Seat belt buckle
AssigneeAlliedSignal Inc.
InventorDavid Burke
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A vehicle seat belt buckle mechanism designed for use with belt pretensioning means and being rendered immune to the effects of rapid buckle deceleration following pretensioning action the mechanism having a resiliently movable plate 82 carried by the buckle release button, the resilience being effectively much lighter than release button return springs 49c so that although the plate 82 normally has no effect, in the event of pretensioning action, it slides into an abutting position in the mechanism to inhibit subsequent spurious release resulting from button movement in a crash situation.
Claims11
A seat belt buckle mechanism which comprises a generally U-shaped frame presenting an opening at one end for receiving a tongue along a path between two side portions and generally parallel to a base portion, said tongue being engageable with a spring-loaded ejector, a locking element having means at one end engaging the side portions to be tiltable therebetween whereby a projection of said element is movable into or out of locking relationship with said tongue and a retaining member movable into or out of a locking position wherein it prevents movement of the projection away from said locking relationship and said retaining member being movable by the action of a release member to permit release of the tongue, the mechanism including inertial protection means operable to inhibit the action of the release member in the event of predetermined excessive rate of change of speed of the buckle in a direction tending to cause spurious release by the release member.
A seat belt buckle mechanism comprising a generally U-shaped frame presenting an opening at one end for receiving a tongue along a path between two side portions and generally parallel to a base portion, said tongue being engageable with a spring-loaded ejector, a locking element tiltably supported in the frame whereby a projection of said element is movable into or out of locking relationship with said tongue and a retaining member movable into or out of a locking position wherein it prevents movement of the projection away from said locking relationship and said retaining member being movable by the action of a release member to permit release of the tongue, the mechanism including inertial protection means slidingly movable from a first position to a second position, in response to a predetermined acceleration or deceleration, for inhibiting unlocking of the locking element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.