Britax Safe-n-Sound Maxi Guard Child Restraint

Up until the joint Australian Standard for Child Restraints was revised in 2013, child restraints could only use an in-built harness for children up until approximately 4 years of age. After that the child had to use a booster seat using the car's lap sash seat belt. Unfortunately children are not wearing their seatbelts correctly with booster seats which can be fatal in a crash. The use of a 6 point harness, as used on the Maxi Guard, is an ideal harnessing system and is used on all child restraints in Australia for children up to 4 years of age. This harnessing system has been extended to suit older and larger children in the Maxi Guard child restraint and has been extensively tested for strength.

The adjustable headrest allows for children with a seated height from 290 mm up to 500 mm at the shoulders. This height will cover most children up to 8 years of age although there will be many children who can use the seat up to 10 or 11 years of age. The headrest and thus the harness shoulder straps can be adjusted whilst the child restraint is still installed in the car using the release lever is positioned at the top of the headrest.

As cars without side airbags provide little protection for a child in a child restraint, the Maxi Guard has a dual side impact protection system (SICT) to provide superior protection in case of a side crash. The system is made up of two air cushions which are vessels with a small exhaust hole. In the headrest there is a cushion that surrounds the head on 3 sides which cushions the head against crash impact forces. The larger air cushion on the outside of the seat moulding is intended to reduce the crash forces on the child's torso, the chest and the child's heart. When squashed in a crash the air escapes slowly thus absorbing energy thus the crash forces on the child are reduced.

One of the problems in restraining a larger occupant in a child restraint is that the loads in the seat belt and the tether strap are increased. The seat belt has extra capacity but the tether strap anchorage fitting or anchorage point in the car may not have sufficient strength. As such, AS/NZS 1754:2013 has nominated a maximum load of 7 kN that can be applied to the car's tether anchor fitting in the required simulated crash testing. This required significant design challenges to keep the tether strap loads below the 7 kN maximum. The Maxi Guard uses a structure in the top of the seat moulding where the tether strap attached that flex sufficiently to ensure that the load remains below the 7 kN.

One of the problems when a child gets into their seat or they are placed in to the seat they sit on the buckle making it annoying to pull out from under the child. The seat is fitted with a patented flip forward buckle pad (called EZ-buckle system) which flips the buckle forward when the buckle tongues are released. Next time that the child gets in to the seat the buckle is still fitted forward and can be easily found to then engage the harness straps.

The seating size of the seat will fit 95% of 8 year olds thus the Maxi Guard will continue to fit some children within the seat shoulder height marking system until the 10 or 11 years of age.

Meets the Road Rules for transporting children up to at least 8 years of age. The product will allow a parent to meet the Road Rules by allowing their child to be correctly restrained up to 7 years of age in rear facing mode then in the forward facing mode. Maxi Guard will fit 95% percentile children at 8 years of age so they can take full advantage of the 6 point harness before graduating to a booster seat. Many children will be older before they graduate. The product complies with the Australian & NZ Child Restraint Standard AS/NZS1754:2013 as a Type G (a new type designation) child restraint and is certified by SAI-Global product certification scheme (5 tickmark).