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US 10,000,183 B2Granted
Belt retractor and method for tightening an unused vehicle belt
AssigneeTRW Automotive GmbH
InventorMark Mages
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a belt retractor (10) for a seat belt comprising a belt reel (12) onto which webbing (14) can be wound while being spring-loaded and comprising a tensioning device (16) which is adapted to act on the belt reel (12) in a winding direction (A), a control (18) is provided which is adapted to activate the tensioning device (16) when the seat belt is unloaded and not fastened.
Claims15
A method of tensioning a non-used vehicle seat belt by acting on a belt reel (12) in the winding direction,
- wherein a control (18) detects that the seat belt is unfastened and that subsequently the belt reel (12) is rotated in the winding direction,
- and wherein the control (18) determines whether the vehicle has been parked and locked up, the control being configured so that it activates the tensioning so as to rotate the belt reel in the winding direction only when the vehicle is parked and locked up.
A method of tensioning an unused vehicle seat belt, comprising:
- detecting if the seat belt is unfastened;
- determining if the vehicle is parked and locked up;
- and
- rotating a belt reel in a winding direction by a motor configured to tension the seat belt only when it is determined that the vehicle is parked and locked and the seat belt is unfastened.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.