Chairs and seats – Crash seat – Force-absorbing means incorporated into back
Patent
1997-02-07
1998-11-10
Cuomo, Peter M.
Chairs and seats
Crash seat
Force-absorbing means incorporated into back
29721612, 29721614, 2807301, B60N 242
Patent
active
058333126
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to a protection system/apparatus which is in particular intended to be installed in newly made or available vehicles for preventing or counteracting creation of so called whiplash injuries. As known such so called whiplash injuries often appear when a vehicle is being run into or bumped from behind but also as a reaction of a violent retardation, especially depending on a crash with a vehicle in front, whereby the driver or the passenger of the car is violently thrown forwardly and is thereafter thrown back again. The ever increasing traffic intensity often causes problems with formation of vehicle queues and this has lead to a strong increase of the type of crashes in which vehicles become run into from behind. A Dutch study during the years 1983-1991 shows that bumpings from behind have increased from 3% to 30% as calculated on all crashes during said period. In Sweden bumpings from behind also amount to about 30% of all crashes, and this means that about 200 such crashes occur every day. In spite of the fact that crashes from behind generally do not happen at particularly high speeds such crashes amount to about 50% of the costs for personal injuries for the Swedish community and for the insurance companies.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
At bumpings or crashes from behind, or when the body is thrown back after a violent braking or after a front crash, the lower back of the body and the trunk of the body, and thereafter the chest are firstly thrown back, whereas the head, which is relatively heavy in relation to the remaining parts of the body, follows thereafter under a violent bow at the neck and the back of the head. This may cause serious injuries which are sometimes not immediately observed but which are observed some time after the accident has happened.
Most protection apparatus of vehicles of to-day have been developed for protecting the driver or the passengers from injuries obtained when the body is thrown forwardly depending on a crash. Rather few efforts have been made to reduce injuries on human beings obtained when a vehicle is run into from behind, or when the body is thrown back as a reaction of a violent retardation, perhaps with a following crash against an object in front.
Conventional neck or back head supports may, indeed, provide some protection against whiplash injuries, but often said back head supports are not correctly placed in relation to the head of the driver or the passenger, generally it is placed far too low, and depending on the stationary location of many such back head supports they can often not meet the violent movement rearwardly to which the head is subjected during a whiplash movement by a movement forwardly of said back head supports.
The basis of the invention therefore has been the problem of providing a system or apparatus which, as far as possible, counteracts whiplash injuries as mentioned above, in particular injuries which appear when the head of the driver or the passenger of a vehicle is violently thrown rearwardly, whether said whiplash movement appears as a result of a crash from behind or as a movement of reaction resulting from a violent retardation like from a crash with an object in front.
The Swedish patent 811525-2 having the publication number 395.929 discloses an apparatus for preventing injuries on the head and the cervical vertebras resulting from crashes, and the apparatus comprises two inflatable aid cushions which are mounted in the seat back of the vehicle seat closely underneath an available back head support. The air or gas cushions in said known apparatus are of conventional type, and they lead, among other things, to the disadvantage of being inflated so rapidly and by such a violent force, like in an actual explosion, that the very air cushion during said inflating may cause serious injuries to the driver and/or the passenger of the vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is intended to eliminate said problem and even other problems and to provide an
REFERENCES:
patent: 3172702 (1965-03-01), Rose
Barfield Anthony D.
Cuomo Peter M.
LTG Safecontrol Automotive AB
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