Abstract: An anchorage has two members, one fixed the other at the end of a strap or other element to be secured, which hook together and which can then be manipulated so that there is virtually no chance of separation, particularly when there is a pull on the strap. One member, usually the fixed one, may be a stud of mushroom form while the other may be a D-shaped plate with the curved periphery extended out of the plane of the plate to form a U-shaped channel that can hook onto the head of the stud. But formations on the head and on the plate, or a wall around the stud, allows full engagement only in one direction, while after that mutual rotation through at least 90° makes the hooked member captive to the stud. The stud may be biased by its weight or a spring so that its head is normally lowered against the mouth of a socket, but is shaped so that it can be wedged up by the hook member as that is offered up.
Abstract: A belt (3) can be pulled out from a spring biased retractor reel (2) when a ratchet mechanism (16) is released. The belt (3) is entrained around a movable shoe (4) before being led to a fastening point. When fastened, the spring bias in the reel (2) takes up the slack. Operation of an actuator, such as by depression of a pedal (10), first causes the ratchet mechanism (16) to engage and then shifts the shoe (4) to stretch and tension the belt between the reel (2) and the fastening point. The pedal (10) is retainable in its fully depressed, belt-tensioning position.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
May 4, 2000
Date of Patent:
June 18, 2002
Assignee:
C. N. Unwin Limited
Inventors:
Stuart Leslie Mason, John Chatterley Perring, Cecil Norman Unwin