Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A low-cost energy management device for dissipating a portion of the energy imparted to a safety belt in a rapid vehicular deceleration is preferably comprised of two pieces, viz., a strap and a channel-shaped guide and deflector member. The strap has a row of deflectable tabs or beams and is mounted to the vehicle. The channel-shaped guide and deflector member is secured to a seat belt retractor and straddles the strap and slides along the strap rectilinearly and guides the retractor in this linear sliding movement along the strap while an integral depending deflector portion on the channel-shaped member deflects the beams. The deflecting portion engages two adjacent, spaced, deflected beams on the strap and these spaced deflected abutting the deflecting portion aid in aligning the deflector member to travel in a straight line path. The guiding and deflecting member has staking tabs to stake the channel-shaped member to the retractor in a low-cost manner. The cantilevered beams are deflected at a known deflection force and hence, a series of them provides a reduction in the maximum load that can be calculated.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim