ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,304,420, issued on May 20, was assigned to AUTOLIV DEVELOPMENT AB (Vargarda, Sweden).
"Belt retractor" was invented by Arndt Sohnchen (Hamburg, Germany), Jens Ehlers (Horst, Germany), Ronald Jabusch (Elmshorn, Germany), Antto-Christian Glaesser (Hasloh, Germany) and Alexandru Cirstea (Elmshorn, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention relates to a belt retractor comprising a belt shaft which is rotatably mounted in a housing and onto which a safety belt can be wound, the housing being able to be fastened to the vehicle, and an electric motor for driving the belt shaft to move rotationally, and a gear mechanism transmi...