Co-extruded temporary seat cover for new vehicles

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Temporary seat covers are commonly used to protect the upholstery of vehicle seats from soil. In sales showrooms, the vehicles are subject to countless trial "sittings" by prospective purchasers and sales personnel. As a matter of psychology, it gives the new owner of a vehicle considerable satisfaction to be able to peel off a protective cover, and know that he is the first user of the upholstery.

Some seat covers are designed to be slipped on by mechanics that may be contacting the seat during service operations. A cover of this type is shown and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,376, issued June 30, 1987. That cover is made of a plastic material having a greater coefficient of friction on the inside than on the outside, so that it will stay in place on the seat, and yet permit the occupant to slide freely over it. These covers are commonly transparent, permitting the appearance of the upholstery to remain visible.

There are a number of advantages to installing a protective cover over a seat as soon as the seat is manufactured, and before it is mounted on the support structure in the vehicle. The seat is then protected while it is still an inventory item, and subject to the usual handling in storage and shipment. The installation of such a seat cover after the mounting of the seat in the vehicle is complicated by the presence of the support structure for the seat. To remain securely in place and effectively protect the sides and front of the seat, the cover should embrace a considerable portion of the seat. This is obstructed by the structure on which the seat rests. When the cover is slipped over the seat before the seat is mounted, portions of the embracing cover become entrapped between the seat and its supporting surfaces, making it difficult to remove the cover later without leaving unsightly fragments of the cover material protruding.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The seat cover provided by this invention has a portion embracing the seat, and the underside of this portion has openings adapted to surround the areas where the seat frame bears on its support structure. Preferably, tear perforations extend from these openings to an adjacent edge of the cover material. Tearing along these lines thus frees the cover for removal .

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a vehicle seat with a temporary seat cover fully installed.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the underside of a seat cover, prior to installation.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the underside of a seat, with the cover partially installed. One of the support rails is shown bolted to the seat frame over the seat cover. FIG. 4 is a cross-section of the seat cover material.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A conventional vehicle seat is generally indicated at 10, in association with a back 11. A temporary seat cover 12 has been partially installed. The conventional support structure for the seat is indicated generally at 13, and includes side rails 14 bolted to the seat frame 15. Portions of the seat frame indicated at 16-19 are in bearing engagement with the rails. These frame portions form isolated islands, with the rails bridging across the space between them.

The configuration of the seat cover is adapted to accommodate this conventional structural system. Referring to FIG. 2, the seat cover has a bag portion 20 adapted to embrace the frontal portion of the seat. The remainder of the seat cover is a tail 21 that extends back over the top of the seat, and is normally tucked between the seat and the lower portion of the back.

Referring to FIG. 3, the underside of the bag portion 20 has a pair of large holes 22 and 23 that surround the areas where the rails 14 bear on the two front frame portions 16-17 to which they are bolted. Lines of tear perforations are shown at 24 and 25 extending from these holes to the adjacent edge 26 of the seat cover, permitting the cover to be torn along these lines and then removed easily without the entrapment of any of the cover material between the rails and the seat frame. Preferably, the bag portion 20 does not extend far enough to the rear to require another pair of holes surrounding the rear bolted connections.

It is recommended that the seat cover be made of a material which is transparent, and has a higher coefficient of friction on the inside than on the outside. As shown in FIG. 4, the inside 28 is preferably a linear low-density polyethylene, and the outside surface 30 is a high-density polyethylene. This material and its desired properties are described in more detail in my Pat. No. 4,676,376. Using these materials, the coefficient of friction on the inside can be in the range of 0.3 to 0.7 and preferably 0.5 to 0.7. The outside coefficient of friction is about 0.25 and preferably about 0.2 or less. The differential between the coefficients should be at least 0.1

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