Child seat

#The present invention relates to a child seat which is mounted and secured to a vehicle seat by a seat belt.

#An example of this type of child seat has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,789, herein incorporated by reference. FIG. 8 is a rear view of a child seat of U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,789, and FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing the structure for an adult seat belt winding mechanism at the bottom of the child seat.

#The child seat 110 is mounted and secured to a vehicle seat (not shown) with an adult seat belt 100 (comprising a lap belt 100a and a shoulder belt 100b) of a vehicle and comprises a seat squab 112 on which a child is seated, a seat back 114, and a pair of dogleg-shaped side walls 116, 118 disposed on both sides of the combination of the seat squab 112 and the seat back 114. The dogleg-shaped side walls 116, 118 are provided with seat belt through apertures 120, 122, respectively, to allow the adult seat belt 100 to extend in the width direction of the child seat through these apertures 120, 122. The child seat 110 is also provided on the bottom thereof (the backside of the seat squab 112) with a wind-up reel 124 for winding the seat belt 100 extending between the seat belt through apertures 120 and 122 to tension the seat belt 100. The wind-up reel 124 has a slit 124a, for insertion of the seat belt, formed to penetrate the wind-up reel 124 in a diametrical direction. The slit 124a has a deep groove configuration extending in the axial direction of the wind-up reel 124 and exposed at one end of the axial direction.

#These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, appended claims, and the accompanying exemplary embodiments shown in the drawings, which are described briefly below.

#FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of a child seat according to an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the child seat in FIG. 1.

#Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

#As shown in FIGS. 1-7, a child seat 10 is adapted to be mounted and secured to a vehicle seat (not shown) with an adult seat belt 1 (comprising a lap belt 1a and a shoulder belt 1b) of a vehicle.

#The seat belt 1 is a well known seat belt of which a proximal end portion is connected to a retractor such that the seat belt can be wound up by the retractor; a distal end portion is connected to a vehicle body via a lap anchor; and a midway portion passes through a deflection fitting. The seat belt 1 passes through a belt through aperture of a tongue (not shown). A portion of the seat belt between the tongue and the deflection fitting is defined as the shoulder belt 1b and a portion of the seat belt between the tongue and the lap anchor is defined as the lap belt 1a. As well known in the art, in the state that the tongue is latched into the buckle, the shoulder belt 1b extends obliquely from the tongue to the deflection fitting across the seat back. The lap belt 1a extends substantially horizontally from the tongue to the lap anchor across a corner between the seat squab and the seat back.