Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-06
2001-05-15
Culbreth, Eric (Department: 3611)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C280S741000, C280S742000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06231078
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
The present invention relates to an inflator which generates gas for inflating and deploying an air bag for protecting a vehicle occupant. In particular, the present invention relates to an air bag inflator suitable for an air bag for protecting a side of an occupant on a seat, which is improved in allowing the air bag to be held in its deployed state for a relatively long period of time by virtue of a plurality of high-pressure gas chambers.
An air bag inflator having a plurality of combustion chambers containing gas generating agents therein is known in U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,178 and Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (KOKAI) No. H09-136604. In the air bag inflators disclosed in these publications, the volume of gas to be generated can be controlled in several modes thereby enabling the preferred deployment of the air bag to suitably correspond to the severity of the collision and the condition of the occupant.
An air bag inflator having a plurality of separate and sealed high-pressure gas chambers is also known, e.g. Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (KOKAI) No. H07-156741.
However, there is a strong demand for an air bag inflator which can be manufactured at a low cost and enables the air bag to be held in its deployed state for a relatively long period of time.
The present invention has been made in order to satisfy the aforementioned demand, and an object of the present invention is to provide an air bag inflator, which can provide improved ability in protecting an occupant.
Another object of the invention is to provide an air bag inflator which can inflate the air bag quickly and keep the inflated condition of the air bag for a relatively long period of time.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides an air bag inflator for discharging gas for deploying an air bag. The inflator comprises a plurality of high-pressure gas chambers which are sealed; an initiator for staring to discharge gas by breaking the seal of the first high-pressure gas chamber; means for detecting a pressure difference between the first high-pressure gas chamber and the other high-pressure gas chamber and for discharging gas sequentially from the other high-pressure gas chamber by breaking the seal of the other high-pressure gas chamber due to the pressure difference.
In the initial stage of the deployment of the air bag, the air bag is deployed by gas ejected from the first high-pressure gas chamber. As the gas is discharged from the first high-pressure gas chamber, the inner pressure in the first high-pressure gas chamber falls. At this point, by using the means, for example, a disk closure which is disposed between the first high-pressure gas chamber and the other high-pressure gas chamber and can be torn when it is subjected to a predetermined pressure difference, gas is additionally discharged from the other high-pressure gas chamber sequentially. Therefore, the shrinkage of the air bag, which is caused by temperature fall of gas discharged from a first high-pressure gas chamber and/or air vent through a vent hole, can be compensated by supplying the additional gas, so that the deployment pressure, e.g. 0.3-0.6 kgf/cir, of the air bag can be held for a long period of time, e.g. 5-7 seconds. This can improve the performing ability of, for example a side air bag, for protecting the occupant.
According to the present invention, the aforementioned means is a disk closure which is disposed between the first high-pressure gas chamber and the other gas chamber and is torn when it is subjected to a predetermined pressure difference. This is because the means can be made by a quite simple structure, and a mechanism for delayed operation between the high-pressure gas chambers, which are divided, can be achieved at a low cost.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5219178 (1993-06-01), Kobari et al.
patent: 5799973 (1998-09-01), Bauer et al.
patent: 5884938 (1999-03-01), Rink et al.
patent: 5897136 (1999-04-01), Okada
patent: 6086094 (2000-07-01), Stevens et al.
patent: 512747 (1992-11-01), None
patent: 7-156741 (1995-06-01), None
patent: 9-136604 (1997-05-01), None
Culbreth Eric
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
Takata Corporation
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