Energy attenutating seat and litter support |
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申请号 | US13750327 | 申请日 | 2013-01-25 | 公开(公告)号 | US08840163B1 | 公开(公告)日 | 2014-09-23 |
申请人 | Armorworks Enterprises, LLC; | 发明人 | Terry Wilhelm; Joshua Platt; | ||||
摘要 | Methods and apparatus are provided for an energy attenuating seat and litter support for use in a vehicle. In one exemplary embodiment the energy attenuating seat and litter support includes a seat with a folding back that is lockable in both an upright position for seating, and a folded down, horizontal position. The exemplary embodiment may further comprise a litter mounting fixture accessible when the seat back is in the folded down, horizontal position, and an energy attenuation device disposed to provide energy attenuation for a litter supported by the litter mounting fixture. | ||||||
权利要求 | What is claimed is: |
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说明书全文 | This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/592,069, filed Jan. 30, 2012, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. The technical field of the present disclosure may include military vehicles adapted for troop transport. The technical field may further include energy attenuation devices used in such vehicles for protecting vehicle occupants in an under vehicle mine blast or other potentially lethal, high energy event. In the accompanying drawings: The instant invention is described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings and/or photographs, in which one or more exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be operative, enabling, and complete. Accordingly, the particular arrangements disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting as to the scope of the invention. Moreover, many embodiments, such as adaptations, variations, modifications, and equivalent arrangements, will be implicitly disclosed by the embodiments described herein and fall within the scope of the present invention. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. Unless otherwise expressly defined herein, such terms are intended to be given their broad ordinary and customary meaning not inconsistent with that applicable in the relevant industry and without restriction to any specific embodiment hereinafter described. As used herein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items. Where only one item is intended, the term “one”, “single”, or similar language is used. When used herein to join a list of items, the term “or” denotes at least one of the items, but does not exclude a plurality of items of the list. Terms such as “connected” or “attached” as used herein are intended to denote direct, indirect (with intermediate elements), rigid, and flexible linking arrangements, as well as linking arrangements with one or more degrees of freedom. The term “vehicle” as used herein is intended to mean any person carrying structure, including but not limited to all types of land vehicles, aircraft, watercraft, rockets, spacecraft, and the like. As used herein, the term “aircraft” is intended to denote any airborne vehicle including but not limited to airplanes, jets, gliders, helicopters, and lighter-than-air craft. For exemplary methods or processes of the invention, the sequence and/or arrangement of steps described herein are illustrative and not restrictive. Accordingly, it should be understood that, although steps of various processes or methods may be shown and described as being in a sequence or temporal arrangement, the steps of any such processes or methods are not limited to being carried out in any particular sequence or arrangement, absent an indication otherwise. Indeed, the steps in such processes or methods generally may be carried out in various different sequences and arrangements while still falling within the scope of the present invention. Additionally, any references to advantages, benefits, unexpected results, or operability of the present invention are not intended as an affirmation that the invention has been previously reduced to practice or that any testing has been performed. Likewise, unless stated otherwise, use of verbs in the past tense (present perfect or preterit) is not intended to indicate or imply that the invention has been previously reduced to practice or that any testing has been performed. Referring now to the drawing figures, an exemplary energy attenuating (“EA”) seat and litter support in accordance with the present disclosure is indicated generally at reference numeral 1. EA seats are typically employed to mitigate the severe shock loads associated with under vehicle mine blasts, helicopter crashes, or other impact type events involving sudden relative acceleration between the seat and the structure supporting the seat. Many EA seats utilize some form of crushable member between the seat and the structure supporting the seat to absorb the energy of the event. The EA mechanism is typically oriented to stroke in the direction of the anticipated shock load, such as toward the floor of a vehicle or aircraft, although additional EA supports may be included to account for shock loads from more than one direction. EA seats are disclosed for example in issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,938,485, and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/806,373, and 13/187,701, all of which are assigned to the assignee of the instant invention, and hereby incorporated by reference. The EA seat and litter support of the present disclosure may be deployed in side-by-side, inward facing seat rows along the sides of a vehicle compartment 2, for example, in the manner shown in Referring now to The one or more EA links 13 may comprise one or more crushable or extensible members that are initially rigid and strong enough to support the weight and G-loads of an occupied seat 1 under non-extreme accelerations, yet capable of deforming in a controlled manner and absorbing the energy of a catastrophic impact event. The EA link 13, may, for example, be an elongated bar with multiple bends and straight sections, and comprise any generally rigid, yet deformable metal, such as aluminum or steel. Alternatively, EA link 13 may comprise any other crushable or extensible EA structure known in the art, such as crush tubes and the like. In addition, the EA link 13 may be custom tailored to any particular application by modifying material properties, thicknesses, and/or shapes. For example, in one exemplary implementation the EA links 13 of an EA seat 1 may attenuate a vertical impact of a 6.5 meters-per-second impulse due to mine blast or improved explosive device (IED). An exemplary EA seat 1 may also be capable of withstanding road shock loads transmitted through a vehicle chassis structure of at least 10 G's vertical, and 8 G's longitudinal. Additional suitable EA link embodiments are disclosed in the above mentioned US Patents and patent applications owned by the assignee of the present invention, as well as US Design patent application Ser. No. 29/386,211, also assigned to the assignee of the instant invention, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Although EA link 13 may protect a seated occupant for multiple impact events, they are generally considered disposable and easily replaced to restore a maximum level of protection to the EA seat. Continuing now with the EA seat embodiment of Another embodiment of the convertible EA seat and litter support of the present disclosure is illustrated in The EA link 13 is fastened at one end to the top of slide block 44, and at the other end to boss 48 of mounting bracket 40, as indicated by dashed lines in The seat back 5 of EA seat 20 is also configured to fold flat against the seat bottom 3 in the manner described above with reference to Seat 20 may further include various fixtures for supporting and restraining a medical stretcher on the folded down seat backs. For example, seat back 5 may include a foam pad 26 to provide a cushioned support surface for the stretcher and patient. Seat 20 may also include a restraining belt 32 extending from a rear belt bracket 28 and connectable to a front belt latch 30 for securely strapping the patient and stretcher down to the folded seats. A stretcher may be further secured with a spring loaded locking bar 34, shown in the stowed position in Another embodiment of the convertible EA seat and litter support is shown in Referring to Referring now to The energy attenuating mechanism of EA mount 79 is constructed of fundamentally the same elements described in reference to the previous seat embodiment, namely a guide rod 91, mounting bracket 93, slide block 85, and EA link 13. Mounting bracket 93 and guide rod 91 comprise the fixed portion of EA mount 79. Slide block 85 is the moveable portion, and supports litter arm 67 at pivot joint 81 and through brace 83. The EA link 13 is connected between slide block 85 and a flange at the lower end of mounting bracket 93, preventing slide block 85 from sliding downward along guide rod 91 under non-catastrophic loading conditions. Thus a load supported by arm 67, such as a litter with a patient, is transmitted directly through EA link 13 to the mounting bracket 93 and vehicle structure, completely independent of the seat EA mounts 69. Accordingly the EA link 13 of mount 79 may be tuned to provide a level of shock absorption appropriate for the litter only. Although functionally independent, the litter EA mount 79 and the seat EA mounts 69 may all be bolted to a common mounting plate 95 (see For the purposes of describing and defining the present invention it is noted that the use of relative terms, such as “substantially”, “generally”, “approximately”, and the like, are utilized herein to represent an inherent degree of uncertainty that may be attributed to any quantitative comparison, value, measurement, or other representation. These terms are also utilized herein to represent the degree by which a quantitative representation may vary from a stated reference without resulting in a change in the basic function of the subject matter at issue. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described above. No element, act, or instruction used in this description should be construed as important, necessary, critical, or essential to the invention unless explicitly described as such. Although only a few of the exemplary embodiments have been described in detail herein, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in these exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the appended claims. For example, although the illustrated embodiments show a medical litter being supported by two side-by-side seats, a litter could be supported on three or more adjacent seats. Further, while individual seats have been depicted, it should be appreciated that the EA seat and litter support of the present disclosure may encompass various bench seating configurations. An exemplary energy attenuating bench seat is disclosed in issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,938,485, entitled “Variable Displacement Seating Assembly”, assigned to the assignee of the present disclosure, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. In the claims, any means-plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents, but also equivalent structures. Thus, although a nail and a screw may not be structural equivalents in that a nail employs a cylindrical surface to secure wooden parts together, whereas a screw employs a helical surface, in the environment of fastening wooden parts, a nail and a screw may be equivalent structures. Unless the exact language “means for” (performing a particular function or step) is recited in the claims, a construction under §112, 6th paragraph is not intended. Additionally, it is not intended that the scope of patent protection afforded the present invention be defined by reading into any claim a limitation found herein that does not explicitly appear in the claim itself. |