US 5,308,148 AGranted

Seat belt module assembly

AssigneeIndiana Mills & Manufacturing, Inc.

InventorsJeffrey E. Peterson, Niels Dybro, Ronald F. Homeier, Allan R. Lortz

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Abstract

A seat belt assembly includes a tongue, a buckle, a frame mountable to a vehicle seat, linking articles for linking the tongue and buckle to the frame, a retractor assembly operable to pay out and retract linking articles connected with said tongue, the tongue thereby extendable from a retracted position to an extended position lockingly engaged with said buckle. The tongue, buckle, linking articles and retractor assembly are all mounted in operable combination to the frame, the resulting frame means combination being mountable as a unit to a vehicle seat. The seat belt assembly also includes tongue and buckle sleeve assemblies which are mountable to the frame and which cover the linking articles in the retracted position, and which support the tongue and the buckle in a desired user access position.

A seat belt assembly for mounting to a vehicle seat having a vehicle seat frame comprising:

a U-shaped wall having a horizontal portion positioned beneath said seat and opposite vertical end portions positioned on opposite sides of said seat adjacent said seat frame, said vertical end portions joined to said horizontal portion at junctions and including fastener openings and first cover openings;
first fastener means extending through said fastener openings of said vertical end portions and fastening said U-shaped wall to said seat frame;
retractor means mounted to and beneath said horizontal portion and opening outwardly to allow a belt to extend therefrom;
tensioning means mounted to and beneath said horizontal portion and opening outwardly in a direction oppositely of said retractor means to allow a belt to extend therefrom;
a pair of belts having distal ends and being mounted adjacent and beneath said horizontal portion by said retractor means and said tensioning means and extending therefrom;
roller means mounted to said U-shaped wall and positioned at said junctions of said horizontal portion with said roller means operable to guide said belts from said retractor means and said tensioning means to said vertical end portions;
a tongue and buckle mounted to said distal ends of said belts;
a pair of vertical covers positioned outwardly of and to said vertical end portions with said pair of belts extending therebetween with said tongue and said buckle stored when not in use between said pair of vertical covers and said vertical end portions, said pair of vertical covers include second cover openings aligned with said first cover openings, said vertical covers concealing said first fastener openings and said first fastener means, said vertical covers being sized and selected to receive said tongue and said buckle at the desired elevation;
and,
second fastening means extending through said first cover openings and said second cover openings to secure said covers to said vertical end portions after said first fastening means have secured said U-shaped wall to said seat frame.

7 more elements

Facts

Application

07/950,908Filed 24 Sep 1992

Granted

3 May 1994

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

B60R 22/1951
With means to tension the belt in an emergency, e.g. means of the through-anchor or splitted reel type: characterised by arrangements in vehicle…
B60N 2/24
Seats specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement or mounting of seats in vehicles: for particular purposes or particular vehicles
B60R 22/26
Anchoring devices: secured to the seat
B60R 2022/021
Semi-passive restraint systems, e.g. systems applied or removed automatically but not both ; Manual restraint systems: means for holding the…

Abstract

Claims2