The present disclosure relates to a vehicle seat, and particularly to a vehicle seat including a seat heater disposed in a seat cushion and a seat back.
Hitherto, in vehicle seats, various techniques of disposing a seat heater made of a planar heating element between a cushion pad and a surface skin and thereby ensuring comfort when an occupant is seated have been proposed. Moreover, as one of several techniques for further improving seating comfort, configuring a vehicle seat to perform cooling and heating also using an air conditioning device has been put into practice. Specifically, warm air or cool air is delivered from the air conditioning device through air passages formed in the cushion pad toward a surface skin side while the seat heater and the surface skin are allowed to be air permeable, so that air blows out from an outer surface of the vehicle seat.
As an example of such vehicle seats, Japanese Patent Publication JP 3991750 B2 (hereinafter, “the '750 publication”) discloses a vehicle seat including a seat heater made of a planar heating element having an improved air permeability. Specifically, the seat heater is formed by fixing a heater wire sewn on a seat base material made of a non-woven fabric, and on the seat base material, through-holes are formed over the entire surface while avoiding a position at which the heater wire is fixed. Air permeability of the seat heater is ensured as described above, whereby air delivered from the air conditioning device can pass from a cushion pad side toward the surface skin side.
However, in the vehicle seat as in the '750 publication, the heater wire is disposed to avoid the through-holes on the seat base material which would inhibit air delivered from the air conditioning device through the through-holes from efficiently cooling the heater wire. Moreover, the degree of freedom of disposition of the heater wire has been restricted. Thus, a vehicle seat capable of efficiently utilizing air delivered from an air conditioning device and thereby adjusting the temperature of heat generated by a seat heater has been desired. At the same time, a vehicle seat including a seat heater in which the degree of freedom of disposition of the heater wire is ensured has been desired.
Moreover, in the vehicle seat as in the '750 publication, the arrangement and configuration of the air passages formed in the cushion pad, and of the through-holes and the heater wire that are provided to the seat heater have not been particularly considered. Thus, a vehicle seat in which the arrangement and configuration of the air passages of the cushion pad and the seat heater have been considered has been desired.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds