Fabric (woven – knitted – or nonwoven textile or cloth – etc.) – Woven fabric – Woven fabric is characterized by a particular or...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-30
2004-05-11
Singh, Arti R. (Department: 1771)
Fabric (woven, knitted, or nonwoven textile or cloth, etc.)
Woven fabric
Woven fabric is characterized by a particular or...
C139S408000, C139S409000, C139S410000, C139S411000, C139S412000, C139S413000, C139S414000, C139S415000, C139S416000, C139S417000, C139S418000, C139S419000, C139S42000D, C139S421000, C139S422000, C139S423000, C139S38400B, C139S38700A, C442S076000, C442S103000, C442S104000, C442S108000, C442S164000, C442S168000, C442S181000, C442S182000, C442S183000, C442S189000, C442S206000, C442S207000, C442S208000, C442S218000, C442S286000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06734125
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to multi-denier mixed textile fabrics for use in inflatable vehicle occupant restraint systems. More particularly, the invention relates to textile fabrics woven with fibers and yarns of different materials and denier sizes in either or both of the warp and fill directions and laminated with a film having adhesive and sealing properties useful in the manufacture of air bags and side curtains with improved physical characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current restraint systems for automotive vehicles include driver and passenger side air bags that are instantaneously gas-inflated by means such as by explosion of a pyrotechnic material at the time of a collision to provide a protective barrier between vehicle occupants and the vehicle structure. Much of the impact of a collision is absorbed by the air bag, thus preventing or lessening the possibility of serious bodily injury to occupants of the vehicle. Such air bags are located, typically, in a collapsed, folded condition housed in the steering wheel, to protect the driver, and in the dashboard, to protect a passenger seated next to the driver. Recently, the automotive industry also has introduced air bags that are stored in the back of the front seats or in the rear seats to protect the cabin occupants in the event of a collision occurring on either side of the vehicle.
More recently still, a further safety feature that is made available for passenger vehicles, especially the so-called sport utility vehicles or SUVs, are side-impact protective inflatable side curtains designed to provide a cushioning effect in the event of side collisions or rollover accidents. These side curtains are stored in the roof of the vehicle and, in the event of a collision, deploy along the interior side walls of the SUV's cabin.
Each of these various types of air bags has different design and physical property requirements, such as gas (air) holding permeability, air pressure and volume, puncture resistance and adhesion of the coating material to a woven substrate. For example, driver side air bags must have little or no permeability and, as a result, are often made from a material having very little or no permeability. Passenger side air bags, on the other hand, require a controlled permeability, and are most often made from materials having some degree of permeability. Furthermore, all such vehicle air restraint devices must have superior packageability and anti-blocking qualities. Packageability refers to the ability for a relatively large device to be packaged in a relatively small space. Anti-blocking refers to the ability of the device to deploy almost instantaneously without any resistance caused by the material sticking to itself.
The air holding capability of side curtains is critical since they must remain inflated for an extended period of time to protect passengers in multiple rollovers. Unlike air bags which are designed to inflate instantaneously, and to deflate almost immediately after inflation in order to avoid injury to the driver and front seat passenger, air curtains used in SUVs, or in ordinary passenger vehicles, must be capable of remaining inflated in the range of from about three (3) to about twelve (12) seconds, depending upon the size of the curtain and the type of vehicle. An average passenger vehicle would require a side curtain of from about 60 inches to about 120 inches in length as measured along the length of the vehicle, and a larger vehicle, such as a minivan, would require an even longer side curtain. The maximum inflation period of a side curtain should be sufficient to protect the cabin occupants during three (3) rollovers, the maximum usually experienced in such incidents.
When such air bags are deployed, depending upon their specific location or application, they may be subjected to pressures within a relatively broad range. For example, air bag deployment pressures are generally in the range of from about 50 kilopascals (kpa) to about 450 kpa, which corresponds generally to a range of from about 7.4 pounds per square inch (psi) to about 66.2 psi. Accordingly, there is a need for fabric products and air bags which can be made to be relatively impermeable to fluids under such anticipated pressures while being relatively light in weight.
One means of improving air holding capability in vehicle restraint systems has been through coatings such as chloroprene and silicone rubber coatings, applied to the textile substrate. Wherever coated fabrics are used there exists the problem of insufficiency of adhesion of the coating to the fabric substrate. More particularly, the smoother the substrate surface, generally the more difficult it is to obtain strong adhesion of the coating material to the substrate. Furthermore, with some coatings such as silicone rubber, radio frequency (RF) heat sealing techniques cannot be used to form the bag. Thus, in such instances bags are usually made by stitching, a process which requires the addition of an adhesive sealant in the stitched areas.
There have recently been developed improved polyurethane, acrylic, polyamide and silicone coatings that are coated in layers on the fabric substrates. It has been found that adhesion characteristics are greatly unproved with such layered coatings. Examples of such coated fabrics and methods of coating such fabrics are disclosed in commonly assigned application Ser. No. 09/327,243, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,046, Ser. No. 09/327,244, filed Jun. 7, 1999, now abandoned, and Ser. No. 09/327,245, filed Jun. 7, 1999, now abandoned, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this disclosure.
In general, yarn sizes are measured by a well known weight indicator referred to as “denier” and identified as units “D”. The greater the denier (D), the thicker and heavier is one unit of length of the yarn. The most common denier yarns presently used in such air holding devices are 420D nylon, in a 46×46 or 49×49 count weave, for driver side air bags, and 630D nylon, in a 41×41 count weave, for passenger side air bags. However, deniers as low as 210D, in a 72×72 count weave, have been used where the air bag must be housed in a tight fit, and, to a lesser extent, a 315D yarn, in a 60×60 count weave.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,704,402 discloses an uncoated air bag fabric in which weave constructions are stated to provide air bags with air permeability which does not increase by more than about fifty percent from the untensioned state when the fabric is subjected to tensile forces. These textile fabrics are stated to include yarns of different deniers within the weaves. Air bags of this type are typically used as passenger side air bags and are unsuitable for use in driver side air bags or side curtains, which must have little or no air permeability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,644 discloses woven or laid structures using hybrid yarns comprising reinforcing filaments and lower melting matrix filaments composed of thermoplastic polymers to form textile sheet materials of adjustable gas and/or liquid permeability. During the formation of textile fabrics in accordance with the disclosure, polyester fibers in the weaves are melted by the application of heat to form textile sheet materials which are stated to have predetermined gas and/or liquid permeability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,776 relates to a rapier woven low permeability air bag fabric and an air bag for use in a motor vehicle. The fabric is of plain weave construction and has an air permeability of less than approximately 5.0 CFM. The air bag is comprised of a plurality of panels connected together about their respective peripheries.
While these known fabrics represent somewhat successful attempts to control permeability through the incorporation of one or more features, none of these attempts have adequately solved the problem of providing a fabric of adequate impermeability whereby controlled permeability may be incorporated, where required. The present invention relates t
Bradford Industries, Inc.
Hollander Law Fim, P.L.C.
Singh Arti R.
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