US 2002/0053793 A1Published application

Anti-submarine vehicle occupant restraint system

AssigneeNHK Spring Co., Ltd.

InventorsHiroyoshi Yamaguchi, Eiji Shimizu

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Abstract

In a vehicle occupant restraint system provided in association with a vehicle seat for preventing a vehicle occupant from slipping forward under a seat belt in an impact situation such as a vehicle crash, a pair of casings are provided on either side of the seat frame, and pivotally support a pair of arms across which a cross member extends A power unit pivotally incorporated in at east one of the casings raises the arms and cross member in an impact situation. The casing is formed by a main member having a vertical section and a pair of Ranges extending from upper and lower ends of the vertical section, and a lid member attached to the free ends of the flanges. The hollow structure of the casing provides a high level of mechanical strength, and the two piece structure of the casing allows the assembly work to be performed in a simple manner because the components can be installed from sideways one after another in a relatively simple manner.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A vehicle occupant restraint system provided in association with a vehicle seat for preventing a vehicle occupant from slipping forward under a seat bell in an impact situation such as a vehicle crash, comprising;

a pair of fixed support members attached to either side of a seat frame at a front part of a seat bottom;
an arm pivotally attached to a front end of each of said fixed support members;
a cross member extending between free ends of said arms;
and
a power unit provided in association with at least one of said support members for actuating said arms and cross member upward so as to selectively raise a front part of said seat bottom in an impact situation such as a vehicle crash;
at least one of said support members comprising a main member having a vertically extending section which is elongated in a fore-and-aft direction, an upper flange extending laterally from an upper end of said vertically extending section, and a lower flange extending laterally in a same direction as said upper flange from a lower end of said vertically extending section, and a lid member which is attached to free ends of said upper and lower flanges to form a closed profiled casing in cooperation with said main member.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.