Vehicle seats installed in vehicles often include a variety of adjustment mechanisms that allow the position of the entire vehicle seat to be adjusted and the positions of the constituent portions of the vehicle seat to be adjusted with respect to one another. These adjustments allow for a wide variety of driver body types to be comfortably accommodated by the vehicle seat. The adjustments also can be utilized to improve ingress and egress with respect to the vehicle, as well as to move or stow the vehicle seat to provide additional cargo room for the vehicle.
For example, some rear vehicle seats in vehicles such as SUVs, crossovers, and minivans fold, stow into the floor, and/or pivot about a floor attachment point in order to increase the cargo carrying capability of the vehicle. In order to maximize cargo space, such cargo carrying configurations typically provide little space between the adjusted vehicle seat and other adjacent vehicle seats or trim surfaces within the vehicle. This makes it difficult to make geometric changes to the design of the vehicle. In particular, if a vehicle designer wishes to increase the size of a seating surface to increase comfort or support, this must be done without disturbing or eliminating the adjustment functionality of the vehicle seat.
The position and geometry of a typical headrest is such that folding a vehicle seat into a cargo carrying configuration may result in interference between the headrest and an adjacent vehicle seat. For this reason, headrests often include a folding mechanism that permits the headrest to move or pivot away from the main body of the vehicle seat, such that the headrest does not interfere with adjacent vehicle seats or trim surfaces when the vehicle seat is in a cargo carrying configuration. Such folding mechanisms can necessitate openings at the surface of the headrest to provide clearance for the folding mechanism as the headrest is moved or pivoted away from the main body of the vehicle seat.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds