Chairs and seats – Body or occupant restraint or confinement – Safety belt or harness; e.g. – lap belt or shoulder harness
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-13
2001-06-12
Nelson, Jr., Milton (Department: 3624)
Chairs and seats
Body or occupant restraint or confinement
Safety belt or harness; e.g., lap belt or shoulder harness
C297S480000, C297S354120
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244663
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to seat belt retractors and to remotely located inertial actuators that are mechanically connected to the retractor to operate the same.
This invention is directed to providing a remote actuator that is vehicle-sensitive and/or webbing-sensitive to accelerations and decelerations to shift a safety belt retractor from its release position, allowing belt protraction to its locking or blocking position preventing belt protraction. In many instances, it is desired to locate a retractor in a position where the vehicle-sensitive inertia mechanism is disposed at an angle where the inertia weight is not at an attitude to be effective to actuate the reel locking mechanism. For example, when the retractor is mounted in a tiltable seat back rest, which may be adjusted to various rearwardly-inclined positions. One proposed solution for mounting a seat belt retractor in a reclinable seat back rest is disclosed in published United Kingdom patent application 2,235,124. In this patent, there is disclosed a pivotally mounted vehicle-sensitive inertia device which is pivotally mounted on the retractor, and a cable extends from the pivotal mounting seat mounting to a gear located at this seat back mounting. The inclining of the seat back rest rotates the gear which turns a flexible cable to rotate the inertia device's mounting to keep the vehicle-sensitive inertial weight therein in a generally horizontal plane. It has also been proposed, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,401, to provide either an electrical operation and a mechanical operation of a retractor-locking mechanism by a remotely located, vehicle-sensitive inertial device. In both this published application and in the aforementioned patent, very special retractors are built for operation by the remote sensors. In some instances, it is not desired to rely on an electrical circuit to operate the retractor to its blocking position. Also, such circuitry can add significantly to the manufacturing and installation costs for the retractor assembly.
The costs of tooling and the costs of building of special retractors and the costs for special installation, such as connecting circuitry to inclinable seat backs, is to be avoided, if possible. It would be preferable if a standard retractor, that is already economically constructed, could be used and connected to a remote actuator with no or a few small changes thereto. That is to say, it would be preferred that an existing, commercially-proven vehicle and/or webbing-sensitive retractor be capable of being mechanically attached to a remote vehicle-sensitive actuator so that the retractor may be mounted in a location of a changing attitude or at an attitude where its vehicle-sensitive weight, if present, would be inclined very substantially to the vertical.
While it has been proposed to provide remote actuators with vehicle-sensitive devices, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,401, these proposals lack a remote web-sensitive actuation capability. Hence, there is a need for a remote actuator that is mechanically connected to a retractor and operates the same upon detection of either a vehicle or webbing acceleration or deceleration.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a seat belt retractor may be mounted in various attitudes and connected mechanically to a remote, inertia actuator that is vehicle-sensitive and/or webbing-sensitive. The preferred retractor is an inertia locking retractor of substantially conventional manufacture; and the preferred, remote inertia sensor uses this retractor's same kind of proven inertia sensitive device or devices at a remote location to operate through a mechanical connector the retractor's locking mechanism in the same general manner that its internal inertia-sensitive devices would operate the locking mechanism. The remote actuator acts as a trigger or actuator for the retractor's blocking mechanism; and hence, the remote actuator mechanism may be made with plastic, rather than with metal parts, because the plastic parts do not have to handle the heavy loads that the metal parts in the retractor must handle.
The preferred remote actuator may also have a web-sensitive device for sensing when the belt webbing is being protracted at an acceleration that is indicative of an accident. The remote web-sensitive device preferably operates through a cable-kind of mechanical connector which has a rotatable shaft within a cable sheath. Thus, the web acceleration at the reel is communicated by rotation of the shaft to the remote, inertia-sensitive device. The retractor may or may not have a web-sensitive device that acts as a fail-safe and is redundant to the vehicle-sensitive device of the remote actuator.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, a remote actuator is mounted in a seat rest of a seat, and the retractor is mounted in the back rest with a mechanical connector extending between the remote actuator and the retractor. The seat back may be tilted forwardly or rearwardly into various attitudes relative to the vertical. Irrespective of the attitude of the seat back, the remote actuator will actuate the retractor's blocking mechanism to block belt protraction at predetermined vehicle and/or belt accelerations or decelerations. Preferably, the connector is a rotatable cable that is flexible and is looped to allow its position to be straightened as the seat back is tilted rearwardly.
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Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
Jr. Milton Nelson
Takata Inc.
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