Animal harness

Abstract

To provide an animal harness capable of appropriately holding an animal, while suppressing a burden on the animal.SOLUTION: An animal harness 10 includes a chest pad 12, a pair of annular belts 14 extending on both sides of the chest pad 12, and a resin adjuster 28 for adjusting a length of each of the pair of annular belts 14, where each of the pair of annular belts 14 includes an inner belt piece 20 extending from the chest pad 12, and an outer belt piece 22 extending from the chest pad 12 and having a portion of its end overlapping the outer side of the inner belt piece 20, the end 22 of the outer belt piece being sewn to the inner belt piece 20, the outer belt piece 22 and the inner belt piece 20 being passed through the adjuster 28 at the overlapping part thereof, and a part of a body of the animal 100 is passed through a loop of the annular belt 14.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present specification discloses an animal harness that is used in conjunction with a vehicle seat belt to protect the animal's body from a collision impact. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, there have been cases where animals such as dogs are placed in the vehicle seat while the vehicle is traveling. In such cases, animal harnesses have been proposed to protect the body of the animal placed in the seat from the impact of a collision accident.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an animal harness that includes a pair of main belts that pass from the front of the dog's back to the sides of the chest, pass under the inside of the front legs, and wrap around the center of the back; a chest belt that is stretched between the main belts that are positioned on the dog's chest; and a back belt that is stretched between a desired portion of the main belts that is positioned on the front of the dog's back and a desired portion that is positioned on the center of the back. In this case, the back belts are provided with a loop through which a vehicle seatbelt can pass, and a length adjuster that adjusts the length of the back belt. Such a harness can provide some degree of protection for the body of an animal, such as a dog. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-335515 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, with the harness of Patent Document 1, it was not possible to adjust the length of the main belt wrapped around the dog's body. As a result, the technology of Patent Document 1 could potentially fail to properly hold the animal's body. Furthermore, with the technology of Patent Document 1, a length adjuster is provided on the back belt through which the seat belt is inserted. If this length adjuster is damaged by the impact of a vehicle collision, the connection between the seat belt and the harness is released, making it impossible to properly hold the animal. To avoid this problem, it is conceivable to make the length adjuster out of a strong metal. However, if the length adjuster is made out of metal, the weight of the harness increases, which increases the burden on the animal wearing the harness.

[0006] Therefore, this specification discloses an animal harness that can appropriately hold an animal while minimizing the burden on the animal. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The animal harness disclosed in this specification is an animal harness comprising: a pad that contacts the chest of the animal; a pair of circular belts that extend on either side of the pad, each forming a loop that emerges from the pad and returns to the pad; and a resin adjuster that adjusts the length of each of the pair of circular belts, wherein each of the pair of circular belts comprises an inner belt piece that extends from the pad and an outer belt piece that extends from the pad and has a portion from its end that is overlapped on the outside of the inner belt piece, the end of the outer belt piece is sewn to the inner belt piece, the outer belt piece and the inner belt piece are passed through the adjuster at the overlapping portions, a part of the animal's body is passed through the loop of the circular belt, and a vehicle seat belt is passed between the overlapping inner belt piece and the outer belt piece. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] The animal harness disclosed in this specification has the ends of the outer belt pieces sewn to the inner belt pieces, so that even if the adjuster is broken, the animal can be adequately protected. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an animal harness. [Figure 2] 2A and 2B are a schematic diagram showing how a harness is attached and a schematic cross-sectional view of a main part. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a perspective view of another animal harness. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] The structure of an animal harness 10 will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the harness 10. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing how the harness 10 is worn and a schematic cross-sectional view of the main parts. The harness 10 is a device for protecting the body of an animal, such as a dog, seated in a vehicle seat from impact during a vehicle collision. As will be described in detail later, the harness 10 is used together with a seat belt 110 attached to the vehicle. For convenience, when the harness 10 is worn on an animal 100, the side closer to the animal's head will be referred to as the "front" and the side closer to the buttocks will be referred to as the "rear."

[0011] The harness 10 includes a chest pad 12, a pair of circular belts 14R, 14L, an adjuster 28, and a pair of connecting bands 40. The chest pad 12 is a sheet member that is placed against the chest of the animal 100. The chest pad 12 is approximately rectangular and flexible enough to be deformable to fit the body surface of the animal 100.

[0012] A right circular belt 14R and a left circular belt 14L are attached to the chest pad 12. In the following description, when there is no distinction between left and right, they will simply be referred to as "circular belts 14." In the following description, the direction toward the chest pad 12 when viewed from the circular belt 14 will be referred to as the "inside," and the direction away from the chest pad 12 will be referred to as the "outside."

[0013] The circular belt 14 is a circular belt member that extends from the chest pad 12 and returns to the chest pad 12. This circular belt 14 includes an inner belt piece 20 and an outer belt piece 22. The inner belt piece 20 is a belt piece that extends forward from near the rear end of the chest pad 12. The outer belt piece 22 is a belt piece that extends backward from near the front end of the chest pad 12. A portion of the outer belt piece 22 extends so as to overlap the outside of the inner belt piece 20, and the end of the outer belt piece 22 is sewn in an overlapping state to the outer surface of the inner belt piece 20. In Figures 1 and 2, reference numeral 26 indicates the sewn portion where the end of the outer belt piece 22 and the inner belt piece 20 are sewn together. Furthermore, the outer belt piece 22 and the inner belt piece 20 are both passed through an adjuster 28 at the overlapping portions. This adjuster 28 will be described later.

[0014] As is clear from Fig. 1, there is a circular inner loop formed between the inner belt piece 20 and the chest pad 12, and an outer loop formed between the inner belt piece 20 and the outer belt piece 22. As shown in Fig. 2, the front legs of the animal 100 are passed through the inner loop. Also, the seat belt 110 is passed through the outer loop.

[0015] Here, the left and right circular belts 14R, 14L are composed of two belt tapes 16a, 16b. In FIG. 1, the first belt tape 16a is indicated by light ink hatching, and the second belt tape 16b is indicated by dark ink hatching. Each belt tape 16 has an inner belt piece 20 of one of the left and right circular belts 14, an outer belt piece 22 of the other of the left and right circular belts 14, and a pad connecting portion 24 that is connected to the chest pad 12. The pad connecting portion 24 is the portion of the belt tape 16 that is connected to the chest pad 12. For example, the first belt tape 16a has the inner belt piece 20 of the right circular belt 14R, the outer belt piece 22 of the left circular belt 14L, and the pad connecting portion 24. The pad connecting portion 24 of the first belt tape 16a is sewn to the chest pad 12 as it moves from the right rear to the left front of the chest pad 12. Similarly, the second belt tape 16b has an inner belt piece 20 of the left circular belt 14L, an outer belt piece 22 of the right circular belt 14R, and a pad connecting portion 24. The pad connecting portion 24 of the second belt tape 16b is sewn to the chest pad 12 as it moves from the rear left of the chest pad 12 to the front right.

[0016] The adjuster 28 is a resin device that restrains the belt by friction. By making the adjuster 28 out of resin, the overall weight of the harness 10 can be reduced, and the burden on the animal 100 wearing the harness 10 can be reduced.

[0017] The adjuster 28 in this example is a member in the shape of the Chinese character 'Ri' with two holes through which the belt passes. The adjuster 28 has three bars 29 (see Fig. 2) extending in the width direction of the belt. As shown in Fig. 2, the inner belt piece 20 and the outer belt piece 22 are passed through the holes of the adjuster 28 so as to straddle these three bars 29 in a zigzag manner. When the inner belt piece 20 and the outer belt piece 22 are pulled in the longitudinal direction with the adjuster 28 mounted, the movement of the belt pieces 20, 22 relative to the adjuster 28 is restricted by friction, and the position of the adjuster 28 relative to the belt pieces 20, 22 is maintained. On the other hand, when the inner belt piece 20 and the outer belt piece 22 are pulled in the perpendicular direction, the friction is small, so the inner belt piece 20 and the outer belt piece 22 can be pulled out from the adjuster 28. Thereby, the position of the adjuster 28 relative to the belt pieces 20, 22 can be changed. And when the position of the adjuster 28 relative to the belt pieces 20, 22 is changed, the loop length of the inner loop is changed. That is, as the adjuster 28 moves away from the end of the inner belt piece 20 and closer to the proximal end of the outer belt piece 22, the loop length of the inner loop becomes smaller. And thereby, the loop length of the inner loop can be changed according to the physique of the animal 100.

[0018] The connecting band 40 is a band for fixing the harness 10 to the animal 100. In this example, two connecting bands 40 are provided at intervals in the front and rear. Each connecting band 40 connects the right annular belt 14R and the left annular belt 14L, and a connecting buckle 42 is provided in the middle thereof. When the harness 10 is worn on the animal 100, with the connecting buckle 42 released, the front legs of the animal 100 are passed through the inner loop, and then the connecting buckle 42 is connected. In this example, the connecting band 40 divided into left and right parts is connected or disconnected by the connecting buckle 42. However, instead of such a structure, the connecting band 40 may be composed of a rubber band that can be sufficiently stretched and contracted.

[0019] Auxiliary bands 44 are also attached to the left and right circular belts 14. D-rings 46 are attached to the ends of the auxiliary bands 44. A lead is attached to these D-rings 46 after the animal 100 is removed from the vehicle. In other words, the auxiliary bands 44 and the D-rings 46 are not used when the animal 100 is in the vehicle.

[0020] In this example, as described above, the end of the outer belt piece 22 is sewn to the inner belt piece 20. The reason for this configuration will be explained. As stated repeatedly, the harness 10 of this example is worn by an animal 100 such as a dog. Since the physique of each animal 100 varies from one animal to another, the circular belt 14 is provided with an adjuster 28 to accommodate these individual differences. Here, if the harness 10 is heavy, the burden on the animal 100 will increase accordingly. Therefore, in order to reduce the weight of the harness 10, the adjuster 28 is made of resin rather than metal.

[0021] However, if the adjuster 28 is made of resin, its strength will be significantly reduced compared to a metal adjuster. As a result, when a large force acts on the circular belt 14, such as in a vehicle collision, the resin adjuster 28 may be damaged. If the adjuster 28 is damaged and the loop of the circular belt 14 breaks, the animal 100 will slip out of the harness 10, and the animal 100 will not be adequately protected.

[0022] Therefore, in this example, the end of the outer belt piece 22 is sewn to the inner belt piece 20. As a result, even if the adjuster 28 is broken, the connection between the outer belt piece 22 and the inner belt piece 20 is maintained by the sewn portion 26. As a result, both the front legs of the animal 100 and the seat belt 110 are held within the loop of the circular belt 14. As a result, even if the adjuster 28 is broken, both the animal 100 and the seat belt 110 are effectively prevented from coming off the harness 10 and the circular belt 14, and the animal 100 is appropriately protected.

[0023] The above description is merely an example, and other configurations may be modified as long as the configuration of claim 1 is met. For example, in the example shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the front legs of the animal 100 are passed through the loops of the circular belt 14. However, as shown in FIG. 3, the harness 10 may be rotated 90 degrees and the animal 100's torso may be passed through the inner loop of the circular belt 14. In this case, the harness 10 has a front circular belt 14F extending from the front end of the chest pad 12 and a rear circular belt 14B extending from the rear end of the chest pad 12. In addition, in the above description, the inner belt piece 20 on one side and the outer belt piece 22 on the other side are both part of a single belt tape 16. In other words, in the examples shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the inner belt piece 20 on one side and the outer belt piece 22 on the other side are connected to each other. However, they do not necessarily need to be connected and may be formed as separate belt tapes. Furthermore, the positions and numbers of the connecting bands 40 and auxiliary bands 44 may also be changed as appropriate. [Explanation of symbols]

[0024] 10 Harness, 12 Chest pad, 14 Circular belt, 16 Belt tape, 20 Inner belt piece, 22 Belt piece, 24 Pad connection part, 26 Sewn part, 28 Adjuster, 29 Bar, 40 Connecting band, 42 Connecting buckle, 44 Auxiliary band, 46 D-ring, 100 Animal, 110 Seat belt.

Claims

[Claim 1] An animal harness, a pad that contacts the animal's chest; a pair of circular belts extending on opposite sides of the pad, each forming a loop that exits and returns to the pad; a resin adjuster for adjusting the length of each of the pair of circular belts; Each of the pair of circular belts is an inner belt piece extending from the pad; an outer belt piece extending from the pad and having a portion from its end overlapped on the outside of the inner belt piece; Equipped with The end of the outer belt piece is sewn to the inner belt piece, The outer belt piece and the inner belt piece are passed through the adjuster at overlapping portions thereof, A part of the animal's body is passed through the loop of the circular belt, and a seat belt of a vehicle is passed between the inner belt piece and the outer belt piece which are overlapped with each other. An animal harness characterized by:

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