Harness Guard Padding for Child Safety Seat Impact Absorption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Child safety seats do not adequately prevent the child's body and head from excessive movement during a vehicle impact, despite proper harness securing, leading to potential injury from sudden deceleration forces.
Innovation Solution
A child safety seat with a harness guard system that includes padding and tether webbing to absorb energy and maintain the harness guard's position relative to the occupant, featuring a harness guard that receives the harness belt and a tether webbing system to prevent excessive movement, with rip stitches to absorb impact forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a harness assembly is used to secure the child to the child safety seat, then the child is restrained and movement is limited, but the child's body and head may still lunge forward during impact causing injury
Solution Approach 1:
The harness guard acts as an intermediary component between the harness belt and the child's body. It receives the harness belt and provides a padded surface that contacts the child's chest, distributing impact forces and preventing direct concentration of forces on the child's body and head during sudden deceleration.
Solution Approach 2:
The harness guard includes padding configured to contact the child's body and absorb energy before impact forces can cause injury. This cushioning is positioned in advance to intercept and mitigate the effects of sudden deceleration forces during a vehicle impact.
2Reliability
If the harness guard is designed to remain in position relative to the harness belt during sudden deceleration, then protection is improved, but the device complexity increases with tether webbing and tether stop
Solution Approach 1:
The tether webbing system allows the harness guard to dynamically adjust its position relative to the harness belt during normal use, while the tether stop provides a mechanical limit that prevents excessive movement during impact. This dynamic design maintains protection effectiveness without requiring a completely rigid fixed connection.
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 harness guard system reduces the likelihood of injury by minimizing head and body movement during impacts, demonstrated by decreased head injury criteria, chest g-forces, and head excursion in testing compared to seats without the system.
Implementation Method 1
The harness guard defines a padding configured to contact an occupant of the child safety seat and absorb energy resulting from a sudden deceleration of the vehicle
Data Source
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AI summary
A child safety seat is provided that is configured to reduce the acceleration rate of an occupant during impact. The child safety seat may include a child safety seat shell, a harness belt (190), and a harness guard (200). The harness guard may be configured to receive a portion of the harness belt therethrough. The harness guard may further define a padding configured to contact an occupant of the child safety seat and absorb energy resulting from a sudden deceleration of the vehicle.