RETRACTOR WITH AUXILIARY BRAKING MECHANISM

摘要

A safety belt retractor which has a belt gripping or braking mechanism that is movable between a belt gripping position and an inactive position. The braking mechanism includes a brake shoe which engages one side of the seat belt webbing and forces the opposite side of the webbing into tight frictional engagement with a compressible elastomeric pad having a high coefficient of friction. The filaments of the seat belt are compressed into the compressible pad and the pad protrudes into interstices between the filaments. This gripping action by the pad increases the pull load by a substantial amount, for example, about ten percent (10%).