Patent ID: 7191972

Claim:
A seat belt retractor for a vehicle, the seat belt retractor comprising: a frame; a spool upon which seat belt webbing is wound, the spool being rotatable relative to the frame in a first direction for retracting seat belt webbing onto the spool and in a second opposite direction during withdrawal of seat belt webbing from the spool; an electric motor that is actuatable for rotating the spool in the first direction for retracting seat belt webbing onto the spool, the electric motor being a brushless direct current motor with an internal rotor; and a reduction gear for coupling the internal rotor of the electric motor to the spool, the electric motor having a starting torque of at least 2 Nm and operable to rotate the spool in the first direction for retracting 120 millimeters of the seat belt webbing onto the spool in less than 30 milliseconds to provide emergency tensioning of the seat belt webbing.