Headrest for juvenile vehicle seat

The invention relates to juvenile vehicle seats, and particularly to a headrest for use with a juvenile vehicle seat. More particularly, the invention relates to a headrest mounted for movement on a seat back included in a juvenile vehicle seat.

According to the disclosure, a juvenile vehicle seat includes a seat bottom and a seat back extending upwardly from the seat bottom. A headrest is mounted to move in a recess formed in the seat back between lowered and raised positions. A headrest retainer is located in the headrest recess and configured to retain the headrest in either the lowered position or the raised position at the option of a user.

In preferred embodiments, the headrest recess has an opening along an upper edge of the seat back and in a forwardly facing upper portion of the seat back. An upper portion of the headrest extends into the headrest recess and a lower portion of the headrest lies in front of the forwardly facing surface of the seat back.

The headrest retainer includes a headrest guide and a headrest locator. The guide includes a post coupled to the headrest and arranged to pass through a slot formed in the seat back to open into the headrest recess. The locator includes a pair of notches formed in the seat back to open into the headrest recess and a detent arranged to fit into a first of the notches when the headrest is moved to assume its lowered position and into a second of the notches when the headrest is moved to assume its raised position. The headrest is designed to yield somewhat so that a user gripping a top flange included in the headrest can move the headrest between its lowered and raised positions by pulling up or pushing down on the top flange to disengage the detent from one of the notches so that the detent can engage the other of the notches to establish a new position of the headrest relative to the seat back.

Features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.

The detailed description particularly refers to the accompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 a perspective view of a juvenile vehicle seat showing a movable headrest on an upper portion of a seat back included in the juvenile vehicle seat;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the upper portion of the seat back illustrated in FIG. 1 showing the movable headrest prior to installation of that headrest in a recess formed in the upper portion of the seat back;

FIG. 3 is a rear perspective view of the upper portion of the seat back illustrated in FIG. 2 showing portions of a seat pad placed on the seat back and wrapped around a rearwardly extending perimeter flange included in the seat back and showing (in phantom) upward movement of the movable headrest (and a portion of the seat pad adjacent to the headrest) relative to the seat back;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4 — 4 of FIG. 3 showing the headrest retained in a “lowered position” relative to the seat back to provide a finger-receiving space located between upper edges of the seat back and headrest but “covered” by hanging loop of fabric included in the seat pad;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 4 showing upward movement of the headrest in the recess formed in the upper portion of the seat back caused by a person gripping the seat pad and the headrest and using the finger-receiving space provided between upper edges of the seat back and headrest;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view similar to FIGS. 4 and 5 showing the headrest retained in a “raised position” relative to the seat back (corresponding to the position shown in phantom in FIG. 3) and showing how the “hanging loop”of fabric included in the seat pad and own in FIG. 4 has been stretched to allow upward movement of the headrest raised position;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a juvenile vehicle seat including a movable headrest provided with side wings and located on an upper portion of a seat back included in juvenile vehicle seat;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of the upper portion of the seat back illustrated in FIG. 7 showing the movable headrest prior to installation of that headrest in a recess formed in the upper portion of the seat back;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of another embodiment of a juvenile vehicle se n accordance with the disclosure showing a movable headrest provided with is own fabric cover separate from the seat pad coupled to the rest of the seat;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged view of the upper portion of the seat back illustrated in FIG. 9 showing the movable headrest prior installation of that fabric-covered headrest in a recess formed in the upper portion of the seat back;

FIG. 11 is a rear perspective view of the upper portion of the seat back illustrated in FIG. 10 showing the headrest in a lowered position relative to the seat back;

FIG. 12 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing the fabric-covered headrest in a raised position relative to the seat back;

FIG. 13 is a sectional view taken along line 13 — 13 of FIG. 11 showing the fabric-covered headrest retained in the lowered position;

FIG. 14 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 13 showing upward movement of the fabric-covered headrest in the recess formed in the upper portion of the seat back; and

FIG. 15 is a sectional view taken along line 15 — 15 of FIG. 12 showing the fabric-covered headrest retained in the raised position.

A juvenile vehicle seat 10 includes a seat bottom 12 and a seat back 14 extending upwardly from seat bottom 12 . As shown, for example, in FIGS. 1 and 2, a movable headrest 16 is arranged to extend into a headrest recess 18 formed in seat back 14 .

A headrest retainer 20 is located in the headrest recess 18 and is configured to retain headrest 16 in either a lowered position shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 or a raised position shown in FIG. 6 at the option of a user. Headrest retainer 20 includes guide posts 22 and guide slots 24 as well as detents 26 , 28 and detent notches 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 as shown best in FIG. 2 .

Seat back 14 includes a forwardly facing surface 38 adapted to face toward an occupant of seat 10 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Seat back 14 also includes a perimeter rim 40 lying along an upper section of seat back 14 adjacent to headrest 16 as show, for example, in FIGS. 3-6.

Headrest recess, or inset, 18 is defined by an upper wall 42 and an interior edge 44 , 46 , 48 bordering upper wall 42 , both of which are included in seat back 14 , as shown in FIG. 2 . Interior edge 44 , 46 , 48 is U-shaped and arranged to interconnect upper wall 42 and forwardly facing surface 38 to cause headrest recess 18 to have an opening in forwardly facing surface 38 as shown, for example, in FIG. 2 . Interior edge 46 is arranged to define a lowermost border of headrest recess 18 as shown in FIG. 2 .

Upper wall 42 of seat back 14 provides a vertical “recess floor” while interior edges 44 , 46 , 48 provide horizontal “recess side walls.” Upper wall 42 includes a convex curved upper edge 50 and has a somewhat rectangular shape when viewed head-on as suggested in FIG. 2 . Upper wall 42 also includes a forwardly facing surface 52 situated to face toward headrest 20 when headrest 20 is mounted for movement on seat back 14 .

Headrest 16 includes a headrest panel 56 and a top flange 58 configured to be gripped by a user as shown in FIG. 5 to enable the user to move headrest panel 56 up and down relative to seat back 14 . Headrest panel 56 includes an upper portion 60 extending into headrest recess 18 and a lower portion 62 lying in front of forwardly facing surface 38 of seat back 14 as suggested in FIG. 2 and shown in FIGS. 4-6.

Headrest 16 is mounted for movement relative to seat back 14 between a lowered position shown in FIGS. 1, 3 , and 4 and a raised position shown in FIG. 3 (in phantom) and in FIG. 4 . In the lowered position, headrest 18 is positioned to lie a first distance away from seat bottom 12 . In the raised position, headrest 18 is positioned to lie a second distance away from seat bottom 12 , which second distance is greater than the first distance. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 6, lower portion 62 of headrest panel 56 includes a lowermost edge 64 that is positioned to lie a first distance 66 below interior edge 46 bordering headrest recess 18 when headrest 16 is moved to assume the lowered position. Further, lowermost edge 64 is positioned to lie a lesser second distance 68 below interior edge 46 when headrest 16 is moved to assume the raised position.

Top flange 58 is arranged to extend rearwardly away from upper portion 60 of headrest panel 56 to provide a finger-receiving space 70 between top flange 58 and upper edge 50 of upper wall 42 in seat back 14 as shown, for example, in FIGS. 4-6. This finger-receiving space 70 is sized and located to facilitate gripping of headrest 16 by a user to enable the user to move headrest 16 up and down relative to seat back 14 between the raised and lowered positions.

Top flange 58 is curved in cross section as suggested in FIG. 2 and shown in FIGS. 4-6. Top flange 58 includes a concave surface 72 arranged to face downwardly toward a portion of perimeter rim 40 of seat back 14 .

Headrest retainer 20 includes a headrest guide and a headrest locator. The guide includes guide posts 22 and guide slots 24 and couples headrest 16 to seat back 14 , yet allows movement of headrest 16 in either the lowered position shown in FIG. 4 or the raised position shown in FIG. 6 at the option of the user.

Guide slots 24 are formed in upper wall 42 of seat back 14 as shown in FIG. 2 . Each guide slot 24 is elongated and guide slots 24 are arranged to extend vertically in spaced-apart parallel relation one to another. Each guide post 22 is a connector that extends through and reciprocates in a guide slot 24 and includes at one end a foot 74 coupled to headrest 16 . Each guide post 22 also includes at an opposite end a head 76 sized to block removal of the post from guide slot 24 . In the illustrated embodiment, two guide posts 22 and two guide slots 24 are provided; nevertheless it is within the scope of this disclosure to use one or more such posts/slots to guide headrest 16 as it moves up and down on seat back 14 between raised and lowered positions.

Locator notches 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 are formed in upper wall 42 of seat back 14 as shown in FIG. 2 . Each locator notch is sized to receive one of the detents 26 , 28 provided on headrest 16 . First notches 32 , 36 are associated with the lowered position of headrest 16 and are formed in upper wall 42 to open into headrest recess 18 . Second notches 30 , 34 are associated with the raised position of headrest 16 and are formed in upper wall 42 to lie below curved upper edge 50 and above first notches 32 , 36 and to open into headrest recess 18 . Each detent 26 , 28 is coupled to headrest panel 56 and sized to fit into one of the first notches 32 , 36 upon movement of headrest 16 to assume the lowered position shown in FIGS. 1, 3 , and 4 and to fit into one of the second notches 30 , 34 upon movement of headrest 16 to assume the raised position shown in FIG. 3 (in phantom) and in FIG. 6 .

Each notch 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 is defined by a pair of diverging walls arranged to define a dihedral included angle therebetween of about 45 degrees as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 - 6 . Each detent 26 , 28 is defined by a pair of converging walls arranged to define a dihedral included angle therebetween of about 45 degrees as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 - 6 . Each detent 26 , 28 is sized to mate with notches 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 to “anchor” the headrest in either the raised or lowered position as determined by the position of the headrest 16 relative to the seat back 14 .

Headrest panel 56 is made of a yieldable material such as polypropylene to deform (as shown, for example, in FIG. 5) when the detents 26 , 28 have been disengaged from the notches 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 and moved in contact with upper wall 42 along paths extending between first notches 32 , 36 and second notches 30 , 34 . Headrest panel 56 provides spring means for yieldably urging detents 26 , 28 into engagement with selected notches upon arrival of headrest 16 at one of the raised and lowered positions on seat back 14 . As shown, for example, in FIG. 2, one group of notches 34 , 36 is formed in upper wall 42 and arranged to lie in spaced-apart relation to another group of notches 30 , 32 to position the two guide slots 24 therebetween.

Juvenile vehicle seat 10 also includes a pliable seat pad 80 made of, for example, a fabric or plastics material and used as a cover for seat bottom 12 and seat back. An upper portion of seat pad 80 is shown in FIG. 3 (in phantom) and in FIGS. 4-6 (in cross section). Seat pad 80 has a perimeter portion 82 coupled to seat back 14 . Perimeter portion 82 is arranged to extend from seat back 14 and along top flange 58 and the upper portion 60 of headrest panel 56 to cover an opening into the finger-receiving space 70 provided between perimeter rim 40 of seat back 14 and top flange 58 of headrest 16 .

Pliable seat pad 80 is deformable as shown in FIG. 5 to move relative to headrest 16 as a user pushes a portion of seat pad 80 into finger-receiving space 70 to grip top flange 58 of headrest 16 . As shown, for example, in FIG. 4, a section 84 of perimeter portion 82 of seat pad 80 is sized to form a hanging loop behind seat back 14 when headrest 16 is moved to assume the lowered position. As shown, for example, in FIG. 6, that same section 84 of perimeter portion 82 of seat pad 80 is sized to form a taut land above seat back 14 when headrest 16 is moved to assume the raised position.

Headrest 116 illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8 represents another embodiment of a headrest suitable for use in a juvenile vehicle seat 110 in accordance with this disclosure. Headrest 116 is formed to include a pair of spaced-apart side wings 111 , 113 coupled to a headrest panel 156 . Other features of the design shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 are in accordance with the disclosure set forth above.

A juvenile vehicle seat 210 in accordance with another embodiment of the disclosure is illustrated in FIGS. 9-15. In this embodiment, movable headrest 216 carries its own fabric cover 217 separate from the seat pad 202 covering seat bottom 12 and seat back 14 . Also, a flange 204 is included in each of detents 226 and 228 as shown best in FIGS. 10 and 13 - 15 . Flange 204 is a blade that is configured to engage and disengage detent notches 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 formed in seat back 14 during movement of the headrest relative to seat back 14 . Other features of the design shown in FIGS. 9-15 are in accordance with the disclosure set forth above.

Although the invention has been described in detail with reference to certain preferred embodiments, variations and modifications exist within the scope and spirit of the invention as described and defined in the following claims.