WO2009134173A1

WO2009134173A1 - Seat-belt presenter arrangement for a vehicle seat

Info

Publication number: WO2009134173A1
Application number: PCT/SE2008/050486
Authority: WO
Inventors: Leif Ennerdal; Magnus Carlander; Johan LINNÉR; Anders Lenning
Original assignee: Autoliv Development Ab
Priority date: 2008-04-29
Filing date: 2008-04-29
Publication date: 2009-11-05

Abstract

A seat -belt preserver arrangement for a vehicle seat (10) comprises a pivotable lever arm (18), a loop-shaped engaging element (21) connected to said lever arm (18) and arranged for engagement with part of the seat-belt (12), and an actuating arrangement it (28, 30) operable to pivot said lever arm (18) for moving said engaging element (21) between a rest position and a presenting position arranged forward of said rest position, Said engaging element (21) is pivotably connected to said lever arm (18).

Description

Seat-belt presenter arrangement for a vehicle seat

The invention relates to a seat-belt presenter arrangement for a vehicle seat, comprising a pivotable lever arm, a loop- shaped engaging element connected to one end of said lever arm and arranged for engagement with part of the seat-belt, and an actuating arrangement operable to pivot said lever arm for moving said engaging element between a rest position and a presenting position arranged forward of said rest position.

A seatbelt presenter arrangement is known from WO 00 63050 Al. It comprises a pivotable arm and a belt driven mechanism for linearly moving the belt engaging element along the pivotable arm from a rest position to a presentation position. Furthermore, the arrangement comprises a cam drive mechanism for rotating the pivotable arm in order to lift the engaging element from the rest position to the presentation position. The arrangement of coupled belt driven mechanism and cam drive mechanism is very complicated.

The object of the invention is to provide a relatively incom- plex, effective seatbelt presenter arrangement which is easy and comfortable to use.

The invention solves this object with the features of claim 1. The belt engaging element is moved between a rest position and a presenting position only by rotating the pivotable lever arm. Therefore a mechanism for sliding the engaging element along the lever arm is not required. The loop shape of the engaging element ensures that the webbing is always safely held in the engaging element, preventing that the webbing is unintentionally disengaged from the engaging element. The pivo- table connection of the engaging element to the lever arm allows the engaging element to self-orient upon the action of a force on the engaging element. This allows a convenient angular presentation of the locking tongue to the occupant in the presentation position. In the rest position, the engagement element orients itself such that it does influence the way of the webbing as little as possible. This prevents unwanted twisting of the webbing and reduces friction between webbing and engaging element.

Preferably the pivot point of the lever arm is arranged in the front half of the seat squab. This allows a relatively large length of the lever arm and therefore a relatively large height and forward position of the engaging element in the presenting position. Furthermore, in the rest position the engaging element can be positioned above the belts end-fixation point in line with the webbing, thus avoiding unwanted slack or change of geometry in the seatbelt arrangement.

In a preferred embodiment the pivot point of said lever arm, which is fixed relative to the vehicle or vehicle seat, is positioned intermediate between a point of connection to a lin- ear actuating element and a point of connection to the engaging element. The linear actuating element may be pivotably connected to a vehicle part. The lever arm preferably has an S-shaped portion in the region of its pivot point. The above mentioned features contribute to a compact and cost-effective design.

The belt engaging element may have a slit for inserting the webbing into the engaging element loop, which is particularly useful in case the seat-belt presenter arrangement is delivered together with the corresponding vehicle seat. However, the loop of the engagement element may also be closed. In this case, the engagement element may be a separate element which is delivered together with the seatbelt and is then mounted to the lever arm which is pre-mounted to the seat.

In the following the invention is explained on the basis of preferred embodiments thereof and with reference to the accom- panying drawings, which show:

Fig. 1: a side view of a vehicle seat with belt presenter arrangement in the rest position;

Fig. 2: a side view of the vehicle seat of Fig. 1 with belt presenter arrangement in the presenting position;

Fig. 3: a perspective view of the belt presenter arrangement of Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4: a perspective view of a belt presenter arrangement in another embodiment;

Fig. 5: a side view of a vehicle seat with belt presenter ar- rangement in the rest position in another embodiment;

Fig. 6: a side view of the vehicle seat of Fig. 5 with belt presenter arrangement in the presenting position;

Fig. 7: a front view of part of the vehicle seat of Fig. 1 with belt presenter arrangement in the rest position;

Fig. 8: a perspective view of a belt presenter arrangement in another embodiment;

Fig. 9: a front view of a vehicle seat in another embodiment, with belt presenter arrangement in the rest position;

Fig. 10: a side view of the vehicle seat of Fig. 9 with belt presenter arrangement in the rest position;

Fig. 11: a side view of the vehicle seat of Fig. 9 with belt presenter arrangement in the presenting position;

Fig. 12: a front view of a vehicle seat in another embodiment, with belt presenter arrangement in the rest position;

Fig. 13^: an enlarged view of the vehicle seat of Fig. 12 in the region of the belt presenter arrangement;

Fig. 14: a side view of the vehicle seat of Fig. 12 with belt presenter arrangement in the rest position;

Fig. 15: a side view of the vehicle seat of Fig. 12 with belt presenter arrangement in the presenting position;

Fig. 16: a perspective view of a belt presenter arrangement in another embodiment in the rest position; and

Fig. 17: a perspective view of the belt presenter arrangement of Fig. 16 in the presenting position.

The safety belt 11 of a seat 10 in a motor vehicle comprises a webbing 12 which is attached to the vehicle by means of an end bracket 13 and a locking tongue 14 for cooperating with a buckle not shown in the Figures. The seat 10 comprises a squab portion 15 and a backrest 16.

Besides the squab portion 15 of the seat 10 a seat-belt presenter arrangement 17 is provided. The presenter arrangement 17 comprises a lever arm 18 which is pivotably connected to the carrier structure 20 of the seat 10 in the embodiments of Figs. 1 to 7 and 9 to 11. The pivot point 19 of the lever arm 18 is fixed relative to the vehicle seat 10.

The lever arm 18 comprises an elongate arm portion 22 extending from the pivot point 19. At the free end of the elongate arm portion 22 distal from the pivot point 19, an engaging element 21 is pivotally connected to the elongate arm portion 22. The engagement element 21 comprises a loop element 27 forming an opening 24 through which the webbing 12 of the belt 11 is guided. The pivot axis 26 of the engaging element 21 is preferably essentially perpendicular to the loop plane. The size of the opening 24 is preferably adapted to the size of the webbing 12, i.e. it is preferably a slit with a length corresponding to the width of the webbing 12. The loop of the loop element 27 may be opened at one position by means of a slit, preferably angled, which is not shown in the Figures, for inserting the webbing 12 into the opening 24.

In the embodiments of Figs. 1 to 4, a manual handle 28 is firmly attached to the lever arm 18, in particular to the elongate arm portion 22 thereof.

The lever arm 18 may be moved between a rest position shown in Figs. 1, 5 10 and 14 and a presenting position shown in Figs. 2, 6, 11 and 15. In the unoccupied state of the seat 10 the lever arm 18 is in the rest position besides the squab 15 of the seat 10 and below the upper surface of the squab 15 in or- der not to obstruct entering of the seat 10 by the occupant. The pivot point 19 is arranged in the front half of the seat squab 15. This allows a relatively large length of the lever arm 18 which is at least half the length of the seat squab 15.

After the occupant has entered the seat 10, the lever arm 18 with the engaging element 21 may be rotated in the forward direction into the presenting position. In the embodiments of Figs. 1 to 4 this is done manually by the occupant who pushes the handle 28 in the forward direction until the presenting position shown in Fig. 2 is reached. In this position the locking tongue 14 which is hold by a button 29 attached to the webbing 12 is positioned a significant distance in front of the occupant and at a lower height than in the rest position. This makes it much more comfortable to grip the locking tongue 14 for the occupant who does not have to turn around.

As is evident from Figs. 1 and 2, the engaging element 21 can be brought from the rest position into the presenting position by a single rotation of the lever arm 18. No further movement, in particular no linear movement of the engaging element 21 along the lever arm 18, is required.

After the occupant has gripped the locking tongue 14, the lever arm 18 is rotated back into the rest position. This is preferably done automatically by means of an actuating device 30 which is pivotably connected to the carrier structure 20 of the seat 10 at one end 33 and pivotably connected to the lever arm 18, in particular a short arm portion 23 thereof, on the other end and acts on the lever arm 18.

In the embodiment of Figs. 1 and 2 the actuating device is a passive retracting device. It may in particular comprise a re- tracting spring element, for example a gas spring or a magnetic pulling device. The spring element is loaded by moving the lever arm 18 from the rest position to the presenting position. In the presenting position the loaded spring element acts on the lever arm 18 in order to move it back into the rest position. The spring element may be based on a compression spring as in Figs. 1 and 2. Of course, the spring element may also be based on an extension spring or a torsion spring.

The presenter arrangement 17 preferably is adapted to hold the engaging element 21 in the presenting position for a period of time enabling the occupant to conveniently grip the locking tongue 14. In order to achieve this, the lever arm may be locked in the presenting position and may be unlocked auto- matically after a predetermined period of time or in response to a sensor signal from the buckle. Alternatively, it may be unlocked manually for example by means of a push button or foot pedal.

In the rest position the engaging element 21 is positioned directly above the end bracket 13 such that it influences the running of the webbing as little as possible. In the rest position and during the whole presenting process the engaging element automatically self-orients itself by rotating around the pivot axis 26 in response to the forces exerted onto it by the webbing 12. Due to this self-orientation, the engaging element 21 always takes a suitable position where twist or distortion of the webbing 12 is prevented.

The short arm portion 23 extends radially from the pivot point 19 of the of the lever arm 18 and encloses an angle preferably between 90° and 180° with the elongate arm portion 22. In other words, the pivot point 19 of the lever arm 18 is posi- tioned intermediate between the connection point 26 of the engaging element 21 and the pivot point 31 of the actuating element 30. Due to this lever arrangement a relatively short movement of the actuating element 30 can be transferred into a relatively large movement of the engaging element 21. The long arm portion 22 is preferably at least three times, preferably at least six times longer than the short arm portion 23 of the lever arm 18. However, the choice of dimension, i.e. transmission, is dependent on parameters such as seat geometry, in particular seat height, and stroke length of the actuating element. Because of the connection to the short arm portion 23 the actuating device 30 can be positioned relatively low and in a preferred horizontal orientation. Of course, the actuating element 30 may also be pivotably connected to the elon- gated arm portion 22. As can be seen in Fig. 3 a preferred S- shaped portion 54 is formed in the region of the short arm portion 23 and the pivot point 19 of the lever arm.

The presenter arrangement 17 may preferably comprise a dampen- ing element, in particular hydraulic or pneumatic, for preventing the lever arm 18 from shooting back into the rest position. In the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the dampening element may for example be realized in the spring element 30, or alternatively as a separate element.

The end of the elongate arm portion 22 may comprise an angled portion 25, see Figs. 3, 4, 8 and 13, for holding the engaging element 21 under an angle with respect to a horizontal or vertical plane. In the embodiments shown in Figs. 1 to 3, 7 and 9 to 15, the plane of the loop has a predominant horizontal component in the rest position, in other words it is a predominantly "laying" loop. In the embodiments shown in. 4 to 6 and 8, the plane of the loop has a predominant vertical component, in other words it is a predominantly "hanging" loop. The orientation of the loop in the rest position and during movement is such that the slit 24 is oriented parallel to a lateral axis, i.e. a horizontal axis perpendicular to the length axis of the vehicle. During movement the engaging element 21 moves in a plane perpendicular to the lateral axis. When the tongue 14 has been grabbed, the engaging element 21 is able to pivot around approximately 90° such that the slot 24 lies in the mentioned plane perpendicular to the lateral axis.

Preferably the pivot angle of the engaging element 21 around pivot axis 26 is limited by stops for example in the form of pins, for ensuring that the engaging element 21 does not collide with the lever arm 18 and in order to prevent an unwanted drill of the webbing 12. The total rotation angle may be limited to 180° or less, preferably to about 150°.

Preferably the orientation of the loop plane in the rest position of the presenter arrangement lies between 0° and 60°, more preferably between 15° and 45°, as can be seen in Figs. 7 and 13, in view of a good guidance of the belt 12 and a convenient presentation angle of the locking tongue 14.

In the embodiments shown in Figs. 5 to 7 and 9 to 15 the actu- ating element 30 is formed by an electric drive comprising an electric motor 32 for rotating a threaded shaft 34 and an internally threaded part 35 pivotably connected to said lever arm 18 at the pivot point 31 and co-operating with threaded shaft 34 such that rotation of the shaft 34 causes displace- ment of the part 35 along the shaft 34 and therefore rotation of the lever arm 18 around the pivot point 19. Therefore, these embodiments provide for active presenting and active retraction of the lever arm. The motor 32 is controlled to rotate the lever arm 18 from the rest position to the presenting position upon manual activation for example by means of a push button or foot pedal, or, alternatively, automatically in response to a sensor, for example a seat, door or ignition sensor. The motor 32 may be controlled to stop rotation for example by means of an end switch, not shown. The motor 32 may be controlled to return the lever arm 18 into the rest position automatically after elapse of a predetermined period of time in which the actuating element 21 is held in the presenting position, enabling the occupant to conveniently grip the locking tongue 14, or alternatively in response to a sensor signal from the buckle and/or a retractor. The retractor can preferably be equipped with a bobbin rotation sensor which monitors the webbing payout or retraction. The lever arm 18 can for example be returned if the webbing pay-out is higher/faster than the payout caused by the belt presenter, or if the belt presenter is in the presentation state this condition means that all addi- tional webbing pay-out is larger than zero, alternatively, the motor 32 may be controlled to return the lever arm 18 into the rest position if the belt tongue is locked into the buckle. Again, the motor 32 may be controlled to stop rotation for example by means of an end switch, not shown.

The actuating device is preferably a linear device, i.e. either telescopic as in Figs. 1 and 2 or based on a linear drive shaft, as in Figs. 5, 6 and 10 to 15. This is much less complex than the belt drive known from WO 00 63050 Al.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 8 the manual handle 28 is piv- otably connected to a vehicle part, in particular seat 10, in the fixed pivot point 36. The handle 28 comprises a handling section 37 and an opposite section 38 pivotably connected to the lever arm 18 in the pivot point 44. The presenter arrangement 17 comprises a guiding arm 40 pivotally attached to a vehicle part in the fixed pivot point 39 and pivotably connected to said lever arm in the pivot point 42. The handle 28 is thus arranged for pulling operation wherein pulling the handling section 37 causes moving of the engaging element 21 from the rest position to the presenting position. Pulling operation, similar to that of a conventional parking brake lever, may be more convenient for the occupant than pushing operation because of easier access for the hand grabbing the locking tongue as compared to a pushing operation where both arms have to be stretched.

A preferred embodiment also based on pulling operation of the handle 28 is shown in Figs. 16 and 17. Herein, the presenter arrangement 17 comprises a link arm 54 pivotably connected to the section 38 of the handle 28 in the pivot point 44 on one end and pivotably connected to the link arm 18 in the pivot point 42 on the other end.

In the embodiment shown in Figs. 9 to 11 the belt system comprises an additional belt 45 on the other side of the seat 10 opposite to the above-described safety belt 11. The additional belt 45 is a two-point belt comprising a retractor 46 attached to the back rest 16 of the seat 10, a webbing 47 and an end bracket 48 for attaching the webbing 47 to the vehicle. For the additional belt 45 a further presenting arrangement 49 with a lever arm 50 and an engaging element 51 may be provided which may be similarly formed as the presenting arrangement 17 for the safety belt 11. The presenting arrangements 17, 49 are preferably coupled for simultaneous operation and are preferably operable through the same actuating element 30. In the embodiment shown in Figs. 12 to 15 the presenter arrangement 17 is attached to the chassis of the vehicle, in particular the sill 52 in the region of the B pillar 53, instead of the seat 10. This may be particularly relevant for two door vehicles.

Claims

Claims :

1. A seat-belt presenter arrangement for a vehicle seat (10), comprising a pivotable lever arm (18), a loop-shaped en- gaging element (21) connected to said lever arm (18) and arranged for engagement with part of the seat-belt (12), and an actuating arrangement (28, 30) operable to pivot said lever arm (18) for moving said engaging element (21) between a rest position and a presenting position arranged forward of said rest position, wherein said engaging element (21) is pivotably connected to said lever arm (18) .

2. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the pivot point (19) of the lever arm (18) is ar- ranged in the front half of the seat squab (15) .

3. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, wherein said actuating arrangement comprises an actuating element (30) pivotably connected to said lever arm (18) .

4. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 3, wherein the pivot point (19) of said lever arm is intermediate between the connection (31) of the actuating element (30) and the connection (26) of the engaging element (21) .

5. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 3, wherein said actuating element (30) is pivotably connected to a vehicle part.

6. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the pivot point (19) of said lever arm (18) is fixed relative to the vehicle or vehicle seat (10).

7. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the actuating arrangement comprises a manual handle (28) for moving said engaging element (21) from said rest position to said presenting position.

8. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 7, wherein said manual handle (28) is fixedly attached to said lever arm (18) .

9. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the actuating arrangement comprises a retracting device (30) for retracting said engaging element (21) from said presenting position to said rest position.

10. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 9, wherein said retracting device (30) is a passive device.

11. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, wherein said actuating arrangement (30) comprises an elec- trie drive (32, 34, 35) .

12. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 11, wherein said electric drive (32, 34, 35) is a belt-free linear electric drive.

13. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 11, wherein said electric drive comprises a threaded shaft

(34) rotated by an electric motor (32) and a co-operating internally threaded part (35) connected to said lever arm (18).

14. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, wherein said actuating arrangement (30) comprises a pneu- matic and/or a hydraulic element.

15. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, adapted to start returning the lever arm (18) from the presenting position into the rest position in response to a signal from a bobbin rotation sensor provided in a retractor of the seat-belt and/or from a buckle lock sensor.

16. The seat-belt presenter arrangement according to claim 1, wherein said lever arm (18) comprises an S-shaped portion.