Overt comfort system

An automotive seat belt retractor assembly for rewinding a seat belt for securing a vehicle occupant, which vehicle has at least one door

• said assembly having a reel for rewinding said belt thereon,
• a first biasing means for biasing the reel to retract and rewind the belt on the reel,
• an emergency locking means for locking the belt against protraction at the time of an accident,
• a tension-relieving means having a tensionless position for relieving a tension force applied by the belt, which tension-relieving means comprises:
• a manual overt actuator operable by a seat occupant to shift into an activated state to allow belt rewind;
• a ratchet means coupled to and operable with said reel;
• a pawl means for engaging and securing said ratchet means against belt rewinding on said reel;
• a rotatable actuation member movable by the manual overt actuator;
• a rotatable lock control member operable by said rotatable actuation member to shift the latter from a detent position in which the belt is tensioned and the pawl means is disengaged from the ratchet means, to an activated position allowing belt rewind to remove slack from the belt;
• said rotatable lock control member movable with subsequent protraction from its activated position to its tensionless position allowing the pawl means to engage the ratchet means to position the tension-relieving means in the tensionless position;
• a memory cam on the lock control member for holding pawl means from the ratchet means for a limited predetermined belt protraction and for return to the tensionless position;
• and,
• detent means for detenting the lock control member in its detented position with belt protraction beyond the predetermined belt protraction, said lock control member having means thereon to disengage the pawl means from the ratchet means to allow belt tension on the occupant.

A belt tension-relieving means for a seat belt retractor assembly, which retractor assembly has a seat belt on a reel for protraction and retraction therefrom, said seat belt operable in a vehicle to secure an occupant therein,

• said retractor assembly having a biasing means for biasing the reel to retract and rewind the belt on the reel, and an emergency locking means for locking the belt against protraction;
• said tension-relieving means operable to relieve a tensioning force applied by the belt to said occupant by inhibiting belt retraction and rewinding on said reel, which tension-relieving means is operable from a reference position at said tension applied position of said belt to an activated position and a tensionless position;
• said tension-relieving means comprising:
• a manual overt actuator for shifting he tension-relieving means to one of an activated state and a tensionless position from said reference position;
• a first means for actuating with a first body and a generally centrally-positioned bore therethrough;
• a ratchet having a bearing surface, a plurality of teeth with indentations, a central hub with a bore, fingers projecting from said hub into said bore, and a flange;
• a first rotatable member having a body with a perimeter, a wall extending from said body, a tab, a window at said perimeter and a central bore therethrough;
• a second biasing means;
• an automatically operable actuator having an actuator central bore, an actuator periphery defining a groove at said periphery with a shoulder, a base and a sloped ramp extending between said base and periphery;
• a pawl with a mounting bore therethrough;
• a housing having an inner surface and a sidewall cooperating to define a cup-shaped cavity, an annular member generally centrally mounted on said face in said cavity, a first mounting stud in said annulus, and a second mounting stud extending from said inner face with said pawl pivotally mounted thereon;
• said automatically operable actuator mounted in said cavity on said annular member;
• said first rotatable member mounted and rotatable on said ratchet hub for frictional engagement between said rotatable member extending wall and said ratchet flange, said second biasing means mounted on said hub to bias said rotatable member against said ratchet flange, said ratchet hub mounted on said housing first stud and rotatable thereon;
• means for coupling;
• said coupling means operably connecting said first actuator means and said manual overt actuator for actuation thereby;
• said first actuator means contacting said bearing surface and operable to move said pawl and engage said tab to move said first rotatable member to said activated position.

A method of providing a tensionless seat belt about the shoulder of an occupant with a tensionless device mounted on a retractor comprising the steps of:

• moving a manual overt actuator by the occupant to shift the tensionless device into an activated position;
• rewinding any slack between the occupant's body and belt after moving the manual actuator;
• pulling on the seat belt to protract the belt and to shift the tensionless device from the activated position to a tensionless state upon release of the belt;
• pulling the belt for less than a predetermined memory distance when in the tensionless state with the tensionless device returning to the tensionless state;
• and
• pulling the belt for a distance greater that the predetermined memory distance to shift the tensionless device from the tensionless state to the release state in which the tensionless device is released to allow rewind of the belt.

A method of reducing the amount of slack between the occupant and a seat belt when a tensionless device on a seat belt retractor is shifted into a tensionless position to hold the belt against the force of the reel rewind spring, said method comprising the steps of:

• moving a manual overt actuator by the occupant to shift a control member into an activated position in which the pawl is held from engagement with the ratchet wheel at a predetermined location,
• pulling of the belt when the device is in the activated position and dropping the pawl immediately to engage a first ratchet tooth to prevent belt rewind and establishing a reduction in slack between the belt and the occupant's body,
• extracting further belt beyond the pawl and ratchet engaging position to cause a cam to lift pawl from the ratchet wheel to allow belt protraction through a distance less than a predetermined memory distance, and
• dropping the pawl into reengagement with the first ratchet tooth upon release of the seat belt by the occupant whereby the tensionless device is in the tensionless position with a reduced amount of slack between the belt and the occupant's body.