GB2478751A

GB2478751A - Motor vehicle safety belt mounting arrangement

Info

Publication number: GB2478751A
Application number: GB201004374A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Simon Rawlings
Original assignee: Ford Global Technologies LLC
Current assignee: Ford Global Technologies LLC
Priority date: 2010-03-17
Filing date: 2010-03-17
Publication date: 2011-09-21
Also published as: GB201004374D0

Abstract

The mounting arrangement comprises an upper safety belt mounting 17 fastened directly to a bulkhead 5 separating an occupant section from a cargo section. The bulkhead 5 is locally reinforced by a reinforcing structure 10 having vertical supports 11, 12, e.g. channel members, and transverse supports 13, e.g. twin channel members, to take the loads required for safely securing a safety belt. The mounting 17 is bolted to a nut retained between the transverse channel members 13.

Description

A Motor Vehicle This invention relates to motor vehicles and in particular to a motor vehicle having seating for three occupants and to a safety belt fixing arrangement for a centre seated occupant of such a vehicle.

It is well known, as shown in Fig.6, to provide a three point static safety belt for an occupant of a vehicle having an upper strap 101 portion fastened to a structural part of a motor vehicle such as a B-post by means of an upper safety belt mounting 102, and a lower strap portion 103 fastened to a structural part of the motor vehicle such as a floor by an outer lower safety belt mounting 104. It will be appreciated in the case of an inertia reel or none static arrangement the upper safety belt mounting is normally formed by a D-loop (See, for example US Patent 4,642,853).

The upper and lower strap portions 101 and 103 are releasably attachable to a lower attachment strap 106 by a buckle 105. The lower attachment strap being secured to the floor of the motor vehicle by an inner lower safety belt mounting 107. Although this type of safety belt arrangement works well when only two occupants need to be seated in a side by side relationship it is not useable when three occupants have to be seated in a side by side relationship because the is then no suitable mounting for the upper safety belt mounting for the centre seated passenger.

To overcome the problem of there being no suitable mounting point for a centre mounted occupant it is known to include one or more upper safety belt mounting points as part of the frame structure of a seat for a centre seated occupant. However, such an arrangement will result in a seat structure that is expensive to manufacture and -2-relatively heavy because of the need to resist the relatively high safety belt forces.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved safety belt fixing arrangement for a centre seated occupant of a motor vehicle.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a motor vehicle having a bulkhead for separating a cargo carrying compartment of the motor vehicle from a occupant carrying compartment of the motor vehicle wherein the bulkhead is locally reinforced to provide an attachment location for an upper safety belt mounting for at least one of the occupants of the motor vehicle.

The motor vehicle may be arranged to carry three occupants in side by side relationship and the safety belt mounting is for a centre mounted occupant.

The bulkhead may be locally reinforced by a reinforcing structure comprising of two vertical supports and a transverse support fastened at each end to the two vertical supports.

The two vertical supports may be fastened to the bulkhead and the transverse support may be fastened to the bulkhead.

Each of the vertical supports may be substantially top hat shaped in cross-section.

The transverse support may comprise of two U-shaped channel members joined together by a common central flange. -3-

The upper safety belt mounting may comprise a D-loop attached to the bulkhead by a threaded fastener.

The threaded fastener may be a bolt for engagement with a female threaded fastener located on the cargo compartment side of the bulkhead.

The female threaded fastener on the cargo compartment side of the bulkhead may be a nut held captive by the transverse support.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing of which:-Fig.1 is a left hand side view of a motor vehicle in the form of a van showing cargo and passenger carrying compartments separated by a bulkhead; Fig.2 is a view on the line x-x showing the bulkhead and a reinforcing structure for the bulkhead; Fig.3 is a cross-section through a vertical member forming part of the reThforcing structure shown in Fig.2; Fig.4 is a cross-section through a transverse member forming part of the reinforcing structure shown in Fig.2; Fig.5 is a pictorial representation of the bulkhead and reinforcing structure; Fig.6 is a pictorial representation of an occupant utilizing a three point safety belt; and -4-Fig.7 is a cross-section through an upper safety belt mounting according to the invention.

With reference to Figs. 1 to 6 there is shown a motor vehicle 1 in the form of a van having a roof structure 6 and a floor structure 7 which form part of a body structure of the vehicle 1.

A bulkhead 5 is secured to the roof 6, floor 7 and two side walls 8, 9 of the body structure in order to separate a passenger carrying compartment or crew cabin 2 from a cargo carrying compartment 4. At least one seat 3 is mounted in the crew cabin 2 to accommodate three occupants such as a driver and two passengers (not shown) in a side by side seated arrangement. In some arrangements all three occupants are seated on a single bench seat and in other arrangements separate seating is provided for the occupants or in yet a further arrangement the driver is provided with an individual seat and the two passengers share a single bench seat.

The bulkhead 5 is provided on the cargo compartment side with a reinforcing structure 10 that is attached to the bulkhead by one or more of spot welding, threaded fasteners, riveting and adhesive bonding. The reinforcing structure 10 is provided to assist with the attachment of an upper mounting bracket such as a D'-ring to the motor vehicle 1.

As shown in Figs. 2 to 5 the reinforcing structure 10 includes two vertical supports 11, 12 and a transverse support 13.

Each of the vertical supports 11,12 is identical and, as shown in Fig.3 is top hat shaped in cross-section having a U-shaped channel portion hA and two flanges 11B, 11C that -5-extend along the length of the vertical support 11. The thickness of the material shown for the vertical support 11 in Fig.3 is exaggerated for illustration purposes and in practice the vertical supports 11, 12 are made from relatively thin material such, for example 1.25 mm thick mild steel.

The vertical supports 11, 12 are in this case secured to the bulkhead 5 by spot welding the two flanges 11B, 11C in a plurality of spaced apart locations along their length to the cargo compartment side of the bulkhead 5.

The transverse support 13 in cross-section comprises of two U-shaped channels members 13D, 13E joined by a common central flange 13C. Each of the U-shaped channel members 13D, 13E has an outer flange 13A, 13B respectively running along its length. At opposite ends of the transverse support 13 there are end flanges 13F, 13G. The thickness of the material shown for the transverse support 13 in Fig.4 is exaggerated for illustration purposes and in practice the transverse support 13 is made from relatively thin material such as for example 1.25 mm thick mild steel.

The transverse support 13 is in this case secured to the bulkhead 5 by spot welthng the outer flanges 13A, 13B and the central flange 13C at a plurality of spaced apart locations along the length of the transverse support 13 to the cargo compartment side of the bulkhead 5. The transverse support 13 is fastened at each end by means of the end flanges 13F, 13G respectively to the two vertical supports 11, 12 by spot welding at a number of locations.

The vertical and transverse supports 11, 12 and 13 respectively form a rigid structure that is able to absorb the loads imposed by the attachment of an upper seat belt -6-mounting for a centre seated occupant to the bulkhead 5 via the reinforcing structure 10. The transverse support 13 forms by its localized reinforcement of the bulkhead 5 an attachment location for the upper safety belt mounting which is attached to the motor vehicle 1 by means of a male threaded fastener such as a bolt 16 that threadingly engages with a captive threaded fastener or nut 15 fitted into a channel 18 formed between the two U-shaped channel members 13D and 13E.

Fig.7 shows the upper safety belt mounting in greater detail, the securing bolt 16 is threadingly engaged with the nut 15 held captive in the channel 18. The bolt 16 is used to secure the upper safety belt fixing in the form of a D' loop 17 to the bulkhead 5 and the transverse support 13 provides the necessary reinforcement. It will be appreciated that in the case of a static safety belt the safety belt is secured to the D-loop and that in the case of an inertia reel type safety belt system the upper belt feeds through the D-loop.

By using such a local reinforcing of the bulkhead 5 to enable the upper safety belt mounting for a centre seated occupant to be directly fastened to part of the vehicle structure the seat frame for the occupants does not have to be constructed to resist safety belt forces and can therefore be made lighter and in a more economic manner.

It will be appreciated that the upper seat belt mountings for the outer passengers can be fastened to the B-posts of the motor vehicle 1 in the normal way or could be fastened to the bulkhead if similar reinforcing means are used. -7-

Although the invention has been described by way of example with reference to the use of the invention on a van it is not limited to such use and could be applied to other vehicles having a bulkhead behind a row of seats such as for example a crew cab of a pick up truck or a commercial vehicle tractor cab.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although the invention has been described by way of example with reference to one or more embodiments it is not limited to the disclosed embodiments and that one or more modifications to the disclosed embodiments or alternative embodiments could be constructed without departing from the scope of the invention as set out in the appended claims. -8-

Claims

Claims 1. A motor vehicle having a bulkhead for separating a cargo carrying compartment of the motor vehicle from a occupant carrying compartment of the motor vehicle wherein the bulkhead is locally reinforced to provide an attachment location for an upper safety belt mounting for at least one of the occupants of the motor vehicle.
2. A motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 wherein the motor vehicle is arranged to carry three occupants in side by side relationship and the safety belt mounting is for a centre mounted occupant.
3. A motor vehicle as claimed in claim 1 or in claim 2 wherein the bulkhead is locally reinforced by a reinforcing structure comprised of two vertical supports and a transverse support fastened at each end to the two vertical supports.
4. A motor vehicle as claimed in claim 3 wherein the two vertical supports and the transverse support are fastened to the bulkhead.
5. A motor vehicle as claimed in claim 3 or in claim 4 wherein each of the vertical supports is substantially top hat shaped in cross-section.
6. A motor vehicle as claimed in any of claims 3 to 5 wherein the transverse support comprises of two U-shaped channel members joined together by a common central flange. -9-
7. A motor vehicle as claimed in any of claims 1 to 6 wherein the upper safety belt mounting comprises a D-loop attached to the bulkhead by a male threaded fastener.
8. A motor vehicle as claimed in claim 7 wherein the male threaded fastener is a bolt for engagement with a female threaded fastener located on the cargo compartment side of the bulkhead.
9. A motor vehicle as claimed in claim 8 wherein the female threaded fastener is a nut held captive by the transverse support.
10. A motor vehicle substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawing.