Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft

Wilfried Schwanz

Ulrich Seiffert

Ernst Fiala

Rolf Warnecke

Andreas Bauer

Peter Buchholz

Burckhard Struwe

Klaus Oehm

Wolfgang Sukopp

Ruediger Weissner

Holger Schmidt

Peter Beher

Hannu Paitula

The seats of two-door passenger automobiles are provided with a tiltable backrest and a three-point safety belt. An actuating element for releasing the backrest so it can tilt is designed as a guide element for guiding the end of the safety belt associated with the shoulder of the vehicle occupant into a repository position when it is released by the occupant, which repository position is at a more convenient location than that possible without the guide element.

Seat for vehicles, in particular two-door passenger automobiles

A passive safety belt arrangement for a vehicle includes a safety belt articulately connected to a slide. The slide is acted on by a slide-positioning device so as to move it in a guide fastened to the frame of the vehicle in the region of a door opening next to a seat. The slide is driven between an off position in which the safety belt is raised away from the body of a passenger in the seat and a restraining position in which the belt contacts the passenger's body. The belt is locked in the restraining position by a swiveling locking pawl acted upon by a spring so as to urge it into engagement with the slide. A cam-like projection on the locking pawl is contacted during a permissible movement of the slide by the slide-positioning devices so as to swivel the locking pawl out of engagement with the slide.

Passive safety belt arrangement for vehicles

A passive safety belt arrangement for vehicles includes a motor and an actuating element that is strong in tension and compression. This element is driven in either of its longitudinal directions so as to propel a traveler attached to one end of the belt along a track on the body of the frame of the vehicle between a release position and a restraint position. A control system for the motor has at least two limit switches assigned to the two extreme positions of the traveler. One of the switches assigned to the release position is arranged so that it is actuable by a stud at the end of the actuating element which is away from the end holding the traveler.

Passive safety belt arrangement for vehicles, in particular passenger

A device for driving a flexible wire having a helical coil therearound along its length comprises a hollow shaft adapted to receive the wire and a motor for rotating the hollow shaft in either direction about its longitudinal axis. The shaft has a projection extending into the interior of the hollow shaft and adapted to engage the wire in the gap between adjacent turns of the helical coil. Upon rotation of the shaft and thereby the projection, the wire is driven longitudinally through the hollow shaft.

Device for longitudinal displacement of a flexible drive wire

An improved automobile safety device of the type having a shoulder safety belt extending diagonally across the upper body of a passenger and connected to a slide displaceable in a guide attached to the automobile frame. The belt is attached to the slide by a belt lock rigidly fastened to the slide, which assumes a spatially defined position when the slide is in the passenger-restraining position. An electric switch having an actuating element for effecting either a first switching state or a second switching state is attached to the vehicle body and positioned such that the belt lock engages the actuating element only when the slide is in the restraining position. The switch assumes the first switching state when the belt lock and slide are in the restraining position, and assumes the second switching state when the lock and slide are moved away from the restraining position.

Passive safety device for securing occupants of vehicles, in particular

A safety device for a vehicle steering wheel is designed to provide increased protection against injury in the event the driver's head strikes the steering wheel on the occurrence of a collision. Increased protection against a head injury is provided by an impact energy dissipating member which provides increased energy dissipation upon impact by a relatively small object, such as the driver's head, as compared to prior devices which protected merely against impact by the entire body. The dissipating member includes first and second hollow bodies arranged one within the other.

Vehicle steering wheel safety device

The invention concerns an improvement in vehicle safety apparatus for sharply retracting a predetermined length of belt at the moment of an impending collision in order to draw the safety belt up firmly against the body of a passenger seated in the vehicle. In a vehicle safety belt take-up device of the type having an intermediate lug holding the safety belt and connected by means of a connecting rod to a piston arranged within a cylinder provided with a propellant charge for applying the belt retracting force when released in response to an actuating sensor, the improvement comprises a stationary backstop for stopping the retracting movement of the intermediate lug, and a locking device for locking the intermediate lug in place after the lug has retracted the belt a predetermined distance against the stationary backstop.

Safety belt take-up device

The impact-element of this invention includes an energy-absorbing, elongated deformation member which is secured to an elongated, dimensionally stable carrier that is, in turn, mounted below the dashboard of the vehicle. The energy-absorbing deformation forces are generally independent of the impact direction. In one embodiment of the invention, the energy-absorbing deformation member is an elongated, hollow body which, in transverse cross section, is ring-shaped at least in the portion opposing the knees of the occupants of the vehicle. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the elongated, energy-absorbing member is hollow and is box-shaped in transverse cross section. In the second embodiment of the invention, a dimensionally stable, elongated cross piece is diagonally positioned within the box-shaped energy-absorbing member and contacts the upper end of the carrier. Stiffening means in the form of corrugations may be provided in both the box-shaped, energy-absorbing member and the cross piece of the second embodiment.

Impact-element for the protection of the occupant of a vehicle

The invention concerns an apparatus for tensioning restraining devices, such as safety belts. The tensioning is effected by a piston arranged to move within a cylinder when actuated by a pressure medium. A return stopping device is provided to maintain tension after actuation.

Safety belt tensioning device

A safety device for a passenger in an automobile comprises a shoulder safety belt extending diagonally across the passenger's body and an energy absorbing impact element located on the vehicle frame adjacent the passenger's knees. The impact element includes two M-shaped sheet metal members arranged one above the other and symmetrical about a plane passing between the members. The legs of each M-shaped member afford two parallel, spaced-apart plates and one face of one of the plates is presented to the passenger's knees. The portion of each M-shaped member intermediate the legs affords a plastically deformable connection between the plates.

Growing community of inventors

Ahnsen, Germany

Wilfried Schwanz