Patent ID: 7866702

Claim:
An energy absorbing anchor for securing a child safety seat to a mounting portion of a vehicle and coupling to a tether of the child safety seat, the energy absorbing anchor comprising: a bracket including: a first end having a tether coupling portion; a second end opposite to the first end, the second end having a greater width than the first end; and a tapered hole having a wide portion adjacent to the first end of the bracket and a narrow portion adjacent to the second end of the bracket, wherein walls of the tapered hole are tapered from the wide portion at a first end of the hole to the narrow portion at a second end of the hole, wherein a width of the bracket increases from the first end of the bracket to the second end of the bracket such that a width of the bracket corresponding to the wide portion of the tapered hole is smaller than a width of the bracket corresponding to the narrow portion of the tapered hole; and a protrusion extending through the tapered hole to secure the bracket to the mounting portion of the vehicle, wherein the protrusion is positioned to be adjacent to the wide portion of the tapered hole, and wherein the narrow portion of the tapered hole is narrower than a width of the protrusion; wherein, when the bracket is pulled in tension, the protrusion is drawn along a length of the tapered hole towards the narrow portion and towards the second end of the bracket with the greater width, thereby deforming a portion of the walls of the tapered hole to widen the tapered hole, the walls of the tapered hole being configured to increasingly absorb energy as a width of the tapered hole decreases; wherein the protrusion includes at least a portion of a loop having one end positioned inside the tapered hole and secured to a first mounting portion of the vehicle and another end positioned outside the tapered hole and secured to a second mounting portion of the vehicle such that a portion of the bracket travels through the loop and the loop curves upward and away from a direction of a pulling force.