AU2008100765A4

AU2008100765A4 - A child safety seat having a tether strap with connection means

Info

Publication number: AU2008100765A4
Application number: AU2008100765A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Wieslaw Maciejczyk
Original assignee: Britax Childcare Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Britax Childcare Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2004-06-09
Filing date: 2008-08-13
Publication date: 2008-09-25
Anticipated expiration: 2013-06-09
Also published as: AU2007100856A5; AU2008100765A8; AU2008100764B4; AU2009100445B4; AU2007100856B4; AU2007100854B4; AU2008100765B4; AU2010101338B4; AU2009100837B4; AU2009100836A4; AU2009100835B4; AU2010101338A4; AU2009100445A4; AU2008100763B4; AU2007100854A5; AU2008100763A4; AU2008100764A4; AU2009100836B4; AU2009100835A4; AU2009100837A4

Description

00 AUSTRALIA 0 PATENTS ACT 1990

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COMPLETE SPECIFICATION SFOR AN INNOVATION PATENT

ORIGINAL

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Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Agent and Address Britax Childcare Pty Ltd Wieslaw Maciejczyk for Service: MADDERNS, 1 s Floor, 64 Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia Invention Title: A CHILD SAFETY SEAT HAVING A TETHER STRAP WITH CONNECTION MEANS This application is a Divisional of Parent Application No: 2007100854 dated 5 September 2007 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us.

r 00 0 2 b13 FIELD OF THE INVENTION SThe present invention relates to child safety seats.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION t¢% In current child safety seats, the child is restrained in the safety seat by a child harness, which is connected at the top and bottom to the shell of the safety seat. The seat 00 0shell itself is connected to the vehicle by means of the vehicle seat belt, for example a lap and/or sash belt. In addition, it is usual to have a tether strap connected between the shell and a vehicle anchorage point. Typically, an upper tether strap is connected to a vehicle anchorage point on a shelf behind the rear seat using a latching hook connector.

However, the shell of a child safety seat can have imperfections and weak points, which may give way in the event of a collision, thereby compromising the safety of the infant.

Furthermore, children of different sizes are not always sufficiently restrained in the safety seat.

It is an object of the present invention to reduce or eliminate some or all of the disadvantages of conventional child safety seat arrangements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention provides a child safety seat for a motor vehicle including: a seat for seating a child therein comprising a seat portion and a backrest portion; a tether strap, secured with respect to a head end of the backrest portion and adapted to be secured to an anchorage point on the motor vehicle; and a connection means carried by the tether strap securable at a first end to the anchorage point and including at an opposed second end an aperture.

Current arrangements rely on the mechanical integrity of the seat shell to secure the child with respect to the vehicle. In the event of a collision, the collision loads are applied to the seat shell. Therefore, the safety of the infant is dependent on the integrity of the seat shell.

00 O 3 (-i However, this disadvantage is alleviated with the present invention, wherein the harness is secured independently of the seat shell.

Usually, both an upper part and a lower part of the harness will be secured with respect to the vehicle. The upper part of the harness will generally be secured to a vehicle I anchorage point such as on a rear parcel shelf or on the floor behind the seat.

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The lower part of the harness may be secured with respect to the vehicle by a vehicle

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0seat belt, which can be located across the seat shell and the waist of the infant. The sash and lap portion (or just the lap portion in the case of a lap only seat belt) of a vehicle seat belt may be brought together over the waist of the child and therefore act to restrain the child and safety seat. The lower part of the harness may include one or more loops through which the vehicle seat belt locates, thereby allowing the lower part of the harness to be secured with respect to the vehicle.

The tether strap may comprise a connection means carried by the tether strap to which the harness is attached. As such the tether strap and harness may be independent of each other, but they may also include shared components. Indeed, as vehicle anchorage points often provide only one aperture or fitting to receive a latching hook connector, it may be preferable for the tether strap and harness connection to the anchorage point to include shared components.

Accordingly, in some embodiments, the tether strap may include a connecting component to connect to the vehicle anchorage, which is further provided with an aperture to receive the harness latching hook connector. The connecting component which is connected to the vehicle anchorage could then be shared by both the tether strap and harness. There are, of course, other ways in which a component may be shared.

The harness includes two shoulder straps to extend over the child's shoulders, along their chest. These shoulder straps may be provided by looping a length of strap behind the safety seat and through a pair of apertures in the backrest portion. Further, the shoulder straps preferably each include a loop towards their bottom to receive a vehicle seat belt.

00 4 O The harness is preferably adjustable to suit children of different sizes. The length of ;the harness may be adjusted, typically through an adjustable buckle, to tighten or loosen the M harness. This buckle may be covered in use by padding. The harness may also, in some embodiments, be adjusted by passing it through higher or lower apertures in the seat shell.

IThe harness preferably also includes a cross strap connecting the two shoulder straps at a point below the child's shoulders. The cross strap may be strongly fixed to one shoulder

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strap for instance by stitching but preferably is removably attached to the other shoulder 00 0 strap for instance by a loop through which the shoulder strap can be passed. This arrangement is of particular advantage where the shoulder straps are provided by looping a main harness strap behind the safety seat, through apertures therein, because it allows for simple connection of the shoulder straps after they have passed through the apertures (during either assembly or adjustment).

A crutch strap attached to the safety seat may be secured to either the child harness or the vehicle seat belt to keep the vehicle seat belt as low as possible.

The connecting component may include extension straps which are ideally adjustable in length by means of adjustable buckles. This allows adjustment of the distance between the harness and the point or points at which it is secured to the vehicle.

The connection of the harness with respect to an upper vehicle anchorage point allows the shoulder straps to be located closer to the child's shoulders than in current child safety seat arrangements. This allows the child to be more securely retained in the safety seat.

Preferably, there are one or more pairs of apertures in the backrest portion or grooves in the perimeter of the head end of the backrest portion through which the shoulder straps can be passed to retain the shoulder straps in position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An illustrative embodiment of the present invention will be discussed with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: SFIGURE 1 is a view of a harness incorporating an extension strap according to the present invention; Cc FIGURE 2 is a view of a harness for use according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIGURE 3 is a view of a child safety seat arrangement according to a preferred ICembodiment of the present invention, in operation; FIGURE 4 is a rear view of a child safety seat arrangement according to a preferred _embodiment of the present invention; 00 0FIGURE 5 is a top rear view of a child safety seat arrangement according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, attached to a vehicle anchorage point; and FIGURE 6 shows a detailed view of a mounting arrangement as used in various embodiments of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Figure 1 shows a child harness 20 consisting of two shoulder straps 21 formed from a length of strap and a cross strap 22. The shoulder straps are provided with padding 23, and the lower end of each shoulder strap 21 is provided with a loop 24 to receive a vehicle seat belt. The child harness 20 is adjustable in length by means of an adjustable buckle 25, which is covered during use within the padding 23 on one of the shoulder straps 21. There is also a latching hook connector 26 on the upper end of the child harness In Figure 2, the same harness is shown with an additional extension strap 27, which in this instance is adjustable by means of another adjustable buckle 28. The extension strap 27 has a connection buckle 35 that enables attachment of the latching hook connector 26 through an aperture in the connection buckle. A second latching hook connector 29 is attached to the other end of the extension strap 27.

Figure 3 shows a front view of child safety seat arrangement according to the present invention in operation. A child harness 20 is shown holding the child 31 in a safety seat by means of shoulder straps 21. The harness 20 is passed through a pair of apertures 32 in the backrest portion of the safety seat 30. The vehicle belt 33 comprising either the vehicle lap belt or a combination of the lap and sash belt is passed through the loops 24 at the lower ends of shoulder straps 21. The vehicle belt 33 can then optionally be connected to the seat shell by means of crutch strap 34 (shown not connected in Figure which helps keep the lap belt 33 as low as possible.

In Figures 4 and 5, there can be seen the mounting arrangements for securing the harness 20 and the safety seat 30 with respect to the vehicle. A tether strap 40 is connected to IND the backrest portion of the safety seat 30 at connection points 41 and 42, and at the other to a t"vehicle anchorage point 50 through latching hook connector 43. The length of the tether strap can be adjusted through the adjustable buckle 46, to allow the mounting arrangement to 00 0suit different vehicles.

As is also shown clearly in Figures 3 to 5, the safety seat 30 includes multiple pairs of apertures 32, 32a and 32b. The harness 20 can be looped through any of these pairs to adjust the height of the shoulder straps 21 with respect to the size of the child 31. It is preferable to have the shoulder straps located close to the child's shoulders, as this gives greater retention of the child 31 in the safety seat. Although multiple pairs of apertures are shown in this preferred embodiment, it would also be possible to have the harness passed through a single aperture in the head end of the backrest portion or around grooves in the perimeter of the backrest portion. For instance, the shoulder straps could bejoined before they are passed through a single aperture.

The harness 20 is secured with respect to the vehicle through latching hook connector 26, connection means comprising a connection strap 44, an aperture in buckle 45 and latching hook connector 43. In this instance, it will be noted that latching hook connector 43 is common to both the mounting arrangement for the harness 20, and to the mounting arrangement for the seat shell 30. However, the harness 20 is still secured to the vehicle through an arrangement that does not include the safety seat Of course, the mounting arrangements for securing the harness 20 and safety seat with respect to the vehicle can take other forms.

Figure 6 shows in more detail the mounting arrangement shown in Figures 4 and 5. A tether strap 40 is connected to a vehicle anchorage point 50 through latching hook connector 43. The harness 20 is secured with respect to the vehicle through latching hook connector 26, connection strap 44, buckle 45 and latching hook connector 43. In this instance, it will be 00 0 7 tbnoted that latching hook connector 43 is common to both the mounting arrangement for the Z harness 20, and to the mounting arrangement for the seat shell Although a number of embodiments of the present invention have been described in the foregoing detailed description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the IND embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications and trsubstitutions without departing from the scope of the invention. Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to a skilled addressee are deemed within the scope of the present 00 invention.

Claims

3. A child safety seat according to either claim I or 2 wherein the connection means includes an opening through which the tether strap passes to allow the connection means to slidably locate on the tether strap.
4. A child safety seat according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the connection means further includes at the first end a latching hook connector for securing the tether strap to the anchorage point.