JPH0411417B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a belt reacher device for facilitating belt attachment by tilting forward a rotary arm having one end of a belt attached to its free end. The present invention relates to a belt reacher device improved to suitably control the movement of the rotary arm.

<Prior art> One end of a belt is attached to the free end of a rotary arm, and the rotary arm is tilted forward as the door is closed, thereby moving the tongue attached to the belt from the rear of the seat back to the front. A belt reacher device has been proposed to facilitate the attachment of the belt, but it is also possible to drive the rotary arm via a wire cable or the like using the force of closing the door. However, when driving the rotary arm with door closing force,
Since the winding biasing force of the retractor device that winds the belt acts, the force required to tilt the rotary arm forward changes greatly, which may impair the smooth movement of the rotary arm or cause the belt to move away from the retractor. The feeding action may not be performed properly.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, the main object of the present invention is to improve the rotary arm so that the movement of the rotary arm is smooth and the belt tensioning operation can be carried out suitably. An object of the present invention is to provide a belt reacher device.

<Means for Solving the Problems> According to the present invention, the tip of the seat belt pulled out from the retractor device and folded back downward above the retractor device is connected to its free end. The belt reaching device has a rotary arm that is rotatably driven in conjunction with the door so that the free end moves back and forth between a forward tilted position and a rearward tilted position. When the rotary arm is rotated in conjunction with the closing operation, the rotation resistance of the rotary arm is greater than the rotational resistance given to the rotary arm in the rotation range in which the seat belt is pulled out from the retractor device. One end of a rotation resistance imparting damper is connected to the rotary arm, and the damper applies greater rotation resistance to the rotary arm in a rotation range in which the seat belt is wound around the retractor device in accordance with the motion of the seat belt, This is achieved by providing a belt reacher device characterized in that the other end is connected to a member that pivotally supports the base end of the rotary arm.

<Function> According to such a configuration, the belt winding urging force of the retractor device, which causes the driving force required to rotate the rotary arm to change depending on the angle, is canceled.

<Embodiments> Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for explaining the operation of the belt reacher device according to the present invention, in which the belt 1 is let out from the retractor 2 and the through ring 3
After passing through, it is attached to the free end of the rotary arm 4. When the door is open, the rotary arm 4 is in a backward tilted position as shown by arrow B as shown by the imaginary line, and as the door is closed, it is tilted forward as shown by arrow A. It is designed to tilt towards the position. A tongue plate 5 is secured near the tip of the belt 1, and after the rotary arm 4 is tilted forward, the tongue plate 5 can be easily secured to the buckle 7 by the occupant sitting on the seat 6. become. This type of belt reacher device is designed so that the belt appears in an easy-to-attach area when the door is closed, so it effectively encourages the use of the belt without giving the occupant a feeling of restraint. be able to.
Also, when the door is opened, the rotary arm 4 tilts backward so that the belt 1 aligns with the center pillar.
The belt 1 is prevented from getting in the way when getting on and off the rear seat.

Although various drive sources can be used to drive such a belt reacher device, especially the rotary arm 4, in the case of this embodiment, a control cable 9 that transmits the door closing force is used.
is wound around a pulley fixed to the tilting shaft of the rotary arm 4, and the closing force of the door directly drives the rotary arm 4.

In this case, at the beginning of the rotation movement from the backward tilted position of the rotary arm 4 in the direction of arrow A, the length of the belt 1 that is let out from the retractor 2 is rather reduced, and the free end of the rotary arm 4 is rotated. When the belt 1 begins to lean forward beyond the apex of the arc of motion, the belt 1 will be let out from the retractor 2. Since the retractor 2 is generally biased by a spring in the direction of retracting the belt 1, the load applied to the rotary arm 4 increases rapidly after the rotary arm 4 tilts forward to a certain extent. As a result, inconveniences may occur, such as the smoothness of the rotary arm 4's movement being impaired, the door not closing properly, or the belt 1 not being properly fed out. Therefore, according to the present invention, in such a belt reacher device, there is provided a mechanism for imparting rotational resistance to the rotary arm 4 between the portion of the disk 8 that is integrally fixed to the pulley and the fixed portion. variable damper 10
are connected to reduce such load fluctuations.

2 to 4 schematically show the construction of such a reacher device according to the invention. The variable damper 10 comprises a cylinder 11 with a bracket 12 to be attached to a fixed part and two cavities 19 and 20 received within the cylinder.
and a piston 14 defining a . A sealing O-ring 15 is provided around the piston 14, and the piston rod 13 fixed to the piston 14 is inserted into the cylinder 1 in the opposite direction to the bracket.
It stands out from 1. The cavity 19 is thus sealed between the cylinder 11 and the piston 14, but the cavity 20 is communicated with the atmosphere by a hole 18 bored in the end plate on the side of the piston rod 13.

The inner wall of the cylinder 11 consists of a reduced diameter portion 16 on the left side and an enlarged diameter portion 17 on the right side in the same manner as in FIG. In addition, in order to exhibit suitable damping characteristics, the piston 14 is provided with an orifice (not shown), which provides appropriate damping against the force that attempts to pull out the piston 14 or the force that attempts to push the piston 14. It is designed to be able to exert a damping effect.

Now, if the piston 14 is located in the reduced diameter section 16 of the cylinder 11 as shown in FIG.
A relatively large force is required to pull out or push in the piston 14, but when the piston 14 is in the enlarged diameter portion 17 of the cylinder 11 as shown in FIG. Since air can pass through the outer periphery of the piston 14 relatively freely, the damping of the variable damper device 10 is extremely small.

Therefore, when the rotary arm 4 is in the rearward tilted position as shown in FIG. 2, the force required to rotate the rotary arm 4 is relatively large.
However, as shown in FIG. 3, when the piston 14 is located outside the enlarged diameter portion 17 in the cylinder 11, the damping force by the variable damper device 10 becomes extremely small, causing the rotary arm 4 to tilt forward. The contribution of the variable damper 10 to the force required to do so decreases rapidly. FIG. 4 shows the rotary arm 4 in its most forwardly inclined position.

The load applied to the driving force for rotating the rotary arm 4 mainly consists of the force for feeding out the belt 1 from the retractor 2 and the force generated by the variable damper 10. In addition, at the beginning of the rotation operation from the backward tilted position of the rotary arm 4, the load applied to the rotary arm is mainly due to the variable damper 10. The applied load mainly consists of the force required to feed out the belt 1 from the retractor 2. Therefore, by appropriately setting the damping force of the variable damper 10 and the position at which the damping force changes, it is possible to make the force required to drive the rotary arm 4 substantially constant.

5 to 8 show modified examples of cylinders suitable for use as the variable damper device 10. FIG. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 and 6,
The inner bore 21 of the cylinder 11' has the same inner diameter over its entire length, and at least one axial groove 22 is cut outwardly from an intermediate portion of the inner surface of the cylinder 11'. Therefore, when the piston 14 is pushed in as shown in FIG. 5, a relatively large damping force is generated, but when the piston 14 is pulled out as shown in FIG. In this state, the cavities defined before and after the piston 14 are communicated with each other by the groove 22, so that the damping force of the damper device is significantly reduced.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a hole 24 communicating with the outside air is bored in the intermediate portion of the cylinder 11' defining an inner hole 23 having a constant inner diameter. Therefore, as shown in Figure 7,
When the piston 14 is pushed in, the cavity defined on the left side of the piston 14 is isolated from the atmosphere, so the damper device generates a relatively large damping force. As described above, when the piston 14 is pulled out beyond the through hole 24, the cavities defined at the front and rear of the piston 14 are drawn out through the hole 24, respectively.
4 and through the hole 18, the damping force of the damper device is significantly reduced.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to preferred embodiments,
It is possible to carry out the invention with various modifications without departing from the concept of the invention.

For example, the variable damper is not limited to the piston-cylinder type described above, but a torsion type or other types of variable dampers may be used. Furthermore, by adding an orifice with a check valve to the piston, different damping characteristics can be generated between the forward and return paths of the piston. According to the structure of the above embodiment, when opening the door, that is, when the rotary arm rotates from the forward tilted position to the rearward tilted position, the driving torque (door opening operation force) is applied to the door from the forward tilted position to the upright position. The range from the upright position to the rear tilting position tends to be smaller, and the range from the upright position to the rearward tilting position tends to be larger, but this gives a sense of moderation at the intermediate opening angle of the door, and can be said to be a positive trend in terms of usability. .

<Effects> By attaching a relatively simple device such as an air damper to the rotary arm 4 in this way, the force required to drive the rotary arm 4 can be made substantially constant. Therefore, when driving the rotary arm using an external force such as a door closing force, it is possible to smooth the operation of the rotary arm 4 and to suitably feed out the belt.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the operation of a belt reacher device according to the present invention. 2 to 4 are longitudinal cross-sectional views showing an embodiment of the damper structure of the belt reacher device according to the present invention. 5 and 6 are longitudinal sectional views showing other embodiments of cylinder devices suitable for use with the present invention. 7 and 8 are views similar to FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively, showing still another embodiment of the cylinder device. 1... Belt, 2... Retractor, 3... Through ring, 4... Rotary arm, 5... Tongue plate, 6... Seat, 7... Buckle, 8...
...Disk, 9...Control cable, 10...
Variable damper device, 11, 11', 11''...Cylinder, 12...Bracket, 13...Piston rod, 14...Piston, 15...O ring, 16
...Reduced diameter portion, 17... Expanded diameter portion, 18... Through hole, 19, 20... Vacancy, 21... Inner hole, 22...
... groove, 23 ... inner hole, 24 ... hole.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. The leading end of the seat belt that is pulled out from the retractor device and folded downward above the retractor device is connected to its free end, and the seat belt is pulled out from the retractor device and folded downward above the retractor device. A belt reacher device having a rotary arm that is rotationally driven in conjunction with a door so that the free end moves back and forth, the rotary arm being rotationally driven in conjunction with the closing operation of the door. In this case, the rotation resistance given to the rotary arm in the rotation range in which the seat belt is pulled out from the retractor device,
One end of the rotation resistance imparting damper is configured to apply greater rotation resistance to the rotary arm in a rotation range in which the seat belt is wound around the retractor device in accordance with the rotation of the rotary arm. A belt reacher device, characterized in that the belt reacher is connected to an arm, and the other end is connected to a member that pivotally supports the base end of the rotary arm.