Pan-type vehicle seat back mounted to a reclining mechanism

Claim 1

A vehicle seat comprising: a seat back frame having a substantially flat rear surface and including a bottom wall and a pair of opposing side walls integral with and upwardly extending from said rear surface, said bottom wall and pair of side walls together defining therebetween a recessed interior space, and means defining a plurality of longitudinal and transverse reinforcing ribs on said flat surface and disposed within said interior space for structurally reinforcing said seat back frame, wherein said reinforcing ribs define, together with a respective opposing one of said bottom and side walls, a mounting space, and wherein said bottom wall includes a pair of spaced-apart grooves disposed substantially parallel to said side walls; a pair of reclining mechanisms each including a movable arm to permit reclination of seat back, each said movable arm being accepted within a respective groove and extending into said mounting space so that one end portion of each said movable arm is adjacently positioned relative to a predetermined said reinforcing ribs; and securing bolt means for rigidly joining each said movable arm to said predetermined said reinforcing ribs, wherein a portion of said securing bolt means is retained in said mounting space while another portion of said securing bolt means is retained in said interior space, said bottom wall and side walls thereby concealing same.