Patent ID: 8496293
Filing Date: 2013-07-30
Classification: B60N

Abstract:
1. A child restraint comprising a juvenile seat including a seat bottom and a seat back extending upwardly from the seat bottom, a rigidifying truss coupled to the juvenile seat to lie in a stationary position relative to the seat back, and an energy-dissipation system including a top load-limiter bar coupled to an upper portion of the rigidifying truss and made of a deformable shape-changeable material to assume an initial shape and a seat-back tether strap coupled to the juvenile seat and adapted to be coupled to an anchorage located in a rear shelf area of a passenger vehicle to tether the juvenile seat to the vehicle, wherein the seat-back tether strap is wrapped around a portion of the top load-limiter bar while the seat-back tether strap is coupled at one end to the juvenile seat and at another end to the anchorage to provide means for deforming the top load-limiter bar to dissipate energy and change shape inelastically from the initial shape to a deformed shape in response to a bar-deforming load applied to the top load-limiter bar by the seat-back tether strap during exposure of a passenger vehicle carrying the juvenile seat to an external impact force so that transfer of energy from the vehicle carrying the juvenile seat to the seat bottom and back of the juvenile seat is minimized owing to dissipation of energy during deformation of the top-load limiter bar.