Lock-up mechanism for a vehicle sensitive automotive seat belt retractor
AssigneeAllied Corporation
InventorRudy V. Thomas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lock-up mechanism for a vehicle sensitive automotive seat belt retractor having a shuttle displaceable with the winding and unwinding of the seat belt webbing from the retractor's spool and a lock pawl activated by the shuttle to pivot the retractor's lock bar into engagement with the retractor's lock bar. The lock pawl is pivoted to a reset position by the shuttle disengaging the lock pawl from the retractor's lock bar permitting the webbing to be extracted from the retractor's spool in a normal manner. An overcenter spring holds the lock pawl in either the locked position pivoting the lock bar into engagement with the retractor's ratchet wheel or the reset position with the lock pawl disengaged from the lock bar.
Claims17
A lock-up mechanism for an automotive vehicle sensitive seat belt retractor of the type having a base plate, a spool rotatably attached to the base plate, a length of seat belt webbing attached to the spool, a spring motor for winding the seat belt webbing on the spool, a ratchet wheel attached to the spool and rotatable therewith, a lock bar pivotally attached to the base plate adjacent to the ratchet wheel, and an inertia sensor for pivoting said lock bar to engage the ratchet wheel in response to the inertial forces of a vehicular crash, the lock-up mechanism comprising
- a frame adapted to be connected to the base plate of the retractor adjacent to the spool;
- a shuttle having a web follower, said shuttle slidably disposed in said frame and movable between a first and second position in response to the winding and unwinding of the seat belt webbing on the spool;
- resilient means for biasing said shuttle in a direction causing said web follower to engage the seat belt webbing wound on the spool;
- a lock pawl having a resilient contact member, said lock pawl pivotally attached to said frame and displacable between a lock and reset position by said shuttle being displaced to said first and second positions respectively, said contact member pivoting the lock bar into engagement with the ratchet wheel when said lock pawl is in said lock position and disengaged from the lock bar when said lock pawl is in said reset position;
- and
- an overcenter spring connected between said frame and said lock pawl producing a force biasing said pawl in said locked or reset positions when said shuttle is intermediate said first and second positions.
A lock-up mechanism for vehicle sensitive seat belt retractor having a base plate, a spool rotatably attached to the base plate, a length of seat belt webbing wound on said spool, a spring motor for retracting the seat belt webbing on the spool, a ratchet wheel attached to the spool and rotatable therewith, a lock bar pivotally attached to the base plate adjacent to the ratchet wheel, and an inertia sensor for pivoting the lock bar to engage the ratchet wheel to prevent unwinding of the webbing from the spool in response to the inertial forces of a vehicular crash, the lock-up mechanism characterized by:
- a frame adapted to be connected to the base plate adjacent to the spool;
- a shuttle slidably disposed in said frame, said shuttle movably displaced between a first position when the webbing is unwound from the spool and a second position when the webbing is wound on the spool;
- and
- lock pawl means pivotally attached to said frame, said lock pawl means displaceable between a locked position pivoting the lock bar to engage the ratchet wheel in response to said shuttle being displaced to said first position, and a reset position disengaged from said lock bar in response to said shuttle being displaced to said second position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.