Patent ID: 9440617
Filing Date: 2016-09-13
CPC Classification: B60R

Claim Text:
1. A seatbelt pretensioning system comprising: an elongate drive rod having a longitudinal axis therealong; a spiral portion of the drive rod; a gas generator disposed adjacent the drive rod for forcing the drive rod away from the gas generator in response to the gas generator being actuated; a bracket member for being fixedly mounted to a portion of a vehicle near a seatbelt; an elongate minispool rotatably coupled to the bracket, the minispool having a longitudinal axis being generally coaxial with the longitudinal axis of the drive rod; a cavity of the minispool sized to receive at least a portion of the drive rod; a driving portion of the minispool, sized to cooperate with and engage the spiral portion of the drive rod in response to the drive rod being forced away from the gas generator; wherein the engagement between the driving portion of the minispool and the spiral portion of the drive rod will cause the minispool to rotate about its longitudinal axis relative to the drive rod in response to the drive rod's translation away from the gas generator; wherein the linear motion of the drive rod is converted into rotational motion of the minispool for winding a web portion of the seatbelt around the minispool to pretension the seatbelt.