Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Patent
1997-12-02
1999-02-02
Ellis, Christopher P.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
2807281, B60R 2116
Patent
active
058654674
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an airbag for an airbag device for a front seat passenger, particularly to an airbag for a front seat passenger next to a driver fabricated by sewing one-piece cloth.
BACKGROUND ART
An airbag device is a safety device as an auxiliary device for seat belt where an airbag is inflated instantaneously in a vehicular collision and which is normally constituted by an inflator that is a gas generator, an airbag for receiving and stopping a passenger that is inflated by gas released from the inflator and an airbag case for containing the inflator and the airbag.
The airbag has been developed not only for a driver's seat where the airbag is arranged at a steering wheel but also for a front seat next to the driver's seat where the airbag is arranged at an instrument panel or the like at a front portion in a vehicular compartment. Above all, an airbag sewed from one-piece cloth as the base cloth for airbag attracts attention owing to the merit of minimizing sewed portions or the like.
As such an airbag, there is proposed, for example, a one-piece airbag 100 as shown by FIG. 4 which has been proposed by the applicants in JP-A-05278544. The airbag 100 is provided with a generally quadrilateral pyramidal body fallen sideways which diverges from a lip portion 101 fixed to an opening of an airbag case (not shown) to a frontal face portion 102 for receiving and stopping a passenger in an inversely tapered shape in which cloths 106 for side face portions in generally triangular shape are integrally extended respectively from an upper face portion 103 and a lower face portion 104 of the airbag, longer sides of the cloths 106 are sewed each other and shorter sides thereof are sewed to side edge portions of the frontal face portion 102 whereby the side face portions 105 of the airbag are formed.
According to the conventional airbag 100, seam portions each in a T-like shape fallen sideways comprising a seam portion 107 in a lateral direction and a seam portion 108 in a vertical direction are formed at the side face portions 105. A seamless cloth portion and the seam portion differ in extending performance and therefore, it is not easy to fabricate an airbag having a predetermined extended shape.
Hence, it is a first object of the present invention to easily fabricate an airbag having a predetermined extended shape by providing predetermined slack to the seam portion.
Further, according to the conventional airbag 100, since the seamless cloth portion and the seam portion differ in extending performance, stresses applied on the vicinity of an intersection 109 for intersecting the seam portions 107 and 108 are not uniform in extending the airbag. With regard to the problem of the difference in extensions of the seamless cloth portion and the seam portion in the one-piece airbag, the applicants have proposed that in an airbag where seam portions in a Y-like shape fallen sideways are formed at side face portions of the airbag by sewing together individual sides of cloths for forming side face portions which are extended respectively from a frontal face portion, an upper face portion and a lower face portion of the airbag, by forming seam portions in the lateral direction in a circular arc shape, stresses applied on the seam portions in the lateral direction are alleviated (JP-A-06262991). Hence, it is conceivable that by applying the constitution to the above-described conventional airbag 100, as shown by FIG. 5, a bulge having a circular arc shape is provided to the seam portion 107 in the lateral direction in respect of the seam portion having a T-like shape fallen sideways in order to alleviate stresses applied on the intersection 109. However, even if the bulge in a circular arc shape is provided to the seam portion 107 in the lateral direction, a distance from the intersection 109 to the lip portion 101 of the bag, that is, the linear distance there-between remains unchanged and therefore, the problem of stress deviation at the vicinity of the intersection 109 is not resolved
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patent: 5316337 (1994-05-01), Yamaji et al.
patent: 5333903 (1994-08-01), Eyrainer et al.
patent: 5454594 (1995-10-01), Kricki
patent: 5782488 (1998-07-01), Lewis et al.
Bito Kazuaki
Ozaki Toru
Yamaji Takeshi
Ellis Christopher P.
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd.
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