Protective bag for vehicle occupant's head

Details Protective bag for vehicle occupant's head Protective bag for vehicle occupant's head

1999-06-21

2001-05-29

Dickson, Paul N. (Department: 3618)

Land vehicles

Wheeled

Attachment

C280S743100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06237937

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The present invention relates to a protective bag for a vehicle occupant's head and, more particularly, to a bag which can be inflated along a window of a side door in the event of a lateral impact or roll-over situation. In detail, it relates to a protective bag for a vehicle occupant's head comprising two sheets which are superposed on each other and joined together along their peripheries to form a vacancy extending in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle, wherein the two sheets are connected to each other by a connecting line within the vacancy.
A protective bag for a vehicle occupant's head is disclosed in WO96/26087, particularly, FIG.
1
and
FIG. 9
thereof. The bag has a vacancy comprising a duct extending from a front end to a rear end thereof and a plurality of cells communicated with the duct and extending downwardly. Between the adjacent cells, an occupant-side sheet and a vehicle body-side sheet are joined.
According to the bag disclosed in WO96/26087, gas flows into the duct through a rear end thereof so that the cells are inflated in order from the rearmost one in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. Therefore, the frontmost cell is inflated with significant time lag behind the rearmost cell.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a protective bag for a vehicle occupant's head, in which time lag among the respective parts of the bag is small so that the bag can be quickly inflated as a whole.
A protective bag for a vehicle occupant's head is arranged about a corner between a ceiling and a side of a vehicle cabin and is designed to be inflated with introduced gas downwardly along the side. The bag comprises an occupant-side sheet and a vehicle body-side sheet which are superposed on each other and connected together along their peripheries to form a vacancy, to be filled by the gas, between the sheets. The vacancy is elongated in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and the sheets are partly connected to each other within the vacancy by a connecting line. The vacancy has a gas inlet at an end in the longitudinal direction thereof. The vacancy comprises an introduction chamber for gas and a main chamber communicating with the introduction chamber. The introduction chamber is joined to an upper portion of a front or rear end of the main chamber. The connecting line extends in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle from substantially the middle of the side of the main chamber.
In one aspect, the introduction chamber is joined to the upper portion of the front side of the main chamber and the connecting line extends backwards from the front side of the main chamber.
In another aspect, the introduction chamber is joined to the upper portion of the rear side of the main chamber and the connecting line extends forwards from the rear side of the main chamber.
According to the protective bag for a vehicle occupant's head of the present invention, gas introduced from the introduction chamber into the main chamber flows along the connecting line and turns around or along the end of the connecting line to flow below the connecting line. After the gas flows in an upper portion of the main chamber and inflates the entire upper portion of the main chamber, the gas sufficiently inflates the respective cells under the connecting line, thereby inflating each cell with little delay from another.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5865462 (1999-02-01), Robins et al.
patent: 6042141 (2000-03-01), Welch et al.
patent: 6056316 (2000-05-01), Yamaji et al.
patent: 6170860 (2001-01-01), Denz et al.
patent: 296 05 896 (1996-07-01), None
patent: 297 09 389 (1997-09-01), None
patent: 0 841 211 (1998-05-01), None
patent: 0 900 704 (1999-03-01), None

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