Seat weight measurement system

• Main Authors: CASEY, GARY, CROSS, ALAN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 26.04.2006
• Subjects: MEASURING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; SEATS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR VEHICLES; TESTING; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLE PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR; WEIGHING

A weight measurement system is disclosed for measuring the weight of an occupant in a vehicle seat. In a preferred embodiment, a sensor is positioned at the rear portion of the vehicle seat and a load transfer link is used to transfer the weight from the front portion of the vehicle seat to the rear portion, to be measured by the sensor. The transfer link is a selectively compliant beam having a first rigid section and a second rigid section connected to each other via a flexible area. The first and second rigid sections preferably include wing portions for increasing the rigidity of the sections. The flexible area is more compliant than the rigid sections. The load transfer link is configured to transition a load placed on the front portion of the link to the rear portion. In a more preferred embodiment of the invention, the load transfer link is made of a high strength, low alloy steel.