Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Patent
1994-04-07
1995-11-28
Focarino, Margaret A.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
B60R 2116
Patent
active
054701066
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an air bag having an excellent burst strength. More particularly, the present invention relates to an air bag in which a portion thereof surrounding a hole for connecting an inflator to the air bag is reinforced with an apron so as to exhibit a high burst strength, the air bag exhibiting a high degree of safety when quickly inflated by an inflation gas.
BACKGROUND ART
Recently, air bag systems have become practically employed as a safety device for protecting the occupants of an automobile. Usually, an air bag which was produced by coating a surface of a smooth woven fabric with a chloroprene rubber or silicone rubber, cutting the coated fabric into a circular form, superposing two cut fabric pieces on each other and seam-joining the fabric pieces at the circumferential edge portions thereof, is used.
Since the air bag is used by inflating it with a gas blown in an instant thereinto, the air bag is required to have no risk of bursting by a rapid raising of the inside pressure thereof. For meeting the requirement, various attempts were made. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2-90,170 attempted to provide an air bag produced by preparing non-circular woven fabric pieces having larger distances between a center point and a circumferential edge thereof measured in longitudinal directions of the warp and weft yarns than distances between the center and the circumferential edge thereof measured in a direction inclined at an angle of from 40 to 50 degrees from the longitudinal direction of the warp yarns to the longitudinal direction of the weft yarns; superposing the non-circular woven fabric pieces on each other; and seam-joining the pieces at the circumferential edge portions thereof.
Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-5,145 discloses a non-circular air bag made from hollow weave fabrics having an axis length thereof in a direction at a bias angle of 45 degrees from the warp direction, corresponding to 70 to 95% of the axis length thereof in the warp and weft direction.
Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-43,143 discloses an air bag made from non-circular hollow weave fabric pieces having a longer axis in a direction inclined at a bias angle from the warp or weft direction than an axis in the warp or weft direction of the fabric pieces.
The above-mentioned attempts are based on the idea that a starting point in bursting of the air bag resides in a seam-joining portion in a circumferential edge portion of the air bag, and provided an air bag made from non-circular woven fabric pieces having a shorter axis in a bias direction than that in the warp or weft direction, to enhance the burst strength of the seam-joining portion.
In another attempt, not using non-circular woven fabric pieces, two circular woven fabric pieces as mentioned above are superposed on each other and seam-jointed at circumferential edge portions thereof to each other. In this attempt, a portion of an inflator side woven fabric piece, namely of a bottom cloth, surrounding a hole for connecting an inflator to the air bag therethrough, is reinforced with a woven fabric apron, to prevent a bursting and perforating of the bottom cloth by the inflation gas.
Nevertheless, the above-mentioned prior art air bags are not satisfactory in burst strength, and thus a further enhancement of the burst strength is required. Especially, the demand is very strong for lightweight, compact air bags.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an air bag, in which a portion thereof surrounding a hole for connecting an inflator to the air bag is reinforced by an apron seam-joined thereto, having a high burst strength and an excellent degree of safety.
The above-mentioned object can be attained by the air bag of the present invention.
The air bag of the present invention having a high burst strength comprises a bottom cloth and a top cloth each formed from a circular woven fabric piece, superposed on
REFERENCES:
patent: 5033771 (1991-07-01), Miyauchi et al.
patent: 5290059 (1994-03-01), Smith et al.
patent: 5294148 (1994-03-01), Imai
Nakagawa Hideo
Nishimura Kunio
Takahashi Nobuo
Dickson Paul N.
Focarino Margaret A.
Teijin Limited
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