A VEHICLE-PROTECTING DRIVER'S SEAT, OR WHY A HIJACKING IS COMMITTED EVERY 10.5 SEC SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD.

Boris L. Smirnov.

Holder of patents:

Boris L. Smirnov.

Contact: 167001, Syktyvkar, Dimitrov Str., 12. apt. 81

E-mail: sbl@online.ru

1. "A Means of Protecting Conveyances Against Hijacking" patent RU 2172687 C1 (priority of 7 Feb 2000).

2. "Vehicle Security Complex" patent RU 2195405 C1 (priority of 28 May 2001).

3. "Vehicle Security Complex" international application PCT/RU02/00090 (28 May 2001), to obtain European and National / Regional patents. An International Search as well as an International Preliminary Examination and International Publication (WO 02/096726 A1) have been effected on its behalf. (The execution, filing, and tracking of the application are being handled by the Moscow patent attorneys, Gorodissky and Partners.)

4. The "SBL-3 Anti-Hijacking Device," for which application No. 2003104775 has been executed and filed (priority 17 Feb 2003) at the Federal Institute of Industrial Property of the Russian Federation for a patent on the invention to be granted to me. The application has undergone formal examination, and has been at the stage of review of the examination on the merits of the application since 15 Apr 2003.

The device has been made in the form of a prototype. The seat tilt has been approved in a Mazda vehicle.

An enormous number of protective systems, including search and alarm systems, immobilizers, mechanical locking devices, and security complexes are produced currently. These make use of the following: locking the gearbox links in "Reverse"; the steering wheel or the gearbox lever and the manual brake also lock; plastic transponders; and a lot of other things.

All these anti-hijacking devices and systems have one substantial drawback - they do not block access to the vehicle's interior by an intruder, who, having entered the interior compartment and sat in the driver's seat, is in a position to drive the automobile.

Like the home, an automobile is no place for a intruder!

Vehicle hijacking is an extremely important problem for many countries. A million and a half cars are hijacked in America every year - their cost, 6 to 8 billion dollars. About 500 thousand are hijacked in Great Britain; in Italy, 300 thousand light vehicles alone, etc. In Europe, about 20 thousand heavy-load vehicles are hijacked along with expensive goods annually. A vehicle is hijacked every 10.5 sec somewhere in the world, or about 3 million each year. At the same time, if the expenses borne by insurance companies, the time and money spent searching for stolen vehicles, and the trouble inflicted on vehicle owners are considered, it becomes clear that today this a problem that stands out among problems.

A fundamentally new approach to the solution of this problem is offered. It is necessary for this purpose to assign the driver's seat a protective function. The inventions I am offering solve this problem by the rearward tilting of the driver's seat, which is fitted with a pivot connection of its rear supports with the body, and by its immobilization in that position. As a result, the inclined cushion of the driver's seat blocks access to the driver's seat, and the rearward-tilted backrest blocks access to the rear seat. The passenger's seat can also be assigned the same protective function, by which access to the interior compartment can be blocked from the other side. The tilt angle, in this instance, will be approximately 15 degrees. Simultaneously with the rearward tilting of the driver's seat, the manual parking brake is brought into working position.

Presented with such a rearward-tilted driver's seat, a hijacker will not be able to drive the vehicle.

First, just getting into such a seat is hampered.

Second, the hijacker's feet will be at a distance from the vehicle's pedals.

Third, until the anti-hijacking device is neutralized and the seat occupies the transport position, the handle of the manual brake, which is in the working position, will not allow the vehicle to be moved (RU 2195405). When the car is taken in tow in hurried peremptory hijackings, the use of a tow after the clutch pedal is pressed is precluded. It is especially important that the hijacker must be outside the vehicle, with the driver's door open, in order to neutralize the anti-hijacking device, thus attracting the attention of those in the vicinity.

To steal such a vehicle, even with a running engine and the driver's door open, will be impossible!

The inventions offered are distinguished, according to the claims of the inventions, from other inventions by the fact that the driver's seat tilts rearwards by means of a pivot connection of its rear supports with the body, which have ratchet mechanisms on which a locking element is mounted, in order to block access to the driver's seat with the cushion, while the rearward-tilted backrest blocks access to the back seat (RU 2172687).

In addition, with the aim of increasing the security of the vehicle, the seat sets its manual brake, and the doors of the interior compartment are locked from the inside through an actuating mechanism from the shaft of the rearward-tilted seat, while the handles of the outside doors are recessed by action on a pin. During a hijacking, in case of a holdup, the manual brake stops the vehicle (RU 2195405).

In the application for the invention offered, the "SBL-3 Anti-Hijacking Device," the planar surfaces restraining the seat in the tilted position open up automatically as the seat tilts rearwards (application No. 2003104775).

The advantages of the inventions offered over competing and existing devices and systems reside in the fact that in terms of its design, the "SBL-3 Anti-Hijacking Device" in the transport position resembles a cardboard package, 3 to 5 mm in thickness, folded up along the creases; that it occupies the minimum space under the seat; and that it is simple to make ready and to operate. Its installation on the assembly line during vehicle assembly may lead to increased vehicle sales and profit. In parallel with this, it may be sold as a consumer product since its simplicity of design and installation in the vehicle requires no special training or special tools. The seat design itself does not require any alterations.

The fact that it can have both a manual and an electrical remote actuator may also be numbered among the other advantages of this device. When in use it will be protected by the planar surfaces against break-in from all sides and will be difficult to access in case of break-in. An intruder will not be able to conceal himself during the hours of darkness between the rows of seats because of the rearwards-tilted backs of the front seats. In case of robbery and hijacking, the hijacked vehicle is stopped by the manual parking brake with the aid of the rearwards-tilted seat (RU 2195405).

The following patents have been submitted by the Russian Federation Committee on Patents and Trademarks as prototypes to my inventions: GB 2322840 A, GB 2063193 A, GB 2217278 A, GB 2059757 A, GB 2248593 A, GB 2328418 A, DE 3042033 A1.

They all do not have the advantages that my inventions possess.

The "SBL-3 Anti-Hijacking Device" is depicted in the drawing attached to the proposal.

Fig. 1a – the driver's seat in the transport position with the anti-hijacking device;

Fig. 1b – the same in the position of performance of the protective function;

Fig. 2a – the anti-hijacking device deployed;

Fig. 2b – the same device in mounted form or in the transport position;

Fig. 3 – general view of the seat when performing the protective function.

The principal elements of the anti-hijacking device are: the seat itself 1 with a pivot connection 2 of its rear supports with the body. Lower plate 3 which is fastened to the floor of the body at the points of attachment of the seat, upper plate 4, on which the driver's seat is placed and fastened.

Thanks to this, all adjustments of the seat are protected!

Both plates are then connected with one another through pivots 5, by shafts 2. Rectangular face planar surfaces 6 are connected in front to upper plate 4 by pivots, and side planar surfaces 7 articulate along the edges. All three planar surfaces are fitted with springs 8. An automatic catch 9 with a locking element is mounted on planar surface 6.

The anti-hijacking device operates in the following manner.

The driver, when leaving the vehicle parked, sets the manual parking brake 10 and neutralizes the latch (not shown) which restrains seat 1 in the transport position. Spring 8, between plate 4 and front face planar surface 6, then goes into action, pushing planar surface 6 forward as it uncoils, so that it occupies a position perpendicular to the front part of the seat (figs. 1b and 3). As this planar surface moves forward, it slides with its edges along side planar surfaces 7 pressed against plate 4 and overcomes the resistance of their springs 8. As a result of this, planar surfaces 7 draw apart and occupy a vertical position, and the seat tilts rearward (fig. 1b), thereby automatically performing the protective function. Automatic catch 9 with a locking element, for example Mul-T-Lock, on planar surface 6 prevents its return to the transport position, which means that side planar surfaces 7 also cannot fold up under the base of the seat.

Taking the vehicle out of protection is possible only after automatic catch 9 is neutralized, with a key acting on the locking element.

To bring the seat into the transport position, it is necessary to change the perpendicular position of front planar surface 6 in relation to the base of the seat, i.e., to tilt it rearward, thus setting the seat into the transport position (fig. 1a). Then planar surfaces 7 fold under the action of springs 8, and the seat is set into its place and fixed in the transport position.

When the lever of the manual parking brake is in the working position, it acts as a limiter of the seat tilt angle.

At the present time, vehicles that come off the assembly line, as the facts demonstrate, are inadequately protected against hijacking. Each owner, at the time of purchase, thinks first of all about which anti-hijacking devices and systems to install to protect his beloved vehicle, his property. It is a simple truth - pure mechanics have been and will be more reliable than fashionable electronics, both in operation and at the very moment of an "attack" on the vehicle. It is not susceptible to temperatures or fluctuations in the electric circuit, regardless of the vehicle's "state of health." A mechanical anti-hijacking device can be neutralized only by mechanical action; this is the main obstacle in the path of the hijacker. It follows from this that the installation of a mechanical anti-hijacking device is required in order to reliably protect a vehicle. And in particular one that will not allow the hijacker to sit in the driver's seat or afford him the possibility of moving the vehicle. A hijacker will not even attempt to break the lock and open the door of a vehicle through whose window "vehicle-protecting driver's seat" is visible.

Use of my inventions will make it possible to substantially curtail the number of hijackings of light and freight vehicles, airplanes, boats, motorcycles, and other conveyances. Their owners' peace of mind at work, at home, and while visiting will be genuinely enhanced. Insurance companies will make a substantial profit. The efforts of the police, which before the introduction of these inventions were spent hunting for hijacked vehicles, will be directed towards the exposure of other crimes.

The estimate of the size of the market for the end product per year will be determined by the vehicles' manufacturer (the licensee) itself, or more precisely, the number of vehicles which will have the "SBL-3 Anti-Hijacking Device" installed during assembly on the assembly line. Expenses associated with promotional merchandising of the product to the consumer and sales procurement are not required for this. The consumer is waiting for this product and is dreaming of it, since there are no competing adequate anti-hijacking devices and systems on the market today.

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