Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Patent
1998-03-25
2000-02-01
Rice, Kenneth R.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
B60R 2122
Patent
active
060193875
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a vehicle safety arrangement, particulary one which incorporates a side impact airbag for protecting an occupant of an, automobile in a crash situation particularly from transverse components of crash forces.
It is known that vehicle occupants can be protected during a side impact collision by introducing an airbag between the occupants torso and the interior of the vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 3,617,073 is illustrative of a system in which such an airbag protective system is located within a vehicle door. British Patent 222936B shows such an airbag system formed within a seat.
An airbag protective system comprises a folded inflatable fabric airbag and an inflator. Inflators are necessarily bulky and heavy items since they contain compressed gas for inflation which must be safely contained. Traditionally an inflator comprises a cylindrical steel container which is mounted in a metal housing into which the airbag is folded. the resultant package which must be fitted into an automobile is bulky and unsightly and problems have been encountered in mounting such packages in the optimum positions within an automobile for safety purposes whine satisfactorily disguising them to the satisfaction of interior designers, particularly for protection against side impact forces.
With regard to seat mounted airbag systems it is desirable for the airbag and its associated mounting hardware to be constructed in a way that it is compatible with seat design and does not interfere with occupant comfort. It is known to mount the airbag inside the seat structure i.e. to the seat frame, but this requires the airbag module to be installed at an early stage of seat manufacture and for the seat design to be accordingly modified. No retrofitting is possible.
The invention aims to provide a new solution for packaging and deploying a side impact airbag.
According to the present invention there is provided a vehicle safety arrangement comprising a seat back support adapted to be attached to the back of a vehicle seat and a side impact protective airbag module comprising an inflator and a folded inflatable airbag wherein the seat back support is formed with integral flanges so as to provide a housing for the inflator, and a gas channel linking the inflator with the airbag.
Preferably the flanges are moulded or extruded with the seat back support and the resulting moulded or extruded gas channel connecting the inflator to the cushion makes the system work very effectively.
It is an advantage of the invention that such an arrangement is placed outside the seat structure and will not conflict with occupant comfort. Furthermore since it is independent of the seat structure it can be manufactured separately. The arrangement also comprises fewer component parts with attendant cost and weight savings, and making it easier to manufacture. Such a seat back support is becoming a common feature of automobile technology, comprising a plastic module which can be snapped or bolted onto the back of a front seat and is generally used to prevent injury to rear passengers such as from submarine
The present invention provides a seat back support integrated airbag arrangement with either a plastic extruded or a plastic moulded housing design and provides a side impact system that is compact in design and lightweight, easy to assemble and inexpensive.
The integral flanges encourage a fixed direction of inflation of the airbag on deployment allowing for better positioning relative to the desired thorax or head protection of the vehicle occupant.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention a side impact airbag module is provided that is substantially smaller than the height of the back of the seat so that the inflator can be installed at any desired location of the plastic seat back support and avoid interference with existing seat structures. No seat frame modification is necessary.
The arrangement of the present invention may incorporate a variety of shapes of airbag such as for example the elongate arcuate shape or the sa
REFERENCES:
patent: 3632132 (1972-01-01), Richardson
patent: 3985374 (1976-10-01), Powaska
patent: 5364125 (1994-11-01), Brown et al.
patent: 5435594 (1995-07-01), Gille
patent: 5676394 (1997-10-01), Maly
patent: 5690354 (1997-11-01), Logan et al.
Breed Automotive Technology Inc.
Rice Kenneth R.
Seitzman Markell
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