Pretensioner in a safety belt system for vehicles
AssigneeTRW Repa GmbH
InventorArtur Fohl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a pretensioner for safety belt systems in vehicles a mechanical drive having a pretensioned spring is provided. The spring is held by a trigger mechanism in its pretensioned state. For initiating a tightening operation the spring is released by the trigger mechanism. The vehicle-sensitive sensor mass of said trigger mechanism is formed substantially by the mass of the spring itself, that of a piston and a detent lever and the smaller mass of a guide tube which receives the spring and is guided translationally displaceably relatively to a common support structure of the pretensioner drive and of a fitting of the safety belt system.
Claims19
A pretensioner in a safety belt system for a vehicle, comprising a support structure adapted to be fixed to the body work of said vehicle, a mechanical drive having a helical spring and a trigger mechanism adapted to maintain said spring in a compressed state and to release said spring in response to vehicle deceleration to initiate a pretensioning operation, said spring being accommodated in a guide tube which is mounted to be translationally displaceable in a first axial direction of said guide tube with respect to said support structure, and spring biasing means being provided for biasing said guide tube in a second direction opposite said first direction towards a rest position.
A safety restraint system for a vehicle, said system comprising:
- a buckle means for connection with a safety belt;
- a pretensioner for moving said buckle means and the safety belt during a pretensioning stroke, said pretensioner including:
- a mounting means for fixed connection to the vehicle;
- a drive means for providing a force to move the buckle during the pretensioning stroke;
- and
- a trigger means for holding said drive means in a state of readiness prior to the pretensioning stroke and for releasing said drive means to permit the pretensioning stroke in response to a vehicle deceleration, said trigger means including an inertial mass means for movement relative to said mounting means in response to a deceleration force;
- said drive means including a spring;
- said inertial mass means including said spring and a spring guide tube, said spring being mounted in said spring guide tube.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.