Importance

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Abstract

A recliner assembly for an automotive seat has a seat cushion and a seat back pivotally mounted to the seat cushion. The recliner assembly includes a housing and a cover plate encapsulating the housing. The cover plate has an outer ring with a plurality of teeth. Three pawls are mounted within the housing. The pawls each have a toothed surface and are moveable between a locked position and an unlocked position. With the pawls in the locked position, the toothed surfaces engage the teeth of the cover plate to secure the seat back relative to the seat cushion. With the pawls in the unlocked position, the toothed surfaces are spaced from the teeth of the cover plate to allow movement of the seat back relative to the seat cushion. Three pivot protrusions extend from the housing for providing a pivot point for each of the pawls. Three guide protrusions similarly extend from the housing for guiding each of the pawls between the engaged and disengaged positions. A cam is movably mounted relative to the housing and has three lobes for engagement with the pawls and moving the pawls between the engaged and disengaged positions. A single substantially spiral spring has a first end engaging one of the lobes of the cam and a second end engaging a guide protrusion for continuously biasing the lobes of the cam toward engagement with the pawls which continuously biases the toothed surfaces of the pawls toward engagement with the teeth of the cover plate.

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First Claim