Protection system

(54) Title: PROTECTION SYSTEM (30) Unionist Priority: 13/08/2007 ch 01282/07 (73) Owner (s): Mowag Gmbh (72) Inventor (s): Hans-Jõrg List, Kai-Uwe Keller , Michael Bieniek, Uwe Fehr * BRPl0802434A2 * (51) Int.CI .:

B60N 2/42 (2009.01) (57) Summary: Protection System. Especially designed to protect against a fatal effect of vertical accelerations fired by a landmine on passengers in an armored vehicle. For this, the seating unit consisting of a seat body (7) and a backrest (8) is held movable in a vertical direction and is coupled with an end area (15) of a longitudinally variable damping device (11) , whose other end (13) is connected to the roof (4) of the vehicle (2), using a loader equipment (6). In addition, the seating unit is loaded with the vertical distance of the vertical guide (18) on a lower guide path (19) transversely directed so that the seating unit performs both the downward and oscillating movement relating to the vehicle together with a passenger (3) during loading through vertical acceleration. In this way, an improved use of the constructively limited effective extension of the damping device (11) occurs, so that the effect of the protection system is essentially improved. It is sensible to apply the same principle for the protection of all objects, which must be protected against reaching or exceeding a maximum load due to very high acceleration or deceleration.

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Invention Patent Descriptive Report for “Protection System”

The invention relates to a system of protection against a fatal effect of vertical accelerations on an object, especially on a person, kept supported in a cabin in which a support unit provided for this, having a support surface for the object, it is kept mobile by means of a vertical guide and is coupled to a longitudinally variable damping device, which is connected to the cabin wall, using a loading equipment, wherein the holding unit is held transversely mobile on a transversal guide in addition to its orientation on the vertical guide.

/. For equipment to seat in armored vehicles and for aircraft ejection seats, it is known in the art to load the: 15 seat, including its backrest, longitudinally movable in a loader equipment and stop this longitudinal movement during the impact of the mine or the actuation of the ejection seat by means of a longitudinally variable damping device in order to limit the accelerating forces acting on the spinal column of the person using the seat to a non-fatal amount. Due to the restriction of the possible total extension of the damping device by the surrounding space and the required limitation of

V accelerating forces acting on the person, these types of protection systems are not sufficient, for example, against ' _v 25 mines with high explosive strength and / or small vehicles, with corresponding fatal consequences for passengers. In addition, in the case of known protection systems, the damping device that varies in length starts to operate even before the accelerating forces on the object to be protected or on the spinal column of a person who, however, has not yet reached ò critical degree since the inertia of the support unit is already sufficient to activate such a damping system. A system with these aspects has been published, for example, by US Patent 2002/0021041.

The invention is based on the task of avoiding this disadvantage and consequently finding a protection system that is effective even for vertical accelerations of an armored vehicle, because until now the limit on the capacity of carrying passengers has been exceeded due to the limited availability of the damping path.

The problem is solved by a protection system of the type according to the invention mentioned at the beginning by the fact that the vertical guide and the transverse guide are vertically offset from each other in the loader equipment so that the support unit performs both the downward movement as an oscillating movement during loading through a vertical acceleration of the cab relative to this, where the loader equipment is connected to this roof structure, so that the vertical acceleration acting on the floor area of ​​the cab and transmitted to its roof structure is transmitted from the loader equipment.

It is understood in this aspect that the term “vertical” should not be understood in the strict sense of perpendicular but has the meaning “from top to bottom” in relation to the cabin containing the object, just like a vertical acceleration due to the action of a land mine , for example, in a vehicle traveling on elevated terrain, it should not be considered as topographically accurate.

Favorable embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent patent claims and can be taken from the following description based on a schematically represented embodiment. The figures show:

Figure 1 - a side view of a protection system with the object to be protected and a partial representation of the relative cabin in a starting position of the load and

Figure 2 - a representation corresponding to Figure 1 in a position at the end of the load.

Various protection systems of the type according to the invention are provided, for example, one after the other along a side wall 1 of the passenger cabin 2 of an armored vehicle against landmines. Each protection system for 3 passengers has at least one loader equipment 6 extending in the longitudinal direction parallel to the side wall 1 and fixed to a roof structure 4 of the vehicle, preferably through the cockpit 5, so that the equipment can be seated 9 consisting of a seating device 7 and a seat back 8 and having seat belts is fixed in a suspended position at a distance from the floor panel 10 of the vehicle. A second pan 12 with a side support 12 serves to retain the additional side tracks of the loading equipment 6 so that it can follow without variation a distance variation between two taps 5 and 11 or between the floor panel 10 and the roof structure 4 that occurs during the impact of the mine.

This type of fastening has, compared to the protection systems supported on the vehicle floor, the essential advantage of a considerable reduction in acceleration energy due to a mine acting on the vehicle floor, as this propagates indirectly through the vehicle sidewall 1 up to the roof structure 4 and with that up to the loader equipment 5 and finally through a damping device 11 for the vehicle seat and the passenger of the vehicle 3.

The damping device 11 is fixed at its lower end with a trap 13 in a lower area 14 of the loader equipment 6, while its upper movable end which is damped towards its lower end is connected to a support unit 16 carrying the equipment to sit 9 with the pan 15.

In order to make this damping movement possible, a guide in a sliding section 18, for example, running in its longitudinal direction is provided, for example, on an axis 17 of the support unit 16 supported on a cursor on the loader equipment 6 as a vertical guide. Consequently, the seating equipment 9 can perform a withdrawal movement directed vertically downwards and braked by the damping device 11 relative to the loading equipment 6 which starts from the position shown in Figure 1 during the rapid upward movement of the passenger cabin 2.

In order to initiate the relative vertical movement that is stopped by the damping device 11 just before reaching a load that is still sufficiently compatible with passengers or the interested passenger 3, a feature of the damping device 11 suitable for this purpose is provided on one side and on the other side a specific path feature for lower guide rail 19 always directed backwards relative to the seating equipment 9 towards a lower seat support 20 allowing oscillation of the seat directed backwards.

Corresponding to the course of this guide rail 19 shown as an example, it can be executed relatively level at the beginning, that is, in its upper area 21, after which it is downhill and at the end again leveled. However, it is essential for this that the characteristics of the damping device 11 and the guide rail 10 must be exactly combined with each other taking into account the geometric specifications of the seat in order to achieve a maximum reduction in the required vertical cross-section of the damping device 11. In this way, the components of variable force arise, which on the one hand acts on the seating equipment 9 and the passenger 3 and on the other hand acts on the damping device 11 so that the damping device 11 can adequately dampen large vertical accelerations of the vehicle due to the explosion of a land mine during the damping path that is constructively available for this than would be possible without such a division of force.

It should be understood that the introduction of an additional oscillating movement and the consequent withdrawal movement directed behind the mass consisting of the seating equipment 9 and the passenger 3 to be braked through the damping device 11 can also occur on the other side than through of the section-type guide ran with a guide path 19 of the type shown, for example, by means of a lever adjustment. Also, a transverse guide of the mass to be braked can be arranged nothing more than corresponding to the represented embodiment, just when damping devices are foldable, executed differently or also additionally combined.

A protection system of the type described can also be used to protect objects of another type in an appropriate embodiment, so that the seat unit can generally be performed as a support unit, for example, for receiving objects, on which great accelerations can also fatally act, for example, an explosive material or for example, objects containing highly sensitive electronics.