Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-16
2001-01-30
Swann, J. J. (Department: 3611)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C280S808000, C297S481000, C297S484000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179329
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to safety apparatus. Specifically, the present invention relates to a textile harness restraint worn by an occupant of an aircraft or other vehicle with the purpose of reducing injuries during a survivable crash, especially injuries to the occupant's upper torso and head.
2. Background of the Invention
During a crash, an occupant in a vehicle (aircraft, car, train, etc.) is generally injured due to rapid motion and/or striking the vehicle's interior structure or components. Accordingly, the vehicle's occupant restraint system is a key component in minimizing and preventing such injury. Although occupant restraint systems have improved over the years, conventional seat-mounted harness restraints do not adequately restrain the head and upper torso from forward or lateral displacement in crashes.
Several conventional restraint harness systems are currently used. Each system has one or more lap belts and shoulder straps which fasten directly into a coupling device. Four-point release attachment systems have four connections, two for shoulder straps and two for lap belts. Five-point release attachment systems are four-point release attachment systems which have a crotch strap and a corresponding release. One-point release attachment systems have a lap belt and diagonal shoulder belt.
A primary drawback of conventional systems is that they are subject to user error. This is because a vehicle occupant must adjust any restraint straps and belts manually. Left to his or her own devices, the occupant generally will not tighten the restraint to the point of maximum effectiveness. One reason for this is that doing so overly restricts mobility, and when given the choice, occupants tend to choose mobility over protection. As a result, restraint straps are loose due to the slack left by the occupant. Because the straps are loose, the occupant moves significantly forward and/or upward during a crash. The motion continues until the slack is removed.
Another important drawback of conventional textile harnesses is that they expose a narrow area of the occupant's shoulders and chest to a high concentration of crash force. Distribution of the crash force is a function of occupant loading during a crash. When an occupant loads the harness during a crash, the force is distributed along the strap(s) and imparted to occupant's body at the points of contact. Thus, it is desirable to maximize the strap area that contacts the body. Doing so, disperses the force across a greater portion of the occupant's body, thereby reducing the likelihood of injury to the occupant caused by the restraint harness.
Several inflatable restraint systems are presently under development for aircraft applications. One such system, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,648 (incorporated herein by reference), uses small inflatable bags attached to the shoulder harness straps to remove slack and provide head support. Although this system effectively redistributes crash loads, it requires structure in addition to the harness mechanism. Such additional structure includes pyrotechnic gas generators to inflate the inflatable bags at the time of impact. The inflatable bags remove the undesired slack. However, the additional structure adds significantly to the cost and complexity of the system.
It is desirable to have a restraint harness that considerably reduces the drawbacks of conventional harnesses described above. Moreover, it is desirable if the reduction in limitations does not add significantly to the cost and complexity of the restraint harness by requiring significant structural modifications. Thus, what is required is a restraint harness that reduces occupant-required adjustments, maximizes strap area, and limits occupant motion during a crash.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention reduces occupant movement during a crash, as well as the amount of force that is imparted to any given body area, thereby reducing the extent and severity of crash-related injuries. It provides these benefits through a construction that produces a tighter restraint while distributing crash-induced loads over a comparatively wider area of an occupant's upper body than conventional systems. In addition, the present invention provides at least as much mobility for the occupant during normal operation as conventional harness restraints. Moreover, the present invention provides these benefits without increasing support material or requiring major modifications to the aircraft or vehicle structure.
The present invention is a harness restraint which is attached to the seat of a vehicle. The harness restraint of the present invention protects the occupant in the event of a crash. The present invention significantly overcomes the aforementioned problems with conventional textile harness restraints by incorporating a right and left pulley configuration in its design. The right and left pulley configuration produce a pull ratio of 2 to 1. This pull ratio is sufficient to prevent appreciable occupant motion during a crash. In practice, this pull ratio is not exactly 2 to 1 because of minimal elongation of the straps and compression of the occupant's body parts; however, without give in the components of the pulley configuration, the pull ratio would be exactly 2 to 1.
In addition to reducing slack in the harness strap, the pulley configurations of the present invention provide more strap area for wider distribution of crash-induced force. The greater strap area distributes the force of a crash over a greater portion of the occupant's body, thereby reducing the force at any given point on the occupant's body.
The pulley configuration of the present invention operates between fixed points set by parts of the vehicle occupant restraint harness attached to the seat. The fixed portions of the restraint harness include: 1) a left and right lap belt, each attached to the left and right side of the seat respectively and connected together at the center of the occupant's body by a multiple point release attachment; 2) a left and right shoulder strap adjuster attached to the multiple release attachment; and, 3) a left and right shoulder guide attached by a neck strap to the top of the seat. The shoulder strap adjusters and shoulder guides provide openings through which straps can be routed and bars over which the straps can freely travel.
Using the fixed points described above, the pulley configuration of the present invention is devised as follows. The right pulley configuration consists of a vertical strap attached to the right lap belt. From that attachment point, the vertical strap is routed up through the right shoulder guide, down through the right strap adjuster, and back up to an attachment point on the right shoulder guide. The vertical strap freely travels over the right shoulder guide and right shoulder strap adjuster bars and is anchored to the right lap belt and underside of the right shoulder guide. This same vertical strap is continuously attached from the right shoulder guide, all along the neck strap, through to the left shoulder guide. Beyond the attachment point at the left shoulder guide, the vertical strap proceeds through the same routing as the right side. The left and right pulley configuration are mirror opposites of each other. For simplification, only the right side is described; however, it is understood that the left side is identically arranged.
Routing the vertical strap through the shoulder guides and adjusters in the sequence described above causes the vertical straps to cross an occupant's torso twice on each side. Conventional harness restraints have either a single diagonal shoulder strap or one right and one left vertical (torso) strap. Thus, the present invention provides at least twice as much strap area in contact with the occupant as a conventional harness restraint. The wider strap area increases the area for the distribution of crash-induced force, and provides greater restraint against occupant
Lum L.
Shaw Pittman
Simula Inc.
Swann J. J.
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