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:
Dec. 31, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 03, 2000
Hideaki Yano, Tokyo 106-8510, JP;
Koji Tanaka, Tokyo 106-8510, JP;
Hiromasa Tanji, Tokyo 106-8510, JP;
Other;
Abstract
A seat belt retractor is formed of a frame, a reel rotationally supported by the frame for winding a seat belt, a reel urging device connected to the reel for urging the reel in a seat belt winding direction, a locking device provided between the frame and the reel for allowing the reel to rotate freely in a normal state and preventing the reel to rotate in a belt unwinding direction when necessary, and a belt tension control mechanism for controlling a belt tension of the seat belt. The belt tension control mechanism includes a motor, and a power transmission path situated between the motor and the reel and actuated by the motor. The power transmission path has an OFF-state in which a rotational torque of the motor is not transmitted between the motor and the reel, and an ON-state in which the rotational torque is transmitted between the motor and the reel. A power transmission path switching mechanism selectively switches the power transmission path between the ON-state and the OFF-state. The belt tension control mechanism is simplified by reducing the number of the components.