The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 24, 1996
Filed:
Dec. 20, 1994
Barney J Bauer, Fenton, MI (US);
TRW Vehicle Safety Systems Inc., Lyndhurst, OH (US);
Abstract
A seat belt retractor (14) includes a spool (16) upon which vehicle seat belt webbing (12) is wound. The spool (16) is supported for unwinding rotation under the influence of tension in the webbing (12). An emergency locking mechanism (40) dissipates energy by resisting unwinding rotation of the spool (16), while permitting a limited amount of such rotation, when the level of the tension in the webbing (12) is greater than a predetermined elevated level. A sensor assembly (190) senses a vehicle occupant characteristic and/or a vehicle collision characteristic. A control assembly (180) varies the amount of dissipated energy in response to a signal from the sensor assembly (190).