Vehicle seat provided with a head rest

Claim 1

In a vehicle seat and head rest construction, the combination comprising: an upstanding back member for said seat; a reinforcement member for said head rest, said reinforcement member including a pair of rigid plates joined together at their peripheral edges in spaced apart relationship to define an internal empty space therebetween, said plates including openings therethrough and being formed with corrugations therein to facilitate plastic deformation of said reinforcement member; means rigidly mounting said reinforcement member to said upstanding back member to form said members into a combined unitary rigid structure; and a shock absorber unit composed of pliable material and formed as a separate unitary member in the shape of a bag configured to generally correspond to the shapes of said reinforcement member and portions of said upstanding back member adjacent thereto, said shock absorber means being attached in a position to cover said reinforcement member and said portions of said back member; whereby upon impact of an object with said seat and head rest construction, the energy of impact will be absorbed by said shock absorber means with excess impact energy being transmitted to said reinforcement member which may operate to absorb said excess energy by plastic deformation thereof facilitated by said openings and corrugations as well as by the empty internal space defined between said rigid plates.