Patent ID: 7631899

Claim:
A seat belt apparatus comprising: a seat belt; a pull-in member; at least one pretensioner for pulling the pull-in member to tension the seat belt during an emergency event, and a metallic and tubular kinetic-energy absorbing member that is configured to absorb kinetic energy of the pull-in member when the pull-in member reaches a bottom position, wherein the tubular kinetic-energy absorbing member comprises a tubular element having two ends and an outer peripheral wall of constant thickness around a passage of constant area along a longitudinal direction of the kinetic-energy absorbing member when in an undeformed state, wherein the outer peripheral wall of constant thickness is a wall thin enough to gradually depress and deform when absorbing the kinetic-energy of the pull-in member in a deformed state; and wherein both ends of the absorbing member are free and not fixed.