Breed Automotive Technology, Inc.

Alliedsignal Inc.

Andrew John Downie

Alan George Smithson

David Blackadder

Andrew Park

John Alexander Taylor

Elizabeth Rees

Joe Harte

James Patrickson

Bryan Thirlwell

Stuart Bland

David Burke

Harjeet Gill

Raymond George Evans

Kenneth Williamson

Douglas Alan Bainbridge

David Smith

Tony Chamings

John Hewetson Burgess

Michael A Mikulec

David Edward Chicken

A pretensioner for a vehicle occupant safety restraint has an outer casing that contains a gas generant. An igniter has igniter material disposed within an igniter housing. A pair of electrodes are connected to the igniter material. A grounding path connector link electrically connects the igniter housing to a grounding path. The connector link may be formed by springs connecting the outer case to the grounding electrode and an interference fit connecting the igniter housing to the outer case. The link forms a low resistance path to short circuit undesirable static charges in the unit that would otherwise tend to cause unintentional activation of the pretensioner.

Pretensioner

A load limiting device is used with a vehicle seat belt during a crash to allow a limited and controlled forward motion of a vehicle occupant after the retractor has locked. The load limiting device decreases the forces exerted by the seat belt on the vehicle occupant's torso. The load limiting device has a container which defines a flow path for a fluid, with a restriction in the flow path. An actuator is located within the container and is movable within the container under the action of a load transmitted to the seat belt webbing from the vehicle occupant under extreme acceleration conditions, to move the fluid through the restriction in the flow path to dissipate a predetermined portion of the load on the webbing.

Load limiting device for a seat belt

The buckle of the invention comprises a housing, a buckle part connected to one end of a seat belt and having a passage for receiving an interlocking tongue part connected to another end of a seat belt, a pivoting carrier element carrying a latching element arranged to engage with the tongue part to lock the tongue part in the passage, a release button operatively coupled via a ramp surface to move the latching element from an engaging position in which the buckle is fastened to the tongue, to a release position in which the buckle is unfastened, a counterbalance mass slidably mounted in the housing so that its inertia acts on the latching element to keep the latching element in the tongue engaging position under forces of acceleration and of deceleration acting on the buckle, the inertia acting in a first direction under acceleration and in a second direction under deceleration thereby substantially to counteract the effects of button inertia on the operation of the buckle. This arrangement provides a buckle restraint to spurious release even under high pretensioning forces.

Buckle

A pretensioner-proof buckle comprises a buckle for a vehicle safety restraint mechanism, the buckle comprising: a housing (,) having a rectilinear channel for receving a fastening member (,); a latching element (,) mounted within the housing and moveable between a first position in which it engages the fastening member and a second position in which the fastening member is released; a release button (,) operatively connected to the latching element for effecting movement thereof between the first and second positions; a blocking member (,) for engaging the latching element under predetermined conditions to prevent movement of the latching element towards the release position; and an inertial mass (,) pivotally mounted to, and contained within side walls of, the release button (,), the mass being arranged to act on the blocking member under said predetermined conditions to move the blocking member into engagement with the latching element. The blocking member slides into position during the acceleration phase of a pretensioning operation and thus secures the buckle against spurious release earlier than in previously known arrangements.

Seat belt buckle

A vehicle safety apparatus has a 3-point seatbelt, with a buckle head, and a crash sensor. A pretensioner is connected at the buckle head of the seatbelt for pulling in a length of seatbelt webbing in response to the crash sensor detecting a crash. The pretensioner has a force reservoir and a piston located within and for movement along a pretensioner cylinder under the force of gas from a gas generator. The piston is connected by a cable to the buckle head of the seatbelt. A cable bracket has an inner and outer guide, and wherein the pretensioner cylinder is attached to the inner guide and the buckle mounting is connected to the outer guide.

A load limiting device is used with a vehicle seat belt during a crash to allow a limited and controlled forward motion of a vehicle occupant after the retractor has locked. The load limiting device decreases the forces exerted by the seat belt on the vehicle occupant's torso. The load limiting device has a metal member and means for deforming the metal member associated with the seat belt. Excessive load on the seat belt is transferred to the metal member by deforming the metal member.

Buckle mechanism

Growing community of inventors

Carlisle, United Kingdom

Andrew John Downie