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:
Jan. 06, 1998
Filed:
Oct. 05, 1995
Timothy J Cahill, Dryden, MI (US);
TRW Vehicle Safety Systems Inc., Lyndhurst, OH (US);
Abstract
A seat belt buckle (16) for use with a seat belt pretensioner (30) has an inertia locking mechanism (52). A latch member (64) in the buckle (16) has a locking position for engaging a seat belt locking tongue (14) to block removal of the tongue (14) from the buckle (16). A pushbutton (22) moves the latch member (64) out of the locking position against a bias of a spring (70). The inertia locking mechanism (52) includes a blocking structure (82) which moves into blocking contact with the latch member (64) in response to a predetermined amount of deceleration which occurs when the buckle (16) decelerates and stops moving under the influence of the pretensioner (30).