Chairs and seats – Body or occupant restraint or confinement – Safety belt or harness; e.g. – lap belt or shoulder harness
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-12
2002-10-22
Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Body or occupant restraint or confinement
Safety belt or harness; e.g., lap belt or shoulder harness
C029S458000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06467850
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat belt assembly for restraining the body of an occupant seated in a seat of an automobile or an airplane in the seat at the time of emergency.
In addition, the present invention also relates to a seat belt assembly provided with a through anchor having a webbing sliding contact surface and a method for producing the through anchor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there exists a three-point seat belt assembly using continuous webbing as a seat belt assembly for restraining an occupant of a vehicle in a seat in which he or she is seated.
Referring to
FIG. 52
, in a seat belt assembly
910
, one end of a webbing
911
is wound and stored in a retractor
912
in such a manner as to be freely pulled out thereof. The other end thereof is locked to an anchor plate
914
via a through anchor
915
which functions as a webbing guide. The anchor plate
914
is supported rotatably at a lower portion of a center pillar
913
. A through tongue
916
disposed between the anchor plate
914
and the through anchor
915
is engaged with a buckle
918
which is provided so as to erect from a vehicle body in the vicinity of the seat
917
. With this engaging, the webbing
911
restraints an occupant (not shown) in a seat
917
.
In addition to the through anchor
915
and the through tongue
916
, the seat belt assembly
910
also has a through belt(not shown), a webbing guide at an exit of the retractor and the like, which all function as a webbing guide for guiding the webbing
911
.
An elongated hole-shaped belt slot (a gap through which the webbing passes) is formed in the respective webbing guides. The webbing
911
is brought into sliding contact with the belt slot when the webbing
911
is allowed to pass therethrough, whereby the belt slot guides the webbing
911
.
In order to secure good retractability of the webbing
911
and good operating feeling when the webbing
911
is pulled out, the friction resistance generated where the webbing
911
is in sliding contact with the belt slot should be maintained as low as possible. To cope with this, a coating resin is applied to make the shaped surface of the belt slot smooth, or as described, for instance, in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,340, a low friction material is applied to treat the surface of the belt slot.
Of those webbing guides, the through anchor
915
can be constructed, for example, by applying a coating resin to a metal insert through insert molding. The through anchor
915
must bear a load generated when vehicles collide with each other. To make this possible, a mechanical strength, which is sufficient to prevent the deformation thereof when a load is applied thereto, is required for the coating resin. In general, however, a resin material having a high mechanical strength cannot provide good slidableness relative to the webbing
911
, whereas a low friction material having a low friction coefficient and providing good slidableness cannot provide the sufficient mechanical strength. Thus, it has been difficult to improve the slidableness relative to the webbing
911
while maintaining the required mechanical strength.
In addition, with the through anchor formed through insert molding of the metal insert with the coating resin, depending on a molding material used, the frictional resistance between the through anchor and the webbing increases while a user repeatedly uses the seat belt assembly in the market place, and therefore the retraction and extension of the webbing gets heavy with time (deterioration with age in sliding contact performance). Extremely speaking, there may be caused a problem that the webbing is not completely retracted into the retractor when the seat belt is not fastened (when the through tongue is disengaged).
To solve these problems, for example, Japanese Utility Model Examined Publication No. Sho. 57-36209 discloses a webbing guide for reducing the sliding resistance between a webbing and therewith.
In other words, this webbing guide is constructed by axially cutting away a pipe formed of a low friction material along one side thereof such that the width of the cut becomes smaller than the outside diameter of a core metal and placing the pipe so cut over the core metal by making use of the resiliency of the pipe. The webbing is hooked and wound around the outer circumference of the pipe placed over the core metal.
With the webbing guide described in the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model Examined Publication No. Sho. 57-36209, there exists a problem that tremendous manpower and time are required for placing the pipe over the core metal and securing a required accuracy in dimensions of respective structural portions, resulting in increased costs.
In addition, when a large magnitude of force is applied to the pipe when the webbing is brought into sliding contact therewith, the pipe may rotate relative to the core metal and moreover there may be a risk of failure of the pipe.
Moreover, as a through anchor having a webbing sliding contact surface constituted by a metallic surface, there is provided a through anchor formed by pressing a piece of sheet metal so as to form a webbing pass-through hole, a webbing sliding contact surface and a bolt attachment hole therein.
For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,165 describes a deflecting device
980
(a through anchor
980
) formed through a single pressing process as shown in FIG.
53
. In the deflecting device
980
, a base plate
982
having a bolt attachment hole
981
formed therein is surrounded by a fitting frame
983
and a webbing pass-through hole
984
and a webbing sliding contact surface
985
are formed in a lower portion of the fitting frame
983
.
With the conventional through anchor
980
described above, since the webbing sliding contact surface
985
is constituted by the metallic surface, the friction between the webbing and the webbing sliding contact surface can be maintained low, thereby making it possible to obtain good retractability and durability of the webbing.
With the aforesaid through anchor
980
, however, there are caused some problems: the pressing process becomes complicated; the cost is increased; and configurations that can be obtained are limited.
In addition, there is caused another problem that at least a part of the external surface of the through anchor
980
needs to be covered with such as a cover constituted by a resin molded article in view of suitability for attachment to the vehicle body, and this also serves to increase the cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, a first object thereof is to provide a seat belt assembly providing superior sliding contact between a webbing guide and webbing while having a simple construction.
In addition, a second object of the invention is to provide a seat belt assembly provided with a through anchor and a method for producing the through anchor, the through anchor being free from limitation to configurations that can be obtained while good webbing retractability and durability are obtainable, whereby reduction in cost is aimed at by making the production thereof easy.
The first object of the invention is attained by a seat belt assembly comprising webbing for restraining the body of an occupant in a seat and a webbing guide adapted to be brought into sliding contact with the webbing for guiding the webbing, wherein the webbing guide is constructed by insert molding a metal insert into a coating resin, and wherein the metal insert so molded is exposed at at least a part of a portion of the webbing guide where the webbing guide is brought into sliding contact with the webbing.
According to the above construction of the invention, the webbing restraints the body of an occupant which is guiding while being brought into sliding contact with the webbing guide. The metal insert is exposed at at least a part of the portion of the webbing guide where the webbing guide is brought into sliding contact with the webbing, whereby superior sliding contact between the webbing guide an
Kawai Osamu
Matsuki Masuo
Ono Katsuyasu
Saito Hiroyuki
Suzuki Yukio
Jr. Milton Nelson
NSK Autoliv Co. Ltd.
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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