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:
Aug. 04, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 06, 1996
Takata Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A seat belt retractor is controlled in consideration of the condition of a vehicle relative to an object and/or the condition of the vehicle to more efficiently and conformably protect the occupant in an emergency. A CPU judges the condition of the vehicle relative to the object based on a detection signal, with regard to the object in front of the vehicle, from a front object detection sensor and drives an electric motor depending on the result of the judgment. The rotation of the electric motor causes a drive side gear clutch, a clutch plate, and a lever member to rotate together. As the rotation of the lever member is stopped, the drive side gear clutch and the clutch plate rotate conversely each other so that the clutch plate shifts axially to engage the teeth thereof with teeth of the driven side gear clutch. As a result, the rotation of the electric motor causes the gear holder and the reel shaft to rotate. In this way, the belt tension of the seat belt is controlled corresponding to the condition of the vehicle relative to the object.