The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company

Ronald J Walker

Robert J Rumpf

Wallace C Higbee

Dewayne J Sherwin

Jay Walter Jensen

A retractor lock and pawl saddle combination for seat belt retractors and particularly inertial retractors in which the saddle supports the pawl or lock and the saddle is deformably installed in the retractor frame dimensionally supporting and journalling the shaft of the retractor drum and having a deflective portion in support of the pawl so that as the pawl engages the ratchet wheel, a portion of the saddle flexes guidably and the pawl is carried to thrust and lock abutment against the retractor frame. The flexing portion of the saddle supports an inertial sensor such as a pendulum and the pendulum upon movement pivots the pawl to engage the ratchet wheel. The saddle pawl and sensor are preassembled and are then sprung into place between the upstanding walls of the retractor frame.

Retractor lock and pawl saddle therefor

A continuous loop slip tongue element having an integral channel housing portion which is provided with a seat belt webbing aperture having a transverse lock buttress edge portion. A round bar element is rollably mounted within the channel housing across the seat belt webbing aperture and has a seat belt webbing slot therethrough. A seat belt webbing is freely positioned through the housing seat belt webbing aperture to slidably pass through the round bar seat belt webbing slot so that the continuous loop slip tongue element is freely movable along the seat belt webbing until the slip tongue element is moved to its operative use position in engagement with a buckle assembly which causes the webbing to reverse itself in direction. This action of the webbing moves and rotates the round bar element to a lockably stressed position within the channel housing so as to lockably retain the seat belt webbing against the lock buttress edge portion defined by the channel housing aperture. In the preferred embodiment, the round bar is formed from two elongate identical elements each having a mating dropped portion so that when the two elements are joined as by Teflon rings and oriented by pins, they form the round and slotted bar.

Continuous loop slip tongue

A locker retractor for seat belt harness and the like which includes an interposer element articulated by movement of the drum or reel to selectively block or release a spring biased pawl bar and holding the pawl bar away from locking a ratchet on one or both of the reel flanges or selectively freeing the pawl bar so that it may lock the ratchet in prevention of further drum rotation in the withdrawal direction. The shift from blocking to non-blocking position is achieved by a slight retraction of the webbing after initial free withdrawal, whereupon the interposer element falls free of its blocking relation. The interposer is a latch-like element pivotally and slidably connected to the frame and oriented and frictionally directed by a ring element turned by the moving of the drum. The interposer described is also useful in providing quiet free-pull and retraction in inertial retractors as described in copending application Ser. No. 258,576 filed on June 1, 1972 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,320.

Growing community of inventors

Sterling Heights, MI, United States of America

Ronald J Walker