of claim 3 , wherein:
the cable guide is formed by a first guide piece and a second guide piece with left-right symmetrical profiles to each other about a central axis of the cable guide in a seat width direction and superimposed on each other in the seat width direction;
the deflecting guide portion includes a lead-in location and a lead-out location;
the lead-in location is formed at a seat width direction outer side of the first guide piece and is recessed in a substantially triangular shape in a side view; and
the lead-out location is formed at a seat width direction inner side of the second guide piece and is recessed in a substantially trapezoidal shape in a side view.

7. The power supply unit of claim 3 , wherein the other end of the flexible flat cable is connected to the second connector with a width direction of the other end along an up-down direction.

8. The power supply unit of claim 3 , further comprising a cable supporter that is installed to the slider, that the flexible flat cable is entrained around, and that folds back the flexible flat cable.

9. A vehicle seat including a power supply unit, the vehicle seat comprising:
the power supply unit of claim 1 ; and
a seat body that is attached to the slide rail through the slider and that is installed with a load connected to the second connector.

Assignees

• Nhk Spring Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nakamura Takeshi
• Katsube Kenichi
• Arimoto Shota
• Koga Tomoki

Classifications

• B60R16/0215

  Protecting, fastening and routing means therefor · CPC title

• B60N2/0725

  Closing members for covering the slide · CPC title

• B60N2/0722 Primary

  Constructive details · CPC title

• B60R16/03

  for supply of electrical power to vehicle subsystems {or for (circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00)} · CPC title

• B60N2/0224 Primary

  Non-manual adjustments, e.g. with electrical operation · CPC title