Abstract: A passenger support apparatus includes a vehicle seat equipped with an easy-entry unit configured to provide easier passenger ingress and egress to an area behind the vehicle seat. The vehicle seat includes a seat bottom with front and rear portions and a seat back extending from the seat bottom. The easy-entry unit includes the seat back and the rear portion of the seat bottom and pivots about a pivot axis between an occupant use position and an access position. A cover assembly is coupled to the vehicle seat and expands and retracts between a stored configuration and a deployed configuration to limit access to an underside of the seat bottom whether the easy-entry unit is in the occupant use position, the access position, or an intermediate position. The vehicle seat can also be configured to slide along a seat support frame between forward and rearward positions.

Abstract: A vehicle seat is equipped with a seat tilt mechanism capable of adjusting the amount one seat component is tilted relative to another. The tilt mechanism can couple a seat frame with a seat pan to adjust the relative amount of tilt therebetween. The tilt mechanism includes a housing and a bracket in sliding engagement with a surface of the housing that faces away from the seat pan during use. The bracket may include a bearing surface in sliding engagement with the housing. The bracket can be monolithic with generally U-shaped side walls extending away from the seat pan on opposite sides of the housing. Each side wall may extend partially around the housing with the seat pan providing structure that closes off the open end of the U-shape. The mechanism includes an optional cap on the seat pan side of the housing that may provide a low-friction bearing surface.

Abstract: Vehicle seats may be configured as part of an airflow management system capable of controlling the environment in the immediate vicinity of seated passengers. A vehicle seat may include any number of air intake and discharge ports arranged so that discharged air flows along the body of the seated passenger on its way to the air intake ports. The air may be heated and/or cooled along a system air flow path to have an immediate effect on the comfort of the seated passenger without the need to heat or cool the entire vehicle cabin. Less energy is consumed to achieve a vehicle seat-specific climate than to achieve an overall interior cabin climate. The airflow management system may include more than one such vehicle seat, and the airflow characteristics with respect to each vehicle seat may be separately controllable.

Abstract: A vehicle seat includes a backrest coupled to an upwardly extending support frame. The backrest includes a deformable seat shell adapted to assume various shapes between an initial position and a final position in response to variable rearward loads applied by the torso of a seated passenger. The seat shell is coupled to the support frame by a compliant shell-motion controller via upper and lower motion-control links. At least one of the motion-control links includes a flexural portion configured to bend about a pivot axis to establish a flexural joint. The lower motion-control link may include a flexural joint and/or a revolute joint, and the upper motion control link may include a flexural, revolute, or spheroidal joint.