Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Yasushi Kawamura

Takahiro Kamei

Yasuki Motozawa

Kazuya Yoshida

Makoto Tsuruta

Tatsuo Iwabe

A lock plate and a movable plate are provided to fix a seat at an optional position, and an actuator is provided between the seat and the movable plate. The seat is moved to the rear of a vehicle body in an initial stage of impact by the actuator. Acceleration is generated in the seat through impact abutment of a collapsible tube in the actuator against a piston head in an intermediate stage of impact. In a final stage of the impact, the seat is made integral with the vehicle body. The deceleration of the vehicle body and the seat and the deceleration of an occupant can be made equal to each other at an earlier timing. The apparatus can be installed by making use of a space under the seat, whereby the necessity of securing a special vacant space for installation of the apparatus can be obviated.

Vehicle occupant protection apparatus

A lock plate and a movable plate are provided to fix a seat at an optional position, and an actuator is provided between the seat and the movable plate. The seat is moved to the rear of a vehicle body in an initial stage of impact by the actuator. Acceleration is generated in the seat through impact abutment of a collapsible tube in the actuator against a piston head in an intermediate stage of impact. In a final stage of the impact, the seat is made integral with the vehicle body. The deceleration of a vehicle body and a seat and the deceleration of an occupant can be made equal to each other at an earlier timing. The apparatus can be installed by making use of a space under the seat, whereby the necessity of securing a special vacant space for installation of the apparatus can be obviated.

As a moveable part of the vehicle body carrying a vehicle seat moves rearward under the action of an active or passive power source as a result of a vehicle crash, the seat belt which is anchored at the moveable part at one end and a fixed part of the vehicle body at another end is pulled rearward, and performs the function to apply a deceleration to the vehicle occupant in an early phase of the vehicle crash. This is followed by a slight slackening of the seat belt as the moveable part is subjected to a forward force. The active power source typically consists of a high pressure gas generating device, and a passive power source typically consists of a G control member which transmits the deceleration of a vehicle crash to the vehicle occupant from an early phase of the crash, and/or a stopper which applies a forward force to the moveable part as the moveable part moves rearward by a prescribed distance under the action of the power source. Thus, an early application of a forward deceleration followed by the application of an acceleration which tends to mitigate the unacceptable sharp rise of the deceleration of the vehicle occupant achieves a desirable time history of deceleration for the vehicle occupant, and minimizes the injury to the vehicle occupant for a given stroke of deformation of the vehicle body.

Vehicle occupant protection system

Provided is a seat belt pretensioner device for a seat belt having a plurality of anchor points attached to different parts of a vehicle body which includes a G control vehicle body member which deforms in a different pattern from a remaining part of the vehicle body at the time of a vehicle crash. One of the anchor points, which typically consists of a seat belt buckle, is attached to the G control vehicle body member via a force transmitting member such as a cable member which is adapted to move the anchor point in a direction to increase a tension of the seat belt at the time of a vehicle crash. A seat belt pretensioner device can be thus achieved in a simple manner without requiring any special power actuator.

Seat belt pretensioner device powered by vehicle body deformation

The vehicle occupant protection system can significantly reduce the peak deceleration of the vehicle occupant even with a small vehicle body. The system comprises a seat supported on a vehicle body so as to be slidable in a direction of an input crash load resulting from a vehicle crash; a first member connected to the seat and adapted to deform under the crash load upon occurrence of a vehicle crash; a second member connected to a main part of the vehicle body and adapted to deform under the crash load; and a power actuator for applying a forward force to the seat relative to the vehicle body with a certain time delay after the occurrence of the vehicle crash; the first member being adapted to substantially deform only after the forward force is applied to the seat upon occurrence of a vehicle crash. Thus, in case of a vehicle crash or other high deceleration situations, the seat is accelerated rearward upon the occurrence of a vehicle crash by the first member resisting deformation while the second member deforms so that the restraining capability of the seat belt is enhanced. Thereafter, an acceleration in the opposite direction is applied to the seat by the application of the forward force to the seat relative to the vehicle body so that the equalization of the decelerations of the vehicle body and the vehicle occupant is achieved in an early stage of the crash.

In an automotive vehicle body structure comprising a seat carrying member that is moveable with respect to the main part of the vehicle body at the time of a vehicle crash so as to reduce the peak deceleration of the vehicle occupant in the seat, the seat carrying member comprises an elongated member extending in a fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle body and having a portion adapted to be deformable at the time of a vehicle crash. The seat is preferably connected to the elongated member of the seat carrying member at a widthwise center of the seat so that at the time of a vehicle crash, the inertial force of the seat and the vehicle occupant will act in the direction that the elongated member extends and substantially no horizontal moment will be applied on the seat carrying member. A seat position adjustment mechanism is preferably provided between the seat and the elongated member of the seat carrying member.

Automotive vehicle body structure

In a vehicle occupant protection system, the seat is subjected to a forward deceleration by a power actuator following a frontal vehicle crash substantially without any time delay, and following a rearward movement of the seat with respect to the vehicle body by a prescribed distance, the seat is subjected to a forward acceleration by a stopper attached to a vehicle body to prevent any excessive rise in the forward deceleration of the vehicle occupant. Thereafter, the vehicle seat is required to move substantially integrally with the vehicle body to allow the vehicle occupant to decelerate at a tolerable deceleration level by virtue of a controlled deformation of the vehicle body, and the one-way motion mechanism ensures the vehicle seat to move jointly with the vehicle body once the stopper has stopped the rearward movement of the seat.

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Wako, Japan

Yasushi Kawamura