Automatic belt reel lock mechanism
AssigneeAllied Corporation
InventorHeinz D. Adomeit
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic belt reel lock mechanism with a main housing, a reel axle with pertaining reel spring and a rolled-up belt as well as with a locking mechanism comprising a mass force sensor, a movably mounted locking pawl, a ratchet wheel and a control component which supports the mass force sensor and is mounted in the housing concentrically with the reel axle, and with a lock/drive disk concentric with the reel axle and mounted in a freely rotatable fashion in relation to it while serving the meshing of the locking pawl with the ratchet wheel through a control cam, and with a rotary inertial mass for actuating the locking pawl at excessive belt acceleration.
Claims6
An automatic seat belt reel lock mechanism having a main housing, a reel axle rotatably disposed in said main housing, seat belt webbing wound about the reel axle, a wind spring connected to said housing for producing a torque on the reel axle in the direction to wind said seat belt webbing on said reel axle, a locking ratchet wheel attached to said reel axle and rotatable therewith, a locking pawl having one end pivotally attached to the main housing and movable to engage said ratchet wheel, and a control component having a lock/drive disk concentric with the reel axle and independently rotatable thereabout, a cam attached to the lock/drive disk for actuating said locking pawl to engage the ratchet wheel, a vehicle acceleration device responsive to vehicle accelerations exceeding a first predetermined value for causing the cam to actuate the locking pawl and a rotational acceleration device responsive to the rotational acceleration of the reel axle exceeding a second predetermined value for causing the cam to actuate the locking pawl, wherein
- said lock/drive disk, has internal gear teeth,
- said cam disposed on said lock/drive disk being responsive to the rotation of said lock/drive disk in a predetermined direction to actuate said locking pawl to engage said ratchet wheel;
- said control component further including a control gear disposed concentric with the reel axle and attached to said ratchet wheel, said control gear having external teeth about its periphery, and
- a control gear pawl pivotally attached to said control gear;
- said rotational acceleration device comprising a rotary inertial mass resiliently connected to said control gear, said inertial mass having means for pivoting said control gear pawl to engage the internal teeth of said lock/drive disk and rotate said lock/drive device with said control gear in said predetermined direction in response to the rotational acceleration of said reel axle exceeding said second predetermined value;
- and
- said vehicle acceleration device comprising vehicle acceleration means connected to said lock/drive device for engaging the external teeth of said control gear in response to the vehicle acceleration exceeding said first predetermined value, the engagement of said control gear's external teeth connecting said lock/drive disk to said control gear, thus rotating said lock/drive device in said predetermined direction upon unwinding of said belt for causing said cam to actuate the locking pawl.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.