Belt buckle for a vehicle safety belt

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9907366-B2
Application number	US-201314652930-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2013
Priority date	Dec 20, 2012
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A belt buckle for a vehicle safety belt, comprising a housing ( 3 ) which is formed by at least two housing shells ( 1,2 ) joined together and in which a locking mechanism ( 4 ) is arranged, and a pushbutton ( 22 ), provided on said housing, for operating the locking mechanism ( 4 ), wherein at least two housing shells ( 1,2 ) are joined together at their shell rims and that elongated cover strips ( 8,9 ) made of solid material and covering the mutually abutting rims ( 17,18 ) of the housing shells ( 1,2 ) are fixed to the joined housing shells ( 1,2 ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A belt buckle for a vehicle safety belt, comprising:
a housing ( 3 ) which is formed by at least two housing shells ( 1 , 2 ) joined together,
a locking mechanism ( 4 ) arranged in said housing, and
a pushbutton ( 22 ) provided on said housing for operating the locking mechanism ( 4 ),
wherein the at least two housing shells ( 1 , 2 ) are joined together at mutually abutting shell rims, and wherein elongated cover strips ( 8 , 9 ) are fixed to the joined housing shells ( 1 , 2 ), said elongated cover strips are formed of solid material and cover the mutually abutting shell rims ( 17 , 18 ) of the housing shells ( 1 , 2 ).

2. The belt buckle according to claim 1 , wherein the elongated cover strips ( 8 , 9 ) are adapted to secure the housing shells ( 1 , 2 ) to each other.

3. The belt buckle according to claim 1 , wherein said engaging members ( 6 , 7 ) overlap in their engaged position, and wherein said engaging members ( 6 , 7 ) are adapted for a predefined movement which is substantially parallel to the mutually abutting shell rims ( 17 , 18 ) of the housing shells ( 1 , 2 ), in order to join the housing shells ( 1 , 2 ) to each other.

4. The belt buckle according to claim 1 , wherein said engaging members ( 6 , 7 ) comprise stop faces ( 10 , 11 ), wherein said stop faces prevent a sliding movement transverse to said predefined movement during joining said at least two housing shells ( 1 , 2 ) to each other.

5. The belt buckle according to claim 1 comprising at least one first securing member ( 12 ) provided on an inner surface of the respective cover strips ( 8 , 9 ) which faces the joined housing shells, and wherein said first securing member is in engagement with at least one corresponding second securing member ( 13 ) formed on said joined housing shells ( 1 , 2 ).

6. The belt buckle according to claim 1 , wherein said elongated cover strips ( 8 , 9 ) are fixed to a ring ( 14 ) which is arranged about said housing shells ( 1 , 2 ) joined to each other.

7. The belt buckle according to claim 6 , wherein said ring ( 14 ) and said cover strips ( 8 , 9 ) are formed of a one-piece construction.

8. The belt buckle according to claim 1 , wherein said cover strips ( 8 , 9 ) are formed as clamp members.

9. The belt buckle according to claim 1 , wherein the cover strips ( 8 , 9 ) are formed of metal or plastic material.

10. The belt buckle according to claim 1 wherein said at least two housing shells ( 1 , 2 ) each comprise a surface covering ( 15 , 16 ), wherein edges of said surface coverings ( 15 , 16 ) are covered by said cover strips ( 8 , 9 ).

11. The belt buckle according to claim 10 , wherein said surface coverings ( 15 , 16 ) are made of a material, which is different from that of the housing shells.

12. The belt buckle according to claim 11 , wherein the material said surface coverings are made of is at least one of the group of materials comprising: leather, imitation leather, plastic, textile fabric, carbon fibre fabric, metal.

13. The belt buckle according to claim 10 , wherein said surface coverings ( 15 , 16 ) are in the form of a coating.

14. The belt buckle according to claim 10 , wherein said surface coverings ( 15 , 16 ) are in the form of second cover shells ( 19 , 20 ).

15. The belt buckle according to claim 10 , wherein said surface coverings ( 15 , 16 ) consist of a sound-absorbing material.

16. The belt buckle according to claim 10 , wherein a sound-absorbing structured surface is provided on an outer surface of at least one of said surface coverings ( 15 , 16 ).

17. The belt buckle according to claim 1 , wherein said pushbutton ( 22 ) has a surface covering ( 38 ) made of a material, which is different from that of the housing shells, is selected from the group of materials comprising: leather, imitation leather, plastic, textile fabric, carbon fibre fabric, metal, sound-absorbing material; or comprise a sound-absorbing structured surface.

18. The belt buckle according to claim 1 , wherein a portion of said pushbutton which is located adjacent to an insertion opening ( 24 ) for a belt tongue ( 26 ) attached to a safety belt ( 25 ), has a harder surface than a surface covering ( 38 ) which is disposed on a portion of said pushbutton onto which pressure can be manually applied.

19. The belt buckle according to claim 18 , wherein said harder surface of said portion of said pushbutton having said harder surface is formed by post-curing the material of the surface covering ( 38 ).

20. The belt buckle according to claim 18 , wherein said harder surface is formed by applying a hardening coating to the surface covering ( 38 ).

Assignees

• Key Safety Systems Inc

Inventors

• Krauss Walter
• Schrott Thomas
• Seer Mark
• Baer Michael
• Specht Martin

Classifications

• A44B11/2515

  acting parallel to the main plane of the buckle and perpendicularly to the direction of the fastening action · CPC title

• B60Q3/64

  for a single lighting device · CPC title

• A44B11/2546

  Details · CPC title

• B60Q3/82

  Switches specially adapted for vehicle interior lighting, e.g. switching by tilting the lens · CPC title

• F21V33/0064

  Health, life-saving or fire-fighting equipment · CPC title