Richard D Grabowski

US Patent:

45355142, Aug 20, 1985

Filed:

Sep 27, 1982

Appl. No.:

6/423813

Inventors:

Richard M. Grabowski - Country Club Hills IL

Assignee:

Gateway Industries, Inc. - Hazel Crest IL

International Classification:

A44B 1126

US Classification:

24633

Abstract:

A one-piece plastic safety belt buckle cover employs integral structural members depending from the inside of the top portion of the cover to support it and give it strength and rigidity to resist crushing under vertical loading. The preferred structural members comprise a latticework or honeycomb of intersecting walls and ribs defining supports at the front, sides and rear of the cover. The front support is positioned above a tongue plate and spaced therefrom to engage the tongue plate when the front of the cover is deflected downward. The preferred supports include walls which extend downward inside the cover shell and are positioned to engage various surfaces of the buckle when the cover is deflected downward due to vertical loading, and include ribs which do not extend as far downward, but which also support the outer shell of the cover.

US Patent:

49401939, Jul 10, 1990

Filed:

Jan 26, 1989

Appl. No.:

7/303283

Inventors:

Richard M. Grabowski - Lockport IL

Assignee:

Gateway Industries, Inc. - Olympia Fields IL

International Classification:

B60R 2240
B60R 2204

US Classification:

2421073

Abstract:

A safety belt retraction apparatus is provided for use in a vehicle having at least one door and a chassis. The apparatus includes a safety belt retractor mechanism mounted on the vehicle door, and having a reel about which the webbing of the safety belt is wound. The reel is adapted to take up and let out the webbing. The safety belt retraction apparatus further inlcudes a resiliently compressible bellows of blow-molded plastic. The bellows is mounted at one end to a housing containing the retractor mechanism, and has an opposite web-engaging free end adjacent the reel. The bellows is dimensioned so that its free end is spaced from the reel during initial take-up operations. Thereafeter, upon continued winding of the webbing about the take-up reel, the free end of the bellows engages the webbing, and with continued winding is compressed so as to exert a friction force on the webbing during continued take-up. The friction force precludes loose winding of the webbing about the reel. The bellows may have either a cylindrical or a wedge-shaped configuration.