ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,534,044, issued on Jan. 27, was assigned to Ford Global Technologies LLC (Dearborn, Mich.).
"Load-limiting seatbelt retractor" was invented by Dean M. Jaradi (Macomb, Mich.), Mohammad Omar Faruque (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and S.M. Iskander Farooq (Novi, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle including a seatbelt retractor having a frame and a spool. The spool has a first end and a second end each rotatably supported by the frame. The spool is elongated along an axis from the first end to the second end. The seatbelt retractor includes a slider slidably engaged with the frame. The slider is slidable from an undeployed position to a depl...