AU2006203011B2

AU2006203011B2 - Harness arrangement for a child motor vehicle restraint

Info

Publication number: AU2006203011B2
Application number: AU2006203011A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Mike Lumley; Wieslaw Maciejczyk
Original assignee: Britax Childcare Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Britax Childcare Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2005-07-14
Filing date: 2006-07-14
Publication date: 2007-11-01
Anticipated expiration: 2026-07-14
Also published as: AU2006203011A1

Description

Regulation 3.2

CAUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

IN

Name of Applicant: Britax Childcare Pty Ltd Actual Inventors: Wieslaw Maciejczyk Mike Lumley Address for Service: MADDERNS, 1st Floor, 64 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Invention title: HARNESS ARRANGEMENT FOR A CHILD MOTOR VEHICLE RESTRAINT Details of Associated Provisional Application No: 2005903728 dated 14 July 2005 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us.

PatAU131 This invention relates to a harness arrangement for a child motor vehicle safety seat 0 and in particular to a means of locating a harness with respect to the safety seat while S at the same time securing the harness with respect to the motor vehicle.

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Child safety seats generally use some form of harness within the seat to secure the infant. This is the case for safety seats that are used with very young infants, from birth to six months and also safety seats such as forward facing safety seats for older

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toddlers.

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0 Such harnesses often are secured with respect to the shell of the safety restraint.

Adjustment means are provided to enable the harness to be tightly secured around the infant or child.

In respect of forward facing booster seats, a shoulder harness arrangement is generally used. In this case, the harness extends from apertures within the backrest of the safety seat to be positioned over the shoulders of a child. The harness can be secured either with respect to the safety seat or to a portion of the seatbelt of the motor vehicle which is positioned across the lap of the child. In such cases, the shoulder harnesses can terminate in loops through which the vehicle's seatbelt is ,0 placed.

It is also known to include a number of apertures in the backrest of a child safety seat at different height levels to accommodate children of different sizes or to allow higher positioning of the shoulder harnesses as the child grows. It is typical for three or four pairs of apertures to be provided at different heights on the backrest.

In the case of a harness which is secured with respect to the shell of the safety seat, then a pair of free ends of the shoulder straps must be provided to allow them to be pulled out of each slot of the back of the safety seat and inserted into a higher or lower slot.

In some cases, the shoulder straps are connected by a piece of lateral webbing which needs to be capable of detachment to free the ends of each shoulder strap to allow them S to be taken out of each of the slots.

0 5 There is an increasing need for the infant harness to be securable, not with respect to the restraint, but with respect to the motor vehicle and to also connect to the motor vehicle seatbelts to ensure that the infant is restrained more directly with the motor vehicle rather than indirectly through a harness that is secured to a safety seat with the safety S seat in turn being secured with respect to the motor vehicle.

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S It is common for the shoulder straps to be tethered with respect to one another by a lateral piece of webbing adjacent the point of connection to the vehicle's seatbelt.

However, it is also then important that this lateral webbing be separable to allow it to insert through the shoulder strap apertures within the safety seat.

Clearly, the additional complexity in providing releasable lateral webbing complicates the construction of the harness and also introduces a point of weakness or possible failure that may jeopardise the safety of the child.

.0 Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide a means of overcoming that problem.

In one aspect of the invention therefore, a child safety seat for use on a motor vehicle seat with a vehicle seatbelt comprising: a safety seat having a seat and backrest portion positioned on a motor vehicle seat so that a vehicle seatbelt extends across the waist portion of a child seated in the safety seat, at least one slot in the backrest portion, a pair of shoulder straps that each have a loop at one end through which the vehicle seatbelt passes to secure each shoulder strap with respect to the seatbelt, and wherein each shoulder strap passes respectively over the shoulders of the restrained child and through the slot, with the ends of the shoulder straps being secured with respect to the vehicle behind the safety seat.

Preferably, the elongate slots comprise a number of single horizontal elongate slots in 0 the backrest of the child safety seat although a single vertical slot in the backrest also S falls within the scope of the invention.

00 By providing the elongate slot, it is unnecessary to disconnect the lateral webbing from the two shoulder straps as would be the case with a pair of slots. This then enables the use of the preferred form of harness that uses a non-releasable lateral

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web to connect adjacent shoulder straps.

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.0 In order for the invention to be fully understood, a preferred embodiment will now be described however, it will be realised that the invention is not to be limited or restricted to the features of the preferred embodiment.

The description is accompanied by drawings which show in: Figure 1 a perspective view of a prior art safety seat and harness, Figure 2 a harness for use with the invention, Figure 3 a part view of a safety seat showing a first embodiment of the invention, and Figure 4 a part view of a safety seat showing a second embodiment of the !0 invention.

Figure 1 shows a prior art booster seat 10 with a harness 11 with a series of apertures 12 in the backrest 13 of the booster seat 10. The harness 11 has a tether hook 14 which is attached to a secure point on the motor vehicle. The ends 15 of the shoulder straps 18 comprise loops through which the motor vehicle seatbelt can locate to provide a secure attachment point for the harness 11. The motor vehicle seatbelt is positioned across the lap of the infant within the booster seat 10, and this connection effectively secures the harness 11 with respect to the motor vehicle.

The harness 11 has an adjuster 16 that is used to adjust the length of the shoulder straps 18 to suit infants of different size.

In order to prevent spreading of the ends 15, lateral webbing 17 connects each of the

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0 shoulder straps 18. In order to locate the shoulder straps 18 through respective

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S apertures 12, the lateral webbing 17 must disconnect from one of the shoulder straps C 18 to enable the shoulder straps 18 to be withdrawn from the apertures 12 and then 00

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relocated within higher or lower apertures 12.

This is generally not considered as safe as the type of shoulder harness as shown in Figure 2 where the lateral webbing 17 is permanently fixed to the shoulder straps 18.

However, the harness 11 shown in Figure 2 could not be used in the booster seat .0 shown in Figure 1.

Accordingly, the invention comprises elongate slots 20 as shown in Figures 3 and 4.

In respect of the embodiment shown in Figure 3, the horizontal slots are preferably sufficiently wide enough to enable spreading of the shoulder straps 18 to allow placement of the shoulder straps 18 over the shoulder of an infant. In the case of the embodiment shown in Figure 4, the shoulder straps 18 are spread from the single vertical slot 20 so as to locate over the shoulder of the infant. However, a narrower horizontal slot 20 is also included within the scope of the invention provided the slot 20 is large enough to allow the shoulder straps 18 and lateral webbing 17 to pass through.

In both cases, it is not necessary for the lateral webbing 17 to be disconnected from the ends of the shoulder straps 18 to enable it to be located through the aperture in either of the embodiments shown in Figures 3 and 4 or to be withdrawn and repositioned in respect to the embodiment shown in Figure 3.

Accordingly, the invention enables the use of a safer and stronger harness 11 which is less prone to possible failure by comparison to harnesses 11 that have a detachable lateral webbing 17.

Claims

2. A child safety seat according to claim 1 wherein the slot is elongate and horizontal.
3. A child safety seat according to claim 2 wherein two or more elongate slots are vertically spaced on the backrest. )0
4. A child safety seat according to claim I wherein the slot is a single substantially vertical elongate slot in the backrest. A child safety seat according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the shoulder straps comprises a single length of strap with the loops formed in each end of the strap.
6. A child safety seat according to claim 5 further comprising a tether hook slidably secured to the strap via an aperture in the body of the tether hook through which the strap is threaded. 7
7. A child safety seat according to either claim 5 or 6 further including a length adjuster inserted within the strap to adjust the shoulder harnesses to properly fit the S child. 00 oo
8. A child safety seat according to any one of the preceding claims further comprising a lateral webbing connected at either end to a respective shoulder strap.
9. A child safety seat substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 1, 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.