Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-24
2001-08-14
English, Peter C. (Department: 3619)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C296S212000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06273465
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS
There are no patent applications filed by me related to the within application.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
I. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is in the general field of airbags utilized for the protection of humans, or other cargo being transported in the event of a mishap occurring to the transport apparatus;
The invention is more particularly directed to such airbags wherein the airbags will impinge softly upon the humans, or other cargo;
The invention is most particularly directed to airbags having multiple interior compartments within a single airbag, with the contact wall of the airbag which impinges upon the humans, or other cargo being under less pressure than the pressure of the other portions of the airbag allowing slower and softer expansion of the contact wall compartment.
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
There is much art in airbag deployment for the protection of humans and other cargo. There have been attempts to protect the humans or other cargo from the usual harsh impact caused by the sudden deployment of airbags. Some representative recent United States Patents in the general field are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,542,700; 5,738,371; 5,765,863; 5,806,884; 5,820,160; 5,829,785; 5,833,265; 5,851,027; and 5,918,901.
None of the above patents, nor anything else I have been able to find, approaches, anticipates, or suggests my new system. In that sense I believe there is no true prior art to this invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Airbags are in wide use in vehicles or the like for the protection of persons or other cargo in the event of a vehicle mishap such as a collision, roll-over, or the like. Airbags are very valuable in preventing serious injuries in many cases.
However, airbags frequently cause serious injuries and even death because of the rapid and very hard and unyielding force with which the airbag contact surface strikes individuals or cargo within a vehicle when the airbag is activated.
Sometimes airbags inflate accidently without the vehicle or the like in which they are installed being involved in an accident or the like. In such cases, occupants or cargo within the vehicle or the like may be unnecessarily injured or damaged.
I have studied airbags and their methods of inflation, frequently by explosives within the bag. While there have been some attempts to soften the blow of the airbag against a person or cargo by locating the airbags in specific areas, etc, such attempts have been less than fully effective. Even the most carefully placed airbag can cause serious injury depending upon the conditions under which it inflates, and other factors such as age of a vehicle occupant, etc.
I have now solved this problem by constructing a novel and unique airbag in which I have installed what amounts to a“compartmentalized airbag”.
There are various versions of my compartmentalized airbag.
In one version an airbag is formed in customary manner. However, a membrane of permeable material is fastened within the airbag and along the area which will come into contact with a person or other cargo when the airbag inflates. The membrane is connected to the airbag interior in such manner that when fully inflated there will be a bag consisting of the portion of the airbag which comes in contact with a person or other cargo and the membrane, which I will refer to as a secondary compartment. The main, or primary, portion of the airbag will then be the compartment between the membrane and the portion of the airbag which does not come into contact with the vehicle occupants or other cargo. It is the latter primary compartment of the airbag which will contain the explosives or other material which rapidly fills the airbag with fluid under pressure. With the permeable membrane in place, when the airbag inflates the secondary compartment will inflate more slowly and under less pressure than the primary compartment due to the necessity of the fluid under pressure permeating through the permeable membrane. The speed at which the inflation of the secondary compartment takes place is controllable by varying the permeability of the membrane With my new airbag, the secondary compartment initially will be softer than the primary compartment due to the interior airbag fluids being slowed while permeating the permeable membrane. Additionally, the permeable membrane will allow the air bag fluids to be forced back through the membrane from the secondary compartment into the primary compartment allowing a further softening of the blow of the wall of the airbag against a person or other vehicular cargo.
In another version of my new air bag a complete permeable bag containing the explosives or other rapidly expansive fluid production means is located within a larger impermeable bag. When the fluids with the permeable bag expand to completely fill the permeable bag, the fluids will slowly permeate into the exterior bag, thereby softening the blow of anything which the bag contacts. Also, the impact upon an object can cause some of the fluid to permeate back into the interior bag which further softens the blow.
It is possible to have a multiplicity of permeable membranes or permeable bags in order to accomplish varying degrees of resilience when the fluids are expanding within the airbag system.
In each version of this invention, the softening of the impact may be enhanced by having a multiplicity of secondary compartments or permeable compartments or bags so that the expanding fluids will be further slowed and the impact further softened by passing through a multiplicity of permeable barriers.
When I refer to “bags” it is understood that I mean a “bag” is a “compartment” as well as a “compartment” formed by a membrane or the like.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus which will soften the force of impact upon an item by activation of an airbag which contacts the item;
Another object of this invention is to provide such a method and apparatus wherein the introduction of high pressure fluid into a device which contacts an item is controlled so as to soften the impact caused by rapid expansion of fluid within the device;
Another object of this invention is to provide a means by which expanding fluid within an airbag may travel through a permeable membrane in both directions to control the force with which the airbag strikes an item.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of this invention will be understood by those skilled in the art upon reading the description of a preferred embodiment, which follows, in conjunction with a review of the appended drawings.
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English Peter C.
Schulze Herbert C.
To Toan C
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