US 2006/0138852 A1Published application

Tongue and seat belt apparatus employing the same

AssigneeTakata Corporation

InventorYoshiyuki Ichida

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Abstract

During ordinary use (i.e., a non-collision state) a webbing guide and a locking bar are biased in the counter-clockwise direction by the biasing force of the bar spring and are held in their initial positions so that spaces are set. Since a webbing passes through the spaces, a tongue can smoothly slide relative to the webbing. During a vehicle collision, a pulling force exceeding a predetermined value is applied to the webbing in the direction of an occupant's lap and shoulder. By this pulling force, the webbing guide rotates in the clockwise direction and the locking bar rotates in the counter-clockwise direction and linearly moves rightward. Therefore, the webbing is clamped between the locking bar and the tongue body. The clamping force at this point includes a force pulling the webbing and the biasing force of a bar spring so that a large clamping force can be obtained.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A tongue which is slidably supported on a webbing and can be latched with a buckle, the tongue comprising:

a tongue body;
a locking mechanism rotatably attached to the tongue body, wherein during a vehicle collision state where a large deceleration acts on the vehicle, the locking mechanism activates to cooperate together with the tongue body to clamp a webbing therebetween, the locking mechanism includes:
a webbing guide rotatably supported to the tongue body to guide a webbing;
and
a locking member connected to the webbing guide to allow relative rotation and, in operation, cooperates together with the tongue body to clamp a webbing therebetween;
and
a biasing mechanism configured to bias the locking member during a non-collision state in a direction away from the tongue body to set an initial position where a predetermined space is formed between the locking member and the tongue body through which a webbing passes, and the biasing mechanism is configured to bias the locking member in a direction of clamping a webbing when the locking member is actuated by a pulling force exceeding a predetermined value applied to a webbing during a vehicle collision state such that the tongue body clamps a webbing.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.