Automatic safety car seats and sheet-type safety-belt

• US 5,810,417 A
• Filed: 09/28/1995
• Issued: 09/22/1998
• 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:
  US08/535,868
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• Field of Search: 296/65.1, 296/68.1, 297/468, 297/469, 297/470, 297/216.13
• 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 seats in a vehicle are designed to minimize the seriousness of car-crash injuries during a frontal collision. When the vehicle collides against the other vehicle or any other stationary objects at a relative velocity of 40 Km/h or up, the backrest is pushed to recline backward by the action of the springs together with various mechanisms especially designed. Spring of either torsion type or tension type is used. The collision results in pulling the upper part of the body of the driver or the occupants fastened by the designed safety-belts to recline backwards. Thus, the pelvis, the chest and the head of an occupant sitting on this automatic safety car seat are moved away to the farmost and thus, can avoid striking with the deforming frontal parts of the car intruding by the frontal collision. The chest injuries and the brain damage can then be effectively avoided. The automatic safety seats in the vehicle are designed slightly different for either the front seat passengers or the rearseat passengers where modification is necessary for the rearseat. The seat-belts are specially designed to help dissipating the impact energy of the collision to minimize harm to the upper part of occupant'"'"'s body fastened.

Claims

1. An automatic safety seat for an occupant in a front compartment of a vehicle whose seat cushion remains stationary while its backrest can recline suddenly backward to the rearmost, by mechanical action of torsion springs, only 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 only when a frontal collision occurs and only 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, an upper one at chest level and a lower one at pelvis level of said occupant;

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

a seat cushion placed relatively stationary at all time 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 seat-belts of strap-type, 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 the 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;

an additional lowest short steel axle protruding out on each said bar flanking on each side of said backrest on the outer surface opposite to said backrest at a level relatively lower than said lower seat-belt tensioner set or said lower steel axle to be engaged with a hook, and a circular hole all the way through the thickness of said bar at a level relatively lower than said lowest short axle;

a cylindrical shaft protruding perpendicularly and integrally out laterally on the surface of each said thick plate, wherein each said cylindrical shaft can pivotally fit to said circular hole at the lower end of said bar, with the part of each said cylindrical shaft protruding out over said circular hole long enough to insert through the whole thickness of a torsion spring set with a length of at least one centimeter left, while an upper straight arm of said torsion spring set mounted tightly to each said bar with two clamps and a lower straight arm having a long loop end;

to the anterior of said shaft, there are two short steel axles mounted relatively at different oblique levels on said thick plate, an upper one located farther and a lower one located closer to said shaft;

a tension spring with one end winds round said upper short axle on said thick plate, while the other end of said tension spring is fixed to the middle of said hook whose upper curving hook end engaged to said lowest short axle on said bar with its tip points down in such a manner that there is enough tension force within said tension spring to lift said hook up and away when said curving hook end is disengaged from said steel axle where lower end of said hook winds pivotally round said lower short axle on said thick steel plate;

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

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

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

a rail of C-shaped cross-section of said force-adjusting spring set with its back mounted onto each said thick plate having a bar slidable and horizontally fitted along said rail where at the posterior end of said slidable bar there is a circular loop fixed laterally to be engaged to said long loop of lower arm of said torsion spring set, and relatively near the anterior end on the surface of said slidable bar there is a cursor made of whose arrow head points to a number on said scale indicating body weight of said occupant on said seat, and at the anterior end of said slidable bar there is a long rod extending as a single piece with its external threads to mate with internal threads of two hexagonal head nuts flanking a small plate mounted perpendicularly to said thick plate with a circular hole in the center through which said long rod inserts, where moving of said long 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.

2. An automatic safety seat for an occupant in a front compartment of a vehicle whose seat cushion remains stationary while its backrest can recline suddenly backward to the rearmost, by mechanical action of torsion springs, only upon a frontal collision of said vehicle of claim 11, whereof components are added for appropriate use of said safety seat in the rear compartment of said vehicle as follows:

a steel rod added to rear surface of each said steel bar flanking said backrest at a relatively upper position to support the front edge of a plate positioned horizontally under a rear glass window of said vehicle, where said plate under the rear glass window is segmented to be used for each of said safety seat having its front edge supported by said rods and its rear end is fixed to a straight arm of a torsion spring by two clamps while another straight arm of said torsing spring is fixed to a plate separating the rear passenger compartment and the luggage compartment of said vehicle in a manner that there is relatively sufficient torsion force within said torsion spring to press said former plate tightly onto both rods each of each said bar; and

where moving away of both said rods from supporting under said plate under the rear glass window in an event of frontal collision by the pivoting movement of said both bars flanking said backrest pulled by said occupant thrusting forwards, causes said plate to move down pivotally by the torsion force within said torsion spring to allow enough room for said backrest together with its fastened occupant to recline backward to the rearmost.