Vehicle seat slide mechanism

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9802511-B2
Application number	US-201113334552-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2011
Priority date	Jan 18, 2011
Publication date	Oct 31, 2017
Grant date	Oct 31, 2017

Abstract

A vehicle seat slide mechanism via which a seat assembly is slidably mounted on a vehicle floor is provided with: a lower rail that is mounted on the vehicle floor; an upper rail which is slidably attached on the lower rail and on which the seat assembly is attached; a lock mechanism that locks the upper rail on the lower rail in a releasable manner; and a gap reduction member that is provided between a first face formed at the lower rail and facing in a substantially vertical direction and a second face formed at the upper rail and facing to the first face.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle seat slide mechanism which slidably mounts a seat assembly on a vehicle floor, comprising:
a lower rail that is mounted on the vehicle floor;
an upper rail which is slidably attached on the lower rail and on which the seat assembly is attached;
a lock mechanism that locks the upper rail on the lower rail in a releasable manner; and
a gap reduction member that is provided between a first face formed at the lower rail and facing in a substantially vertical direction and a pair of second faces formed at lowermost portions of the upper rail and facing to the first face;
wherein the gap reduction member is attached, as viewed in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle seat, on a rear end portion of the lower rail, and a longitudinal length of the gap reduction member is such that at least a portion of the gap reduction member is present between the upper rail and the lower rail, regardless of where the upper rail is located in a sliding range over which the upper rail is slidable relative to the lower rail.

2. The vehicle seat slide mechanism according to claim 1 , wherein as the upper rail slides relative to the lower rail, one end of the upper rail projects away from the lower rail in a direction in which the upper rail is sliding.

3. The vehicle seat slide mechanism according to claim 1 , wherein a front end of the gap reduction member is located forward of a rear end of the upper rail when the upper rail is located at a forward end of the sliding range, with respect to the lower rail.

4. The vehicle seat slide mechanism according to claim 1 , wherein the gap reduction member is a spacer.

5. The vehicle seal slide mechanism according to claim 1 , wherein
the gap reduction member includes a cover and the plate,
the plate has a front portion and a rear portion, and
the cover is disposed at the front portion of the plate and an opening is defined in the rear portion of the plate.

Assignees

• Matsushima Iwao
• Toyota Boshoku Kk

Inventors

• Matsushima Iwao

Classifications

• B60N2/0705 Primary

  omega-shaped · CPC title

• B60N2/0818

  inside the rail · CPC title

• B60N2/0722

  Constructive details · CPC title

• B60N2/0843

  about a longitudinal axis · CPC title