Land vehicles – Wheeled – Occupant propelled type
Patent
1995-10-05
1997-09-30
Rice, Kenneth R.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Occupant propelled type
B60R 2116
Patent
active
056719353
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to an air bag of differing shapes which is manufactured by cutting out a piece of material, the "cutting", from a web of textile material or plastics film and by then joining the edges thereof to each other. "Joining" in this sense is primarily to be understood as a stitching procedure, where textile material is involved. In the case of a plastics film and also in the case of textile material, bonding and fusing procedures may be employed. The discussion of the FIGS. mainly relates to textile material and stitching procedures, without however the invention being restricted thereto.
The intention of the invention is to permit production of air bags having greater depth, particularly cubic or pear-shaped air bags, as are needed on the front passenger's side. Such air bags are known to be produced by stitching together a front and a rear material section to a jacket section on all sides. From DE,A,24 39 222 (Ballonfabrik), FIGS. 4 and 5 thereof, it is further known for producing a roughly pear-shaped air bag to use a relatively large cutout on all sides having single tags protruding outwards, which are stitched to each other. To avoid an accumulation of seams or bonded joints on the bordering of the tags, the tips thereof need to be cut out in the shape of an arc and then joined on both sides with a separate circularly-shaped cover sheet. Accordingly, in this case three items of fabric are required to produce the air bag.
From the document U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,613 (Barnett) it is known in the production of an air bag to fold a cutting about folding edges into parallel planes in close juxtaposition, the folding edges fully covering the width of the cutting. In this arrangement two sections each of the cutting are mirror-inverse to an outer folding edge and have, after being folded in planes located one above the other, edges to be joined to each other, located one above the other. Inner folding edges and outer folding edges alternate. According to Barnett air bags can be produced which have a consistent cross-section over their length, as may be used especially on the driver's side.
The object of the present invention is to create an air bag having any desired shape, particularly also deepness and necessitating as few joining, particularly stitching procedures as possible.
The stated object is achievable in two variants according to claims 1 or 2. In both variants juxtaposed folding edges include acute angles to each other, as a result of which the sections may be folded so that a kind of umbrella configuration is produced, the outer edges of which permit facilitated joining, particularly stitching. When inflated an air bag results of substantial size. The shape of the air bag may be very greatly varied by suitably selecting sections of differing shape and size. Whilst the cutting is preferably a single piece, it could also be stitched together from e.g. two sections, which especially in the case of highly complicated shapes may be expedient.
From DE 25 25 440 A (Nissan) it is known, in the case of a square cutting, to provide three folded edges in the corners thereof, of which the one runs diagonal, the other two parallel to the side edges; here, in forming the air bag two such cuttings are required, along with a relatively complicated folding procedure, whilst according to the present invention a single, particularly one-pice cutting is sufficient, and the folding procedures are very simple.
FURTHER EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
The cutting may have essentially the shape of a square or a rectangle, whereby the side edges of the square or rectangle may be recessed to form a cavity of greater depth.
The invention relates further to a method of producing an air bag having more than two of the aforementioned sections. The cutting is folded into a configuration similar to that of a closed umbrella (sunshade), termed simply "umbrella" in the following. In this umbrella the ribs of the umbrella correspond to the inner folding edges, whilst the outer folding edges can be imagined to be those o
REFERENCES:
patent: 4159613 (1979-07-01), Barnett
patent: 4988118 (1991-01-01), Good et al.
patent: 5131434 (1992-07-01), Krummheuer et al.
Berger Johann
Foehl Artur
Berger Johann
Rice Kenneth R.
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