Child Restraint Harness With Energy-Absorbing Impact Straps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing child car seats do not adequately manage the forces experienced by children during impact events, potentially leading to increased injury risks.
Innovation Solution
The child restraint system incorporates a child-restraint harness with energy-management sections in the harness straps, which are designed to change configuration from intact to disrupted in response to predetermined tensile forces during an impact, thereby reducing the forces acting on the child.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If traditional harness straps are used without energy-management sections, then the harness provides continuous restraint to the child, but the full impact force is transmitted to the child during collision events
Solution Approach 1:
The harness strap is segmented into multiple sections with different properties: rigid anchoring sections at the ends provide secure attachment, while a compliant energy-management section in the middle absorbs impact forces. This segmentation allows the strap to provide continuous restraint while protecting the child from full impact forces.
Solution Approach 2:
The energy-management section is designed in advance with stitching patterns and fold configurations that will disrupt under predetermined impact forces. This pre-configured cushioning mechanism activates automatically during collisions to reduce force transmission to the child before injury can occur.
2Strength
If the stitching in the energy-management section is made stronger, then the strap maintains its intact configuration longer, but the force reduction effect during impact is diminished
Solution Approach 1:
Different sections of the strap have different stitching qualities: the anchoring sections have strong, dense stitching for secure attachment, while the energy-management section has strategically placed stitching that is strong enough to maintain the fold configuration during normal use but designed to disrupt at controlled points during impact to absorb energy.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the energy-management section is designed to disrupt easily, then force transmission to the child is reduced, but the harness may fail to provide adequate restraint under normal loading conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The energy-management section is designed to be dynamic rather than static: during normal use, the stitching maintains the fold configuration to provide adequate restraint, but under impact loading conditions, the stitching disrupts at predetermined points to activate the force-reduction mechanism. The system adapts its behavior based on the magnitude of applied forces.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The energy-management sections in the harness straps effectively reduce the cumulative forces experienced by the child during an impact event, thereby enhancing safety by controlling deceleration and distributing the force over a longer period.
Implementation Method 1
The stitching is configured to break or come undone from portions of the strip of webbing under load
Data Source
AI summary
A child restraint includes a seat shell and a child-restraint harness coupled to the seat shell. The seat shell is formed to include a child-receiving space configured to hold a child for transportation in a vehicle. The child-restraint harness is fixed to the seat shell and is configured to secure the child to the seat shell within the child-receiving space. The child-restraint harness includes a plurality of harness straps coupled to the seat shell, a pair of harness latches coupled to respective harness straps included in the plurality of harness straps, and a latch anchor coupled to a crotch strap included in the plurality of harness straps.