Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Seats with body modifications
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-28
2001-07-03
Dayoan, D. Glenn (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Seats with body modifications
C297S216180, C297S216100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06254164
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a vehicle occupant protection system, and in particular to a vehicle occupant protection system which can reduce a deceleration acting upon a vehicle occupant at the time of a vehicle crash.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, various proposals have been made in regard to automotive vehicle body structures to maximize the protection of vehicle occupants at the time of a vehicle crash. For instance, proposals have been made to minimize the deceleration of the part of the vehicle body occupied by vehicle occupants by properly selecting the deformation of the remaining part of the vehicle body, and preventing the former part of the vehicle body from deforming (see Japanese patent laid open publication No. 7-101354, for instance).
However, it may be difficult to reduce the deceleration of the vehicle occupant in the case of small cars which do not provide adequate deformation strokes of the parts of the vehicle body other than the part occupied by the vehicle occupant only with such conventional approaches which essentially consist of attempts to reduce the deceleration of the passenger compartment by controlling the deformation mode of the vehicle body.
Further, it is generally impossible to integrally hold a vehicle occupant to a vehicle body even if the seat is fixedly attached to the vehicle body because the seat belt for restraining the vehicle occupant to the seat has an inevitable slack. Thus, when a vehicle crash occurs, the forward inertia force acting upon the vehicle occupant at the time of a vehicle crash starts rising only after the vehicle occupant is fully restrained by the seat belt. Further, because the seat belt inevitably has a certain resiliency, the deceleration acting on the vehicle occupant, who tends to continue to move forward, reaches a maximum level only when the maximum elongation of the seat belt takes place. The maximum deceleration level increases as the forward movement of the vehicle occupant with respect to the vehicle body under the inertia force increases, and is known to substantially exceed the average deceleration of the vehicle body. Therefore, in order to minimize the impact which the vehicle occupant receives at the time of a vehicle crash, it is necessary to minimize the time delay in the rise in the deceleration of the vehicle occupant with respect to the deceleration of the vehicle body and thereby reduce the forward movement of the vehicle occupant with respect to the vehicle body.
Proposals have been made in copending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/377,366 and 09/376,888 both filed on Aug. 18, 1999, to impart a relative deceleration and acceleration to the vehicle seat or the member carrying the vehicle seat with respect to the main part of the vehicle body so that the vehicle occupant may experience a deceleration from an early stage of a vehicle crash, and the maximum vehicle occupant deceleration may be reduced by distributing the inertia force acting on the vehicle occupant over a longer period of time. There are additional copending U.S. patent applications of later filing dates which also relate to similar subject matters. The contents of these applications are hereby incorporated in this application by reference.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of such problems of the prior art and the recognition by the inventors, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which allows the peak deceleration acting upon a vehicle occupant at the time of a vehicle crash to be minimized for a given deformation stroke of the vehicle body.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which allows the deceleration acting upon the vehicle occupant at the time of a vehicle crash to be spread over time so as to minimize the peak deceleration acting upon the vehicle occupant.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which allows the peak deceleration acting upon the vehicle occupant to be minimized even though the size of the vehicle body is limited.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which is simple in structure, and light in weight.
According to the present invention, such objects can be accomplished by providing a vehicle occupant protection system, comprising: a seat which is fitted with a seat belt, and supported on a vehicle body so as to be slidable in a direction of an input crash load resulting from a vehicle crash; a crash sensor mounted on the vehicle body for detecting a vehicle crash; a power actuator fixedly attached to the vehicle body, and adapted to apply a rearward force to the seat upon occurrence of a vehicle crash; a stopper member fixedly attached to the vehicle body and adapted to stop a rearward movement of the seat produced by the power actuator following a prescribed rearward displacement of the seat; and a one-way motion mechanism for permitting the rearward movement of the seat, but prohibiting any forward movement of the seat after the stopper has stopped the rearward movement of the seat.
Thus, the seat is subjected to a forward deceleration by the power actuator substantially without any time delay, and following a rearward movement of the seat with respect to the vehicle body by a prescribed distance, the seat is subjected to a forward acceleration to prevent any excessive rise in the forward deceleration of the vehicle occupant. Thereafter, the vehicle seat is required to move substantially integrally with the vehicle body, and the one-way motion mechanism ensures the vehicle seat to move jointly with the vehicle body once the stopper has stopped the rearward movement of the seat.
The one-way motion mechanism may comprise a first part attached to the seat and a second part attached to the vehicle body, at least one of the parts being provided with a slope engaged by the other of the parts, and at least one of the parts being resiliently supported by a corresponding one of the seat and vehicle body to accommodate a relative displacement between the two parts in a direction different from that resulting from a rearward movement of the seat. Thereby, the one-way motion mechanism can be made of a simple structure, and adapted to reliable operation. A ratchet mechanism can be conveniently used for such a purpose.
Additionally and/or alternatively, the one-way motion mechanism may comprise a first part attached to the seat and a second part attached to the vehicle body, the first part and second part being positioned in a spaced relationship from each other before activation of the power actuator, and adapted to engaged and lock with each other simultaneously as the stopper has stopped the rearward movement of the seat. For such a purpose, a latch mechanism or similar arrangement using plastic and/or elastic deformation of at least one member for irreversibly joining one member to another as the two member come together.
The power actuator may consist of any actuator which is capable of activating adequately promptly with a required power output. A piston/cylinder arrangement using a pyrotechnic is suited for such a purpose. The crash sensor may consist of a limit switch or a stress sensor for detecting the deformation of a vehicle body part. Alternatively, an acceleration sensor such as those widely used in association with air bag occupant restraint system may also be used. If desired, a radar or laser sensor for detecting a crash before it actually happens can also be used for this purpose.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3897101 (1975-07-01), Hess
patent: 5947543 (1999-09-01), Hubbard
patent: 6092853 (2000-07-01), Hubbard
patent: 7-101354 (1995-04-01), None
Patent Abstracts of Japan, JP07101354A http://www.patents.ibm.com/cgi-bin/viewpat.cmd/ JP07101354A2, JPO, 1995.
Kamei Takahiro
Kawamura Yasushi
Dayoan D. Glenn
Engle Patricia
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
LandOfFree
Vehicle occupant protection system does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Vehicle occupant protection system, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicle occupant protection system will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2485293