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. 01, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 15, 1995
Kenneth H Kohlndorfer, Roseville, MI (US);
Mark F Gray, New Market, CA;
Richard W Koning, Yale, MI (US);
TRW Vehicle Safety Systems Inc., Lyndhurst, OH (US);
Abstract
A seat belt system (10) includes a retractor (18) with a spool (60), sections (26,28) of seat belt webbing (16) which define first and second shoulder belts (42,48), and a section (22) of seat belt webbing (16) which connects the shoulder belts (42,48) to the spool (60). The spool (60) is supported for unwinding rotation upon extraction of either of the shoulder belts (42,48), and for winding rotation upon retraction of either of the shoulder belts (42,48). A locking pawl (80) has a locking position blocking unwinding rotation of the spool (60). A cinch mechanism (100) moves the locking pawl (80) to the locking position in response to a predetermined amount of rotation of the spool (60). The predetermined amount of rotation includes a predetermined amount of unwinding rotation upon extraction of the first shoulder belt (42), a predetermined amount of winding rotation upon subsequent retraction of the first shoulder belt (42), and a predetermined amount of additional unwinding rotation upon extraction of the second shoulder belt (48) following retraction of the first shoulder belt (42).