Conventionally, the seat position adjusting device is known, for example, by a Japanese Patent Publication 10-44838 A. In this publication, the seat position adjusting device includes a slide adjuster having a slide lock mechanism for slidably supporting the vehicle seat relative to the vehicle floor and holding the seat to a predetermined position relative to the vehicle floor by restricting the slidable movement of the seat relative to the floor, a reclining adjuster provided between the slide adjuster and the reclining adjuster for rotatably supporting the seat back of the seat relative to the seat cushion of the seat around the rotational axis line and a walk in mechanism for allowing the sliding movement of the seat relative to the vehicle floor by actuating the slide lock mechanism of the slide adjuster when the seat back is rotated to a predetermined angle relative to the seat cushion.
The walk in mechanism of this publication includes a detecting plate for detecting the rotation angle of the seat back relative to the seat cushion. This detecting plate is supported at a tip end of the rotation shaft, which forms a rotation axis line for seat cushion. The detecting plate engages with the seat back and rotates together with the seat back around the rotation shaft when the seat back is rotated to a predetermined angle relative to the seat cushion. Thus the detecting plate detects the rotation of the seat back relative to the seat cushion.
According to this related art, the detecting plate is arranged protruding sideward from the reclining adjuster. This is because the detecting plate is provided at the tip end of the rotation shaft. This will require the space in sideward in seat width direction. In a very limited space in the occupant compartment, the seat size has to be limited in a seat width direction.
A need thus exists for a vehicle seat position adjusting device in which a detection plate can be provided without space in a seat width direction being sacrificed.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds