Buckles – buttons – clasps – etc. – Strap-end-attaching devices – Buckle connected
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-30
2003-03-04
Swann, J. J. (Department: 3677)
Buckles, buttons, clasps, etc.
Strap-end-attaching devices
Buckle connected
C024S197000, C024S198000, C280S801100, C280S808000, C297S483000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06526630
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat belt device which restrains a body of an occupant sitting on a seat of an automobile or the like to the seat in case of emergency, for example, and more particularly to a seat belt device provided with a webbing which restrains the body of the occupant to a seat and a webbing guide which comes into slide contact with the webbing and guides the webbing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, as a seat belt device for restraining an occupant on a vehicle or the like to a seat, there has been a three-point-system seat belt device which adopts a continuous webbing.
FIG. 14
shows such a seat belt device
210
. A webbing
211
of the seat belt device
210
has one end portion thereof wound in a retractor
212
such that the webbing
211
can be pulled out from the retractor
212
and other end portion thereof anchored to an anchor plate
214
pivotally mounted on a lower portion of a center pillar
213
by way of a through anchor
215
which constitutes a webbing guide. The webbing
211
has a through tongue
216
disposed between the anchor plate
214
and the through anchor
215
engaged with a buckle
218
mounted in an erected posture in the vicinity of a seat
217
in a carbody. Due to such a constitution, the webbing
211
can restrain the occupant (not shown in the drawing) to the seat
217
.
In addition to the through anchor
215
and the through tongue
216
described above, the seat belt device
210
is provided with a through belt, a webbing guide at an outlet of the retractor and the like not shown in the drawing as webbing guides for guiding the webbing
211
. Belt slots in an elongated hole shape are respectively formed in the webbing guides and the belt slots come into slide contact with webbing
211
which passes through the belts slots so as to guide the webbing
211
.
To ensure the favorable performance of winding the webbing
211
and the favorable manipulation feeling at the time of drawing the webbing
211
, it is necessary to suppress the friction resistance at a slide contact portion between the belt slot and the webbing
211
as small as possible. To that end, the surface treatment has been applied to the slide contact portion such that the shape of the surface of the slide contact portion is made smooth by covering resin thereon or a fluorine-based paint having a favorably small friction resistance is coated on the slide contact portion.
Among the webbing guides, the through anchor
215
can be formed, for example, by an insert molding such that an insert fitting is covered with a covering resin by molding. Since the through anchor
215
has to bear a load at the time of collision of a vehicle, the through anchor
215
is required to ensure a sufficient mechanical strength to prevent the deformation thereof when the load is applied to the through anchor
215
.
With respect to the through anchor formed by an insert molding such that an insert fitting is covered with the covering resin by molding, depending on a molding material, there has been a possibility that as the user uses the seat belt device repeatedly, the friction resistance between the through anchor and the webbing is increased and this ill-affects the webbing winding performance.
Accordingly, to solve such a problem, U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,165 specification discloses a webbing guide which is formed by press-forming a metal sheet and exhibits a low friction and has a high mechanical strength and a high durability. However, this webbing guide is manufactured from a metal plate by a press forming and hence, it extremely pushes up the manufacturing cost compared with the above-mentioned current-type webbing guide and it is also difficult to properly maintain a gap through which the webbing passes. The increase of the manufacturing cost of the webbing guide eventually results in the increase of the manufacturing cost of the whole seat belt device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances and it is an object of the present invention to provide a seat belt device which, while having a simple construction with the least increase of the cost, can maintain the favorable webbing winding performance by favorably and continuously guiding the webbing.
The above-mentioned object of the present invention can be obtained by a seat belt device comprising a webbing restraining a body of an occupant to a seat and a webbing guide for guiding the webbing in such a manner that the webbing guide comes into slide contact with the webbing, wherein the webbing guide includes an insert fitting, a covering resin which covers the insert fitting by molding, and a metal member with which the webbing comes into slide contact, and the metal member has a slide surface thereof which is brought into slide contact with the webbing protruded than the covering resin toward a webbing side.
The above-mentioned object of the present invention can be obtained by a seat belt device comprising a webbing restraining a body of an occupant to a seat and a webbing guide for guiding the webbing in such a manner that the webbing guide comes into slide contact with the webbing, wherein the webbing guide includes an insert fitting, a covering resin which covers the insert fitting by molding, and a metal member with which the webbing comes into slide contact, and the metal member has a slide surface thereof which is brought into slide contact with the webbing protruded more than the covering resin toward a webbing side.
In the seat belt device of the present invention, the webbing, which is guided by the webbing guide while coming into contact with the webbing guide, restrains the body of the occupant to the seat. The portion of the webbing guide which comes into slide contact with the webbing is a metal member. Accordingly, the adhesion of dust to the slide surface (that is, the metal member) of the webbing guide with which the webbing comes into slide contact can be suppressed and hence, the deterioration of the slide performance with the webbing which is generated as time lapses can be decreased whereby the favorable slide performance can be maintained.
The metal member may be mounted on a resin body after the resin body is formed by molding or the metal member may be integrally formed at the time of forming the resin body by molding.
A protruding quantity of the metal member is determined such that webbing does not come into contact with the resin body when the webbing slides over the metal member. When the webbing comes into contact with the resin body when the webbing slides over the metal member, the contact portion receives a relatively high friction and hence is worn. Since this wear decreases the winding performance of the seat belt and hence is not favorable, a protruding quantity of the metal plate is determined to a proper value which prevents the webbing from coming into contact with the resin body. This performance can be maintained even when the width of the metal plate becomes not more than the width of the webbing for achieving the reduction of the manufacturing cost and for making the device lightweight.
Further, in the seat belt device having the above mentioned constitution, by protruding the metal member more than the resin body toward a webbing side, the webbing is prevented from coming into contact with the resin body. Further by setting this protruding quantity to a proper value, even when the width of the metal member is not more than the width of the webbing, the widthwise end portions of the webbing do not come into contact with the resin body. This is because the webbing has a certain degree of rigidity against a curving thereof.
To take the above into consideration, with respect to the webbing guide used in the seat belt device having the above mentioned constitution, it is desirable that the width of the metal member is set to 35-55 mm and it is also preferable that a protruding quantity of the metal member is set to 0.05-1 mm. However, the width and the p
Kawai Osamu
Suzuki Yukio
Yamamoto Kazuo
Crowell & Moring LLP
NSK Autoliv Co. Ltd.
Rodriguez Ruth C.
Swann J. J.
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