Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
1997-04-21
2001-04-17
Culbreth, Eric (Department: 3611)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C280S801100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06217070
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety belt system, in particular one for motor vehicle seats, comprising a safety belt system which can be unwound from a reel and which is guided via a deflection device arranged laterally above the seat and having a passage opening, with the lower boundary of the passage opening being formed by a deflection roller for the safety belt.
2. Description of Related Art
The three-point safety belt systems customary in motor vehicles have a reel from which the safety belt can be unwound. This reel is mounted, in particular for the safety belts for the front seats of a motorcar, at the side of the associated seat in the floor region at the so-called B-column. Starting from this reel, the belt is guided over a deflection device arranged at the side above the seat on the B-column and is led from there back again to a second attachment fitting close to the floor for the end of the belt remote from the reel. Between the deflection device and the second attachment fitting close to the floor, the safety belt is guided through the passage of a latch element which cooperates with a belt lock arranged on the other side of the associated seat.
During the reeling in and unreeling of such a safety belt the belt is drawn through the passage opening of the deflection device. In order to keep the friction which arises during this, which loads the belt and which thus leads to wear, as low as possible it is already known to provide a deflection roller over which the safety belt is led in the deflection device. This deflection roller is arranged in the deflection device so that it forms the lower boundary of the passage opening. The jacket of the deflection roller, which has a correspondingly large diameter, thus forms the deflection surface for the safety belt. The belt which is subsequently delivered from below from the unwinding reel and which is largely also drawn off downwardly can thereby be guided largely free of friction.
As a result of the attachment of the deflection device to the B-column, the deflection device however is disposed in a rearward position with respect to the associated vehicle seat. The tension exerted on the belt when putting it on thus has a forwardly directly force component when viewed in the direction of travel which leads to the safety belt wandering on the deflection roller to one side of the passage and abutting against the side boundary there. Likewise, when winding the belt onto the reel, the safety belt wanders in the direction towards the other side boundary of the passage opening and thus abuts against the side boundary there. The belt thereby rubs against these lateral boundaries which can lead to wear and to a premature aging of the belt, which can indeed possibly endanger the trouble-free functioning of the safety belt, because the danger exists that the belt tears at the side. Moreover, the drawing out of the belt is not ideally easy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a three-point safety belt system of the initially named kind such that the drawing out of the belt is facilitated and a deterioration or destruction of the same is prevented.
This object is satisfied in that the deflection device has at least one further roller.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention at least one guide roller arranged substantially perpendicular to the deflection roller can be provided as the further roller and bounds the passage opening at the side. Through an additional guide roller of this kind it is ensured that the belt, which wanders to a lateral boundary of the passage opening of the deflection device, does not rub against this lateral boundary. In place of this, the belt sets the additional guide roller present there in motion, whereby a substantial reduction of the draw out resistance and of the wear of the belt is achieved. In order to reduce the wear of the two lateral boundary regions of the belt during both unwinding and during winding up, two additional guide rollers are preferably provided which bound the passage opening of the deflection device on both sides of the deflection roller.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention the jacket of the lateral guide rollers directly adjoins the jacket of the deflection roller. In this way it is ensured that the respective lateral guide roller is immediately set in rotation by the belt wandering towards this side. It also prevents the belt from being drawn into a gap.
The jacket surface of the lateral rollers is in each case preferably concave. This ensures in a particularly advantageous manner that the belt runs onto the side roller in a jerk-free and kink-free manner.
The object underlying the invention is on the other hand solved in that the lower boundary of the passage opening is formed by a deflection surface and that a part of the deflection surface is formed by the jacket of at least one deflection roller.
It has been shown that the use of a deflection surface with at least one inserted deflection roller makes it relatively easy to draw out the belt. In this respect it is advantageous when the deflection surface is gently curved in the passage direction of the belt band and the deflection rollers have a radius of curvature which is smaller in comparison to the radius of curvature of the deflection surface. The slightly curved deflection surface prevents the belt from being bent too much in the deflection device, which would make drawing out the belt more difficult. Through the relatively smaller deflection rollers, easy running of the deflection rollers is ensured on the one hand, whereby the drawing out of the belt is likewise made easier.
In accordance with a further development of the invention the deflection rollers are distributed over the deflection surface, with preferably two or three deflection rollers arranged substantially parallel to one another. The use of two or three deflection rollers has shown itself to be particularly advantageous since the two or three rollers, in particular when these are arranged distributed over the deflection surface, ensure, on the one hand, a very low friction on the pulling through of the belt and, on the other hand, only a small rolling resistance is present. Moreover, the design with two or three rollers can be executed at favorable cost.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention a plain bearing is in each case provided for the journalling of the lateral rollers and/or of the deflection rollers. This is uncomplicated to manufacture technically and thus cost-favorable.
The deflection rollers and/or the lateral rollers are preferably journalled in a plastic part which can be placed in jacket-like manner on a hoop, preferably consisting of metal. This also simplifies the manufacture and makes it less expensive because the bearing means for all the rollers can be formed in the plastic part. The hoop part which preferably comprises metal or another stable material thereby ensures an adequately firm anchorage of the safety belt in the case of a heavy loading, such as arises during an accident.
In accordance with a further development of the invention the bearings for the deflection rollers and the lateral guide rollers can be covered by at least one cover part which can preferably be clipped on. This design simplifies the assembly of the arrangement of the invention since the rollers can simply be inserted into the plastic part and the cover part subsequently only has to be clipped on.
The jacket surfaces of the deflection rollers and/or of the lateral guide rollers can be made smooth in accordance with a further design of the invention. In accordance with another design of the invention it is however also possible to structure the jacket surfaces in order to influence the wandering movement of the belt to the lateral boundaries of the passage opening in the deflection device.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4101171 (1978-07-01), Sasaki et al.
patent: 4327881 (1982-05-01), Föhl
patent: 4369931 (1983-01-01), Fohl
patent:
Dreizler Sabine
Kopetzky Robert
Pleyer Matthias
Culbreth Eric
Foley & Lardner
Takata Corporation
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