Patent ID: 6874818

Claim:
A seat belt anchorage for a vehicle capable of absorbing energy caused by a body part of an occupant of the vehicle striking the anchorage when the vehicle is involved in a crash, said seat belt anchorage comprising: a tubular housing adapted to be mounted on vehicle support structure, said housing having a cylindrical wall, a nut axially slidable along a radially inner surface of said cylindrical wall, said housing having a transverse wall at an inner end of said cylindrical wall, said transverse wall having an axially inner tapered surface tapering axially and radially inwardly from an axially inner end of the inner surface of said cylindrical wall, said transverse wall having an annular abutment ring radially inwardly of said tapered surface defining a central opening, said nut having a tapered side in surface-to-surface contact with the tapered surface of said transverse wall and an end in surface-to-surface contact with said abutment ring, a bolt having a shank extending through said opening and threadedly engaging said nut, said bolt having a head on an inner end of said shank exteriorly of said housing and a collar on said shank between said head and said abutment ring, and a seat belt supporting plate mounted on said collar, said bolt in normal use being tightened relative to said nut to draw the tapered side of the nut against the tapered surface of said transverse wall and to draw the collar against the abutment ring, whereby in a crash, when the body part of the occupant imposes an impact on the head of the bolt and urges said bolt outwardly, the collar deforms the abutment ring to absorb the energy of the impact.