Patent Application
20190388717
The present invention concerns a safety harness, comprising at least one strap, at least one attachment member for the tie-in of the safety harness and a system for closing the strap provided with a first fastening buckle secured to a first strand of the strap and a second fastening buckle secured to a second strand of the strap, the second fastening buckle being able to cooperate with the first fastening buckle in a mutual fastening configuration in which the strap is closed on itself to form a closed loop.
In a known manner in the field of climbing, mountaineering or for carrying out works at height, a safety harness also known as «climbing harness» conventionally comprises at least one strap intended to be shaped into a closed loop by means of a closure and adjustment system to adjust the perimeter of the closed loop to the morphology of the user of the harness.
Such a strap is intended to form, in the configuration closed on itself in a closed loop, a tie-in belt intended to be disposed at the waist of the safety user of the harness, a thigh buckle for leg-strap, a buckle under gluteal, a buckle intended for setup on the torso of the user, a sling, etc. . . .
This type of safety harness can also be used in the ski field, for canyoning activities or for the speleology.
For the tie-in of the safety harness and the securing of the wearer, there is conventionally provided at least one attachment member arranged at the front of the tie-in belt. It may consist of an annular buckle fixedly mounted on the belt or slidably mounted along the belt.
The closure system is an essential element for safety and because of the weight it represents compared to the rest of the harness. It should be noted that looking for optimization of the weight of the harness may be a predominant criterion in some fields of use of the harness. Moreover, it is sometimes necessary to enable easy and fast adjustment of the strap in order to make the harness user-friendly in all situations.
There is a first family of closure and adjustment system based on the use of one single buckle trapped on the strap and configured to enable the strap to pass through the buckle in one direction at an adjustable location of the strap and back through the buckle in the opposite direction in order to secure the fixing. While this system, conventionally known as the passing-passing back buckle, is safe and offers the possibility of a full opening (which may be interesting for example at the level of legbuckles), it does not enable quick and easy adjustment.
A second family of closure and adjustment system is based on the use of two metal buckles trapped at the same end of the strap, operating on the self-blocking principle and enabling full opening and quick adjustment. Nonetheless, the conferred safety is not optimal and the weight is considerable.
A third family of closure and adjustment system is based on the use of a movable fastening buckle occupying an adjustable position along one of the strands of the strap and a fixed fastening buckle mounted without adjustment at the end of the other strand of the strap.
A known solution of this third family is to use the buckles known under the common name of «rapco», for example as described in the patent U.S. Pat. No. 2,807,852A, generally by means of respectively two movable and fixed metal attachments, the movable attachment being intended to be superimposed on the fixed attachment in order to create a pinch of the strap strand that passes through the movable fastener. While this system enables a total opening of the strap and a quick adjustment, it does not provide sufficient safety because the attachments are likely to open accidentally when the tension of the strap is not sufficient. This risk is particularly present for the safety harnesses whose attachment member (for the tie-in of the harness and the safety of the wearer of the harness) is movably mounted along the belt because the attachment member thus sliding is likely to lift one of the attachments until authorizing the unlocking thereof.
Another solution of the third family is described in the document U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,315A but the described harness does not address the problems hereinabove.
The present invention aims at solving all or part of the drawbacks listed hereinabove.
In this context, there is a need to provide a safety harness with a closure system that is lightweight, simple and economical to manufacture, which enables a full opening of the strap and a possible quick adjustment, while being completely safe avoiding any risk of accidental opening of the strap.
To this end, there is proposed a safety harness, comprising at least one strap, at least one attachment member for the tie-in of the safety harness and a system for closing the strap provided with a first fastening buckle secured to a first strand of the strap and a second fastening buckle secured to a second strand of the strap, the second fastening buckle being able to cooperate with the first fastening buckle in a mutual fastening configuration in which the strap is closed on itself to form a closed loop, the safety harness comprising a locking part independent of the first and second fastening buckles, secured to the first strand of the strap or to the second strand of the strap and adapted to vary between a first configuration in which it occupies an active state in which it biases the first and second fastening buckles relative to each other in a manner ensuring a positive blocking of the first and second fastening buckles in the mutual fastening configuration, and a second configuration in which it occupies an inactive state in which the first and second fixed and movable fastening buckles can freely adopt or leave the mutual fastening configuration.
The safety harness may implement the advantageous following features, considered separately or in combination.
The locking part comprises mechanical elements allowing biasing the first and second fastening buckles relative to each other when these adopt their mutual fastening configuration, by exerting a mechanical tension thereon opposing the relative displacement of the first and second fastening buckles.
The first fastening buckle is fixed by being fixedly secured to the first strand of the strap and the second fastening buckle is movable by being adjustably secured to the second strand of the strap so that the closure system enables an adjustment of the strap such that the closed loop formed when the strap is closed on itself in the mutual fastening configuration of the first and second fastening buckles has a perimeter adjustable by adjusting the position occupied by the second fastening buckle relative to the second strand of the strap.
The safety harness comprises fixing means allowing ensuring a positive blocking of the locking part in its active state by fixing on at least one of the fastening buckles.
The fixing means comprise mechanical snap-fitting elements and/or magnetic elements.
The passage of the locking part from the first configuration to the second configuration and vice versa results from a change of position of the locking part relative to the strand of the strap to which the locking part is secured.
The locking part is mounted in a sliding manner on the strand of the strap to which the it is secured, the change of position of the locking part being performed by sliding along the strand of the strap.
In a first embodiment, one of the first and second fastening buckles is in the form of a male fasten made of a rigid material and the other of the first and second fastening buckles is in the form of a female fasten formed as a closed loop made of a flexible material, the male fasten being provided to fit through the female fasten and to be gripped to the female fasten after insertion.
The locking part is in the form of a link formed in a flexible and elastically deformable material and arranged in the form of a closed loop whose ends are fastened to the strand of the strap to which the male fasten is secured and/or to the male fasten, said link being adapted, when it adopts the first configuration corresponding to its active state, to trap the female fasten in combination with the male fasten and to exert a mechanical tension on the male and female fastens preventing the male fasten from leaving the female fasten.
In a second embodiment, the first and second fastening buckles are constituted respectively by first and second attachments adapted to cooperate with each other, when these adopt the mutual fastening configuration, by simple bearing against each other where the second attachment is superimposed on the first attachment, the first attachment being secured to a free end of the first strand of the strap, the second attachment enabling the second strand of the strap to pass through the second attachment by forming a bend in the form of a simple ring, the first and second attachments causing a pinch of the second strand of the strap at the level of said bend between the first and second attachments, the pinch force increasing with the tension applied on the first and second strands of the strap.
In its active state, the locking part biases the first and second attachments so as to exert thereon a mechanical tension opposing the relative displacement between the first and second attachments in a manner ensuring a positive blocking of the pinch of the second strand of the strap between the first and second attachments and preventing the second attachment, in its position superimposed on the first attachment, from passing throughout an opening of the first attachment through which it has passed to occupy said superimposed position.
The locking part delimits a slider slidably mounted on the second strand of the strap which is secured to the second attachment and a housing in which a portion of the first attachment and/or of the second attachment, when the first and second attachments adopt the mutual fastening configuration by simple bearing, is adapted to be inserted, the slider and the housing being superimposed so that when said portion of the first attachment and/or of the second attachment is inserted into the housing, the locking part, via the connection between the second attachment and the slider of the locking part formed by the second strand, opposes the lifting of the second attachment bearing on the first attachment.
The locking part is equipped with a foolproof system ensuring that the locking part can be placed in its first configuration and in its active state if a first face of the second attachment bears against the first attachment and that the locking part cannot be placed in its first configuration and in its active state if a second face of the second attachment, opposite to said first face, bears against the first attachment.
The first and second attachments are permanently secured to each other.
The locking part is formed in a rigid material.
The invention will be better understood using the following description of particular embodiments of the invention provided as non-limiting examples and represented in the appended drawings, in which:
Referring to the appended
In general, the safety harness is intended to be used in mountaineering, climbing, work at height, canyoning, skiing, or even speleology.
The strap 10, once closed over itself by means of the closure system so as to form a closed loop, is intended to form for example a tie-in belt (as is the case in the two embodiments represented in
The attachment member is in particular arranged at the front of the tie-in belt to ensure the tie-in of the belt and therefore of the harness. The attachment member is for example constituted by an annular buckle, formed in a rigid material or in a flexible material, secured to the belt by being fixedly mounted along the latter or conversely by being mounted in a sliding manner along the front portion of the belt.
The nature of the strap 10 and that of the attachment member are not per se an important part of the invention. However, the nature of the closure system is an important aspect, and will be the object of a detailed description of two conceivable embodiments both of which corresponding to the same inventive concept which will be presented later, in support of three examples respectively in
For reasons of simplicity of understanding and reading, elements having a similar function from one embodiment to another will keep the same reference numerals in all
In general, the closure system is intended to be able to close the strap 10 on itself in order to form a closed loop or on the contrary to be able to completely open the buckle. This may be very interesting, for example, when the strap is intended to constitute a thigh buckle in order to facilitate the clip-in. The closure and the opening of the strap 10 must be very easy and fast, in order to offer optimal user-friendliness to the safety harness. The weight of the closure system must be as large as possible. Finally, the closure system is configured to prevent any inadvertent opening of the closed loop defined by the strap 10, for safety reasons.
In the two embodiments described later on with reference to
Essentially, the two embodiments respectively of
In addition, in the two embodiments described later on with reference to
To this end and in other words, the locking part 13 comprises mechanical elements, which will be detailed later on, allowing biasing the first and second fastening buckles 11, 12 relative to each other when these adopt their mutual fastening configuration, by exerting a mechanical tension thereon opposing the relative displacement of the first and second fastening buckles 11, 12. The nature of the mechanical elements thus mentioned and the manner of forming them structurally vary between the first embodiment and the second embodiment, even though the general principle is common to both embodiments.
The two embodiments of
By «positive blocking in the mutual fastening configuration», it should be herein understood that the mutual fastening configuration is definitely guaranteed by the locking part 13 as long as no action specifically required to place it in its inactive state is applied to the locking part 13 by the wearer of the safety harness.
In a non-limiting manner, it is advantageous to provide for the first fastening buckle 11 being fixed by being fixedly secured to the first strand 101 of the strap 10 and the second fastening buckle 12 being movable by being adjustably secured on the second strand 102 of the strap 10 so that the closure system enables an adjustment of the strap 10 such that the closed loop formed when the strap 10 is closed on itself in the mutual fastening configuration of the first and second fastening buckle 11, 12 has an adjustable perimeter by adjusting the position occupied by the second fastening buckle 12 relative to the second strand 102 of the strap 10. Regardless of the concerned embodiment, it remains quite possible to consider that each of the first and second fastening buckles 11, 12 is fixed by being fixedly secured to the strand 101,102 on which it is mounted.
According to a particular embodiment, the safety harness comprises fixing means allowing ensuring a positive blocking of the locking part 13 in its active state by fixing on at least one of the first and second fastening buckles 11, 12. Thus, it is possible to provide for the locking part 13, when it occupies its active state itself ensuring the positive blocking of the fastening buckles 11, 12 in their mutual fastening configuration, being fixed by means of a positive blocking to the first buckle 11 and/or to the second buckle 12 by these fixing means. An example of such fixing means will be illustrated in
By «positive blocking in the active state», it should be herein understood that the active state of the locking part 13 is definitely guaranteed by the fixing means as long as no action specifically required to unlock them is applied to the fixing means by the wearer of the safety harness.
The passage of the locking part 13 from the first configuration in which it occupies its active state to the second configuration in which it occupies its inactive state, and vice versa, results from a change of position of the locking part 13 relative to the strand 101, 102 of the strap 10 to which the locking part 13 is secured. In particular, in the second embodiment of
Referring now more specifically to the first embodiment of
In the illustrated example, the male fasten is in the form of a plastic part provided with two lateral projections 14a, 14b for gripping to the female fasten which is made herein by a closed loop 15 made of a flexible synthetic material, a bit like two clips.
For example, the male fasten acts as a movable fastening buckle whereas the female fasten in the form of a closed loop 15 constitutes a fixed fastening buckle, even though an inverted arrangement may be considered depending on the design of the strap 10. Still alternatively, the two male and female fastens may constitute two fixed fastening buckles 11, 12 in the case where the closure system is not intended to enable a perimeter adjustment.
Moreover, in the first embodiment of
In order to pass the link 16 constituting the locking part 13 in the active state, all it needs, once the male fasten is in a mutual fastening position with the female fasten (this being previously obtained by insertion of the male fasten throughout the closed loop 15 until gripping of the lateral projections 14a, 14b on the closed loop 15), is to displace the link 16 by tilting relative to the strand of the strap 10 whose link is secured so as to make the male fasten pass through the link 16 until gripping of the lateral projections 14a, 14b on the link 16. The link 16 then traps the closed loop 15 in combination with the part constituting the male fasten and, at least by its elasticity, exerts a mechanical tension on the male fasten and on the closed loop 15 preventing any disengagement of the male fasten from the closed loop 15 as long as the link 16 is in place. Hence, this blocking thus obtained is a positive blocking because it will be maintained as long as the link 16 is not specifically removed from the lateral projections 14a, 14b by a reverse tilting, regardless of the tension exerted on the strands 101, 102 of the strap 10.
It is therefore herein understood that the mechanical elements which by allowing biasing the first and second fastening buckles 11, 12 relative to one another when these adopt their mutual fastening configuration, by exerting a mechanical tension thereon opposed to the relative displacement of the first and second fastening buckles 11, 12, are obtained by the form of the link 16 in a closed loop by its ability to enclose the female fasten in combination with the male fasten and by a length of the link 16 adapted so that when it traps the female fasten, the link is elastically deformed in order to exert reciprocally the mechanical tension that biases the male and female fasten in the manner ensuring their positive blocking in the mutual fastening configuration.
Referring now more specifically to the second embodiment of
In a variant as represented in
In other words, in the second embodiment, the locking part 13 biases in its active state the first and second attachments so as to exert thereon a mechanical tension opposing the relative displacement between the first and second attachments. This mechanical tension exerted by the locking part 13 on the one hand ensures a positive blocking of the pinch 18 of the second strand 102 of the strap 10 between the first and second attachments and on the other hand prevents the second attachment, in its position superimposed on the first attachment (situation of
In
Therefore, according to a non-limiting embodiment, the locking part 13 is equipped with a foolproof system ensuring that the locking part 13 can be placed in its first configuration and in its active state if the first face 19 of the second attachment bears against the first attachment and ensuring that the locking part 13 cannot be placed in its first configuration and in its active state if the second face 20 of the second attachment bears against the first attachment.
In
In a variant which is not represented, the first and second attachments are secured to one another permanently, in particular by being pivotally mounted relative to each other.
As already described, thanks to the slider 26, the change of state of the locking part is performed by a sliding position change of the locking part along the strand 102 of the strap 10.
It is herein specified that the housing 25 may be provided to receive, in addition to the portion of the second attachment which is inserted therein or in substitution, a portion of the first attachment. The previously described operation would be identical.
The safety harness represented in
It is therefore herein understood that, in the second embodiment as represented with the example of
The two embodiments described in this document correspond to the same inventive concept and the locking part 13 in both cases corresponds to the same general principles, in particular as regards the mechanical elements that it comprises, even though the structural means for filling its function are different from one embodiment to another.
The safety harness that has just been described has the advantage of being light, simple and economical to manufacture, of enabling a full opening of the strap and a quick adjustment, and of enabling completely safe, by avoiding any risk of accidental opening of the strap 10.
Of course, the invention is not limited to the embodiments represented and described hereinabove, but covers all variants thereof.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1750914 | Feb 2017 | FR | national |
This application is a National Stage of PCT Application No. PCT/FR2018/050260 filed on Feb. 2, 2018, which claims priority to French Patent Application No. 17/50914 filed on Feb. 3, 2017, the contents each of which are incorporated herein by reference thereto.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/FR2018/050260 | 2/2/2018 | WO | 00 |
