US 6,048,024 · Granted 2000-04-11
The Built-In Chair Fan That Sucks Heat Away From Your Seat
Imagine a car seat that actually cools you down by pulling hot air right out of the fabric. This patent describes a small electric fan hidden underneath your seat that draws air through the cushioning and cover, keeping you from sweating on long drives.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a ventilation system mounted inside a vehicle chair where an electric fan sits beneath the cushioning and draws air upward through the seat's filling and outer covering. What's protected is the specific arrangement of the radial fan motor, the fan wheel design, the inlet passages, and the carrying structure that holds the fan in place under the seat padding. Anyone building a ventilated car seat with this same mechanical setup would need a license.
Why it matters
Ventilated car seats became a luxury feature in high-end vehicles, and this patent staked out the fundamental approach of embedding a fan inside the seat structure itself rather than routing air through external ducts. By controlling this core design, the patent's holder could license the technology to automakers or manufacture seats directly, making long-distance driving more comfortable in hot climates.
Real-world use
When you sit in a luxury car with a heated and cooled seat feature, the ventilation portion often uses technology descended from designs like this one, pulling moisture and heat away from your back and thighs.
Original USPTO abstract
A fan device which is built into a vehicle chair, and is arranged to ventilate away air that is drawn through the covering and filling of the vehicle chair, which has an electrically driven fan (9) of radial type attached at the bottom of the chair. The fan wheel (17) extends from the driving cover (14) of the motor (13), which extends up into the inlet (30) of the fan. The fan (9) is attached to a carrying means (39) in the chair which is located on the underside of the filling (40) and has passages (65) for the ventilating air adjacent to the fan inlet.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,048,024
- Filing date
- 1996-09-12
- Grant date
- 2000-04-11
- Assignee
- Walinov Ab
- Inventor(s)
- WALLMAN; KNUT OLOF LENNART
- CPC class
- B60N2/5635
Want to file your own patent?
If you're designing a next-gen comfort product for furniture, check whether your innovation edges into patent territory by running it through our free patentability scanner first.
Free patentability scan