Automatic safety car seat using tension springs

• US 5,746,467 A
• Filed: 08/16/1996
• Issued: 05/05/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mongkol Jesadanont
• Original Assignee: Mongkol Jesadanont
• Inventors: Jesadanont, Mongkol
• Primary Examiner(s): Mitchell, David M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yun, Jonathan J.
• Application Number:
  US08/698,669
• Time in Patent Office: 627 Days
• Field of Search: 296/68.1, 296/65.1, 297/468, 297/469, 297/470
• US Class Current: 296/68.1
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/4221 due to impact coming from the front
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/42745 of the back-rest B60N2/433 takes precedence; higher part of the back-rest moving together with the headrest B60N2/888
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/4279 electric or electronic triggering
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 22/02 Semi-passive restraint systems, e.g. systems applied or removed automatically but not both ; Manual restraint systems knee, leg or head belts B60R22/001; devices for releasing in an emergency, remote or automatic unbuckling devices B60R22/32
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 22/14 incorporating enlarged restraint areas, e.g. vests, nets , crash pads, optionally for children crash pads for occupants' safety on vehicles in general B60R21/02
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 22/26 secured to the seat

Abstract

The automatic safety seat in a vehicle are designed to minimize the seriousness of car-crash injuries during a frontal collision. When the vehicle collides against other vehicle at a relative velocity of 40 Km/h or up, the backrest is pushed to recline backward by action of springs and various mechanisms designed. A tension spring is one of the most important part used to bring the backrest to a reclining position. Collision results in pulling the upper part of occupants fastened by designed safety-belts to the backrest to recline backwards to the rearmost. Thus, pelvis, chest and head of the occupant are moved away to the farmost and can avoid striking with deforming frontal parts of the intruding car by frontal collision. Chest injuries and brain damage can be avoided.

Claims

1. An automatic safety seat for an occupant in a front compartment of a vehicle whose backrest can recline suddenly backward upon a frontal collision of said vehicle, comprising:

a backrest that can recline backward together with an upper part of -a body of said occupant when a frontal collision occurs at a predetermined relative velocity or higher;

two long rectangular steel bars fixed tightly flanking on each side, one on the left side and one on the right side, to said backrest;

two automatic seat-belt tensioner sets on said steel bar on the left side of said backrest, one at the chest level and the other at the pelvis level of said occupant;

an upper short steel axle and a lower short steel axle on said steel bar on the right side of said backrest, one at the chest level and the other at the pelvis level of said occupant;

a seat cushion placed on and fixed tightly at its left and right edges to the top of two thick steel plates which are mounted perpendicularly and tightly to the floor of said vehicle;

two strap-type seat-belts, each together with a strap-lock to fasten the upper part of an occupant'"'"'s body to said backrest, where one seat-belt is at chest level of said occupant with one end spooled inside the upper seat-belt tensioner set and the other end mounted tightly to said upper short steel axle on said right rectangular steel bar, while the other seat-belt is at the pelvis level of said occupant with one end spooled inside the lower seat-belt tensioner set and the other end mounted tightly to said lower short steel axle on said right rectangular steel bar;

a circular hole all the way through the thickness of each said rectangular steel bar at a level relatively lower than said seat-belt tensioner set or said steel axle at the pelvis level and three additional short steel axles, an upper short steel axle, a middle short steel axle and a lowest short steel axle, are arranged vertically in a row protruding out on the outer surface of each said rectangular steel bar opposite to said backrest at a level relatively lower than said circular hole;

a cylindrical steel shaft perpendicularly and integrally protruding out laterally on the surface of each said thick steel plate supporting said seat cushion which can pivotally fit into said circular hole of said rectangular steel bar;

rearwardly and lower relative to said cylindrical steel shaft on the surface of each said thick steel plate, there is a steel axle onto which a curving end of a hook is engaged where the lower end of said hook pivotally winds round said middle short steel axle at the lower end of said steel bar flanking said backrest;

a tension spring having its lower end fixed to the middle of said hook with its upper end fixed to said upper short steel axle at the lower end of each said steel bar in such a manner that there is sufficient tension force to lift the hook up when the curving end of said hook is disengaged from said steel axle on said thick steel plate;

rearwardly, at a lower level relative to said steel axle on the surface of said thick steel plate supporting said seat cushion, there is a small steel plate with a compression spring having one end fixed on the lateral surface of said small steel plate facing to the front of said vehicle with its free end pointing towards the posterior of the lowest end of said rectangular steel bar such that said lowest end presses on said compression spring to reduce the impact and limit the angle at which said steel bar moves pivotally forward and around said cylindrical shaft during a frontal collision of said vehicle;

rearwardly next to said compression spring and said small steel plate, there is a force-absorbing spring set each consists of a thick steel block mounted perpendicularly onto the surface of each said thick steel plate having a circular hole with several turns of internal threads to mate with external threads of a vertical thick steel rod with a compression spring fixed on top whose level can be adjusted by turning said thick steel rod up or down to set a predetermined angle at which each of said two steel bars together with said backrest and said fastened occupant may pivotally recline backward to the rearmost as it presses on said compression spring;

at a position relatively anterior and lower than said cylindrical shaft, there is a scale showing the numbers representing the body weights of the occupants on said surface;

at a position relatively lower than said scale, there is a force-adjusting set fixed onto the surface of said steel plate consists of;

a steel rail of C-shaped cross-section of said force adjusting spring set with its back mounted onto each said thick steel plate having a steel bar slidable and horizontally fitted along said rail where at the posterior end of said slidable steel bar there is a circular loop fixed laterally to be engaged to a circular loop at an anterior end of a tension spring whose posterior end winds tightly round the lowest short steel axle at the lower end of said steel bar, and relatively near the anterior end of said slidable steel bar there is a cursor made of steel fixed onto the surface whose arrow head points to the number on said scale indicating body weight of said occupant on said seat, and at the anterior end of said slidable steel bar is a long steel rod extended as a single piece with external threads to mate with internal threads of two hexagonal head nuts flanking a small steel plate with a circular hole in the center through which said long steel rod inserts, mounted perpendicularly to said steel plate supported said seat cushion, where moving of said long steel rod to and fro horizontally is possible by adjusting said two hexagonal head nuts and that said occupant must adjust said two head nuts to pull said arrow head cursor to point at a number on said scale corresponds to his body weight before using said automatic safety seat.