Child safety seat for automobile

In a child safety seat for use in an automobile, a cushion member is provided along back surfaces of a crotch belt upwardly extending from a seat surface. A buckle is mounted on a free end of said crotch belt. Due to the rigidity of the cushion member, the crotch belt is made self-supporting, so that the crotch belt holds the buckle in the proper position and orientation Thus, a shoulder belt can be easily attached to or detached from the buckle. Moreover, the crotch belt is made more comfortable for the child.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a child safety seat for an automobile. The 
safety seat is to be mounted on an original seat of an automobile for 
safely seating a child in the automobiles. More particularly, the 
invention relates to an improvement of a belt which is provided on such a 
child safety seat for an automobile for holding the body of the child. 
2. Description of the Background Art 
In general, a child safety seat for an automobile comprises a crotch belt 
extending upwardly from a seat surface and between the thighs of a seated 
child and shoulder belts which extend from a backrest and pass along the 
shoulders of the child. A buckle is mounted on an end of the crotch belt 
so that the shoulder belts are detachably coupled to the buckle. The 
safety seat may also comprise hip belts that pass along the hips of the 
child, and are also detachably coupled to the buckle. The hip belts may be 
integrally formed with the shoulder belts. 
The aforementioned shoulder belts and the like are coupled to the buckle 
after the child is seated on the child safety seat for an automobile. The 
shoulder belts and the like are detached from the buckle when the child is 
helped out of the seat. 
Before the child is seated on the aforementioned child safety seat, the 
crotch belt is in an arbitrary state on the seat surface, for example. In 
other words, the crotch belt may be bent or twisted in any shape. 
Therefore, the buckle mounted on the end of the crotch belt is in an 
arbitrary position and an arbitrary state on the seat surface, for 
example, while its front and back sides arbitrarily face in any direction. 
When the child is seated in this state, the crotch belt and the buckle may 
be located under the buttocks of the child, which is uncomfortable for the 
child and inconvenient for the person who is seating the child. In order 
to avoid this, the user must separate the crotch belt and the buckle from 
the seat surface before seating the child, so that the same are not 
located under its buttocks. If the crotch belt and the buckle are not 
first removed from the seat and they become located under the buttocks of 
the child, then the user must draw out the buckle from under the child's 
buttocks by pulling the crotch belt. Such operations are relatively 
troublesome. 
Further, the user must properly orient the front and back sides of the 
buckle in front of the body of the child, to be able to couple the 
shoulder belts and the like to the buckle. However, the crotch belt 
carrying the buckle is so easily twisted, which reverses the buckle, so 
that the user simply holding the buckle may have to turn over the buckle 
for coupling the shoulder belts thereto. In this case, the user must take 
care to turn over the buckle in the proper direction for untwisting the 
crotch belt to its original or proper state. This also complicates the 
operation of coupling the shoulder belts to the buckle. 
Even if the buckle is in a correct direction, the user may inadvertently 
couple the shoulder belts to the buckle when the crotch belt is in a 
twisted state. In this case, the crotch belt feels uncomfortable between 
the thighs of the seated child. In addition, the crotch belt may injure 
the child when an impact is applied to the automobile by abrupt braking or 
the like. 
The crotch belt is adapted to cooperate with the shoulder belts to hold the 
body of the child in the safety seat when an impact is applied to the 
automobile by abrupt braking or the like. However, it is preferably to 
prevent the crotch belt from pinching the child when such an impact 
occurs. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a child 
safety seat for an automobile, which can solve the aforementioned problems 
relating to twisting of the crotch belt and the like, and satisfy the 
aforementioned requirement of avoiding pinching and the like. 
The present invention is directed to a child safety seat for an automobile 
comprising a crotch belt extending upwardly from a seat surface and 
between the thighs of a seated child a buckle mounted on an end of the 
crotch belt, and a shoulder belt which passes along the shoulder of the 
child to be detachably coupled to the buckle. In order to solve the 
aforementioned technical problems, a cushion member is provided along back 
surfaces of the crotch belt and the buckle, with a sufficient rigidity for 
making the crotch belt self-supporting, i.e. able to stand upright by 
itself and to resist twisting. 
Thus, due to the provision of the cushion member, the crotch belt is 
maintained in a self-sustaining or self-supporting state independently of 
the seat surface, while the buckle is maintained in a correct position and 
a correct state or orientation by the cushion member. 
According to the present invention, therefore, it is possible to avoid the 
aforementioned complicated operations of lifting or clearing the crotch 
belt and the buckle from the seat surface before seating the child or 
alternatively, drawing out the crotch belt and the buckle from under the 
buttocks of the child, and untwisting the crotch belt so that the buckle 
is oriented properly when the child is simply seated on the inventive 
child safety seat, the crotch belt is naturally located between the 
child's thighs and the buckle is properly positioned and oriented in front 
of the child. Even if the body of the child as seated hits the buckle or 
the crotch belt, the chance of pinching or injuring the child is reduced 
because the cushion member will be deformed to reduce the impact which is 
applied to the child. Even if the cushion member is temporarily deformed, 
the same returns to its original state because of its elasticity, when the 
child is seated in the proper position. Thus, the crotch belt and the 
buckle are restored to proper positions. 
As hereinabove described, the buckle is maintained in a proper position and 
a proper orientation after the child is seated, whereby the shoulder belt 
can be easily coupled to the buckle. 
Further, the cushion member is positioned along the back surfaces of the 
crotch belt and the buckle to provide safety cushioning for the child. 
When an impact is applied to the automobile by abrupt braking or the like, 
the child may be thrown forward against the crotch belt and buckle. In 
such a situation, there may be a chance that the crotch belt and the 
buckle may nip or pinch the body of the child, but the present cushion 
member sufficiently relieves or cushion this impact. 
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the 
present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed 
description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the 
accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIGS. 3 and 4 are perspective views showing a child safety seat 1 for an 
automobile according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 
independently shows the safety seat 1, and FIG. 4 shows a child seated on 
this safety seat 1. 
The safety seat 1 comprises a seat 2 and a backrest 3. Shoulder belts 4 are 
drawn out from the backrest 3 to be passed along the shoulders of the 
child. According to this embodiment, lap or hip belts 5 are provided by 
the same belts as the shoulder belts 4. The belts providing the shoulder 
and hip belts 4 and 5 are inserted in tongue plates 6. A buckle assembly 8 
projects upwardly from a seat surface 7 which is formed on an upper 
surface of the seat 2. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing this buckle 
assembly 8. 
As shown in FIG. 1, the buckle assembly 8 comprises a crotch belt 9 which 
upwardly extends from the seat surface 7 shown by a phantom line. A lower 
end of this crotch belt 9 is fixed to the seat 2 by an anchor plate 10. A 
buckle 11 is mounted on an upper end of the crotch belt 9. As shown in 
FIG. 4, the aforementioned tongue plates 6 can be detachably coupled to 
this buckle 11, thereby detachably coupling the shoulder and hip belts 4 
and 5 to the buckle 11 and thus to the crotch belt 9. 
A cushion member 12 is provided along back surfaces, i.e. child facing 
surface of the crotch belt 9 and the buckle 11. The cushion member 12 is 
made of a foam resin, for example, with sufficient rigidity for making the 
crotch belt 12 self-supporting. The buckle assembly 8 is covered with a 
flexible cover 13. This cover 13 exposes only a principal part of the 
buckle 11, to enable the respective attachment and detachment of the 
tongue plates 6 to and from the buckle 11. 
FIG. 2 is a rear elevational view showing the cover 13. The cover 13 
comprises a bag 14 covering an upper portion of the cushion member 12 and 
a base portion of the buckle 11. A downwardly extending tubular portion of 
the bag 14 has edges that overlap each other on a back side of the cushion 
member 12 to form an overlapped seam portion 15. The overlapped seam 
portions 15 are connected with each other by a hook-and-loop type 
fastener, for example. Thus, the cover 13 can be easily removed to be 
washed when the same is soiled, for example. 
Due to presence of the cushion member 12, the crotch belt 9 is brought into 
a self-supporting state, whereby the overall buckle assembly 8 is also 
self-supporting. When the child is seated on this safety seat 1, 
therefore, the buckle 11 is maintained in front of the child's body in a 
correct position and orientation. Thus, it is possible to easily 
selectively attach and detach the tongue plates 6 to and from the buckle 
11. Further, the cushion member 12 helps prevent pinching or bruising of 
the child, which may be cause when an impact is applied to the automobile. 
While the present invention has been described with reference to the 
embodiment shown in the drawings, various modifications within the scope 
of the present invention also exist. 
While the safety seat 1 according to the aforementioned embodiment 
comprises hip belts 5, integral with shoulder belts 4 for example, the 
present invention is also applicable to a safety seat not having such hip 
belts. Alternatively, hip belts may be provided by belts which are 
independent of the shoulder belts. 
As a further example modification, the buckle assembly 8 may omit the cover 
13 whereby the cushion member 12 is directly joined to the back surfaces 
of the crotch belt 9 and the buckle 11.