Gateway Industries, Inc.

Takata Corporation

Occupant Safety Systems Inc.

Other

The Anderson Company

Occupany Safety Systems, Inc.

Gerald A Doty

James L Zygutis

William G Drinane

Richard M Grabowski

Mark Lynn Wilsey

Eric T Johnson

William E Hunter, Jr

Erick Michael Anderson

A seat belt retractor may be spaced from and mounted at an attitude to the vertical that is different than the attitude of the retractor; and a mechanical connection therebetween operates the retractor to block belt protraction from the retractor reel when the vehicle and/or seat belt experience an acceleration or deceleration above a predetermined amount. Preferably, the retractor is of substantial conventional manufacture, and the remote actuator uses the same kind of proven inertia-sensitive components to provide a low-cost and proven system. Preferably, the remote actuator is connected mechanically by a cable to the retractor, and the cable actuates the retractor to its blocking position to stop belt protraction. Herein, the retractor is shown as being mounted on a tiltable seat back of a vehicle seat that may change its attitude to the vertical very substantially while the remote inertia-sensitive actuator is mounted in the seat rest of the vehicle seat and does not change its attitude, and the cable extends therebetween. In the illustrated retractor, the cable turns a gear in both the remote actuator and in the retractor. An inertia flywheel sensitive to rotation, or an inertia, weight sensitive to acceleration or deceleration, when acceleration or deceleration is above the predetermined amount, will stop rotation of the gear at the remote actuator. The gear stops the attached cable from rotating; and the cable stops the rotation of a gear in the retractor thereby causing an actuation of a retractor main pawl into a toothed gear to block reel rotation and belt protraction. The flexible cable is looped to allow it to lengthen or shorten to accommodate various pivoted positions for the seat back.

Remote mechanical sensor and seat belt retractor operated thereby

Controlled force shoulder belt system

A seat belt restraint system is provided including a retractor and an optical inertia sensor therefor. The optical inertia has a sensor body with a light emitter and detector recessed in bores therein. A frame support having inclined walls with a base opening at the bottom of the walls support an inertia ball so that it is positioned at the opening to reflect light from the emitter to the detector when vehicle accelerations are within a predetermined range. The inertia sensor is incorporated into circuitry which controls a locking mechanism, e.g. solenoid, at the retractor so that when the detector is sensing light, the retractor stays unlocked. During excessive vehicle acceleration, such as brought on during accident conditions, the ball will roll along the wall so it no longer reflects light from the emitter breaking optical communication between the emitter and detector and locking the retractor. The optical inertia sensor is advantageous in that it uses very few moving parts in contrast to mechanical remote sensors and avoids the reliability problems faced by switch contacts in prior inertia sensors. In addition, the sensor body including the emitter and detector is a commercially available portion of the sensor which utilizes well proven optical components for good reliability in sensor operation and lower costs in fabricating the present sensor.

Seat belt restraint system

A seat belt actuator may be spaced from and mounted at an attitude to the vertical that is different than the attitude of the retractor. Preferably, the remote actuator is connected by a looped cable to the retractor to actuate the retractor to its blocking position to stop belt protraction. Herein, the retractor is mounted on a tiltable seat back of a vehicle seat that changes its attitude to the vertical while the remote inertia-sensitive actuator is mounted in the seat rest of the vehicle seat and does not change its attitude. The cable turns a gear in both the remote actuator and in the retractor. An inertia flywheel sensitive to rotation, or an inertia, weight sensitive to acceleration or deceleration, when deceleration is above the predetermined amount, stops rotation of the gear at the remote actuator. The gear stops the attached cable from rotating; and the cable stops the rotation of a gear in the retractor thereby causing an actuation of a retractor main pawl into a toothed gear to block reel rotation and belt protraction.

A low-cost energy management device for dissipating a portion of the energy imparted to a safety belt in a rapid vehicular deceleration is preferably comprised of two pieces, viz., a strap and a channel-shaped guide and deflector member. The strap has a row of deflectable tabs or beams and is mounted to the vehicle. The channel-shaped guide and deflector member is secured to a seat belt retractor and straddles the strap and slides along the strap rectilinearly and guides the retractor in this linear sliding movement along the strap while an integral depending deflector portion on the channel-shaped member deflects the beams. The deflecting portion engages two adjacent, spaced, deflected beams on the strap and these spaced deflected abutting the deflecting portion aid in aligning the deflector member to travel in a straight line path. The guiding and deflecting member has staking tabs to stake the channel-shaped member to the retractor in a low-cost manner. The cantilevered beams are deflected at a known deflection force and hence, a series of them provides a reduction in the maximum load that can be calculated.

Energy management device for use with safety belt retractors

The present invention provides an intentionally set or overt comfort system to be employed in a vehicle seat belt retractor for rewinding a seat belt. The system requires an overt activation by the occupant through a predetermined sequence of deliberate belt manipulations for activating the intentional set comfort system and subsequently actuating the tension-relieving mode. The preferred intentional set comfort system comprises primarily two major components which include a belt sensing activation mechanism and a tension-relieving mechanism. The belt sensing mechanism senses a deliberate protraction of the belt beyond a distance of normal occupant use for shifting the tension-relieving mechanism to an activated state. In response to the belt sensing activation mechanism, an actuator arm shifts the tension-relieving mechanism to its activated state. The tension-relieving mechanism includes a disc, having a plurality of grooves, mounted for rotation with the reel shaft and a spring biased blocking finger mounted for pivotal movement that is initially spaced from the disc. Upon activation of the tension-relieving mechanism, the finger is moved into the grooves and cooperates with the grooves to initially remove belt slack. In order to actuate the tension-relieving mode, the occupant, subsequent to removal of the belt slack, makes a slight protraction of the belt to cause the tension-relieving mode. However, belt protraction beyond the predetermined distance will result in automatic disengagement of the belt from the tension-relieving state and thereby causing reversion to the tension mode under the retraction spring force.

Seat belt retractor having an intentional set comfort system

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a vehicle seat belt retractor having an activation system that responds to an anti-locking braking system and that actuates the retractor to prevent protraction of the seat belt. The preferred activation system includes a control circuit that energizes an activation mechanism when the anti-locking braking system is activated and prohibits energization of the activation mechanism when the braking system is deactivated. The preferred activation mechanism is a small modular unit which is externally mounted to a seat belt retractor and which generally includes a base, an activation lever and a solenoid. The base is mounted to the side of the retractor, and the solenoid and the activation lever are mounted on the base. More particularly, the activation lever is pivotally mounted on the base and extends into the retractor to a position underneath the pawl of the retractor. The activation lever rotates between a neutral position in which it is spaced from the pawl of the retractor and an actuated position in which it engages and urges the pawl into engagement with the ratchet wheels to prevent protraction of the seat belt. The activation lever also attaches to the solenoid, and the solenoid rotates the activation lever to its actuated position in response to an anti-lock braking system used in the vehicle.

Seat belt retractor activation mechanism responsive to anti-lock braking

A free-falling, self-locking adjustable tip assembly is provided for a safety belt apparatus, which has a seat belt retractor at one belt end and for rewinding the belt and pulling one belt portion into a generally vertical position at belt release. A tip-assembly engagement means contacts the belt and acts on a slide with a first rib on the slide movable across the top of a tongue plate to wedge the belt between a pair of ribs on an insert carried by the tongue plate. The first rib is on a metal slide means and is located above the tongue plate, as are the pair of ribs on the insert. The locking of belt prevents transfer of the belt from the shoulder portion to lap portion is at a location above the tongue plate. When the tip assembly is unbuckled, the grip is released and the tip assembly free falls along the belt.

Free-falling tip with full locking

A seat belt retractor having a rattle suppression mechanism to be operative when the retractor is not in use including a gear mechanism driven by a seat belt supporting reel and coupled to drive a pawl control mechanism between a first position holding a reel locking pawl in an inoperative position, when the seat belt is fully wound and immobilizing the pawl against rattling, and a second position, when the seat belt is protracted, in which the pawl is released for movement into a locking position with ratchet wheels on the reel. Preferably, the pawl control mechanism includes a gear mechanism that assures that the belt must be wound on the reel before the pawl is driven to engage and is held against an inertia member to prevent rattling therebetween. The pawl is also held spaced from the ratchet teeth, when it is immobilized, to prevent rattling.

Seat belt retractor having rattle suppression mechanism

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a noise suppression mechanism for a seat belt retractor used in a vehicle. The preferred retractor includes a reel journaled on a reel shaft and having attached a ratchet wheel with ratchet teeth. The ratchet teeth may be engaged by a pivotally frame-mounted locking pawl. The pawl may pivot between an inoperative position in which the pawl is spaced from the ratchet wheel and an operative position in which an inertial device urges the pawl into engagement with the ratchet wheel to prevent protraction of the belt. The preferred noise suppression mechanism may include an interlocking disc being mounted on reel shaft for rotation with the ratchet wheel for rotating between an actuated position for immobilizing the locking pawl against rattling and a neutral position allowing the locking pawl to pivot freely. The disc may have a blockout cam having a curved engaging surface for engaging a pawl being spaced at different positions with respect to the ratchet wheel. A spring may be employed for uniformally biasing the disc into engagement with the ratchet wheel. The disc has predetermined rotation for preventing interference with the other retractor components and for ensuring effective application of the blockout cam for engaging the pawl for immobilizing the pawl.

Seat belt retractor having a noise suppression mechanism with a blockout

A safety belt system having a retraction spring and a tension-relieving apparatus having a second spring operable to provide a retractive force reducing the belt-applied tensile load on the occupant to an unnoticeable level but adequate to rewind the belt and remove any belt slack, which apparatus is engageable by the occupant after securing the belt.

Tension relieving mechanism for a safety belt system

A dual spring seat-belt retractor system with a tension-ease system operable to provide one of two springs continuously maintaining a retractive force on the belt to maintain the belt against the wearer in the tension-ease mode, which tension-ease system is automatically initiated at the cessation of belt protraction with a slight retraction to engage latch means that renders one of the springs ineffective to provide a reduced belt tension. A lost motion connection between the belt reel and the latch means permits limited belt movement by the user while maintaining the reduced tension until a predetermined retraction occurs.

Dual-spring retractor operable by a series of discs

Disclosed is the anti-rattle restraint of an otherwise freely pivotable, unevenly counter balanced seat belt looking pawl subject to rattle with vehicle vibration. A light bias urging the pawl out of contact with the ratchets on the belt spool is maintained by an arm mounted on the spool shaft with a frictional fit sufficient to maintain the bias on the pawl and to effect instant removal of the arm upon withdrawal of the belt from the retractor, but inadequate to retard rotation of the shaft after the arm has moved through the limited arc of travel permitted to it.

Noise suppressor for seat belt retractor

A compact safety belt retractor is provided with a large coil of webbing on a rotatable reel and locking pawl teeth are able to have locking engagement with toothed wheels on the reel even when the coil of webbing has a larger diameter than the diameter of a circle defined by the teeth of the ratchet wheels. The coil of webbing preferably extends the full depth of the retractor from front edges of the sidewalls of the frame to the rear frame wall of the retractor. Thus, a large coil of webbing may be stored for the depth of the retractor. To reduce the side-to-side width of retractor, it is preferred to have reel ratchet wheels mounted in the plane of the frame sidewalls and to have the pawl teeth also mounted in openings in the sidewalls of the retractor frame. The pawl teeth are elongated columns and are loaded in columnar manner with substantially small shear or bending stresses thereon. At very high loading on the belt, as at the time of accident, the reel may deflect to shift the toothed wheels to directly engage the bearing surfaces on the sidewalls of the frame when the reel is locked. Both the locking pawls and the toothed wheels are substantially coplanar with the sidewalls of the frame and are disposed within openings in the sidewalls.

Compact safety belt retractor

An inertia retractor may be provided with an automatic locking mode by the addition of an assembly mounted as an attachment to sidewall of the inertia retractor. The assembly allows the retractor to be used as an inertia retractor until the belt is pulled to a predetermined extent whereupon a belt coil sensor senses this predetermined belt extraction and operates an actuator to shift a pawl into locking engagement with the ratchet wheels and thereby into the automatic locking mode. When the belt rewinds, the belt coil sensor deactivates the ALR mechanism by latching the pawl actuator thereby allowing an inertia member to again operate the pawl to the locking position upon a deceleration of sufficient magnitude.

Growing community of inventors

Crown Point, IN, United States of America

Gerald A Doty