Patent ID: 6390526
Filing Date: 2002-05-21
Classification: B60R,Y10S

Abstract:
A safety net device for a motor vehicle operable to prevent objects from being thrown out of a luggage compartment or trunk of the vehicle and into a passenger compartment of the vehicle during a rear-end collision, the safety net device comprising in combination:a housing having an outlet slit extending parallel to a length of the housing, a winding shaft that is set in bearings in the housing so that the winding shaft can rotate, a safety net that has two longitudinal edges set off at a distance from each other, one of the longitudinal edges being attached to the winding shaft and the opposing edge being connected to a pull bar, wherein the safety net extends through the outlet slit, and is operable to be brought by a user into a pull-out position in which the safety net is pulled out of the housing to a predetermined pull-out length, a drive device operable on the winding shaft in order to pretension the winding shaft in a wind-up direction of the safety net so as to generate a pull-back force on the safety net, said shaft being rotatable in one direction during pull out of said safety net and in an opposite wind up direction during wind up of the safety net, receptacle bays mounted in the vehicle for the pull bar, and at least one retaining device operable irrespective of rotation of said shaft in the wind up direction for absorbing at least a part of the pull back force of the drive device upon said safety net being pulled out to the pull out position.