JPH0116163B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a buckle for a push-button seat belt used in automobiles, aircraft, etc., and in particular, the buckle of a push-button seat belt is used to attach and detach a tongue by utilizing the spring function of a built-in spring member. Regarding seat belt buckle.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Generally, the buckle of this type of seat belt is constructed as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 48-9024, and by inserting the tongue into the buckle body, the latch engages with the latch engagement hole of the tongue and is locked.
The tongue is designed to be prevented from being pulled out.

In this type of seat belt buckle, when inserting the tongue into the buckle body, it reliably prevents a false latch engagement, and once the buckle is completely latched and locked, the buckle is protected from impact. What is the best way to ensure that the latch of the tongue is held securely in the locked state without being released even when the latch is applied, and furthermore, that the push button for releasing the latch can be operated with light force? It was becoming a problem. Also,
Conventional seat belt buckles have a very complex mechanism built-in and a large number of parts, making assembly difficult and leading to high costs.

In addition, regarding the seat belt buckle described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 48-9024, if some impact load is applied to the buckle and the cover is damaged or removed, the push button may come off and the latch spring may become unlatched. There was a problem that the spring function could not be demonstrated, and the buckle body lost its buckle function.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention takes the above-mentioned points into consideration and provides a seat belt buckle that has a small number of parts, has a simple internal structure, is easy to assemble, and that reliably prevents the occurrence of a false latch engagement. With the goal.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a seat belt buckle in which the buckle body can sufficiently maintain its function even if the cover is damaged or removed due to some impact load being applied to the buckle. .

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the seat belt buckle according to the present invention includes a base having a horizontal plate portion and side plate portions cut and raised substantially vertically on both sides, and a seat belt buckle formed on both side plate portions of the base. a latch whose ears are inserted into support holes and supported so as to be swingable between a release position and a lock position; a spring member attached to the base so as to constantly bias the latch toward the lock position; , a push button attached to the front end of the side plate portions of the base, and a tongue inserted along the upper surface of the base and engaged with the latch to be locked; A locking protrusion bent inwardly is formed to face the locking protrusion, and an engaging groove provided at the front end of the push button and opening upward is engaged with the locking protrusion, and the push button is held in the locking position. The push button is mounted in a cantilevered manner by being positioned on the inner guide projection located below the locking projection, and the push button has an engaging projection on the front end side of the latch, and the push button has an engaging projection on the front end side of the latch. The projection is such that when the push button is pressed, the latch swings into the release position against the spring force of the spring member.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of a seat belt buckle according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 and 2 are perspective views showing essential parts of the seat belt buckle according to the present invention, and reference numeral 10 in the figures indicates the buckle body of the push-button buckle. The buckle main body 10 has a base 11, and the base 11 has a plate-shaped horizontal plate portion 12 formed in the center thereof. Both sides of the horizontal plate part 12 are cut and raised substantially vertically to form side plate parts 13. Support holes 14 are formed in the front part of the side plate part 13 to face each other, and a bulge part 15 that bulges outward is formed at the rear of the support hole 14. Guide groove 1 that guides 16
7. The rear of the guide groove 17 is cut out obliquely upward, and a guide opening 18 is opened at the rear end.
The front of the guide groove 17 is connected to the support hole 1.
Connected to 4. The latch 16 inserted through the rear guide port 18 is guided through the guide groove 17 and reaches the support hole 14, and is supported within the support hole 14 so as to be swingable between the tongue release position and the lock position.

The latch 16 is connected to the base plate portion 20 and the balance weight portion 2 as shown in FIGS.
1 are integrally molded into a substantially dogleg shape, and the center portion of the base plate portion 20 is formed with a recessed portion projecting downward, and this recessed portion is configured as a hook 22. A positioning engagement hole 23 is bored approximately in the center of the concave portion, while ears 24 are integrally molded at both ends of the base plate portion 20, and these ears 24 are connected to the support holes 14 of the base 11 described above. inserted and supported. At this time, the ear axis (swing center axis) CL connecting both ear parts 24 is adjusted by the balance weight part 21 so that it passes through the center of gravity of the latch 16, and the ear axis CL of the latch 16 passes through the center of gravity, so that the base Even if a shock load is applied to the latch 11, the latch 16 is not adversely affected by it.

The latch 16 is held on the base 11 by a spring member 25 shown in FIG. 5 so as to be always biased toward the lock position. The spring member 25 is a second
It is configured as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5,
It has side locking portions 26 that lock into the support holes 14 of both side plate portions of the base. The side locking portion 26 has locking claws 26a that protrude outward and upward on both sides.
6a is engaged with the upper engagement groove 14a of the support hole 14 and positioned. The locking portions 26 on both sides are connected by a locking spring portion 27. This lock spring portion 27 is curved downward in a large arc shape, and a positioning protrusion 28 is formed in the center of the lock spring portion 27 and protrudes downward. The spring is always biased toward the lock position. At this time, the engagement restricts the movement of the latch 16 in the front-rear direction.

Further, a return spring portion 29 extends forward and upward from the center of the lock spring portion 27 of the spring member 25. The spring force of the return spring portion 29 is adjusted by a window hole 29a and a bulging portion 29b formed on the base side, while the bulging portion 29b has its base side and tip side punched out on the window hole side. The connected state is broken by the punched wire 29c, but in order to prevent the spring member 25 from becoming entangled during assembly, the punched wire portions are butted against each other and aligned in the same plane while the spring member 25 is free. be located.

Further, the return spring portion 29 is in contact with the ventral side of a push button 30, which will be described later, and is constantly biased upward so as to return the push button 30 to its original position.

The push button 30 is shown in FIGS. 3 and 6.
As shown in FIGS. 8 through 8, it is made of a resin material (or a metal material may be used), and its front end is reinforced with a thick portion formed in the width direction. pushbutton 3
Engagement grooves 31 that open upward are provided on both sides of the front end of the
are formed in pairs, and this engagement groove 31
As shown in the figure, it is engaged with the locking projections 32 on the upper front end portions of the base side plates 13. Thereby, the push button 30 is held in a cantilever shape. At this time, the upper front end portions of the base side plates 13 are deflected inward, and the locking projections 32 are bent inward from this displaced portion, thereby reducing the interval between the locking projections 32, 32. Can be done. This makes it possible to reduce the width of the front end (base) of the push button 30, and even when the push button 30 is made of a resin material, sufficient strength on the base side can be maintained. In addition, the pushbutton 30 held
is located on the guide inner protrusion 33 located below the locking protrusion 32.

A pair of engagement protrusions 34 are integrally molded on the base side abdomen of the push button 30 so as to bulge out on both sides. This engagement protrusion 34 engages with the front end (balance weight part) side of the latch 16, so that when the push button 30 is pressed down, the balance weight part 21 of the latch 16 is pushed down and the latch 16 is brought to the release position. It's getting old.

By the way, the horizontal plate portion 12 of the base 11,
A guide path 39 for guiding the insertion of the tongue 38 is formed between the latch 16, the spring member 25, and the inner guide projection 33, and the tongue 38 is inserted and removed through this guide path 39. tongue 38
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the latch 16
It has a latch engagement hole 40 that can be engaged with the seat belt, and a mounting hole 41 that can be attached to the webbing of the seat belt.
By approaching the buckle body 10 from the front and inserting the tongue 38 along its guide path 39, the insertion end of the tongue 38 pushes the base plate portion 20 of the latch 16 open against the spring force of the spring member 25. By further inserting the tongue 38 from this state, the latch 16 engages with the latch engagement hole 40 under the action of the spring force of the spring member 25, and the tongue 38 is locked and completely latched.
This restricts the tongue 38 from being pulled out.

Further, the buckle body 10 is covered with a cover 44 after being assembled as shown in FIG. The cover 44 is constructed as shown in FIGS. 3, 9, and 10, and has an opening 45 at the top for pressing the push button 30. A guide column 46 is suspended from the front top of this opening 45. This guide post 46 passes through a guide hole 47 of the push button 30 and a window hole 29a of the spring member 25 for guidance. Webbing attachment holes 4 are provided at the rear end of the cover 44.
8 is formed, and the seat belt webbing (not shown) is attached by passing through this attachment hole 48 and the attachment hole 49 of the base 11.

Next, the function of the buckle of the push-button seat belt will be explained with reference to FIG.

Before the tongue 38 is inserted into the buckle body 10, the buckle is held as shown in FIG. The pushbutton 30 has a cover 44
It is maintained at the original position by the stopper action of the stopper portion 44a. On the other hand, the latch 16 is connected to the spring member 25.
The lock spring portion 27 is biased toward the lock position and held at that position.

When the tongue 38 is inserted along the guide path 39 of the buckle body 10 from the state shown in FIG. The tongue 38 is pushed up toward the release position against the spring force of the portion 27, allowing the tongue 38 to be inserted further into the interior. When the tongue 38 is further inserted from this state and the latch engagement hole 40 is inserted to the position corresponding to the latch 16, the latch 16 is pushed toward the lock position by the spring force of the lock spring portion 35 of the spring member 25. , as shown in FIG. 11B, the latch 16
The latch pawl 22 engages with the latch engagement hole 40, and the tongue 38 is locked. This allows tongue 3
8 is fully latched and its removal is reliably and completely prevented. Furthermore, when inserting the tongue 38 into the buckle body 10, the latch 16 is always biased toward the lock position by the spring member 25, so if the tongue 38 is inserted a predetermined amount,
The tongue is positively locked and false latching is completely prevented.

To pull out the tongue 38 from the locked state (fully latched state) shown in FIG. 11B, the push button 30 is pushed down against the spring force of the return spring portion 29 of the spring member 25.
When the push button 30 is pressed down, the push button 30 rotates around the locking protrusion 32 on the base, and the engagement protrusion 34 of the push button 30 presses down the balance weight part 21 of the latch 16 with a large force by the principle of leverage, and the latch is closed. 16 is rotated against the spring force of the lock spring portion 27 toward the release position as shown in FIG. 11C. This rotation of latch 16 causes latch pawl 22 and tang 38 of latch 16 to
is disengaged from the latch engagement hole 40, and the tongue 38 is released. Therefore, the tongue 38 can be easily pulled out from the buckle body 10.

In this case, the latch 16 is connected to the support hole 14 of the side plate 13 of the base 11 so that its pivot axis is
Since CL is supported so as to pass through the center of gravity of the latch 16, even if a large impact load is applied to the base body 10, the latch 16 will not automatically rotate toward the release position due to this impact load. , not affected by impact loads.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the seat belt buckle according to the present invention is basically composed of a few parts including the base, tongue, latch, spring member, and push button, so the structure is simple and the assembly is simple. It is easy to manufacture, inexpensive, and economical.

In addition, since the spring member always biases the latch toward the lock position, when the tongue engaging hole of the tongue is inserted to the corresponding position of the latch, it is reliably locked by the pressing action of the spring force, and the lock is locked. Engagement is prevented in advance and reliably.

Furthermore, when pulling out the tongue, by simply pressing the push button, the latch can be smoothly guided to the release position against the spring force of the spring member due to the principle of leverage, and the tongue is reliably released. Can be easily pulled out.

In addition, if the pivot axis of the latch, which is supported by the support hole formed in the side plate of the base, passes through the center of gravity of the latch, even if a large impact load is applied to the buckle, this impact load will be Therefore, the latch is not brought to the release position and is not adversely affected by impact loads.

Furthermore, since the push button is attached to the front end of the side panels of the base and the engagement protrusion that engages with the latch is formed on the abdomen of the push button, the push button is attached to the attachment part of the spring member, and the attachment part is attached to both sides of the base. Unlike the previous case where the spring member was attached to the front end of the plate, there is no need to form a mounting part or latch engagement protrusion on the spring member, so the structure of the spring member is simplified and the spring members are not complicatedly intertwined with each other during assembly. can be effectively prevented.

Furthermore, the buckle of this seat belt is supported by a cover at the upper front end of both side panels of the base through the engagement groove, the locking protrusion formed on both side panels of the base, and the inner guide protrusion. It is mounted in a cantilevered manner without any problems, and has a support structure that prevents it from coming off even if the pushbutton is moved forward, backward, left, or right. Therefore, even if some impact load is applied to the buckle and the cover is damaged or comes off,
The push button, which is a functional part of the buckle, does not come off, and the buckle function can be maintained sufficiently.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the seat belt buckle according to the present invention with the cover removed;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the push button removed from the buckle shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the spring member incorporated in the buckle, FIG. 6 is a plan view of the push button, FIG. 7 is a side view taken along the line - in FIG. 6, and FIG. Bottom view of pushbutton, No. 9
The figure is a bottom view of the buckle cover, Figure 10 is a sectional view taken along the - line in Figure 9, and Figures 11A and B.
and C are simplified diagrams showing the action of attaching and detaching the buckle of the seat belt according to the present invention. 10...Batsukuru body, 11...Base, 12
...Horizontal plate part, 13...Side plate part, 14...Support hole, 16...Latch, 17...Guide groove, 20...
... Base plate part, 21 ... Balance weight part, 24 ... Ear part, 25 ... Spring member, 26 ...
Side locking part, 27...Lock spring part, 29...Return spring part, 30...Push button, 31...
...Engagement groove, 32...Latching protrusion, 34...Engagement protrusion, 38...Tang, 39...Guide path, 44...
…cover.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A base having a horizontal plate portion and side plate portions cut and raised substantially vertically on both sides, and an ear portion inserted into a support hole formed in both side plate portions of the base, and a release position. a latch supported so as to be able to swing between the latch and the lock position; a spring member attached to the base so as to constantly bias the latch toward the lock position; and a spring member attached to the front end of both side plates of the base. and a tongue inserted along the upper surface of the base and engaged with the latch to be locked, and a locking protrusion bent inward at the upper front end of each side plate of the base. are formed facing each other, and an engaging groove provided at the front end of the push button and opening upward engages with the locking protrusion, and
The push button is mounted in a cantilever shape by positioning the push button on the inner guide protrusion located below the locking protrusion, and furthermore, the push button has an engaging protrusion on the front end side of the latch. The seat belt buckle is characterized in that, when the push button is pressed, the engaging protrusion swings the latch to the release position against the spring force of the spring member. 2. The seat according to claim 1, wherein a pair of engagement protrusions are integrally molded on the front of the abdomen of the push button on both sides, and the engagement protrusions are engaged with the front end side of the latch. Belt buckle. 3. The latch, which is swingably supported in the support holes of both side plates of the base, is configured such that the swing center axis connecting both ears passes through the center of gravity of the latch. Seat belt buckle. 4. According to claim 1, the latch is constructed by integrally molding a base plate portion and a balance weight portion in a substantially dogleg shape, and a latch pawl that projects downward is formed in the center portion of the base plate. Seat belt buckle. 5. The spring member includes a side locking portion that is locked in the support hole on both sides of the base, and a lock spring portion that connects the both side locking portions and biases the latch toward the lock position. Claim 1: The lock spring has a return spring that extends diagonally upward forward from the lock spring to return the push button to its original position, and the lock spring has a positioning protrusion that engages with a positioning hole in the latch. Seat belt buckle as described in section. 6. Both sides of the base have bulges that bulge outward, and the inner sides of both bulges are formed as guide grooves leading to the support hole, and the latch slides through the guide groove and connects to the support hole. The seat belt buckle according to claim 1, which is adapted to be stored and held.