Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-02
2003-05-20
Boehler, Anne Marie (Department: 3611)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C280S728200, C280S728300, C024S453000, C024S297000, C411S041000, C411S045000, C411S060300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06565116
ABSTRACT:
RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 11-155480, Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 11-297433, Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 11-306033, and Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 11-367024. The complete disclosures of each of these Japanese patent applications are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head-protecting airbag device provided with an airbag cover mounted on a body and covering a housed airbag. The airbag cover is pushed and opened by the airbag as the airbag inflates and expands, thus creating an opening for the airbag to protrude into the vehicle interior compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, the airbag of the head-protecting airbag device is folded and housed from a pillar portion to a roof side rail portion at the peripheral edge of an opening, such as a door or window, on the interior side of a vehicle. An airbag cover conceals the airbag. The airbag is inflated to expand while opening the airbag cover (or a pillar garnish) when inflating gas flows into the airbag (as referred to in Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application No. 9-315253).
The airbag cover of the head-protecting airbag device is firmly fixed on the body so as to prevent the airbag cover from being removed when pushed by the inflating airbag. Typically, the airbag cover is fixed on the body by mounting bolts, which are fastened on the body from the interior side of the vehicle.
When bolts are used, however, the head portions of the bolts are exposed to the vehicle compartment. From a design standpoint, it is necessary to hide the head portions of the bolts with caps or the like. Naturally, such caps have to be mounted so that the caps, too, are not removed when the airbag cover is opened. Thus, members for preventing the caps from being removed are indispensable in the prior art.
In summary, in order to fix the airbag cover on the body, not only are mounting bolts required, but caps and mounting members for the caps are also required. These requirements increase the number of parts and manufacturing steps, as well as the cost for mounting the airbag cover.
In order to avoid the requirements and problems of prior art, it is conceivable to provide clips on the back side of the airbag cover. These clips are retained on the body by inserting the clips into retaining holes formed in the body. By using these clips, the airbag cover is fixed on the body. These clips must be so firmly mounted on the body to prevent the airbag cover from being removed from the body when the airbag expands. If the clips are firmly mounted on the body, however, the airbag cover cannot be easily demounted, for maintenance or the like, from the body.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to solve the above-specified problems, the invention has a first object to provide a head-protecting airbag device with an airbag cover which can be firmly mounted in an easily demountable manner on the body without using any mounting bolt.
A second object of the invention is to provide a head-protecting airbag device with an airbag cover which can cover an airbag folded in a rear pillar portion, while maintaining an aesthetically pleasing appearance in the design of the rear pillar portion.
A third object of the invention is to provide a head-protecting airbag device with an airbag cover having a door portion which opens smoothly and quickly when the airbag is inflated to expand.
The first object of the invention can be achieved by a head-protecting airbag device comprising an airbag cover mounted on the body of a vehicle for covering a folded airbag. The vehicle body includes a retaining hole. The airbag cover includes an airbag cover body and a clip portion protruding from the back side of the airbag cover body. The clip portion is inserted into the retaining hole and retained by the body. The clip portion can establish two states: a first retaining state, in which the clip portion is so unextractably retained, when inserted into the retaining hole, that the clip portion cannot be removed from the retaining hole of the body by pulling the clip portion in an opposite direction to the inserting direction; and a second retaining state, in which the clip portion is inserted farther into the retaining hole than the position of the stated first retaining state, and is extractably retained to permit removal of the clip portion from the retaining hole of the body.
In the airbag cover of this head-protecting airbag device, the clip portion is inserted into the retaining hole to establish the first retaining state. Then, the clip portion is retained unextractably to the body so that the airbag cover is firmly mounted on the body. If the clip portion is pushed into the second retaining state, the clip portion can be simply extracted from the body.
In this head-protecting airbag device, therefore, the airbag cover can be firmly mounted in an easily demountable manner on the body without using any mounting bolt.
The stated clip portion may be constructed in the following manner. Specifically, the clip portion includes a plurality of pawl members adapted to be unextractably retained by the back side of a circumferential edge portion of the body defining the retaining hole. Each of these pawl members has a shrinking guide portion. From the first retaining position, the clip portion may be moved farther in the inserting direction so that the shrinking guide portion is guided by the retaining hole circumferential edge into the second retaining position, in which the pawl members are retained close to each other.
In the first retaining state, the clip portion is inserted into the retaining hole so that each pawl member is arranged on the body back side of the retaining hole circumferential edge. As a result, the airbag cover can be firmly mounted on the body.
When the airbag cover is to be demounted from the body, the clip portion is inserted together with the airbag cover farther in the inserting direction so as to take the second retaining state. Then, the shrinking guide portion is guided by the retaining hole circumferential edge on the body surface side to bring the pawls members close to each other, into a proximate (or narrow) state, in which the pawl members are retained. After placing the pawl members into the proximate state, the clip portion can be extracted from the retaining hole, without any interference with the circumferential edge of the retaining hole, by moving the airbag cover in an opposite direction to extract the clip portion from the retaining hole. As a result, the airbag cover can be simply demounted from the airbag cover.
The clip portion may be constructed of a core member and a cap as follows. The core member has rigidity, and includes a neck portion and a head portion. The neck portion protrudes from the back side of the airbag cover body. The head portion is arranged at the leading end of the neck portion, and has a larger width size than the neck portion. The cap is elastically deformable, and is mounted around the core member so as to cover the root portion side of the neck portion and the root portion side of the head portion. The cap includes first and second grooves and a fixedly retained portion. The first groove and the second groove of the cap are arranged, when the cap is mounted around the core member, so that the first groove is positioned on the leading end portion side of the neck portion, and the second groove is positioned on the root portion side of the neck portion. The inner circumference of the retaining hole can be fitted in the first groove and the second groove. The fixedly retained portion is arranged on the leading end side of the first groove, so that the fixedly retained portion is retained on the retaining hole circumferential edge on the body back side when the retaining hole is fitted in the first groove. The inner side face of the fixedly retained portion is set: such that a smaller clearance is present between the inner si
Kobayashi Fumitake
Nagai Yutaka
Osawa Yasuyuki
Tajima Hiroyuki
Terada Yoshitaka
Boehler Anne Marie
Royal, Jr. Paul
Toyoda Gosei Co,., Ltd.
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