Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-25
2004-06-15
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C280S727000, C297S483000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06749223
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The invention relates to a seat belt guide for guiding a seat belt disposed to a rear seat, more particularly, a seat belt guide capable of adjusting an attaching position of a seat belt by changing a guide position of the seat belt.
A seat belt guide for guiding a seat belt applied around the shoulder of a passenger fed from a retractor located on the backside of a seat is provided to a rear seat of a passenger car. Heretofore, in the seat belt guide, since a position for guiding the seat belt is fixed, when a small passenger, such as an old person, wears the seat belt, the position of the seat belt attached to the upper half of the body relatively deviates upward, so that the seat belt can not be attached to a proper position.
On the other hand, in order to solve the above defects, a seat belt guide capable of adjusting the attaching position of the seat belt according to physical features of a passenger has been proposed by the present applicant (refer to Japanese Patent Application 2000-185893).
In a seat belt guide
100
shown in
FIG. 13
, a hanger
106
sliding in the front and rear directions, i.e. in the arrow F-R directions in the drawing, is disposed on the front surface side of a main portion formed of an upper cover
102
and a lower cover
104
. A seat belt (not shown) is inserted into a belt insertion hole
110
of a guide portion
108
formed at a front end of the hanger
106
and a guide position is moved in the front and rear directions, so that the attaching position of the seat belt can be adjusted.
Also, the hanger
106
has a structure such that a slide portion
112
is inserted into a hanger guide portion
114
formed of the upper cover
102
and the lower cover
104
, and is slidably supported by a mechanism including a shoulder bolt
118
inserted into a slide hole
116
, a push nut (washer)
120
, a spring
122
disposed on a lower side of the slide portion
112
, a metal spacer
124
around which the spring
122
is fitted, a spring guide (upper)
126
and a spring guide (lower)
128
. Thus, the slide portion
112
can be moved in the front and rear directions of the slide hole
116
.
Further, in the seat belt guide
100
, when the hanger
106
is drawn forward, the side of a guide portion
108
is urged in an arrow A direction (in a direction of a compartment side) by a force of the spring
122
, so that even if the seat belt is, for example, strongly pulled, the hanger
106
is swung to a side opposite to the urging direction to thereby relieve the impact and prevent a damage from taking place.
However, in the seat belt guide
100
as described above, since there are used many parts, such as an exclusive shoulder bolt
118
, push nut
120
, spacer
124
, spring guide (upper)
126
and spring guide (lower)
128
, for a supporting mechanism for guiding the hanger
106
, the cost becomes high and its assembling work becomes complicated.
Also, since the upper cover
102
and the lower cover
104
have a structure fixed by a screw
130
, its workability is not good.
In view of the above defects, the present invention has been made and an object of the invention is to provide a seat belt guide, wherein the number of parts of a mechanism capable of adjusting an attaching position of a seat belt can be reduced to thereby decrease its cost and, at the same time, its assembling workability can be improved.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the first aspect of the invention, a seat belt guide guides a seat belt fed from a retractor disposed on a rear side of a seat and attached obliquely across an upper half of a body of a passenger sitting on the seat near the shoulder of the passenger, and has a moving device for moving a guide position in front and rear directions of the seat. The seat belt guide includes a slide hole provided to the moving device and extending in its moving direction; a supporting pole fixed to the seat in a state inserted into the slide hole; and a plurality of flanges integrally formed with the supporting pole to act as a stopper with respect to the slide hole.
In the invention according to the first aspect, the seat belt fed from the rear side of the seat is attached obliquely across the upper half of the body of the passenger sitting on the seat in a state where only one side of passenger's shoulders is girded. From the state, when the guide position for guiding an upper end side of the attaching portion of the seat belt is shifted to the front side of the seat by the moving device provided to the seat belt guide, an angle of the seat belt attached to the upper half of the body becomes shallower than that in the ordinary case on the upper end side of the attaching portion of the seat belt, so that an overlapping amount to the body is decreased. Thus, the tightening force of the seat belt becomes weak or is released at the upper portion of the upper half of the body, i.e. near the shoulder, so that the seat belt is attached on the side of the abdominal region with the breast as a center.
Therefore, even if a smaller passenger wears the seat belt, there is no case that the seat belt is wound around the upper portion of the upper half of the body, so that without relatively changing the attaching height of the seat belt, the seat belt can be properly attached.
Also, the moving device can slide along the slide hole under the guide of the flanges of the supporting pole acting as a stopper which is inserted into the slide hole. As described above, since the supporting pole integrally formed with the flanges guides and supports the moving device, the spacer and a plurality of guide members used in the conventional seat belt guide are not required. Thus, the mechanism of the moving device can be simplified to thereby reduce the number of parts, which results in a cheap cost and improved assembling workability.
In the invention according to the second aspect, the supporting pole in the seat belt guide according to the first aspect has a cylindrical shape, which is fixed to the seat by a tapping screw.
In the invention according to the second aspect, since the supporting pole has the cylindrical shape, the supporting pole can be fixed by a screw member, such as a normal tapping screw, instead of a conventional expensive shoulder bolt. Thus, the cost can be reduced.
In the invention according to the third aspect, at least one of the flanges located on both sides of the slide hole has a width smaller than a hole width of the slide hole in the seat belt guide according to the first aspect.
In the invention according to the third aspect, when the supporting pole is assembled to the slide hole of the moving device, since the width of the flange is smaller than the hole width of the slide hole, the supporting pole can be easily assembled to the slide hole by inserting the flange into the slide hole.
In the invention according to the fourth aspect, in the seat belt guide according to the first aspect, a main portion of the seat belt guide is formed of separated two cover members, one of the cover members includes an engaging portion integrally formed therewith, and the other cover member includes a portion integrally formed therewith to be engaged by the engaging portion in a state where both cover members are assembled.
In the invention according to the fourth aspect, when the two cover members constituting the main portion of the seat belt guide are assembled, the engaging portion integrally formed with one of the cover members engages the portion to be engaged formed integrally with the other cover member to thereby fix. Thus, the assembling work of both cover members can be simplified.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3521901 (1970-07-01), Waxkym
patent: 3995885 (1976-12-01), Plesniarski
patent: 4159848 (1979-07-01), Manz et al.
patent: 4236755 (1980-12-01), Pollitt et al.
patent: 4289352 (1981-09-01), Ashworth
patent: 4431233 (1984-02-01), Ernst
patent: 4518174 (1985-05-01), Sedlmay
Kazuo Yoshino
Yutaka Hirako
Ellis Christopher P.
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Nifco Inc.
Sharma Rashmi
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