Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-29
2002-04-23
Dickson, Paul N. (Department: 3618)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C280S730200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06375214
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an occupant protection device, such as an airbag, for protecting an occupant when an impact load is acted on a vehicle, and, in particular, to one type of airbag which is expanded along a side window to protect an occupant's head and to prevent the occupant from being thrown out of a compartment of the vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Heretofore, as to such a occupant protection device of a vehicle, there has been known a device, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei 10-166988, in which a longitudinally extendable airbag is folded and the folded airbag is housed along a front pillar and a roof side frame to be expanded downward along a side window in the form of a curtain when an impact load is acted on a side of a vehicle.
In the device described above, a front end of the airbag is connected to a lower side of the front pillar of the vehicle, while its rear end is connected to an upper side of a quarter pillar. The airbag is also divided over the front end to the rear end into a plurality of small bags (expanding portions) which may extend approximately vertically with having respective cylinder shapes, i.e. a curtain-like shape as a whole, in the expanded condition of the air bag. Expanding these plurality of small bags respectively makes the airbag shorten in the longitudinal length as a whole. This results in a tension in the longitudinal direction to enable the airbag to restrain a head or the like of an occupant.
Further, among the plurality of small airbags in this conventional airbag described above, the small bags disposed rearward with respect to a center pillar of the vehicle are adapted to have particularly large size in diameter than others. This may improve the restraint performance to an occupant because, for example, when an occupant's head which is moving toward outside of the compartment is restrained by the airbag, the small bags having larger diameter may be caught by the center pillar to control a displacement of the airbag.
However, since the conventional airbag is made by sewing to divide it into the plurality of small bags, there is a problem that a shock absorbing performance cannot sufficiently be obtained in the vicinity of seams of the airbag and an overall occupant protection performance is also lowered. In addition, since a strength of the airbag is lowered in proportion to increased seams, there is the possibility that the seams is torn during its expansion, resulting in deterioration of the occupant protection performance.
Further, in addition to a sewing operation for making such an airbag, it is also necessary to apply an sealant to the seams for preventing a expansion gas from leaking through the seams. This additional measure requires significant labors and times, and results in remarkably increased manufacturing cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the problems described above, the present invention was made. An object of the present invention is to enhance the occupant protection performance and the cost reduction through means of reducing seams of an airbag with maintaining the occupant restraint performance by exercising ingenuity in a structure for giving a tension in the longitudinal direction to the airbag during its expansion, in a curtain type airbag expanding to cover an inside of a side window when an impact is acted on a vehicle.
Another object of the present invention is to improve the curtain airbag type of occupant protection device described above by means of introducing a new layout in a expansion of the airbag so that the impact load at the time when the occupant secondarily collides with the rear pillar disposed on the rear side of the window can be absorbed to surely protect the occupant.
To achieve the aforementioned object, the present invention provides connecting members for connecting front and rear ends which are located at a lower portion of an airbag to a body of a vehicle body respectively, and a slack absorbing device applied to at least one of the connecting members for absorbing a slack of the connecting members in the expanded condition of the airbag.
In particular, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an occupant restraint equipment of a vehicle on the presumption that the vehicle includes a front side pillar and a rear side pillar disposed on front and rear sides of a side window of the vehicle respectively, and a roof side rail longitudinally extended to connect respective upper ends of the both pillars each other, and the occupant protection device includes an airbag which is folded and housed in the range from the front side pillar to the rear side pillar through the roof side rail so that the airbag is expanded to cover an inside of the side window when an impact load is acted on a side of the vehicle. Thereat, the occupant restraint equipment of the present invention comprises an upper edge of the airbag fixed to at least the roof side rail, a front connecting member for connecting a front lower end of the airbag to a body of the vehicle positioned frontward more than the side window, a rear connecting member for connecting a rear lower end of the airbag to a body of the vehicle positioned rearward more than the side window; and a slack absorbing device attached to at least one of the front and rear connecting members for absorbing a slack in the connecting members in the expanded condition of the airbag.
According to the aforementioned structure, the airbag primarily housed in the roof side rail of the vehicle is extended downward to cover the inside of the side window when an impact load is acted on the side of the vehicle. On this way, the folded airbag is extended downward as a whole, and a slack of the connecting members fixed to the lower side of the airbag is absorbed by the slack absorbing device, so that the front and rear connecting members may provide a sufficient tension to the air bag by longitudinal pulling of the connecting members. Thus, it is no longer required to divide the air bag into a plurality of small bags as the conventional airbag. This enables to decrease the seams of the airbag to which an occupant would be contacted in the expanded condition of the airbag, and so the occupant protection performance can be improved. In addition, the manufacturing cost can be reduced due to the reduced seams.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the slack absorbing device may include an expanding portion which is formed in at least one of the front and rear ends of the airbag and is expanded in the expanded condition of the airbag, and at least one of the connecting members includes an end which is fixed to at least an area where the expanding portion is laterally expanded. In this embodiment, when the expanding portion disposed in the end of the airbag is expanded in the expanded condition of he airbag, the end fixed to the expanding portion is laterally displaced so that a longitudinal length of the connecting member may be shortened to absorb its slack.
According another preferred embodiment of the invention, the slack absorbing device may include an expanding portion which is formed in at least one of the front and rear ends of the airbag and is expanded in the expanded condition of the airbag, a hole which is formed in the airbag positoned in the central direction more than the expanding portion with laterally penetrating the airbag, and at least one of the connecting members includes an end which is passed through the hole from either of the left and right sides of the expanding portion to the opposite side of the expanding portion and is fixed at the opposite side of the expanding portion with being wound around the opposite side of the expanding portion.
In this embodiment, when the expanding portion disposed in the end of the airbag is expanded in the expanded condition on the airbag, the end portion of the connecting member is rolled up by the expanding portion. Therefore, if a slack of the connecting member is relatively large
Dickson Paul N.
Fleming Faye M.
Mazda Motor Corporation
Nixon & Peabody LLP
Studebaker Donald R.
LandOfFree
Occupant protection device of vehicle does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Occupant protection device of vehicle, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Occupant protection device of vehicle will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2896931