Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Patent
1998-03-24
2000-05-23
Culbreth, Eric
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
222 54, 280739, 280741, 280742, B60R 2126
Patent
active
060657731
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The technical field of the invention includes vehicular supplemental restraint systems and other systems for inflating gas bags, gas pressure sensing and indicating systems, and systems for selectively releasing bottled gas.
BACKGROUND ART
By way of background, and not by way of limitation, reference may be had to vehicular supplemental restraint systems wherein occupants are protected by inflating gas bags in the case of serious collision.
In some systems, bags are inflated from a gas storage bottle. However, whenever there is insufficient gas in the bottle, such as because of long-term leakage or gas migration through the bottle wall, there is inadequate inflation of the gas bag with consequent insufficient protection to the vehicle occupant in emergencies.
In consequence, almost all so-called "air bag" systems now use gas generators which typically involve setting off explosive charges for inflating bags upon sensing a serious collision. However, variations in bag inflation, such as due to differences in volume and pressure of generated gases, is a problem. Ambient temperature variations affect both bottled gas and generated gas systems. If gas pressure is excessive, such as due to high environmental temperatures affecting bottled gas and explosive charges, occupants are thrust back so violently by the inflating bag as to cause injury. Bag tearing or bursting also occurs from overpressure or overly rapid bag inflation.
In the case of gas generation with explosive charges, some relief was sought by venting excess gas during the inflation process. However, this created a hazard of venting obnoxious gases into the vehicle interior. Worse yet, escaping hot explosive gases would burn occupants. In desperate attempts to avoid such problems, gas exhaust passages were provided through firewalls of vehicles between the engine and the driver's or passenger's compartment. This, however, is a dangerous practice, since firewalls are there to protect drivers and passengers from flames bursting out from a damaged fuel supply or engine and, therefore, should not be penetrated by gas escape conduits that are rarely and hopefully never used.
Moreover, in various fields where bottled gas is used, there is a lingering uncertainty about the actual volume of gas left in the bottle or about the tightness and other i1 condition of the bottle and associated structure. Mere pressure sensing of the compressed gas in the bottle is inadequate in some situations, since gas volume and thereby pressure vary with temperature. In consequence, gas bottles are sometimes taken out of service or desired services are not performed, when there in fact (a) is nothing wrong with the bottle and its valving, while (b) there still is sufficient gas volume left in the bottle for its given task or, conversely, (c) operations are initiated with a bottle whose compressed gas content has in fact become inadequate for the task.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
It is a general object of the invention to overcome these disadvantages.
It is a germane object of the invention to provide improved vehicular supplemental restraint systems and other systems for inflating gas bags.
It is a related object of the invention to provide for inflation of gas bags from gas bottles that do not have the drawbacks of explosive charges.
It is also an object of the invention to provide improved gas pressure sensing and indicating systems.
It is a further object of the invention to provide improved systems for selectively releasing bottled gas.
It is also an object of the invention to provide combinations of such improved systems.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent in the further course of this disclosure.
From a first aspect thereof, the invention resides in a system of inflating a vehicular gas bag with gas from a bottle of compressed gas against an occupant in an emergency. The invention according to this aspect resides, more specifically, in the improvement comprising, in combination, providing such gas bag with a variable gas inlet passage,
REFERENCES:
patent: 3672699 (1972-06-01), De Windt
patent: 3966228 (1976-06-01), Neuman
patent: 4006919 (1977-02-01), Neuman
patent: 4049935 (1977-09-01), Gruber
patent: 4805930 (1989-02-01), Takada
patent: 5003887 (1991-04-01), Unterforsthuber et al.
patent: 5071160 (1991-12-01), White et al.
patent: 5074583 (1991-12-01), Fujita et al.
patent: 5078422 (1992-01-01), Hamilton et al.
patent: 5161820 (1992-11-01), Vollmer
patent: 5197759 (1993-03-01), Kroiss et al.
patent: 5217249 (1993-06-01), Kokeguchi
patent: 5221109 (1993-06-01), Marchant
patent: 5226668 (1993-07-01), Delonge-Immik et al.
patent: 5232243 (1993-08-01), Blackburn et al.
patent: 5269561 (1993-12-01), Davis et al.
patent: 5301978 (1994-04-01), Munzel et al.
patent: 5330226 (1994-07-01), Gentry et al.
patent: 5331126 (1994-07-01), Dwyer et al.
patent: 5346251 (1994-09-01), Burnard et al.
patent: 5346252 (1994-09-01), Levosinski
patent: 5351977 (1994-10-01), Grace
patent: 5366241 (1994-11-01), Kithil
patent: 5366242 (1994-11-01), Faigle et al.
patent: 5388322 (1995-02-01), Simon
patent: 5388860 (1995-02-01), Brede et al.
patent: 5398185 (1995-03-01), Omura
patent: 5413378 (1995-05-01), Steffens, Jr. et al.
patent: 5415429 (1995-05-01), Fisher
patent: 5433475 (1995-07-01), Kokeguchi
patent: 5439249 (1995-08-01), Steffens, Jr. et al.
patent: 5460405 (1995-10-01), Faigle et al.
patent: 5466001 (1995-11-01), Gotomyo et al.
patent: 5474327 (1995-12-01), Schousek
patent: 5482314 (1996-01-01), Corrado et al.
patent: 5494311 (1996-02-01), Blackburn et al.
patent: 5515933 (1996-05-01), Meyer et al.
patent: 5525843 (1996-06-01), Howing
patent: 5528698 (1996-06-01), Kamei et al.
patent: 5531472 (1996-07-01), Semchena et al.
patent: 5549323 (1996-08-01), Davis
patent: 5570903 (1996-11-01), Meister et al.
patent: 5573269 (1996-11-01), Gentry et al.
patent: 5582425 (1996-12-01), Skanberg et al.
patent: 5602734 (1997-02-01), Kithil
patent: 5605348 (1997-02-01), Blackburn et al.
patent: 5612876 (1997-03-01), Zeidler et al.
patent: 5618056 (1997-04-01), Schoos et al.
patent: 5624132 (1997-04-01), Blackburn et al.
patent: 5626359 (1997-05-01), Steffens, Jr. et al.
patent: 5678854 (1997-10-01), Meister et al.
patent: 5702123 (1997-12-01), Takahashi et al.
Klinger Barney
Reynolds Robert William
LandOfFree
Gas pressure restraint, sensing and release systems does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Gas pressure restraint, sensing and release systems, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Gas pressure restraint, sensing and release systems will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1831657