Free running cinching connector

In a three-point safety belt harness for retaining a vehicle passenger in his seat, said harness including a safety belt having one end wound upon a spring bias storage retractor and an opposite end connected to an anchor adjacent the passenger seat, a belt guide generally adjacent the shoulder of said passenger with said belt being entrained therethrough, a releasable connector anchored on an opposite side of said passenger and a connector mating fitting slidably mounted upon said belt for releasable connection to said connector, the improvement of said fitting comprising the provision of:

• a connector fitting base plate having a belt receiving aperture;
• a slide bar slidably positioned on said base plate with a web of said bar spanning said aperture and having said belt entering a portion of said aperture on one side of said web, passing over said web and exiting said aperture on a second side of said web;
• said web having a longitudinal extent spanning said aperture with upper and lower, front and rear, surfaces merging in four longitudinally extending web corners, two of said corners being lower corners generally facing said base plate and being of substantially right angle configuration to the base plate and the other two of said corners being upper corners facing away from said base plate and being of a blunted configuration to facilitate the belt sliding thereover, said belt being centrally between one of said lower corners and an adjacent edge of said plate aperture;
• wherein said corners of blunted configuration and other portions of said connector cooperate to define means for generating a friction force on the safety belt such that (a) when said safety belt is retracted the connector is carried by said belt to said belt guide and (b) after said connector has contacted said belt guide the safety belt may continue moving through the connector under the action of the belt storage retractor.