Seat headrest composite spring clip

Claim 1

In a vehicle seat including a seat back having an opening, a headrest assembly having a rectangular sectioned support bar extending downwardly therefrom, a mounting bracket supported on the seat back having a rectangular sectioned vertically disposed passage defined by transversely extending side walls and longitudinally extending end walls, said passage slidably receiving said support bar, an escutcheon having an elongated C-shaped body surrounding the support bar and defining the opening in the seat back, said mounting bracket passage having a resilient leaf spring locking member secured to said bracket one side wall, said leaf spring locking member formed with upper and lower catch means, an -upper window in said bracket one side wall into which said upper catch means extends for spring biased engagement of said bar, a lower window in said bracket one side wall through which said lower latch means extends for spring biased engagement of said bar, and said support bar having at least one recess therein into which said lower catch means is received, an improved composite leaf spring latching member comprising: a composite sheet metal leaf spring incorporating plastic catch members, said leaf spring having forward and aft planar surfaces, said leaf spring formed with upper and lower transversely extending U-shaped channels projecting forwardly therefrom, each of said upper and lower channel being of generally symmetrical configuration with each channel defined by a pair of planar flank portions joined by a planar bight portion therebetween; each said upper and lower channel bight portion lying in a common plane oriented parallel to the plane of said leaf spring; upper and lower plastic members molded from elastomeric resin material secured in said upper and lower channels, respectively, each said plastic member formed with a wedge-shaped catch portion and a block-shaped tenon portion, each said block-shaped tenon portion sized for complementary molded interlocked reception in its associated U-shaped channel such that its associated wedge-shaped portion extends rearwardly therefrom; one or more retaining through holes located on the a forward surface of its associated bight portion, each said retaining through hole integrally joined with its associated plastic member tenon portion via one or more integral core portions formed in its associated bight portion retaining hole; whereby with an intermediate portion of said leaf spring fixedly secured to said bracket front wall each said upper and lower plastic member wedge-shaped catch portion operative to be slidably received in an associated upper and lower window for spring biased engagement with said support bar forward face thereby limits the vertical adjusting movement of said headrest.