ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,491,835, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to AUTOLIV DEVELOPMENT AB (Vargarda, Sweden).
"Belt retractor having an electric motor" was invented by Eric Dreher (Elmshorn, Germany) and Andreas Lucht (Horst, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A belt retractor having a belt shaft which is mounted rotatably on a frame fastenably fixed to a vehicle and on which belt shaft a seat belt can be wound, and having an electric motor for driving the belt shaft to perform a rotational movement, and having a shiftable planetary transmission which transmits the rotational movement from the electric motor to the belt shaft, having a planet carrier, and ha...