Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-07
2001-11-13
Johnson, Brian L. (Department: 3618)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C297S482000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06315328
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The present invention relates to a shoulder anchor or deflection fitting for guiding a seat belt webbing to restrain an occupant sitting on a vehicle seat into a proper position for protecting the occupant.
A seat belt device is installed in a vehicle, or automobile, to restrain an occupant by means of a webbing in the event of vehicle collision, thereby protecting an occupant from injury due to collision with a vehicle body.
As schematically shown in
FIG. 6
, a typical conventional seat belt device
1
comprises a seat belt webbing
2
, one end of which is fixed to a vehicle body, a retractor
3
for winding the other end side portion of the seat belt webbing
2
, a tongue
4
slidably attached to the seat belt webbing
2
, a buckle
5
fixed to the vehicle body and detachably engaged with the tongue
4
, and a shoulder anchor or deflection fitting
7
supported at a center pillar
6
of the vehicle body for guiding the seat belt webbing
2
slidably in a longitudinal direction thereof.
When the seat belt device
1
is not used, the seat belt webbing
2
is completely wound by the retractor
3
to prevent looseness of the seat belt webbing
2
. When the seat belt device
1
is used, the seat belt webbing
2
is smoothly withdrawn from the retractor
3
.
The shoulder anchor
7
guides the seat belt webbing
2
for restraining an occupant sitting on for example a front seat
8
into a proper position.
The shoulder anchor
7
of the conventional seat belt device has a guide portion
10
defining a guide hole
9
through which the webbing
2
is slidably inserted. In order to slide the webbing
2
smoothly and support the inertial force of the occupant in the event of emergency, resin
12
, such as polyacetal resin (POM), is molded over a predetermined area of an insertion metal
11
including the guide portion
10
, as shown in FIGS.
7
(
a
) and
7
(
b
). The insertion metal
11
is provided with a mounting hole
11
a
formed in an area where the resin molding is not formed.
However, since the resin material has a relatively large contraction property, the molded resin shrinks after molding, thus deteriorating the appearance of the resin molding.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a shoulder anchor or deflection fitting in which forming ability of resin molding is improved by effectively absorbing shrinkage, i.e. reducing residual stress, of the molded resin in resin-molding a guide portion of a webbing.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To solve the aforementioned objective a shoulder anchor or deflection fitting used in a seat belt device for guiding a webbing according to a first aspect of the invention comprises an insertion metal and a resin molded portion. The resin molded portion is formed by molding resin at least over a predetermined area of the insertion metal including a guide portion for guiding the webbing, and the resin molded portion is provided with a shrinkage absorbing portion, disposed in a portion corresponding to the guide portion, for absorbing shrinkage, i.e. reducing residual stress of the resin molded portion.
In the shoulder anchor according to a second aspect of the invention, the shrinkage absorbing portion is formed of a cut-out portion formed in the resin molded portion.
In the shoulder anchor according to a third aspect of the invention, the shrinkage absorbing portion is formed of at least one shrinkage absorbing member disposed in the resin molded portion.
In the shoulder anchor according to the present invention structured as mentioned above, since the shrinkage absorbing portion for absorbing shrinkage of the resin is disposed in the molded resin portion corresponding to the guide portion, shrinkage or residual stress of the resin during the molding can be effectively absorbed or reduced by the shrinkage absorbing portion, thereby improving the quality of the resin molding in the shoulder anchor.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3959855 (1976-06-01), Fisher
patent: 4480583 (1984-11-01), Ando et al.
patent: 5037135 (1991-08-01), Kotikovsky et al.
patent: 5257820 (1993-11-01), Kosugi
patent: 5280959 (1994-01-01), Nanbu
patent: 5601311 (1997-02-01), Pfeiffer et al.
patent: 5790931 (1998-08-01), Tsuji et al.
patent: 5863071 (1999-01-01), Li-Calso
patent: 6120061 (2000-09-01), Ito
patent: 6138328 (2000-10-01), Iseki
patent: 9303530 (1980-12-01), None
patent: 55160449 (1980-12-01), None
patent: 1195192 (1989-08-01), None
patent: 71495 (1995-01-01), None
Iseki Hideo
Nishizawa Muneo
Fischmann Bryan
Johnson Brian L.
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Takata Corporation
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