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:
May. 07, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 14, 2000
Muneo Nishizawa, Tokyo, JP;
Yasushi Kanamori, Tokyo, JP;
Takata Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A torsion bar in a seat belt retractor includes a torsion portion to be twisted. The torsion portion has an outer portion, and a center portion inside the outer portion. The outer portion has a hardness lower than that at the center portion to thereby increase energy absorption in twisting the torsion portion. Therefore, even if higher stress is applied to the outer portion of the torsion portion when the torsion bar is twisted, the number of turns until the torsion bar is broken can be increased as compared to the conventional one. Accordingly, the belt withdrawing amount is ensured enough after the twisting of the torsion portion is started, thereby improving the energy absorbing capacity.