Child-restraint harness

A child restraint comprising

• a juvenile vehicle seat including a seat bottom and a seat back extending upwardly from the seat bottom and having a forwardly facing surface facing toward the seat bottom,
• a child-restraint harness coupled to the juvenile vehicle seat and configured to include first and second shoulder straps adapted to wrap over shoulders of a child seated on the seat bottom of the juvenile vehicle seat, and
• a harness tightener including a first fulcrum strip mounted on the seat back for pivotable movement above the seat bottom about a horizontal strip-pivot axis for upward movement away from the seat bottom from a lowered position to a raised position to apply tension to the first shoulder strap during exposure of the juvenile vehicle seat to an external impact force to cause lateral movement of the first shoulder strap relative to the seat back to be minimized so that lateral movement of a first shoulder of a child seated on the seat bottom and restrained by the child-restraint harness away from the seat back is limited,
• wherein the first fulcrum strip is L-shaped and includes a short front leg arranged to extend downwardly to embrace a forwardly facing portion of a first shoulder of a child seated on the seat bottom and restrained by the child-restraint harness and also includes a relatively longer top leg having a forward section coupled to an upper end of the front leg and arranged to extend forwardly to embrace an upwardly facing portion of the first shoulder of a child seated on the seat bottom and a rearward section mounted on the seat back for pivotable movement about the horizontal strip-pivot axis.

A child restraint comprising

• a juvenile vehicle seat including a seat bottom and a seat back extending upwardly from the seat bottom and having a forwardly facing surface facing toward the seat bottom,
• a child-restraint harness coupled to the juvenile vehicle seat and configured to include first and second shoulder straps adapted to wrap over shoulders of a child seated on the seat bottom of the juvenile vehicle seat, and
• a harness tightener including a first fulcrum strip mounted on the seat back for pivotable movement above the seat bottom about a horizontal strip-pivot axis for upward movement away from the seat bottom from a lowered position to a raised position to apply tension to the first shoulder strap during exposure of the juvenile vehicle seat to an external impact force to cause lateral movement of the first shoulder strap relative to the seat back to be minimized so that lateral movement of a first shoulder of a child seated on the seat bottom and restrained by the child-restraint harness away from the seat back is limited,
• wherein the harness tightener further includes a second fulcrum strip mounted on the seat back for pivotable movement above the seat bottom about a horizontal strip-pivot axis for upward movement away from the seat bottom from a lowered position to a raised position to apply tension independently to the second shoulder strap during exposure of the juvenile vehicle seat to the external impact force to cause lateral movement of the second shoulder strap relative to the seat back to be minimized so that lateral movement of a second shoulder of a child seated on the seat bottom and restrained by the child-restraint harness away from the seat back is limited and
• wherein each of the first and second fulcrum strip is L-shaped and includes a short front leg arranged to extend downwardly toward the seat bottom and a relatively longer top leg arranged to extend rearwardly from an upper end of the short front leg to a companion horizontal strip-pivot axis.