In particular, the invention is very useful in connection with motor vehicle's safety belts.

Background of the Invention Safety belts for motor vehicles, as known, have been quite recently made compulsory by specific laws.

The present vehicles, in fact, are equipped with a safety belts for each seat, both for the driver and for the passengers.

Automatic means for rewinding the safety belt are always provided. The rewinding means are bound to the chassis of the vehicles, on one side of each seat, and they are useful to avoid the safety belts hamper the movements of the user while getting on or down the vehicle or to avoid the belt's random positioning, not suitable for the very next use.

Obviously automatic rewinding is helpful to overcome the previous matters but it brings a certain uncomfortableness due to the pressing of the belt upon the user's body caused by the force applied at one end of the belt itself in order to obtain its rewinding as soon as it is unfastened.

Summary of the Invention The main object of the present invention is to provide a high reliable and effective solution to the above matters, said solution having also extreme manufacturing and use simplicity.

A further object is to propose a device which, in addition to the above features, has also auxiliary features such as the perfuming of the cabin.

Said aim and other more, which will be clear to those skilled in the sector from what described in the following, are attained by an auxiliary device for vehicle's safety belts, said device comprising a first and a second element which can be coupled together by means apt to let them move and rotate one with respect to the other, said elements being able to be placed at the opposite surfaces of the belt in a fixed or sliding mode.

Advantageously the device can be set in locked configuration or in sliding configuration with respect to the belt.

The device of the invention can be locked to the belt by simply clamping it and the locking position can be changed as wanted.

The device advantageously comprises perfumers having shape of sticks, soaps, sponges or different supports apt to gradually release their fragrance and/or it can be directly made of perfumed materials. Said perfumers can be externally joined to the device or they can be inserted in it.

The two elements of the device dedicated to be placed at the opposite surfaces of the belt are preferably linear shaped and they are hinged each other at one of their ends, while at the other end they can be coupled, by a snap catch, in two stable positions. To one of said positions corresponds the sliding of the device along the belt, to the other position corresponds the locking of the device to the belt.

The dimensions and locking force of the device are designed to prevent belt rewinding when the device, locked to the belt, get in touch with the slot from which the belt enters the automatic rewinding device.

The two elements of the device of the invention are under elastic actions which tend to keep them in the sliding configuration.

Said elastic actions advantageously come from elastic means placed in the device, in correspondence with one of its ends.

Said elastic actions could also be due to a special manufacturing process of the device obtained from a single part of polymeric material centrally folded to form the two opposite elements of the device coupled together, in permanent way at one of their ends, and by snap catches at the other ends.

The position of the device along the belt is easily adjustable by the user in order to avoid the belt to press upon the various part of his body and, in any case, in a position which let the safety belt work when needed.

The advantages of the above device are clear according to its simplicity and effectiveness of operating, as well as according to its simplicity of manufacturing and its reliability in the long period.

Are still clear the advantages relating to the perfumer combined with the auxiliary device for safety belts of the present invention or the advantages of making the device itself of perfumed materials.

More advantageous features of the auxiliary device for safety belts according to the invention are disclosed in the following claims.

Brief Description of the Drawings For a better understanding of the characteristics and the advantages of the present invention, various embodiments will now be described by way of examples with

reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: -Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a portion of a safety belt comprising a device according to the invention; - Figures 2, shows a further perspective view, similar to the one of fig. l but relating to a different position of the safety belt; - Figures 4, and 5 show schematic views, respectively from right side and from left side, of the component of fig. 1 ; - Figures 3a and 3b show perspective views of the device of the invention in open configurations; - Figures 4a and 4b show two further perspective views of the device of the invention in closed configurations; - Figures 5a and 5b show longitudinal and cross section views relating to a device according to the invention in a locked configuration on a safety belt; - Figures 6a and 6b show longitudinal and cross section views relating to the device of figs. 5a and 5b set in the sliding configuration along the safety belt; - Figures 7a and 7b show longitudinal and cross section views relating to a different embodiment of the device of the invention set in the locked configuration on a safety belt; - Figures 8a and 8b show longitudinal and cross section views relating to the device of figs. 7a and 7b set in the sliding configuration along the safety belt; - Figures 9 and 10 show two longitudinal section view relating to two different embodiments of the device of the invention; -Figures 1 la, 1 lb and 1 lc show cross section views of further embodiments of the device of the; - Figures 12a, 12b and 12c show cross section views of further embodiments,

comprising perfuming elements, of the device of the invention.

Description of Preferred Embodiments Referring to fig. l is shown with 10 a device according to the present invention locked to a motor vehicle's safety belt, 11, near the slot, 12, from which the belt, 11, exit the part, 13, of the vehicle's chassis where the belt's automatic rewinder is placed.

Said device is disclosed in detail in figures 3 and 4 where it is shown respectively in open and closed configurations.

Exactly, in fig. 3a we can see that the device 10 comprises two elements, 14,15, linear shaped, hinged together at one of their ends by a plate, 16, around which they can rotate from a completely open configuration, as shown in fig. 3a, to a completely closed configuration as shown in fig. 4b.

At the opposite side with respect to the hinging side, said elements 14,15 respectively comprise a pin, 17, and a housing 18 for said pin which houses said pin in a stable position, as shown in fig. 4a, corresponding to an incomplete closing of the device 10.

Said elements 14,15 also comprise locking means, 20,21 through which the device can be completely closed as in fig. 4b.

Said different arrangements of figs. 4a and 4b respectively correspond to the configuration in which the device is able to slide along the belt 11, and to the configuration in which it is locked and fixed; such arrangements are well outlined in figs. 6a, 6b and in figs. Sa, 5b. We can note that these last figures refer to an embodiment, 10', of the device in which the cross section is elliptical shaped instead of rectangular shaped.

A further embodiment, 10", of the device of the invention is shown in figs. 7a, 7b

and in figs. 8a, 8b, where the pin 17 and its housing 18 are replaced by a hook, 22, integral to one, 14", of the elements of the device, which works in couple with an appendix internal to the bottom surface of the other element, 15".

Elastic means, 23,23', 23", are provided in the above embodiments, near the hinged ends of the two elements of the device of the invention, to assure that it gets the sliding configuration when it is unlocked by acting on the external appendix 20,20', 20".

Said elastic means may also be provided at the opposite ends with respect to the hinged ones, as shown in fig. 9, or they can be helical shaped, 24, and mounted around the hinge axle of the two elements, as shown in fig. 10.

In the solutions of fig. 9 and fig. 10 the device is unlocked by acting upon a special external appendix, 25, integral to the lower element, 15 by a force which is able to cause the disengaging of the two elements.

The device can be locked to the belt also by using rubber cylinders, 26, longitudinally placed into the device according to different arrangements, as, for example, shown in figs. lib and lie, or it can be locked by using, internally in the device, longitudinal walls, 27, whose dimensions are designed to cause interference with the safety belt 11, as shown, for example, in fig. 11 a.

A very advantageous embodiment is shown in figs. 12a, 12b and 12c in which the two elements 14 and 15 of the device, made of polymeric material, are connected at one of their ends directly by construction, in a planar extended shaping, by a single cast die.

Thanks to the properties of the material, the closed configuration of fig. 12a is obtained by performing an elastic deformation of the material itself in the central connecting section, 28.

Then, the device is kept closed through two hook shaped appendixes, 20,21, placed at the opposite sides with respect to-the hinged ones.

Exactly, in the configuration of complete closing, with the device locked to the belt, as in fig. l2a, the hook shaped appendix 20, internally integral to the upper element 14, passes through an aperture, 29, of the other element 15, and it is bound to this one at the foot of the hook, 21, integral to said second element 15.

The configuration of incomplete closing, in which the device slides along the belt, as shown in fig. l2b, is obtained by simply moving the appendix 20 out of the hooked position of fig. l2a, so that, thanks to the opening action due to the elasticity of the material, the hook of said appendix 20 could fit the hook of the other appendix 21 and stably maintain the new configuration.

Finally, the open configuration shown in fig. l2c, is obtained by moving again towards the outside the appendix 20 and causing the disengaging of the hooks of the two appendixes 20, 21, from the hooked position of fig. l2b.

In said open configuration a tablet, a stick or similar perfumed component, 30, apt to gradually release its fragrance can be inserted or extracted from the device.

The overall dimensions of the component, 30, are designed to allow its housing, in a removable way, inside a seat, 31, provided in the element 14, or in a similar seat, 32, provided in the element 15. The cross section of said seats 31,32, is U- shaped.

The area covered by said seats are limited by the belt itself, which passes through the central cavity of the device.

At one, 28, of the ends of the device we find, internally, a specified-thickness plate, 33, placed on the centreline of the device. Said plate is kept in the above central position by proper rabbets, 34, 35, integral to the elements 14,15, and

shaped to create, when the device is in locked configuration, a guide slot, 36, for said specified-thickness plate, 33. Furthermore, in such locked configuration the ends of said rabbets, 34,35, get in touch with the free end of the plate 33 in order to exactly set its position and, then, the thorough symmetric shape of the device in the section, 28, of connection of the elements 14 and 15. As we can see in fig.

12a, the rabbets 34,35, of the plate, 33, are made of several elements adjacent one to the other.

Obviously, the auxiliary feature brought by the perfumer can be maintained also in presence of a different shape and structural arrangement of the device. For example the perfumer can be adopted also if is used one of the locking methods of the previously disclosed embodiments, or other more.

Finally, the device of the invention can be stably positioned close to the exit slot, 12, of the belt by elastic connecting means apt to allow movements of the device of an amount which is enough to let the belt's automatic block system work when needed.

The operating way of the device according to the invention is immediately clear from the above.

When the driver or the passenger fastens the safety belt, he puts the device in the configuration in which it is able to slide along the belt, and he places it close to the exit slot of the belt; then, after pulling the belt until it can be fastened, avoiding, at the same time, the belt itself pressing on the various parts of his body, he locks the device by clamping the two elements, 14,15, of the device until the locking means 20, 21engage together.

The dimensions of the device and the force that it performs upon the surfaces of the belt are able to prevent rewinding of the belt itself which then remain in the

position in which has been placed during the fastening phase, as it normally occurs, for example, when fastening airplane's safety belts.

Obviously, the proper working of the rewinder's automatic block system is still granted; said system, that is, normally activates as soon as the belt is solicited by traction for any reason.

All the above is schematically disclosed in fig. l and fig. 2.

In fig. 1 is shown a standard position which can take the belt during utilization; every movements towards the F1 direction are forbidden by the device 10, while movements towards F2 are allowed if made in a not impulsive way.

Instead, in fig. 2 is shown the position taken by the belt after an impulsive solicitation by traction: in this case also movements towards the F2 direction are blocked by the action of the automatic block system of the belt.

When the belt is unfastened, the device of the invention can be placed back, if desired, in the configuration in which it is able to slide along the belt in order to allow the automatic rewinding of the belt.

Obviously such an operating way keeps valid also if different embodiment of the device are adopted.

In addiction to the disclosed embodiments, further modifications can be carried out both to the single elements of the device and to the whole shape of it which, anyway, prevent the rewinding of the belt when made integral to the belt itself.

The elastic means which tend to bring the device in its sliding configuration can be missing, as in the embodiments of fig. 3 or figs. 12a, 12b, 12c, if the elasticity useful to open the device is a direct property of the material used or it is given to the material by the specific manufacturing process.

Obviously also the material of the device may vary, both as regards its structure,

for example it can be a metallic material, and as regards its external look ; in fact, for example, it can be visible in low luminosity conditions, or it can be specifically coloured or decorated. Obviously, it can be used as a support for messages, such as ads or other kind of messages.

The shape and the dimensions of the single elements of the device can be different with respect to the ones of the above described embodiments.

The width and the shape of the surfaces which get in contact with the belt may certainly vary but always granting the adherence needed to prevent the device to slide along the belt when it is in its locked configuration.

The perfumers associated to the auxiliary device for safety belts disclosed in figs.

12a, 12b, 12c can be of different types, such as, sticks, soaps, bags of liquid or gel, sponges, cork material, woven fabrics, powder in various kind of containers, and other more.

The above perfumers could also be fixed externally to a device according to the present invention.

The advantages of functionality and easiness of use and manufacturing of the device of the invention keep valid, also carrying out further modifications or changes to the above described, and still remaining under protection of the following claims.