Automatic locking retractor mechanism with unitary pawl control

摘要

An emergency locking safety seat belt retractor for restraining passengers in a vehicle has a seat belt wound upon a spool biased toward a fully wound condition, a pawl and ratchet means operable in response to vehicle deceleration to lock the spool against belt unwinding movement and a unitary pawl control means carried by a helically threaded shaft mounted on the retractor frame and rotatably driven by protractive and retractive rotation of the spool to inhibit pawl and ratchet locking of the spool in predetermined manner in response to both the direction of rotation of the spool and the amount of protractive rotation of the spool as the seat belt is placed in use.