Abstract: A molded plastic tubular sleeve slips over the housing of a seat belt buckle and includes an integrally molded flap which registers with and overlies the pushbutton of the buckle. The pushbutton flap is plastically yieldable relative to the tubular sleeve to thereby depress the buckle pushbutton underlying the flap. By controlling the material and dimensions of the tubular sleeve, the pushbutton flap can be designed to require a level of release force which is predeterminedly larger than the force normally needed to unbuckle the buckle. Furthermore, the tubular sleeve is shaped to be capable of sliding removal from the buckle so that the seat belt buckle may be conveniently restored to normal force unbuckling as desired.

Abstract: A seat belt buckle includes a body having a latch lever pivotally mounted thereon and including a tang struck therefrom. The latch lever has a pushbutton portion which registers with an opening in a cover attached to the body. A spring biases the latch lever to a latching position in which the tang engages into an aperture of a latch plate inserted into the buckle. A locking member, preferably of molded plastic, is slidably mounted on the underside of the buckle body and manually movable between a locking condition in which a locking abutment of the locking member blocks depression of the latch lever by the pushbutton and unlocking position enabling the pivoting of the latch lever to withdraw the tang from the aperture of the latch plate. The locking member includes an integral spring arm carrying a detent tab which engages the buckle body to retain the locking member in either its locking or unlocking positions.

Abstract: A seat belt retractor includes a main spring which urges rotation of a lap belt reel in the direction to wind the lap belt taut about the occupant lower torso. The shoulder belt reel is drive coupled to the lap belt reel for rotation therewith in the belt winding direction by the main spring to also hold the shoulder belt taut against the occupant. The drive coupling mechanism acting between the shoulder belt reel and the lap belt reel includes a lost motion connection and an auxiliary spring of lesser effort than the main spring which cooperate to permit a range of futher unwinding rotation of the shoulder belt relative to the lap belt reel. Thus, while the seat occupant lower torso remains stationary in the seat, the upper torso may lean forward against the lesser effort of the auxiliary spring as necessary to reach vehicle controls.