Seat sliding structure for vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11485256-B2
Application number	US-202016746963-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2020
Priority date	Feb 12, 2019
Publication date	Nov 1, 2022
Grant date	Nov 1, 2022

Abstract

A seat sliding structure for a vehicle includes: a pair of left and right slide rails that include upper rails, which are attached to a lower portion of a vehicle seat, and lower rails, which support the upper rails such that the upper rails can slide in a vehicle longitudinal direction; rail guiding members that are fixed to a floor panel, and that support the lower rails such that the lower rails can slide in the vehicle longitudinal direction between a driving position at a vehicle front side and a relaxation position at a vehicle rear side; and a locking mechanism that locks movement of the slide rails at the relaxation position, and that releases a locked state when a frontal collision of the vehicle is detected or predicted.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A seat sliding structure for a vehicle, the seat sliding structure comprising:
a pair of slide rails, wherein the pair of slide rails includes a left slide rail and a right slide rail, and each of the left slide rail and the right slide rail includes
an upper rail attached to a lower portion of a vehicle seat, and
a lower rail supporting the upper rail to allow the upper rail to slide in a vehicle longitudinal direction;

rail guiding members fixed to a floor panel, and supporting the lower rails to allow the lower rails to slide in the vehicle longitudinal direction between a driving position at a vehicle front side and a relaxation position at a vehicle rear side;
a locking mechanism configured to
lock a movement of the pair of slide rails at the driving position and at the relaxation position rearward of the driving position, and
release a locked state of the pair of slide rails in response to a frontal collision of the vehicle being detected or predicted;

a damping mechanism configured to, in response to the frontal collision of the vehicle, damp an inertial movement of the pair of slide rails from the relaxation position toward the vehicle front side; and
a moving mechanism including
a cross member connecting the pair of slide rails in a vehicle transverse direction,
a wire trained around pulleys provided as a pair in the vehicle longitudinal direction, and
a fixing bracket fixing the wire to the cross member, wherein

the damping mechanism has a deforming member having one end side mounted to the cross member and another end side attached to the wire, the deforming member being plastically deformable by being pulled and stretched in conjunction with an inertial movement of the cross member toward the vehicle front side.

2. A seat sliding structure for a vehicle, the seat sliding structure comprising:
a pair of slide rails, wherein the pair of slide rails includes a left slide rail and a right slide rail, and each of the left slide rail and the right slide rail includes
an upper rail attached to a lower portion of a vehicle seat, and
a lower rail supporting the upper rail to allow the upper rail to slide in a vehicle longitudinal direction;

rail guiding members fixed to a floor panel, and supporting the lower rails to allow the lower rails to slide in the vehicle longitudinal direction between a driving position at a vehicle front side and a relaxation position at a vehicle rear side;
a locking mechanism configured to
lock a movement of the pair of slide rails at the relaxation position, and
release a locked state of the pair of slide rails in response to a frontal collision of the vehicle being detected or predicted;

a damping mechanism configured to, in response to the frontal collision of the vehicle, damp an inertial movement of the pair of slide rails from the relaxation position toward the vehicle front side; and
a moving mechanism including
a cross member connecting the pair of slide rails in a vehicle transverse direction,
a wire trained around pulleys provided as a pair in the vehicle longitudinal direction, and
a fixing bracket fixing the wire to the cross member, wherein

the damping mechanism has a deforming member having one end side mounted to the cross member and another end side attached to the wire, the deforming member being plastically deformable by being pulled and stretched in conjunction with an inertial movement of the cross member toward the vehicle front side.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nakano Shiro

Classifications

• B60N2/0862

  sliding · CPC title

• B60N2/0818

  inside the rail · CPC title

• B60N2/4221 Primary

  due to impact coming from the front · CPC title

• B60N2/42781

  mechanical triggering · CPC title

• B60N2/4279

  electric or electronic triggering · CPC title