Seat belt retractor having an intentional set comfort system

摘要

The present invention provides an intentionally set or overt comfort system to be employed in a vehicle seat belt retractor for rewinding a seat belt. The system requires an overt activation by the occupant through a predetermined sequence of deliberate belt manipulations for activating the intentional set comfort system and subsequently actuating the tension-relieving mode. The preferred intentional set comfort system comprises primarily two major components which include a belt sensing activation mechanism and a tension-relieving mechanism. The belt sensing mechanism senses a deliberate protraction of the belt beyond a distance of normal occupant use for shifting the tension-relieving mechanism to an activated state. In response to the belt sensing activation mechanism, an actuator arm shifts the tension- relieving mechanism to its activated state. The tension-relieving mechanism includes a disc, having a plurality of grooves, mounted for rotation with the reel shaft and a spring biased blocking finger mounted for pivotal movement that is initially spaced from the disc. Upon activation of the tension-relieving mechanism, the finger is moved into the grooves and cooperates with the grooves to initially remove belt slack. In order to actuate the tension- relieving mode, the occupant, subsequent to removal of the belt slack, makes a slight protraction of the belt to cause the tension-relieving mode. However, belt protraction beyond the predetermined distance will result in automatic disengagement of the belt from the tension-relieving state and thereby causing reversion to the tension mode under the retraction spring force.