Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Hollow or container type article – Polymer or resin containing
Patent
1992-05-26
1994-04-12
Bell, James J.
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Hollow or container type article
Polymer or resin containing
280728R, 428102, 428192, 428193, 428246, 428252, 428284, 428287, B29D 2200
Patent
active
053024320
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION
1. Technical Field
This invention relates to an air bag. More specifically, the invention relates to an air bag of an air bag system used to prevent injury to the human body caused by a collision, etc., of an automative vehicle.
2. Prior Art
The air bag system is constituted by a sensor for detecting a collision of the vehicles, a gas generator for expanding an air bag in response to a signal from the sensor, and the air bag expanded with gas for absorbing any shock imposed on the passenger upon a collision.
The fundamental characteristics required by the air bag are a strength sufficient to resist an instant expansion, an air sealability, and a fire retardance. Also, in addition to the fundamental characteristics, the air bag is required to have a light weight, a compact-folding ability, and a low cost.
Various proposals have been made for a woven fabric capable of satisfying the above-mentioned requirements of the air bag. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai) No. 49-47692 disclosed a coated cloth comprising a woven fabric coated with an elastomer having a fire retardance, such as a chloroprene. Although it is possible to obtain the woven fabric satisfying the above fundamental characteristics from this coated cloth, by suitably selecting the woven fabric and coating process conditions, when the elastomer is coated by the coating process, it is difficult to uniformly coat a small quantity of the elastomer on the woven fabric due to irregularities of a surface of the woven fabric, and thus a coating quantity of the elastomer may differ from 50 g/m.sup.2 to 100 g/m.sup.2, and accordingly, only a cloth having a heavy weight per unit area is obtained. Further, the whole cloth may become hard to handle due to a permeation of a solvent of the coating liquid, and further, this method has a problem in that bubbles are formed when applying the coating treatment to the woven fabric, and these bubbles are blown away during the drying of the coating cloth, and thus results in a lowering of the air sealability.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (Kokai) No. 54-51749 disclosed an example using a woven fabric and a film, for forming the air bag, but the woven fabric and the film are not integrated, and accordingly, when a strong force is suddenly applied to the film, the film is easily broken. Further, this air bag has a problem in that a volume of the folded air bag becomes bulky.
Further, when a portion of the bag in contact with a human body, especially the skin of the face of the passenger, is formed of the woven fabric, the face skin is liable to be injured upon an expansion of the air bag. To solve this problem, an air bag in which a soft outer layer capable of moving relatively against the cloth of the air bag and arranged on an outer side thereof is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication (Kokai) No. 62-43056. The air bag having a double structure such as this example, however, unpreferably has a heavy weight, a high bulkiness and a high cost.
Japanese Unexamined Utility Model (Kokai) No. 2-91056 disclosed a cloth for an air bag having a nonwoven fabric on a side in contact with the face of the human body, to prevent injury to the face upon an expansion of the bag. In a cloth 71 for an air bag shown in FIG. 10, a coating layer 73 of a rubber or a synthetic resin is arranged on a side of a woven fabric 72, and a nonwoven fabric 74 is adhered in a dot-pattern state on another side of the woven fabric 72, by an adhesive 75. Accordingly, the cloth 71 is provided with a space 76 between the woven fabric 72 and the nonwoven fabric 74, and thus when the air bag is expanded, injury to the face can be prevented by the nonwoven fabric, and any shock of impact of the face of the passenger by contact with the air bag at a high speed is moderated by the presence of the space 76. This cloth for the air bag, however, also uses the coating layer 73, and accordingly the same problems arising as in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 49-47692 desc
REFERENCES:
patent: 3705645 (1972-12-01), Konen
patent: 5110666 (1992-05-01), Menzel et al.
Supplementary European search report application No. EP 91 91 4623, dated Jul. 20, 1993.
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 013405, Publication No. JP1148537, Sep. 6, 1989 for "Composite Cloth" by Yasue Masaharu et al.
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 013094, Publication No. JP63286331, Nov. 24, 1988 for "Building Material sheet Permeable To Water Vapor" by Moriguchi Kisoo et al.
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 013183, Publication No. JP1014023, Jan. 18, 1989 for "Manufacture of Composite Film Permeable to Gas" by Kagawa Seiji.
Kimoto Katsuyoshi
Shigeta Seizaburo
Asahi Kasei Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Bell James J.
LandOfFree
Air bag does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Air bag, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Air bag will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2097472