Chairs and seats – Crash seat – Bottom and back movable as unit in response to force
Patent
1998-08-28
2000-02-22
Browne, Lynne
Chairs and seats
Crash seat
Bottom and back movable as unit in response to force
29745219, B60N 242
Patent
active
060271671
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for safely restraining occupants in a crashing vehicle, and a seat constructed to perform this method. More particularly, the invention relates to a technique to obtain a safe and gentle restraint of passengers/driver by using a safety belt that is integral with the seat.
The advantages of being restrained by a safety belt to avoid injuries in a crashing car are well known. However, there are problems as to how to attach the safety belts in a limited space, for example in buses and in other modes of public transportation.
The use of safety belts in public transportation involves problems regarding a safe attachment of the safety belts in the vehicle or to a seat. An attachment in the seat of the type used today must involve a rigid and voluminous construction which will occupy some of the useful space in the vehicle. An attachment outside the seat must have rigid points of attachment also occupying some of the useful space in the vehicle and requiring a great strength of the vehicle's walls and floor. Further, the attachment of the safety belts in the vehicle should not increase the risk of injuries to other passengers.
DE-A-2 546 157 discloses a back rest of a vehicle seat with a built-in safety belt, the back rest being resiliently collapsible while being in its transverse direction. This construction cannot absorb any greater loads and is seemed to be very dangerous at crashes over 30 km/h. Thus, at greater loads the resiliency being obtained comes suddenly to an end and the created shock is believed to be fatal for an occupant using the belt.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,778 discloses a seat construction with an integral safety belt. The attachment of the belt is secured outside the seat. This construction is not made to accumulate the loads in a crash.
WO 9014245 is one example of a seat construction being extremely solid. In a crash with this construction there is nothing making a gentle, progressive restraint of the occupant possible. This document is one example of a voluminous and heavy construction without refinements. The same can be said about EP-0 590 237 in which an effort has been made to get a slim construction. However the construction is very complex and probably rather heavy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a safety belt that is integral with a seat in a vehicle, wherein a light and not voluminous seat body is capable of accumulating great loads in a crash by a beneficial distribution of the actual load from the belt by a resilient and perhaps permanent deformation initially at the back rest of the seat and later at the lower seat portion. In the load from a crash there is also a 5 to 10% extension of the belt, and this extension can, together with the deformation of the back rest of the seat, contribute to a gentle restraint of the occupant. Surprisingly the deformations decrease the injuries from a whiplash effect on the occupants.
In a crash the kinetic energy of the occupants is restrained by the safety belts and by a cooperating resiliently deformable double tube frame construction in such a way that during a modest load the upper portion of the double tube frame construction will move resiliently, but at a greater impact or load a permanent deformation of the double tube frame construction will occur at the same time as the resilient deformability contributes to bringing the occupant back towards the back rest of the seat by a resilient back transfer of an upper portion of the double tube frame construction. Surprisingly, it has been shown that the loads on the neck portion of the occupant, and whiplash injuries, will be decreased compared to the same restraint of an occupant in a conventional safety belt in a seat having the belt attached outside of the seat. To some extent this beneficial effect can be explained by the braking effect on the occupant being dynamic in such a way that at first the belt is stretched during a simultaneous progressive dampening by the resiliency
REFERENCES:
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patent: 4993778 (1991-02-01), Colin et al.
patent: 5568961 (1996-10-01), Colasanti
patent: 5645316 (1997-07-01), Aufrere et al.
patent: 5749135 (1998-05-01), Crane et al.
patent: 5769499 (1998-06-01), Dudash et al.
patent: 5791738 (1998-08-01), Niezoldt
Agerberth Rolf
Blomdell Peter
Browne Lynne
Buck Brian H.
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