Temporary hold mechanism for a buckle assembly
AssigneeNissan Technical Center North America, Inc.
InventorJason Di Grande
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A temporary hold mechanism for a seat belt sub-assembly is disclosed. The seat belt buckle sub-assembly includes a mounting bracket, at least one seat belt buckle receptacle that is selectively movable between a pre-installed position and an installed position, a biasing element that biases the seat belt buckle sub-assembly into the installed position, and a selectively removable retaining element that selectively maintains the seat belt buckle sub-assembly in the pre-installed position. A method for temporarily holding the seat belt buckle sub-assembly is also disclosed.
Claims20
A temporary hold mechanism for a seat belt buckle sub-assembly, comprising
- a mounting bracket;
- at least one seat belt buckle receptacle mounted to said mounting bracket for rotational movement between a pre-installed position and an installed position;
- a biasing element operatively connected to said seat belt buckle receptacle to bias said seat belt buckle receptacle into said installed position;
- and
- a selectively removable retaining element that selectively maintains said seat belt buckle receptacle in said pre-installed position.
A temporary hold mechanism for a seat belt buckle sub-assembly, comprising:
- a mounting bracket having a pair of upstanding ear portions;
- a pair of seat belt buckle receptacle assemblies having mounting arms;
- said mounting arms secured to said ear portions for rotational movement between a pre-installed position and an installed position;
- a biasing element operatively connected to each seat belt buckle receptacle assembly to bias each of said seat belt buckle receptacle assemblies into said installed position;
- and
- at least one selectively removable retaining element that selectively maintains said seat belt buckle receptacle assemblies in said pre-installed position.
A method for temporarily retaining a seat belt buckle receptacle assembly in a pre-installed position to facilitate installation, comprising:
- providing a seat belt buckle receptacle assembly that includes a mounting bracket, at least one seat belt buckle receptacle that it selectively rotatable between an installed position and a pre-installed position, a biasing element operatively connected to said seat belt buckle receptacle that provides a predetermined biasing force to bias said seat belt buckle receptacle into said installed position, and a selectively removable retaining mechanism to selectively hold said seat belt buckle receptacle in said pre-installed position;
- overcoming said biasing force and moving said seat belt buckle receptacle into said pre-installed position;
- and
- selectively engaging said retaining mechanism with said seat belt buckle receptacle to temporarily maintain said seat belt buckle receptacle in said pre-installed;
- wherein said retaining mechanism may be selectively removed from said seat belt buckle receptacle to return said seat belt buckle receptacle to said installed position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.