Slide rail for vehicle seat and vehicle seat comprising such a slide rail

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11890970-B2
Application number	US-202017079991-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 26, 2020
Priority date	Oct 31, 2019
Publication date	Feb 6, 2024
Grant date	Feb 6, 2024

Abstract

A slide rail for a vehicle seat comprises first and second slide members lockable by a lock which comprises several locking members suitable for entering holes that are part of the first slide member. The lock is mounted on the second slide member so as to provide translational clearance between the lock and the second slide member.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A slide rail for a vehicle seat, comprising:
a first slide member and a second slide member which are mounted so as to slide relative to one another along a longitudinal direction, the first slide member comprising holes aligned along the longitudinal direction,
a mechanical lock mounted on the second slide member and comprising several locking members, each locking member being independently movable between an unlocked position where the locking member does not interfere with the holes of the first slide member, and a locked position where the locking member enters a hole of the first slide member to immobilize the first slide member and second slide member relative to one another, the locking members being resiliently biased towards the locking position and being either held in unlocked position when the lock is in an unlocking position, or freely movable to the locked position when the lock is in a locking position, the locking members and the holes of the first slide member being arranged so that several locking members can enter the holes of the first slide member when the lock is in the locking position,
wherein the lock is mounted on the second slide member so as to provide translational clearance between the lock and the second slide member at least in one way along the longitudinal direction, said translational clearance allowing a limited travel of the second slide member in the longitudinal direction when at least one of the locking members is in the locking position.

2. The slide rail of claim 1 , wherein the lock is mounted on the second slide member so as to provide the translational clearance between the lock and the second slide member in two opposite ways along the longitudinal direction.

3. The slide rail of claim 1 , wherein the clearance is maintained resiliently.

4. The slide rail of claim 3 , wherein the clearance is maintained by a resilient actuator comprising two actuator elements resiliently biased away from each other along the longitudinal direction, each actuator element bearing against an integral portion of the second slide member and against an integral portion of the lock in the longitudinal direction as long as the slide rail is in a normal situation of use.

5. The slide rail of claim 4 , wherein the second slide member comprises a web and the lock is connected to the web of the second slide member by means of a lock support having a web parallel to the web of the second slide member, the resilient actuator being housed in a first opening formed in the web of the second slide member and in a second opening formed in the web of the lock support, each of the actuator elements bearing against an edge of the first opening and an edge of the second opening in the longitudinal direction as long as the slide rail is in a normal situation of use.

6. The slide rail of claim 4 , wherein the two actuator elements together define a housing containing an actuator spring.

7. The slide rail of claim 1 , further comprising:
a motorized drive mechanism suitable for selectively either immobilizing or driving the second slide member relative to the first slide member, the second slide member being mounted to move relative to the motorized drive mechanism so as to be normally retained in a neutral position with respect to the motorized drive mechanism and the second slide member being movable from the neutral position when the second slide member is subjected to a force greater than a predetermined threshold in the longitudinal direction,
and a lock control member mounted on the second slide member,
the lock control member being connected to the motorized drive mechanism such that the lock control member is:
in a rest position where the lock control member allows the lock to be in the unlocking position when the second slide member is in the neutral position with respect to the motorized drive mechanism,
and in an actuating position where the lock control member controls the lock to move the lock to the locking position when the second slide member is moved from the neutral position with respect to the motorized drive mechanism.

8. The slide rail of claim 7 , wherein the motorized drive mechanism comprises a driving device suitable for driving a pinion meshed with a rack that is part of the first slide member, the second slide member being mounted so as to slide in the longitudinal direction with respect to the driving device.

9. The slide rail of claim 8 , wherein the driving device engages with the lock control member by cam action to move the lock control member into the actuating position when the second slide member is moved from the neutral position with respect to the motorized drive mechanism.

10. The slide rail of claim 1 , wherein the clearance is a few millimeters, in particular between about 5 mm and about 10 mm.

11. A vehicle seat comprising a seating portion and two slide rails according to claim 1 , the seating portion being carried by the second slide member of each slide rail.

Assignees

• Faurecia Sieges Dautomobile

Inventors

• Petit Fabrice
• Nardin Vincent
• Kircher Olivier

Classifications

• B60N2/0818 Primary

  inside the rail · CPC title

• B60N2/02246

  Electric motors therefor · CPC title

• B60N2/0893

  allowing independent movement of the latches, e.g. to recover tolerance errors · CPC title

• B60N2/0856

  about a vertical axis · CPC title

• B60N2/08 Primary

  characterised by the locking device · CPC title