Guide loop height adjustment for vehicle passenger seat belts

Details Guide loop height adjustment for vehicle passenger seat belts Guide loop height adjustment for vehicle passenger seat belts

1997-03-12

1999-01-26

Rice, Kenneth R.

Motor vehicles

With belt or harness for restraining occupant, and means...

2808012, B60R 2110

Patent

active

058628762

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to guide loop height adjustment for vehicle passenger seat belts.
Vehicle passenger seat belt systems as employed in private motor cars are typically three point systems with lap and diagonal belt webbings. Usually the webbing is drawn from the reel of an emergency locking retractor via a passenger shoulder height guide loop before passing diagonally downward across the front of the occupant. The webbing then passes via a buckle tongue and returns across the lap of the occupant to a floor anchorage located generally beneath the guide loop.
In the interests of passenger comfort and safety it is now quite common for vehicle manufacturers to install guide loops which are manually adjustable for height by the occupant so that the point at which the webbing changes direction is approximately the height of the adjacent shoulder of the respective occupant. In cases where there is no such adjustment the guide loop is positioned by the manufacturer to ideally suit a person of notional average shoulder height. Occupants of non-average shoulder height may be subject to reduced safety and/or comfort.
In a case where manual height adjustment is provided by the vehicle manufacturer, there is obviously a possibility that an occupant may be non-vigilant either through complete unawareness of the presence of the adjustment facility or simply inadvertently forgetting to suitably reset the adjustment.
The object of the present invention is to provide means for making an automatic adjustment of the height of a seat belt guide loop in spite of non-vigilance by an occupant.
According to the present invention there is provided a guide loop height adjustment arrangement for a vehicle drivers' seat belt comprising a drive means operable to raise and lower a guide loop having means operable to sense a change of position of a drivers' mirror and means responsive to such change indicative of the presence of a seat occupant of different shoulder height from a preceding seat occupant to activate said drive means to reposition said guide loop.
In one embodiment of the invention computation means is provided which utilises the positions of adjustable nearside and offside rear view driving mirrors and the position of an adjustable drivers' seat to calculate a drivers' shoulder height and activates said drive means to position said guide loop.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention means may be provided for sensing a departure of the tilt angle of an interior rear view mirror from a nominal average setting and correspondingly making a departure of the height setting of a guide loop based thereupon.
In order that the invention may be more clearly understood and readily carried into effect the same will be further described by way of an example with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a schematic illustration of a guide loop height adjustment system.
Referring to the drawing, the height adjuster for the pillar mounted webbing guide loop 2 of a vehicle drivers' seat belt is denoted by reference 1. Typically, this is located within the `B` post adjacent the drivers' seat and the height of the guide loop 2 is adjustable thereby to suit a range of shoulder heights for the seat occupant. The height of the guide loop 2 is variable by a reversible d.c drive motor 3 mechanically linked thereto by a toothed belt or shaft drive gear mechanism and the position is sensed by a position transducer 4 which may comprise an electrical potentiometer providing a position feedback signal to a signal comparator 5. A control input to 5 is derived from an electronic computation and control unit 6.
For the purposes of controlling the motor 3, the unit 6 makes use of output signals derived from the fore and aft seat position, the seat height where this is adjustable and also the angles of tilt and swing of left and right hand driving mirrors.
The left hand and right hand mirrors are shown diagrammatically at 8 and 9 both of which are adjustable by the vehicle driver manually or by electric motor from the driving position. The

REFERENCES:
patent: 4616850 (1986-10-01), Sedlmayr
patent: 4645233 (1987-02-01), Bruse et al.
patent: 4807715 (1989-02-01), Nagashima et al.

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