Flat seat belt retractor
AssigneeHoover University, Inc.
InventorsLarry E. Halse, Jeffrey A. Tilley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A flat seat belt retractor in which the seat belt webbing is retracted into an elongated housing and stored in a flat condition as opposed to winding the webbing around a spool. By incorporating a flat webbing retractor into a vehicle seat back, the seat belt retractor can be packaged in a seat back without requiring enough space to store a bulky spool type retractor. In a preferred embodiment, the retractor is incorporated into a structural member of the seat back frame to reduce the overall number of components required in the seat back for both the frame and the retractor.
Claims16
A seat for a motor vehicle having a generally horizontal seat cushion and a generally upright seat back comprising:
- a plurality of elongated load carrying frame members arranged and joined together to form a generally planar support frame for said seat back for carrying seating loads, said support fame having a pair of upper corners and a pair of lower corners, one of said elongated frame members defining an elongated housing having a hollow interior and having an opening into said hollow interior;
- an elongated belt webbing partially disposed within said housing and extending from said housing through said opening;
- a slide movable in said housing for movement along a predetermined lengthwise path in said housing toward and away from said opening, said webbing being connected to said slide for movement of said webbing along with said slide for retraction of a portion of said webbing into said housing when said slide is moved away from said opening and for protraction of a portion of said webbing from said housing when said slide is moved toward said opening;
- and
- retractor means disposed in said housing and Connected to said slide for biasing said slide away from said opening to retract said webbing into said housing, said retractor means enabling said webbing to be partially removed from said housing for use of said webbing by pulling on said webbing whereby said slide is moved toward said opening.
A seat for a motor vehicle having a generally horizontal seat cushion and a generally upright seat back comprising:
- a plurality of elongated load carrying frame members arranged and joined together to form a generally planar support frame for said seat back for carrying seating loads, said support fame having a pair of upper corners and a pair of lower corners, one of said elongated frame members defining a housing having a hollow interior and having an opening into said hollow interior;
- an elongated belt webbing partially disposed within said housing and extending from said housing through said opening;
- a slide movable in said housing;
- guide means coupled to said slide and said housing for guiding the movement of said slide along a predetermined lengthwise path in said housing toward and away from said opening;
- means for coupling said webbing within said housing to said slide for movement of said webbing along with said slide for retraction of a portion of said webbing into said housing when said slide is moved away from said opening and for protraction of a portion of said webbing from said housing when said slide is moved toward said opening;
- and
- biasing means coupled to said slide and said housing for urging said slide away from said opening to retract said webbing into said housing.
A frame for a vehicle seat back comprising:
- a pair of spaced upright members each having lower ends and upper ends, said lower ends being adapted to be mounted to a lower seat frame;
- a cross member coupled to and extending between said upper ends of said upright members forming an inverted U-shaped frame;
- a diagonal member coupled to and extending between the upper end of one of said upright members and the lower end of the opposite upright member, said diagonal member having a hollow interior forming a housing, said frame having an opening near the upper end of said one upright member into said housing;
- a slide movable in said housing along a predetermined lengthwise path toward and away from said opening;
- and
- an elongated belt webbing partially disposed within said housing and extending from said housing through said opening, said belt webbing being coupled to said slide for movement of said webbing along with said slide for retraction of a portion of said webbing into said housing when said slide is moved away from said opening and for protraction of a portion of said webbing from said housing when said slide is moved toward said opening.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.