NZ548571A - Harness arrangement for a child motor vehicle restraint with straps passing through single aperture in seat back portion - Google Patents

Abstract

A child safety seat 10 and shoulder harness 11 are disclosed with a slot 20 in the backrest portion of the seat 10 through which the harness 11 locates. The slot 20 allows both shoulder straps 18 to be inserted through the slot and then be located over the shoulders of an occupant. This is stated to allow permanent connections between the straps 18 which also pass through the slot 20. It is stated that this is not possible with safety seats that use pairs of apertures where each shoulder strap 18 locates through a single aperture.

Description

A 8 5 7 1 PATENTS FORM NO. 5 Fee No. 4: $250.00 PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION HARNESS ARRANGEMENT FOR A CHILD MOTOR VEHICLE RESTRAINT l/WE Britax Childcare Pty Ltd, an Australian company of 99 Derby Road, Sunshine, VIC 3020, Australia hereby declare the invention, for which I/We pray that a patent may be granted to me/us, and the method by which it is to be performed to be particularly described in and by the following statement: 1 James & Wells Ref: 127155/0 RJ 2 This invention relates to a harness arrangement for a child motor vehicle safety seat and in particular to a means of locating a harness with respect to the safety seat while at the same time securing the harness with respect to the motor vehicle.

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 toddlers.

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 15 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 20 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 25 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 harness 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 30 lower slot. 3 In some cases, the shoulder harness is 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 to be taken out of each of the slots.

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 seat in turn being secured with respect to the motor vehicle.

It is common for the shoulder harnesses 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 harness apertures within the safety seat.

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

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, two shoulder harnesses that each have a loop at one end through which the 30 vehicle seatbelt passes to secure each shoulder harness with respect to the seatbelt, and wherein each shoulder harness passes respectively over the shoulders of the restrained child and through the slot, with the ends of the shoulder harnesses being secured with respect to the vehicle behind the safety seat. | " i t jjjtuy > " j 13 SEP 2007 I RECEIVED 4 Preferably, the elongate slots comprise a number of single horizontal elongate slots in the backrest of the child safety seat although a single vertical slot in the backrest also falls within the scope of the invention.

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 shoulder harness that uses a non-releasable lateral web to connect adjacent shoulder straps.

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 shoulder harness, Figure 2 a shoulder 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 20 invention.

Figure 1 shows a prior art booster seat 10 with a shoulder harness 11 with a series of apertures 12 in the backrest 13 of the booster seat 10. The shoulder harness 11 has a tether hook 14 which is attached to a secure point on the motor vehicle. The ends 15 25 of the shoulder harness 11 comprise loops through which the motor vehicle seatbelt can locate to provide a secure attachment point for the shoulder 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 with respect to the motor vehicle.

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

In order to prevent spreading of the ends 15, lateral webbing 17 connects each of the shoulder straps 18. In order to locate the shoulder straps 18 through respective apertures 12, the lateral webbing 17 must disconnect from one of the shoulder straps 5 18 to enable the shoulder straps 18 to be withdrawn from the apertures 12 and then 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. 10 However, the shoulder harness 11 shown in Figure 2 could not be used in the booster ^ seat 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 straps 18 over the shoulder of an infant. In the case of the embodiment shown in Figure 4, the shoulder straps are spread from the single vertical slot 20 so as to locate over the shoulder of the infant. However, a narrower 20 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 25 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 shoulder harness 11 which is less prone to possible failure by comparison to shoulder harnesses 11 that have a detachable lateral webbing 17.

Claims (9)

6 THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. A child safety seat for use on a motor vehicle seat with a vehicle seatbelt comprising: 5 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, two shoulder harnesses that each have a loop at one end through which the vehicle seatbelt passes to secure each shoulder harness with respect to the seatbelt, and wherein each shoulder harness passes respectively over the shoulders of the restrained child and through the slot, with the ends of the shoulder harnesses being secured with respect to the vehicle behind the safety seat. 15

2. A child safety seat according to claim 1 wherein the slot is elongate and horizontal. i

3. A child safety seat according to claim 2 wherein two or more elongate slots are vertically spaced on the backrest.

4. A child safety seat according to claim 1 wherein the slot is a single substantially vertical elongate slot in the backrest.

5. A child safety seat according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the 25 shoulder harness 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 harness strap via an aperture in the body of the tether hook 30 through which the harness strap is threaded. j Prooeito I Office of n.z. 13 SEP 2007 LSI .§ C ElVFn

7. A child safety seat according to either claim 5 or 6 further including a length adjuster inserted within the length of strap to adjust the shoulder harnesses to properly fit the child.

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 harness.

9. A child safety seat substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 2, 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.