Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Patent
1999-07-19
2000-10-10
Rice, Kenneth R.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
280753, B60R 2102
Patent
active
061293768
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
THE PRESENT INVENTION relates to a safety arrangement, and more particularly relates to a safety arrangement in a motor vehicle, such as a motor car.
When a motor vehicle is involved in a frontal impact, there is a risk that an occupant of the front seat of the motor vehicle may suffer injury to the feet, legs or knees.
For example, injuries can occur in the foot or ankle due to a short, rapid acceleration of the floor in the foot well. In a typical accident situation, the floor may accelerate upwardly and inwardly with an instantaneous acceleration which may be as high as 1,000 g. Since the feet and legs of an occupant of a motor vehicle may well be resting on the floor, and will have inertia, it is to be appreciated that this high acceleration of the floor may cause substantial injuries to the feet and/or lower legs of the occupants of the vehicle. Similar injuries may also arise if the floor of the foot well is penetrated by, for example, part of the suspension of the vehicle, or some other component which is driven rearwardly into the foot well as a consequence of the accident. Sometimes fractures of the lower leg are experienced as a consequence of the leg being trapped under the fascia, and the situation may be made worse if the floor or fascia is penetrated by components driven rearwardly during the accident.
Further injuries can be caused to the knees of the occupant and, additionally, injuries can be caused by the feet or legs of the occupant impacting with the pedals present in the motor vehicle.
Various proposals have been made previously in attempts to overcome these problems. For example, DE-A-4,335,511 discloses a complex arrangement in which the pedals are retracted to a position in which they are unlikely to injure the occupant of the vehicle in the event that an accident should arise. Various types of padding have also been proposed to provide protection for the knees of an occupant of a vehicle, the padding comprising an air-bag, a resilient element or even a resilient element mounted on a movable support. Reference may be made to DE-A-2,109,637, DE-A-4, 243, 791 and DE-A-4, 301, 933.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to this invention there is provided a safety arrangement in a motor vehicle, the arrangement comprising support beams initially located on the floor in front of a front seat of the vehicle, which means present an upper surface, accident responsive means being provided which respond to an accident situation to cause the upper surface of the support means to move to an elevated position, wherein the support means comprises an air-bag and the upper surface, when in the elevated position, provides a yieldable support for the feet of an occupant of the vehicle.
Preferably the accident responsive means comprises means to inflate the air-bag and a sensor to sense an accident to activate the means which inflate the air-bag.
The prior proposed arrangements are relatively complex, and the present invention seeks to provide an improved safety arrangement for use in a motor vehicle.
In a preferred embodiment means are provided to retain part of the or each flexible element in a predetermined position adjacent a junction between two non-aligned portions of the floor of the vehicle.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In order that the invention may be more readily understood, and so that further features thereof may be appreciated, the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of one safety arrangement in accordance with the invention in an initial state,
FIG. 2 is a view corresponding to FIG. 1 showing the safety arrangement of FIG. 1 in an operative state,
FIG. 3 is a view illustrating the operative parts of a safety arrangement comprising a second embodiment of the invention in a preliminary state, and
FIG. 4 is a corresponding view illustrating the safety arrangement of FIG. 3 in the operative state.
Throughout the drawings, like references r
REFERENCES:
patent: 5839756 (1998-11-01), Schenck et al.
Autolive Development AB
Kinberg Robert
Rice Kenneth R.
Spencer George H.
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