This invention relates to a safety seat belt system for vehicle occupants and more particularly to means for relieving belt tension otherwise exerted on the user by the retractor rewind mechanism of the belt system.
Safety belt systems for motor vehicles typically include a shoulder belt and a retractor having a rewind mechanism biased to rewind the shoulder belt into the retractor. The tension produced by the rewind mechanism of the shoulder belt retractor frequently causes discomfort to an occupant using the shoulder belt of the vehicle safety belt system. Various devices have been proposed for relieving tension in vehicle shoulder belts. Such devices include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,719,972 to Klink; 3,700,184 to Francis; 3,550,875 to Settini; 3,771,742 to Okada; 3,695,546 to Takada; 3,682,412 to Kuszynski; 3,930,682 to Booth. Each of these devices is expensive to construct, requiring the presence of electrical components or a relatively large number of parts that may become unreliable in operation when exposed to changing climatic conditions for prolonged periods of time. None of them permits actuation of the tension-relieving components pneumatically and/or manually with one finger. As a result, such previous tension-relieving devices are more expensive to produce, harder to use and less reliable in operation than those considered to be commerically acceptable.