WO1997028996A1

WO1997028996A1 - Automatically releasable buckle for seat belts

Info

Publication number: WO1997028996A1
Application number: PCT/IT1997/000025
Authority: WO
Inventors: Claudia Raffaela Marziale
Original assignee: Claudia Raffaela Marziale
Priority date: 1996-02-12
Filing date: 1997-02-03
Publication date: 1997-08-14
Also published as: AU1617797A; ITFR960002A1; IT1288544B1; ITFR960002A0

Abstract

In order to make any type of seat belt safe as to its unfastening after an accident, the mechanical safety device of this invention comprises a coupling device for the seat belt which is released automatically a predetermined period of time after a tension force has been applied thereon. The uncoupling of the seat belt is due to the reciprocating motion of a release trigger (15) in the longitudinal direction combined with a rotation around its own axis, the return motion being delayed using an hydraulic shock absorber.

Description

TITLE AUTOMATICALLY RELEASABLE BUCKLE FOR SEAT BELTS

DISCLOSURE

Technical field

The field of locomotion, to which the technological innovation which is the object of this patent application belongs, already at the present time has reached an evolutionary development of the utmost importance both as to speed and to the optimal exploitation of all means at disposal of users. As already mentioned, the technological position attained is very positive as far as the requirements of modern society life are concerned, but together with such development, it is also necessary to increasingly face the dangers that unavoidably stem from such development both for users and for people employed in the services as relative, such dangers being determined by the traffic accidents of the ever increasing vehicular traffic. The most severe damages in case of car accidents are those which are determined by the violent shock when the vehicles collide with each other or when the vehicles go off the correct way against incidental obstacles or into a precipice where the accident occurs.

Background art

The only safety equipment provided by the present state of the art in order to avoid shocks and jerks within the passenger compartment for people on board when an accident occurs is represented by the protection devices acting as motion-checking means and applied to each seat of the vehicle, that are endowed with hand-operated opening and fastening means. Such devices are applied rigidly and are fixed to the front part of the seats, and when they are employed each person is constrained in a locked position on the seat , while an ordinary buckle that can be unfastened mechanically is supplied for unfasten the seat belt, such buckle being operable just and exclusively by means of a hand-operated push button. Among all motion-checking devices for protection on board, such as straps, slings, waist-coats, small supplementary seats etc., the seat belts represent the most widely employed device, because they allow an easy application as well as a simple practical use on the part of the passenger. In spite of the large usefulness of seat belts which are so widely employed, they give rise, due to the fact that they lack a safety automatic release in case of emergency, to dangerous situations when the user, after the accident, does not succeed in his/her attempts to unfasten the belt in order to leave the vehicle that has undergone the accident. Such severely dangerous situations for the user of the seat belt occur when, after the accident, due to limb and/or hand damages, breaking etc., or due to the impossibility to reach the unfastening point, or to entanglement of the belt itself with limbs or the neck, the user of the vehicle becomes trapped in the same and, if the vehicle is on fire or has sinked into a river or a canal, he/she cannot escape death. Moreover, it cannot be excluded that for some users who are particularly emotional, the lack of possibility of automatic unfastening of the seat belt in case of accident can determine an anxious state while driving and, as a consequence, a driving that is dangerous both to themselves and to others, or, just because of the same reason, the inobservance of the obligation to use seat belts. Finally, the negative aspect for insurance companies is not to be underestimated, as they have to pay in case of accident much higher sums for compensation of damages to users, because of the exorbitant sums of money to be paid in case of lost human lives trapped on board of a vehicle.

Disclosure of the invention

In order to make any type of seat belt reliable, so as to avoid any severely dangerous condition in case of accident, the present "mechanical automatic timed-opening life-safety device" has been made available to technology and users, for securing the release of the victim of an accident on board of the vehicle that has undergone an accident, after the vehicle has stopped, when the user cannot unfasten the seat belt by him/herself. Such life-safety device, whose operation is based on the mechanical dynamometric autonomous independent principle, is applied to the stretching strap of any belt and, in addition to allowing the ordinary service release for unfastening the belt just like an usual buckle operated by hand through a push button, also allows in all cases and with absolute certainty the proper automatic opening to occur, so that the belt becomes unfastened after the accident, in a few seconds, because the device is directly supplied witht the recovery of the kinetic energy produced by the thrust of the user's body mass when the user is constrained by the seat belt during the accident.

Brief description of the drawings

In order to illustrate an example of the mechanical life-safety device for seat belts as disclosed above, the table of drawings Z/Z is suitably enclosed with the disclosure, said table including the figures Z - 3 which are disclosed by means of the following terms:

(Z) tie; (2) piston; (3) spring; (4) interception member; (5) spring; (6) unloading member; (7) hook; (8) push button; (9) closure; (Z0) spring; (ZZ) reservoir; (Z2) chamber; (Z3) lower connection point; (Z4) upper connection point; (Z5) release trigger. It is considered suitable to set forth more precisely that the materials and sizes of the finding as disclosed above and illustrated in the enclosed drawings, that is claimed in the following, can be chosen according to any particular need at hand.

Industrial applicability

The immediate re-employment of the mechanical life-safety device as above, without any substitution of parts after each accident and the easy and very simple reactivation of the device itself for its successive use determine the favourable economic aspect of its practical use. The very indispensable employment of such device will certainly determine the new generation of seat belts and of any other kind of motion-checking protection device to be used on board of vehicles. Taking into account the wide possible national and international market for the new product, very high returns can be envisaged for industry and very good new opportunities for workers can be foreseen.

Claims

1. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, in which the operation based on the mechanic dynamometric autonomous independent timed principle is claimed.

2. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claim and to the present claim, in which the operation supplied by the recovery of the kinetic energy produced by the thrust of the user's body mass when the user is constrained by the seat belt during the accident is claimed.

3. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the operation based on the alternate linear relative motion in the longitudinal sense with respect to the direction of stretch of the belt when it is fastened during service is claimed.

4. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the operation based on the alternate linear relative motion in the transverse sense with respect to the direction of stretch of the belt when it is fastened during service is claimed.

5. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the operation based on the alternate linear relative motion in the rotary, helical, skew, mixed or somehow transmitted sense with respect to the direction of stretch of the belt when it is fastened during service is claimed.

6. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which employment of one or more mechanical springs arranged in any way and made up of any compressible material, compound or elastic member already known or to be discovered in the future is claimed.

7. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the timing of the opening that is realized by means of an adjustable-throughput, pump moderator that is arranged and connected in any way to the operational part of said device is claimed.

8. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the pumping member of the adjustable-throughput pump timer is calimed, said pumping member being made up of a slidable piston or by a flexible membrane which is arranged and shaped in any way within the device.

9. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the employment in the pump timer of the timed-discharge fluid material pad with the continuous recycle system for the re-employment of the material itself is claimed.

10. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the employment in the pump timer of the timed-discharge fluid material pad with a throwaway system without recycle for re-employment of the material itself is claimed.

11. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the employment of any fluid material of any colour and density and suitable in any way to the operation of the adjustable- throughput pump timer is claimed.

12. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the adjustment of the throughput of the pump moderator is claimed, said adjustment being performed by means of one or more free channels or through pressure valves which can be shaped and arranged in any way.

13. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the continuous-action release interception member for the automatic emergency timed opening of the unfastening mechanism of the device after the accident is claimed.

14. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the thrust continuous-action release interception member is claimed, whose positioning and release operation is based on the motion of rotary, longitudinal, transverse, helical, skew or mixed sense with respect to the stretch direction of the belt during service.

15. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the hook member is claimed, said member being made up of one or more elements of any shape, whose fulcrum for their opening and closing motions is realized in any way, which elements are endowed with one or more sliding members for the static support of the release interception member in its position of continuous loading and for the thrust support of the automatic emergency opening mechanism of the device after the accident.

16. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the push button is claimed, said push button being made up of one or more elements of any shape and size and arranged in any way for the opening or closing of the device by hand through a common buckle for the normal opening and closing during service.

17. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the closing member is claimed, said member being made up of one or more elements of any shape and size, which are hooked and arranged so as to detach them in order to unfasten the seat belt.

18. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the application is claimed on the device itself of any light- or sound-signaling device, put on it for any purpose and in any way.

19. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the same is claimed even without the possibility of re-employment of the same after the automatic emergency unfastening occurred after an accident.

20. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the same is claimed even without the possibility of re-employment of the same after substitution of one or more consumable component parts, any fluid material used being included.

21. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the same device is claimed, without one or more push buttons for unfastening the belt by hand, said device being applied in any way to the belt or to any other motion-checking device for protection against shocks on board.

22. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the timing action of the emergency opening of the device is claimed, said timing action being realized through a mechanical moderator working on friction, spring or other elastic members known at present or to be discovered in the future, said members being arranged and connected in any way and being counteropposed with differentiated effect.

23. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the same is claimed, interlocked in any way with electric, electronic, oleodynamic or pneumatic devices for any purpose.

24. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the same is claimed as realized in any shape and size.

25. A mechanical automatic emergency opening life-safety device for seat belts and the like, according to the preceding claims and to the present claim, in which the same is claimed as employed on any kind of seat belt or of any other motion-checking device for protection against shocks, applied on cars, trucks, airplanes, helicopters, underground trains, street-cars, ships, or other boats or watercraft, sport vehicles or other locomotion means already existing or to be invented in the future not pointed out herein.

NOTE: The inventor reserves to produce further claims or other documentation according to the times and ways provided.