Due to the limited amount of space that is available on large passenger vehicles such as business or commercial airplanes, trains, buses and so on, it is often necessary to store items underneath the passenger seats. Typically, passengers will be required during take-off and landings of an aircraft to place loose items under their seat or the seat in front of them. Also, emergency equipment such as life vests and so on can be stored under passenger seats for easy access during an emergency.
Due to the movement of the vehicle, items placed under passenger seats will often shift their positions and move into the seating area or aisle, thus becoming difficult to find or creating a potential safety hazard. Accordingly, storage compartments such as bins or drawers have been developed that can fit underneath a passenger seat and thus provide a more secure storage area for items or emergency equipment. These types of bins or drawers are directly attached to the seat frame, which is also referred to as a divan frame. However, several problems exist with these types of drawers. In particular, these types of drawers have limited storage weight capacity because they can become overloaded and thus detach from the divan frame. Also, movement of the vehicles causes the seats to experience certain loading forces, especially when occupied by a passenger. These loading forces can cause the seat frame to become slightly bent or skewed, which adversely affects the operation of the drawer to close or slide in and out properly.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved drawer assembly for use with a seat on a passenger vehicle.