Patent ID: 7887095

Claim:
A belt tensioner for a safety belt system, comprising: a pinion ( 16 ) rotatably mounted in a housing ( 12 ), a drive unit ( 26 ), and a toothed rack ( 18 ) whose toothing ( 20 ) is directly engaged or comes into direct engagement with the pinion ( 16 ) and which can be driven by means of the drive unit ( 26 ), the toothed rack ( 18 ) having the shape of a circular arc with toothing ( 20 ) being located at a radially inner side of the circular arc and, upon activation of the drive unit ( 26 ), moving on a circular path (K) the central point (M) of which is offset from the axis of rotation (A) of the pinion ( 16 ), the toothed rack ( 18 ) includes an engagement element ( 22 ) for the drive unit ( 26 ), the engagement element ( 22 ) having a larger radial distance from the central point (M) of the circular path (K) than the toothing ( 20 ).