Apparatus for the automatic rolling up of a vehicle safety belt

Claim 1

Apparatus for the automatic rolling up of a vehicle safety belt, comprising a casing in the form of a U-shaped frame with said frame comprising a pair of spaced side plates interconnected by a web, said side plates each having an inside surface and an outside surface, each said side plate having a first opening extending therethrough, a belt shaft extending between and rotatably mounted about an axis extending through said first openings, at least one ratchet wheel secured to said belt shaft at one end thereof and said ratchet wheel being located between the planes formed by the inside and outside surfaces of one of said side plates, a locking pawl pivotally mounted in a second opening in said side plate containing said opening in which said ratchet wheel is located, said second opening being contiguous to and being open to said first opening containing said ratchet wheel, said ratchet wheel having teeth spaced circumferentially thereon, said locking pawl having a first end and a second end with the first end having a pivot axis disposed parallel to the axis of said belt shaft, wherein the improvement comprises that said second opening has a circular recess in the boundary surface thereof adjacent said first opening, said locking pawl has a bearing counterpart at the first end thereof pivotally mounted in said circular recess so that said pawl is pivotally displaceable as said bearing counterpart pivots in said circular recess about the pivot axis of said locking pawl between a first position with said locking pawl in meshed engagement with said teeth on said ratchet wheel and a second position with said locking pawl spaced out of engagement with said teeth on said ratchet wheel, said locking pawl comprises an angularly shaped plate member having a first leg of said plate member extending in the first end-second end direction of said locking pawl and a second leg extending transversely of said first leg, said first leg and second leg forming a junction facing away from said ratchet wheel, a bearing recess formed in said pawl at the junction, an actuating pin located in said recess for displacing said pawl between the first and second positions, said first leg at the second end of said locking pawl having a plurality of engagement teeth for engagement with said teeth on said ratchet wheel in the first position of said locking pawl, the end of said leg located at the second end of said locking pawl has a rectilinear surface extending transversely of the first end-second end direction of said locking pawl and extending from said engagement teeth at the second end of said lockiing pawl, said rectilinear surface forming a flux force transfer surface arranged to contact and be supported by a mating surface forming a boundary surface of said second opening adjacent to said first opening when said locking pawl is in the first position, said flux force transfer surface being displaced into contact with said mating surface when tensile force acts on the safety belt whereby said actuation pin acts on said locking pawl for displacing said locking pawl into the first position whereby the forces are absorbed by said casing and the pivot bearing for said pawl is free of the forces.