DE102019217378B4 - belt buckle - Google Patents

Abstract

Belt lock (1) with a belt lock head (2), the belt lock head (2) being able to be arranged on a vehicle body via a cable arrangement (3) which has at least two cable segments (4) arranged adjacent to one another, and the cable segments (4) being connected via cross braces (5) are connected to one another, characterized in that the transverse struts (5) are arranged spaced apart from one another along a connecting section (6), the connecting section (6) being a region of the cable segments (4) connected via the transverse struts (5) between the seat belt buckle head (2) and a fastening fitting (10) of the belt buckle (1) and, due to a distance (d) provided between the cross braces (5), the flexibility of the cable arrangement (3) and thus the mobility of the belt buckle head (2) normal to the connecting plane of the cable segments (4) by maintaining the flexibility of the cable segments (4) in the existing between the cross braces (5). n strut gaps (11) is retained.

Description

The invention relates to a seat belt buckle with a seat belt buckle head, the seat belt buckle head being able to be arranged on a vehicle body via a cable arrangement having at least two cable segments arranged adjacent to one another and the cable segments being connected to one another via cross braces.

As is well known, vehicle occupants of a motor vehicle are regularly secured on a vehicle seat of the motor vehicle by means of a seat belt device. The safety belt device usually has a lap belt, which in the operating state is connected to the vehicle body via two laterally opposite lower anchoring points, and a shoulder belt running diagonally across the upper body of the vehicle occupant. The anchoring point located on the inside in the transverse direction of the vehicle is generally designed to be detachable, for which purpose a tongue of a belt fitting connected to the lap belt can be inserted into a belt lock anchored to the vehicle body.

Due to the prevailing tendency in modern vehicle construction to design vehicle bodies that are constantly stiffer due to increased safety requirements in the event of accidents, ever greater vehicle deceleration and thus greater impulse loads from the vehicle occupants act on the seat belt device. In addition, the vehicle occupants are shifted further forward and this results in a pulse-like twisting of the seat belt lock, in particular the seat belt lock head and the seat belt fitting locked in the seat belt lock. This entails the risk that a lateral displacement of the seat belt occurs in the belt passage of the belt fitting and the seat belt rolls or buckles in one of the corners of the belt fitting, which can lead to a failure of the seat belt and damage to the vehicle occupants as a result.

One way of avoiding such an impulsive twisting or torsion of the seat belt buckle head and thus a lateral displacement of the belt webbing in the event of an accident is to ensure that the seat belt buckle head makes direct contact with the pelvis of the respective vehicle occupant at an early stage and is supported or stabilized there .

Seat belt buckles exist in a variety of designs. Eg reveals the DE 93 00 430 U1 a belt buckle with a belt tensioner, the belt buckle head being connected to the vehicle body via cables and the cables and part of the belt buckle head being surrounded by a jacket having predetermined breaking points. In the event of an accident, the seat belt buckle head is pulled into the jacket by the belt tensioner being triggered, which expands and thus conveys the released state of the belt tensioner.

Also the DE 299 12 660 U1 shows the connection of a seat belt buckle head via a cable to the vehicle body and to a seat belt tensioner, with the cable being surrounded by a jacket designed as a rigid, self-supporting tube. In this case, however, the casing has no predetermined breaking points, but is cut open by means of a blade when the belt tensioner is triggered and the belt buckle head is tightened with it.

through the EP 0 970 858 A2 also discloses a belt tensioner with a cylinder piston system that is connected to a belt buckle head via a cable, the cable being attached to the cylinder piston by being inserted into a blind hole and crimped.

Of the DE 10 2017 107 976 A1 shows a connection of a seat belt lock head of a seat belt lock via a rope laid to form a rope loop, the rope being connected in the area of the rope loop to the lock housing of the seat belt lock head in a twist-proof and non-displaceable manner. The connection is made via a clamping body that engages in the rope loop and has claw elements, which clamp body presses the rope loop against the lock housing and is riveted to it. Here, however, due to the cable connection, the seat belt buckle head is still designed to be rotatable relative to a vehicle occupant to be secured.

the DE 10 2017 210 465 A1 also describes a belt buckle which is connected to a belt force limiter by means of a rope laid to form a rope loop, as a result of which essentially two rope segments are formed. In order to reduce a torsional moment on the buckle head, a reduction in the loop angle is proposed, whereby this is solved in the first embodiment by offsetting the cable segments at the cable deflection by means of deflection rollers having different diameters. In a further embodiment, a load-bearing cable guide arranged within a deflection fitting can be used to reduce the loop angle. However, the disadvantage of reducing the loop angle is that the flexibility of the seat belt buckle is minimized with regard to premature application of the seat belt buckle head to the pelvis of the respective vehicle occupant.

the DE 298 00 909 U1 also describes a seat belt buckle with a seat belt buckle head connected via wire rope sections. A force limiter is attached to the wire rope sections in the longitudinal direction via straps, which is stretched when the force is exceeded.

through the EP 1 743 813 A1 Another belt buckle is known, which is connected to a vehicle body via a cable arrangement. The cable arrangement is surrounded by a sleeve-shaped holder, this holder being intended to significantly stiffen the cable arrangement and thus to obtain a cable arrangement that is as inflexible as possible. In addition, the buckle is further stiffened by encasing the cable assembly in a protective sheath, both with the aim of preventing the cable assembly from being bent at a sharp angle.

In the DE 90 13 782 U1 also discloses a tension member for use with a seat belt buckle, this in turn having a folded rope, for example for connecting a seat belt buckle to a vehicle body. In order to fix the ends of the rope and form the two wire rope sections of the rope, these are crimped via a fastening fitting. In order to connect the tension member, the fastening fitting also has a flat section with a bore.

Of the DE 10 2005 031 639 A1 a seat belt lock can also be seen in which a deflection fitting designed as part of a seat belt lock head is provided for deflecting a cable, which is used to connect the seat belt lock head to a vehicle body. In this case, the deflection fitting has cross braces for guiding the cable. This requires the ropes to be extremely stiff so that they can hold the buckle head in position. However, this results in a significant restriction of the flexibility of the seat belt buckle connection via the deflected rope.

Against this background, the invention is based on the object of designing a seat belt buckle of the type mentioned at the outset in such a way that it is essentially non-rotatable about its longitudinal axis and at the same time it is possible to place the seat belt buckle head on a vehicle occupant.

This object is achieved with a seat belt lock according to the features of patent claim 1. The subclaims relate to particularly expedient developments of the invention.

According to the invention, a seat belt lock is provided, in particular for a seat belt device of a motor vehicle, the seat belt lock having a seat belt lock head. This seat belt lock head can be arranged on a vehicle body, in particular directly or indirectly, via a cable arrangement which has at least two cable segments arranged adjacent to one another. In addition, the cable segments are connected to one another according to the invention via cross braces, in particular to increase the torsional rigidity of the seat belt buckle head connected via the cable segments.

Furthermore, according to the invention, the cross braces are spaced apart from one another along a connection section, with the connection section comprising a region of the cable segments connected via the cross braces between the seat belt buckle head and a fastening fitting of the seat belt buckle. Due to a distance provided between the cross braces, the flexibility of the cable arrangement and thus the mobility of the buckle head normal to the connecting plane of the cable segments is maintained by maintaining the flexibility of the cable segments in the spaces between the braces.

There is thus a partially flexible design of the seat belt buckle, whereby by increasing the torsional rigidity of the cable arrangement it is possible to prevent or at least largely minimize a corresponding torsion of the cable arrangement and associated sudden or impulsive twisting of the seat belt lock head about the longitudinal axis of the seat belt lock can be. Such twisting can occur, for example, due to a force acting on the seat belt head via a seat belt connected to the seat belt head, particularly in the event of an accident. At the same time, however, starting from an installation position of the seat belt buckle on a vehicle seat of a motor vehicle, to which the seat belt buckle is assigned, pivoting of the seat belt buckle head in the direction of the vehicle seat or a vehicle occupant sitting on the vehicle seat is made possible; This is done in such a way that the seat belt buckle comes into contact with and is supported on the pelvis of the vehicle occupant early on after fastening the seat belt. This in turn contributes advantageously to the fact that twisting of the belt lock head can be avoided and thus a belt webbing of the safety belt does not slip along a belt passage of the tongue of the safety belt into a corner area of the belt passage, roll up and/or flex there and thereby become loose due to a load, e.g. B. in an accident, is damaged and / or fails.

The cable segments should preferably be formed by looping and the associated deflection of a cable within the buckle head, with a clear width between the spaced cable segments changing in particular due to a deflection radius of the deflection.

In an extremely advantageous development of the invention, the cross braces are also formed along a connection section of the cable arrangement by a spirally encircling winding—in particular the cable segments—in particular a wire shaped for winding. The connection section of the cable arrangement essentially comprises a region of the cable segments connected via the cross braces between the seat belt lock head and in particular a fastening fitting of the seat belt lock. The design of the cross braces as a spiral winding, which runs around the cable arrangement and in particular the cable segments, offers the advantage that the flexibility of the cable arrangement and thus the mobility of the buckle head normal to a connection plane, which spans the cable segments, is maintained. It is not part of the invention if the winding is constructed using turns that rest against one another and are therefore not spaced apart from one another, for example individual wire sections. The individual turns of the winding, on the other hand, are spaced apart from one another or designed with a pitch that exceeds the diameter of the turns, which means that, among other things, the flexural rigidity of the cable arrangement normal to the connection plane of the cable segments can be influenced. Due to the spacing of the cross braces from one another, in particular in the case of a substantially non-flexible configuration of the cross braces, e.g. B. as plates, the flexibility of the rope arrangement and thus the mobility of the buckle head perpendicular to the connection plane obtained according to the invention by largely maintaining the flexibility of the cable segments in the spaces between the struts existing between the cross braces.

It is also found to be extremely favorable if the width of the cross braces—seen in the direction transverse to the connection section—is adapted to a clear width of the cable arrangement that changes along the connection section. Due to a deflection of a cable forming the cable segments within the belt buckle head, a spacing of the cable arrangement or the cable segments can form, in particular tapering in the direction of a fastening fitting of the belt buckle, as a result of which the clear width of the cable arrangement along the connection section is reduced in the direction of the fastening fitting or in the direction of the buckle head increased. By adjusting the width of the cross braces to the changing clear width, additional transverse loads on the cable arrangement can be avoided, which z. B. could occur while maintaining the width of the cross braces along the connection section by the even spacing of the cable segments.

An embodiment of the invention is also particularly advantageous if the cross braces are positively and/or non-positively connected to the cable segments, with the cross braces also being crimped to the cable segments in an extremely practical embodiment. This makes it possible to profitably avoid material-to-material connections, such as soldering or welding the cable arrangement made of steel or the cable segments to the cross braces, in which case the probability of failure would be increased due to the heat input and associated changes in the strength of the cable arrangement or the cable segments.

An embodiment of the invention is also advantageously characterized in that one of the - both - end-side strut sections of the respective cross brace at least partially encloses one of the adjacent cable segments in its circumferential direction, whereby in a cost-effective design the cross braces are positively or non-positively connected by crimping connect the rope segments. The cross braces could z. B. be designed in an advantageously simple production initially as flat pieces of sheet metal, the end strut sections are bent by a crimping substantially completely or preferably partially around the cable segments.

It is also favorable if the cross braces have a length--viewed in the direction along the connection section--in a range from one millimeter to two millimeters, preferably 1.5 millimeters.

A further extremely advantageous development of the invention is also based on the fact that opposite edges of adjacent cross braces along the connection section have a distance in a range of one millimeter to two millimeters and thus there is a space between the braces in this area.

Just the combination of the width of the cross braces and their distance of one millimeter meters to two millimeters offers a quasi-optimal design of the belt buckle with regard to the torsional rigidity of the cable arrangement around the longitudinal axis of the belt buckle and the flexibility of the belt buckle head with regard to pivoting normal to the connecting plane of the cable segments.

It is also to be regarded as particularly promising if at least the connection section of the cable arrangement which has the cross braces is surrounded by a jacket. In particular, this minimizes the risk of injury for vehicle occupants and ensures that the seat belt buckle has a visually appealing design. In addition, the torsional rigidity can be additionally increased via the sheath while maintaining the flexibility of the cable arrangement.

In a moreover advantageous embodiment of the invention, the seat belt buckle also has a fastening fitting arranged opposite the seat belt buckle head and crimped at the end with the cable arrangement in a fastening section--in particular for the bottom connection to the vehicle body. Thus, for the non-positive and/or positive connection of the cable arrangement and here the cable segments with the fastening fitting and thus the connection to the vehicle body, materially bonded connections, which due to the connection process cause heat input into the cable arrangement or the cable segments, can advantageously be avoided.

• 1a, 1b eine Weiterbildung des erfindungsgemäßen Gurtschlosses sowie einen Schnitt durch eine Querverstrebung;
• 2 eine Weiterbildung des erfindungsgemäßen Gurtschlosses 1 in einer ausgelenkten Stellung.

The invention permits numerous embodiments. To further clarify its basic principle, one of them is shown in the drawing and is described below. This shows in

• 1a , 1b a development of the buckle according to the invention and a section through a cross brace;
• 2 a development of the buckle 1 according to the invention in a deflected position.

the 1a shows a development of the belt buckle 1 according to the invention, while in 1b a section through one of the cross braces 5 and the cable segments 4 connected to it is shown. In addition to this cross brace 5, the belt buckle 1 also has further cross braces 5 spaced apart from one another along the connection section 6, which also connect the two cable segments 4 arranged adjacent to one another to one another. The connection of the two cable segments 4 increases the torsional rigidity of the cable arrangement 3 and thereby minimizes possible twisting V of the connected belt buckle head 2 about the longitudinal axis L of the belt buckle 1. Furthermore, the cable segments 4 are part of the cable arrangement 3, with the cable segments 4 for connecting the belt buckle head 2 are formed on the fastening fitting 10 by laying a loop inside the buckle head 2 from a rope. The fastening fitting 10 is arranged opposite the belt lock head 2 in the fastening section 9 and is crimped at the end to the cable arrangement 3 and thus to both cable segments 4 . The cross braces 5 themselves are also connected to the cable segments 4 in a positive and/or non-positive manner by means of crimping. Here is the section AA in 1b it can be seen that one of the end strut sections 7 of the respective cross brace 5 partially encloses one of the adjacent cable segments 4 in its circumferential direction. The width b of the cross braces 5 is in turn adapted to the clear width w of the cable arrangement 3 that changes along the connection section 6, the cross braces 5 generally having a length I in a range from one millimeter to two millimeters and preferably 1.5 millimeters exhibit. The distance d between the cross braces 5 and here in particular the distance d of the opposing edges 8 of adjacent cross braces 5 along the connection section 6 is also in a range from one millimeter to two millimeters.

In the 2 the further development of the belt lock 1 according to the invention is also shown in a deflected position. As already mentioned, the cross braces 5 minimize the possible torsion V of the belt lock head 2 about the longitudinal axis L of the belt lock 1 by increasing the torsional rigidity of the cable arrangement 3. On the other hand, due to the distance d provided between the cross braces 5, the flexibility of the cable arrangement 3 and thus mobility remain of the buckle head 2 normal to the connection plane of the cable segments 4 by largely maintaining the flexibility of the cable segments 4 in the spaces 11 between the struts. As a result, the seat belt buckle head 2 can be moved or pivoted in an installed position of the seat belt buckle 1 in a motor vehicle in direction R of the vehicle seat assigned to the seat belt buckle 1 and thus in particular around the iliac crest of a vehicle occupant sitting on the vehicle seat and thereby rest against the vehicle occupant.

Reference List

1

belt buckle

2

buckle head

3

rope arrangement

4

rope segment

5

cross bracing

6

connection section

7

strut section

8th

edge

9

attachment section

10

mounting bracket

11

strut clearance

b

Broad

i.e

Distance

I

length

L

longitudinal axis

R

Direction

V

twist

w

clear expanse

Claims (10)

Belt lock (1) with a belt lock head (2), the belt lock head (2) being able to be arranged on a vehicle body via a cable arrangement (3) which has at least two cable segments (4) arranged adjacent to one another, and the cable segments (4) being connected via cross braces (5) are connected to one another, characterized in that the transverse struts (5) are arranged spaced apart from one another along a connection section (6), the connection section (6) in this case being a region of the cable segments (4) connected via the transverse struts (5) between the seat belt buckle head (2) and a fastening fitting (10) of the belt buckle (1) and, due to a distance (d) provided between the cross braces (5), the flexibility of the cable arrangement (3) and thus the mobility of the belt buckle head (2) normal to the connecting plane of the cable segments (4) by maintaining the flexibility of the cable segments (4) in between the cross braces (5). en strut gaps (11) is retained. Belt buckle (1) after claim 1 , characterized in that the transverse struts (5) along a connection section (6) of the cable arrangement (3) are formed by a helically encircling winding. Belt buckle (1) according to claims 1 or 2 , characterized in that the width (b) of the cross braces (5) is adapted to a clear width (w) of the cable arrangement (3) that changes along the connection section (6). Belt buckle (1) according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cross braces (5) are connected to the cable segments (4) in a positive and/or non-positive manner. Belt lock (1) according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that cross braces (5) are crimped to the cable segments (4). Belt buckle (1) according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that one of the end strut sections (7) of the respective cross brace (5) at least partially encloses one of the adjacent cable segments (4) in its circumferential direction. Belt buckle (1) according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cross braces (5) have a length (I) in a range from one millimeter to two millimeters viewed in the direction along the connection section (6). Belt buckle (1) according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that opposite edges (8) of adjacent cross braces (5) along the connection section (6) have a distance (d) in a range from one millimeter to two millimeters. Belt buckle (1) according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least the connection section (6) of the cable arrangement (3) having the cross braces (5) is surrounded by a casing. Belt lock (1) according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the belt lock (1) has in a fastening section (9) a fastening fitting (10) which is arranged opposite the belt lock head (2) and is crimped at the end to the cable arrangement (3).

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