Vehicle seat assembly with composite frame

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9676311-B2
Application number	US-201313904607-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 29, 2013
Priority date	May 29, 2012
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle seat assembly includes a composite frame with continuous-fiber reinforced (CFR) material along laterally spaced side members and cross members. The CFR material may be in a continuous piece along all four frame members to provide structural rigidity that is superior to that of separate pieces of CFR material. The pieces of CFR material may define a foundation portion of the seat frame and may be at least partly embedded in a thermoplastic accessory mounting portion, which is also part of the frame. An overmolding process can be used to at least partially encapsulate the CFR material in the accessory mounting portion with thermoplastic material along opposite sides of the CFR material. The overmolding process can also be used to embed recliner support plates in the composite frame. The frame may have an S-shaped cross section, facilitating simplified mold design and providing beam-like rigidity along multiple directions.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle seat assembly, comprising:
a seat bottom adapted to be coupled with a vehicle floor;
a seat back coupled to and extending from the seat bottom, at least one of the seat back or seat bottom having a frame that includes a pair of laterally spaced side members and a pair of cross members spaced apart along and extending between the side members to interconnect the side members and form a closed loop in the frame, wherein each of said members comprises a continuous-fiber reinforced (CFR) material, and
a foundation comprising the CFR material of each of said members, wherein the CFR material of each one of said members engages the CFR material of another one of said members to form a continuous closed-loop path of CFR material that at least partially defines the closed loop of the frame; and
an accessory mounting portion including integrally formed mounting features, wherein the accessory mounting portion is monolithically formed from a thermoplastic material in which the foundation is at least partially embedded such that the thermoplastic material wraps around at least a portion of both an inner edge and an outer edge of the foundation, the integrally formed mounting features being molded-in features of the monolithically formed accessory mounting portion and formed entirely from the same thermoplastic material.

2. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , wherein the continuous closed-loop path of CFR material surrounds an opening defined in the frame by said members.

3. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , wherein portions of the accessory mounting portion are located at opposite inboard and outboard sides of the foundation.

4. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , further comprising a recliner support plate located along each of the side members, wherein the support plates include one or more apertures aligned with apertures formed through the CFR material, said apertures supporting at least a portion of a recliner mechanism.

5. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , wherein each of the side members has an S-shaped cross-section.

6. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , wherein the CFR material of each of the side members has an S-shaped cross-section.

7. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 6 , wherein the S-shaped cross-section has opposite ends with the thermoplastic material of the accessory mounting portion wrapped around both opposite ends.

8. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , wherein the foundation is formed from a plurality of pieces of CFR material.

9. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 8 , wherein the plurality of pieces of CFR material includes two L-shaped pieces.

10. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 8 , wherein the plurality of pieces of CFR material includes two side pieces corresponding to the laterally spaced sides of the frame and two cross pieces corresponding to the pair of cross-members of the frame.

11. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in 10 , wherein the plurality of pieces of CFR material includes at least one corner piece that overlaps one of side pieces and one of the cross pieces.

12. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 4 , where the recliner support plate is at least partially embedded in the thermoplastic material.

13. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , wherein at least one of the integrally formed accessory mounting features is configured for attachment of at least one of the following seat accessories to the frame: a shoulder support, a recliner mechanism, an entertainment unit, an airbag module, or a lumbar support.

14. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , wherein at least one of the integrally formed accessory mounting features is configured for attachment of a shoulder support that includes a headrest mount.

15. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 1 , wherein at least one of the integrally formed accessory mounting features is configured for attachment of one of the plurality of seat accessories to the frame via a fastenerless attachment.

16. A vehicle seat assembly, comprising:
a seat bottom adapted to be coupled with a vehicle floor;
a seat back coupled to and extending from the seat bottom, at least one of the seat back or seat bottom having a composite frame that includes a pair of laterally spaced side members and a pair of cross members spaced apart along and extending between the side members to interconnect the side members and to define an opening in the frame, each of said members comprising a continuous-fiber reinforced (CFR) material, wherein the CFR material of each one of said members is in sheet form and engages the CFR material of another one of said members to form a continuous closed-loop path of CFR material that surrounds said opening,
wherein the frame further comprises a foundation and an accessory mounting portion, the foundation being formed entirely from the CFR material and having opposite inboard and outboard surfaces separated by a CFR material thickness, and the accessory mounting portion being monolithically formed from a thermoplastic material overmolded on and partially encapsulating the foundation such that each of said side members includes the thermoplastic material at both the inboard surface and the outboard surface of the foundation and wrapped around at least a portion of both an inner edge and an outer edge of the foundation without entirely covering the foundation in the thermoplastic material, and
wherein the accessory mounting portion further comprises mounting features monolithically formed from the overmolded thermoplastic material, each one of the mounting features being configured for attachment of a seat accessory to the frame.

17. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 16 , wherein each of the accessory mounting features is configured to receive a corresponding feature of the seat accessory such that the corresponding feature is in sliding engagement with the thermoplastic material of the accessory mounting portion during attachment of the seat accessory to the frame.

18. A vehicle seat assembly as defined in claim 16 , wherein each of the accessory mounting features is configured for fastenerless attachment of the seat accessory to the frame.

Assignees

• Faurecia Automotive Seating Llc

Inventors

• Murolo Leo
• Cao Yang
• Lassalle Brice
• Deore Ravikant
• Perraut John

Classifications

• B60N2/68 Primary

  Seat frames · CPC title

• B60N2/2252

  in which the central axis of the gearing lies inside the periphery of an orbital gear, e.g. one gear without sun gear · CPC title

• B60N2002/024

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B60N2/682

  Joining means · CPC title

• B60N2/02258

  characterised by the mounting of the electric motor for adjusting the seat · CPC title