Chairs and seats – Supplemental seat
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-22
2002-07-02
Brown, Peter (Department: 3636)
Chairs and seats
Supplemental seat
C297S468000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06412866
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The present invention relates to a child seat which is mounted on a vehicle seat, and more particularly, to a child seat such that a seat belt installed in a vehicle and designed primarily for use by an adult occupant is extended across a squab portion of the child seat for restraining an infant or a child.
Various types of child seats have been proposed which are mounted on a vehicle seat for protecting an infant or a child in the event of emergency, such as vehicle collision. As an example of the child seats, there is a type such that a child seat body is secured to a vehicle seat; an infant is seated on the child seat body; and a seat belt installed in a vehicle and designed primarily for use by an adult (hereinafter, sometimes referred to just as “seat belt”) is placed to extend across the front of the child seat body with an infant thereon to hold the infant's body to the child seat, thereby protecting the infant from an impact.
This type of child seat normally has, on its child seat body, means for securing the child seat to a vehicle seat. The child seat body is secured to the vehicle seat by the securing means, and then an infant is seated on a squab portion of the child seat body. After that, a seat belt installed in the vehicle is placed to extend across the front of the child seat body and the infant seated on the squab portion of the child seat, and a tongue of the seat belt is then latched to a buckle fixed to the vehicle body.
When the body of the infant seated on the child seat is too small, the infant's body may not be sufficiently held to the child seat only by the seat belt extending across the front of the infant. In this case, an impact shield should be attached to a portion of the seat belt extending on the infant body so that the infant's body is held by the impact shield and the seat belt.
Infants are basically categorized in two groups according to the weight. One is a small size group having a weight from 9 kg to 18 kg (hereinafter, this group will be sometimes referred to as “first group”), and the other is a large size group having a weight from 15 kg to 25 kg (hereinafter, this group will be sometimes referred to as “second group”).
Most of the child seats of the aforementioned types are structured such that, when a large-sized infant belonging to the second group is seated, only the seat belt is used to directly hold the infant's body to the child seat, and when a small-sized infant belonging to the first group is seated, the impact shield is attached to the seat belt and the infant's body is held to the child seat by both the impact shield and the seat belt.
In state that the child seat body is secured to the vehicle seat, an infant is seated on the squab portion of the child seat, and the seat belt is placed to extend across the front of the infant on the child seat, in the event of emergency, such as vehicle collision during running of the vehicle, a seat belt retractor connected one end of the seat belt and having a function of winding and withdrawing the seat belt is brought into a locked state (a reel of the seat belt retractor on which the seat belt is wound is stopped from rotating).
As a result, the seat belt is prevented from being withdrawn even though the infant's body moves forward due to the inertia force caused by the collision. Therefore, the infant's body can be held and the impact on the infant's body can be absorbed by the seat belt or the impact shield attached to the seat belt.
According to the child seat having the aforementioned structure, the infant's body can be held to the child seat, according to the size of the infant, directly by the seat belt of the vehicle or by both the seat belt and the impact shield attached to the seat belt. Therefore, the child seat can securely hold the infant's body of various sizes. This type of child seat has an advantage of not requiring a peculiar seat belt device built in the child seat body besides the seat belt installed in the vehicle body. This means that the structure is simple without loosing high reliability relative to the protective performance, thus offering a large advantage in view of cost.
In these child seats, as the impact shields to be attached to a seat belt, there are three types as follows.
An impact shield of a first type is structured such that it is attached to a seat belt, and is placed in front of an infant together with the seat belt. After that, the impact shield is positioned on the lap of the infant just like being carried by the infant (hereinafter, this type of impact shield will be sometimes referred to as “first type impact shield”).
An impact shield of a second type has, on its right and left sides, side walls extending downward, and is structured such that it is attached to a seat belt, and is located in front of an infant together with the seat belt. After that, the impact shield is placed on a child seat to extend across the infant's body to be supported by the side walls thereof (hereinafter, this type of impact shield will be sometimes referred to as “second type impact shield”).
An impact shield of a third type is designed to be placed on a child seat having side walls on the right and left sides of a squab portion thereof, on which the impact shield can be placed, and is structured such that it is attached to a seat belt, and is located in front of an infant together with the seat belt. After that, the impact shield is placed on the side walls of the child seat to extend between the side walls (hereinafter, this type of impact shield will be sometimes referred to as “third type impact shield”).
In the child seat provided with the third type impact shield, when a large-sized infant is seated on the child seat and the seat belt is placed to extend across the child seat without the impact shield as mentioned above, the seat belt may be caught by the side walls disposed on the right and left sides of the squab portion, so that the seat belt can not closely contact the infant's body. This reduces the holding efficiency of the seat belt, so that the infant's body may not be sufficiently held to the child seat. To prevent this situation, there is a case such that the side walls are provided with recessed portions extending downwardly from the top surfaces, respectively. By passing the seat belt through the recessed portions, the seat belt is not caught by the side walls and is therefore securely disposed to closely contact the infant's body.
In the child seat provided with the first type impact shield, the impact shield is not substantially supported by the child seat body. Therefore, the stability of the impact shield after installation is extremely low, and the impact shield may sometimes provide stress and fatigue to the infant when the impact shield is used for a long period of time.
In the child seat provided with the second type impact shield, the impact shield is supported by the side walls disposed on its right and left sides, so that the stability of the impact shield after installation is high. Since the load by the weight of the impact shield and the like is not applied on the infant, the impact shield may not provide stress and fatigue to the infant even when the impact shield is used for a long period of time. However, the child seat provided with the impact shield of this type is not selected by the users according to its appearance because the child seat looks unattractive when the impact shield is used.
In the child seat provided with the third type impact shield, the impact shield is supported by the side walls disposed on the right and left sides of the squab portion, so that the stability of the impact shield after installation is high just like the second type impact shield. In addition, the child seat is favored with the users according to its appearance because the child seat looks attractive when the impact shield is used. As mentioned above, however, when a large-sized infant is seated on the child seat and the
Kosugi Noriyuki
Koyanagi Toshiro
Brown Peter
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Takata Corporation
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