Patent ID: 6669295
Filing Date: 2003-12-30
Classification: B60N,B64D

Abstract:
A passenger seat with low profile seat back recline locking assembly, comprising:(a) a seat bottom chassis including a plurality of leg modules and a plurality of section assembly modules; (b) a plurality of beam elements carrying said leg modules and section assembly modules in spaced-apart relation to each other to define a ladder frame assembly; (c) a seat back unit pivotally-mounted between two of the section assembly modules for permitting the angle of the seat back relative to the seat bottom chassis to be varied as desired by the passenger; (d) a recline unit for controlling movement of the seat back and locking the seat back in a desired recline position, and comprising: (i) a fluid cylinder assembly pivotally-mounted by a first end thereof to a section assembly module of the seat and by an opposite second end thereof to the seat back unit, the cylinder assembly having a longitudinally-extending axis extending in alignment with the longitudinally-extending, generally vertical plane of the seat back; (ii) an actuator positioned beside and operatively connected to the fluid cylinder adjacent one of said first and second ends thereof; and (iii) an occupant-activated seat back recline control for maintaining the seat back in a normally-locked condition relative to the seat bottom chassis and for permitting the occupant to release the normally-locked condition of the cylinder assembly by activating the seat back recline control to thus permit movement of the seat back to a desired position and deactivating the seat back recline control to lock the seat back in the desired position.