1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle seats, and in particular to vehicle seats that have a seat cushion having a seating region.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known seats of industrial vehicles, such as forklifts, have seating sensors for detecting a seated position of an operator in order to allow the operator to operate machines and instruments on the condition that the operator is seated on the seat. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-329597 discloses a technique of providing a seating sensor disposed within a seat cushion for detecting a seated position of an occupant. More specifically, the seating sensor has a sheet-like configuration and is interleaved between a surface layer and a cushion pad of the seat cushion. According to this technique, when an occupant is seated on the seat cushion, a pressing force is applied to the seat sensor by the seating load, so that the seated position can be detected.
However, with the above technique, the resilient force of the cushion pad or a pre-tensioning force of the surface layer may be easily applied to the seating sensor. Therefore, if the resilient force of the cushion pad or the pre-tensioning force of the surface layer is strong, it is likely that the seating sensor may receive the pressing force due to the resilient force of the pre-tensioning force, causing false detection of the seating sensor.
Therefore, there has been a need for vehicle seats that do not produce such a pressing force that may result in a false detection of a seating sensor disposed at a vehicle seat.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds