Clamping device for motor vehicle safety belts

• US 4,756,554 A
• Filed: 03/07/1986
• Issued: 07/12/1988
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/1984
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Tibbe KG
• Original Assignee: Tibbe KG
• Inventors: Tibbe, Gunter
• Primary Examiner(s): Love, John J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ferriter, Karin L.
• Application Number:
  US06/845,870
• Time in Patent Office: 858 Days
• Field of Search: 280/805, 280/806, 280/808, 280/801, 242/107.2, 297/476, 297/478, 297/480, 297/470
• US Class Current: 280/806
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 22/1855 the means being sensitive to belt tension

Abstract

A clamping device for a motor vehicle safety belt comprising a housing (2) traversed by the safety belt strap (1) coming from a strap winding device, respectively, from its winding shaft, as well as a first and a second wedge (3,4) arranged in the housing (2). The first wedge (3) forms a deviation member for the strap (1) on the side opposite to the strap winding device, respectively, to its winding shaft, and is provided with two skewed surfaces (12,13) delimiting a sharp angle and differently inclined with respect to the medial plane (16) of the first wedge (3) parallel to the strap (1) in the housing (2). By means of the inclined surface (13) delimiting with the medial plane (16) a larger angle, the first wedge (3) bears against a correspondingly inclined surface (15) of the housing (2) and, by means of the other inclined surface (12), against a correspondingly inclined surface (14) of the second wedge (4). When the strap tension exceeds a predetermined value, the first wedge (3) may move against the action of a spring load (21) in parallel to the strap (1) in the housing (2) along the skewed surface (15) thereof and thereby pushes the second wedge (4) against the strap (1) so as to clamp it in the housing (2).

Claims

1. A clamping device for a motor vehicle safety belt comprising:

(a) a housing having a flat base wall along which said belt passes, an oblique front wall and a bottom wall;

(b) a first clamping member located in said housing having a first oblique surface slidably movable along said oblique front wall of the housing and a second oblique surface;

(c) a second clamping member located in said housing having an oblique surface slidably movable along the second oblique surface of said first clamping member and a flat surface along which said belt passes, said oblique and flat surfaces respectively of the second clamping member forming an angle smaller than the angle formed by said first and second oblique surfaces of the first clamping member; and

(d) means for biasing said first clamping member in a direction away from the bottom wall of said housing, whereby said second clamping member is urged by said first clamping member to clamp said belt by said flat surface of the second clamping member against the flat base wall of said housing, when the first clamping member is moved by the belt towards said bottom wall of the housing in response to a predetermined belt tension.

2. The clamping device of claim 1 wherein the second oblique surface of said first clamping member and the oblique surface of said second clamping member are in contact and are inclined in relation to said belt, said second oblique surface and the first oblique surface of the first clamping member forming an acute angle, said first oblique surface and a plane parallel to the belt forming a second acute angle which is greater than the angle formed by said second oblique surface and said plane and the first clamping member being movable in said housing in a direction towards which said first and second oblique surfaces converge to effect displacement of said first clamping member parallel to the belt against the action of said means for biasing when said predetermined belt tension occurs.

3. The clamping device of claim 1 wherein said first clamping member is guided in a direction parallel to the oblique front wall of said housing and is spring loaded in a direction out of the wedge-shaped gap between the oblique front wall and the oblique surface of said second clamping member which is so interlocked with the first clamping member that the clamping members may slide on each other at the two contacting oblique surfaces thereof.

4. The clamping device of claim 1 wherein said first clamping member has a rounded head around which said belt is trained.

5. The clamping device of claim 1 wherein said first clamping member has a rotating head roller mounted thereon which has said belt trained around it.

6. The clamping device of claim 5 wherein said head roller is adapted to be moved in a direction normal to the axis of rotation against the action of spring loading means into engagement with a preferably matchingly concave support surface of said clamping member.

7. The clamping device of claim 1 wherein said housing and said first and second clamping members are designed in the form of a belt deflecting fitting.

8. The clamping device of claim 7 wherein said housing is made in two parts for level adjustment of the point of deflection of the belt to include a base plate adapted to be secured to the motor vehicle and a socket to receive said first and second clamping members and adapted to be shifted on the base plate.

9. The clamping device of claim 8 wherein said base plate has two mutually parallel side limbs between which said U-shaped socket is slidable along the base plate, one side limb of the base plate or one side wall of the socket having a row of holes and the adjacent side wall of the socket or the adjacent side limb of the base plate respectively, having a hole, a pin being adapted to be inserted into the latter and into the hole respectively aligned therewith of the row of holes, in order to locate the socket on the base plate.

10. The clamping device of claim 9 wherein there is a dove-tail guide between each side limb of said base plate and the adjacent side walls of said socket.

11. The clamping device of claim 7 wherein there is provided a vertically adjustable guide for said belt for increasing the angle of wrap of the belt around a rounded head or a rotatably mounted head roller of said first clamping member around which the belt is trained.

12. The clamping device of claim 7 wherein said first clamping member is provided with a pivoting member rockingly supported for tilting about an axis normal to the plane, parallel to said belt, of the first clamping member and being provided with a rounded head or a rotatably mounted head roller around which the belt is trained.

13. The clamping device of claim 12 wherein said pivoting member has a cover guiding the belt for said head or said head roller, respectively.

14. The clamping device of claim 1 wherein said housing and said first and second clamping members are arranged in a take-up device for said belt.