Patent ID: 8550499

Claim:
A seat belt pretensioner slider bar for permitting a lower anchorage end of a seat belt webbing lap belt section of a seat belt system for a motor vehicle to be slid in a longitudinal direction in a normal operating condition and further for applying pretensioning retraction to the lower anchorage end in a pretensioning condition, comprising: an elongated tube having an exterior cylindrical surface and a hollow interior defining a longitudinal axis having a gas cylinder section extending from a first end of the tube and a webbing sliding section extending from the gas cylinder section to an opposite second end, the webbing sliding section forming a slot extending in the longitudinal direction, an attachment for mounting the tube to a structural component of the motor vehicle, a piston movable within the gas cylinder section of the tube between a normal position adjacent the first end of the tube to a pretensioning position toward the second end, a gas generator for generating gas within the tube gas cylinder section for urging the piston to move from the normal to the pretensioning position, a sliding webbing anchor engageable with the lower anchorage end and slidable along the exterior cylindrical surface of the tube along the webbing sliding section to a variety of positions relative to the piston when the piston is in the normal position, the sliding webbing anchor being configured to jointly move both the lower anchorage end and the webbing lap belt section in the longitudinal direction away from the first end while the webbing anchor slides away from the first end along the webbing sliding section and toward the first end while the webbing anchor slides toward the first end along the webbing sliding section, and a webbing driver connected to the piston through the tube slot and engaging the webbing anchor when the piston is moved to the pretensioning position for moving the webbing anchor to a position adjacent the second tube end thereby providing the pretensioning retraction to the webbing anchor and the webbing.