Patent ID: 7631720

Claim:
A seat belt retractor comprising: a seat belt winding device for winding up a seat belt by actuation of a motor; and a control unit that under a predetermined condition repeats a process of stopping the actuation of the motor when an overload of the motor is detected and restarting the actuation of the motor after a lapse of a predetermined time period, the control unit comprises: a detection module for detecting an action of an occupant entering or exiting a vehicle; and a determination module that, using criteria, determines whether or not actuation of the motor, when stopped by detection of an overload, is to be restarted; wherein the criteria when the occupant enters the vehicle is different from the criteria when the occupant exits the vehicle; wherein the criteria are provided so that the determination module is more likely to determine that the actuation of the motor is not to be restarted when the occupant enters the vehicle as compared to when the occupant exits the vehicle, wherein the retractor is configured so that when the occupant exits the vehicle, the determination module determines that the actuation of the motor is not to be restarted when a number of times of starting the actuation of the motor reaches a first number of times, and when the occupant enters the vehicle, the determination module determines that the actuation of the motor is not to be restarted when a number of times of starting the actuation of the motor reaches a second number of times that is lower than the first number of times.