SEAT-BELT BUCKLE WITH A SENSOR/ILLUMINATION SUBASSEMBLY

• US 20120188778A1
• Filed: 10/01/2010
• Published: 07/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG), Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG), Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Skarpil, Harry, Risch, Stephan, Schmid, Bernhard, Buettner, Sibylle, Grunwald, Frank
• Application Number:
  US13/498,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20120188778A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 362/487
• CPC Class Codes: A44B 11/2565 Illuminated buckles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 24/45225 including member having distinct formations and mating member selectively interlocking therewith

Abstract

A seat-belt buckle for securing persons in motor vehicles, including at least one sensor unit which is designed in such a manner that it can detect the closure state of the seat-belt buckle, the seat-belt buckle having an illumination unit which is integrated, together with the sensor unit, in a common sensor/illumination subassembly.

Claims

1-13. -13. (canceled)

14. A seat-belt buckle for securing persons in motor vehicles, comprising:

at least one sensor unit which is designed in such a manner that it can detect a closure state of the seat-belt buckle; and

an illumination unit which is integrated, together with the sensor unit, in a common sensor/illumination subassembly.

15. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the sensor/illumination subassembly is adapted so that it can be installed in the seat-belt buckle in preassembled form.

16. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the sensor/illumination subassembly comprises a base element in the form of a leadframe on which the sensor unit and the illumination unit are arranged.

17. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 16, wherein the seat-belt buckle has an at least three-wire electrical cable connection which is connected, in an electrically conductive manner, to the base element and is connected to the cable connection in an electrically conductive manner, the illumination unit which is directly connected to the cable connection or to the leadframe in an electrically conductive manner being arranged in the region of the cable connection.

18. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the illumination unit comprises at least one illumination element, and an optical waveguide element to guide light from the illumination element to at least one seat-belt buckle actuation button.

19. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 18, wherein the illumination element is a light-emitting diode.

20. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 18, wherein the sensor unit and the illumination element of the illumination unit are each or together in the form of an electronic SMD component.

21. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 18, wherein the optical waveguide element has a convex optical configuration, comprising an optical lens, on the light-incident side on which the illumination element is assigned to the optical waveguide element, and has a concave optical configuration on a light-exit side.

22. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 21, wherein the optical waveguide element is in the form of a glass fiber element in which the convex and concave optical configurations are integrated.

23. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the sensor/illumination subassembly comprises a housing segment of the seat-belt buckle with latching elements.

24. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the at least one illumination element of the illumination unit is driven on the basis of the closure state of the seat-belt buckle.

25. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the illumination unit drives the illumination element in such a manner that it illuminates in the event of an “

open”

closure state detected by the sensor unit, and the illumination element is driven in such a manner that it does not illuminate if the sensor unit detects a “

closed”

closure state.

26. The seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the illumination unit comprises two or more different illumination elements having different colors, the different illumination elements being driven on the basis of the closure state detected by the sensor unit.

27. The use of the seat-belt buckle as claimed in claim 14 in motor vehicles.