Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-21
2002-01-08
Mai, Lanna (Department: 3619)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C280S741000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06336657
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat-occupant restraining apparatus which expands a belt for restraining a seat occupant in a seat at the time of a collision of a vehicle, the belt being expanded with a high-pressure gas supplied from an inflator.
2. Description of the Related Art
An air belt assembly which includes a bag accommodated in a seat belt so that the bag is expanded to gently restrain a seat occupant at the time of a collision of a vehicle is already known, for example, from Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-56001.
The bag of such an air belt assembly has a vent hole, and after the bag has been expanded, the internal pressure of the bag is adjusted to an appropriate value by discharging an extra high-pressure gas through the vent hole.
However, the vent hole, which is a simple opening formed in the bag and which automatically opens in the process of expansion of the folded bag, involves the problem that if the manner of the expansion of the folded bag varies, the timing or extent of opening of the vent hole does not become constant and it becomes difficult to discharge the extra high-pressure gas at an appropriate time.
A buckle assembly, to which a tongue device that is provided on a belt is connected, is pivotally supported on a seat base to be swingable forwardly and rearwardly, in order to compensate for a variation in the angle of the belt due to the forward or rearward position of a seat or the shape of the body of the seat occupant, when the seat occupant wears the seat belt assembly. For the same reasons in the air belt assembly as well, the buckle assembly needs to be supported pivotally to be swingable forwardly and rearwardly.
FIG. 14
shows the essential portion of a conventional air belt assembly. A buckle assembly
04
, to which a tongue device
03
is connected, provided at one end of each of a shoulder belt
01
and a lap belt
02
, is pivotally supported on a seat base
05
by a pivot pin
06
to be swingable forwardly and rearwardly. At the time of a collision of the vehicle, the high-pressure gas, produced by an inflator
07
, integrally provided on the buckle assembly
04
, is supplied to the shoulder belt
01
through the buckle assembly
04
and the tongue device
03
, thereby expanding the shoulder belt
01
to gently restrain the seat occupant. In such a conventional air belt assembly, since the inflator
07
is integrally provided on the buckle assembly
04
, as the buckle assembly
04
pivots about the pivot pin
06
, the inflator
07
integrally pivots. This leads to the problem that limitations are put on the design because it is necessary to avoid the interference of the inflator
07
with other members.
The magnitudes of the shocks due to collisions of vehicles widely range from a small shock, for which a seat occupant can be fully restrained with only a normal seat belt, to a large shock, for which it is necessary to produce the largest possible restraining force. However, in a case where a seat occupant can be fully restrained, for example, merely by operating an air belt assembly without operating an air bag assembly, if both the air bag assembly and the air belt assembly are operated at the same time, the air bag assembly, which originally need not be used, will be wastefully used and the problem of an economic burden to a user will occur.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and a first object of the present invention is to realize a stable air vent function superior to that of a vent hole, without providing a vent hole in the bag of an air belt assembly.
A second object of the present invention is to allow a swinging motion of a buckle assembly, while avoiding the interference of an inflator with other members in an air belt assembly.
A third object of the present invention is to avoid wasteful use of an air bag assembly and an air betassembly, while ensuring necessary and sufficient restraining force, by controlling the operations of the air bag assembly and the air belt assembly according to the magnitude of shock applied to a vehicle.
To achieve the above-described first object, according to a first feature of the present invention, a seat-occupant restraining apparatus is provided which comprises a bag accommodated in a belt for restraining a seat occupant in a seat, and when a vehicle collides, expands the bag with a high-pressure gas produced by an inflator, wherein a relief valve, which opens according to an increase in an internal pressure of the bag, is provided in a gas passage for supplying the high-pressure gas from the inflator to the bag.
According to the above-described construction, if the inflator ignites at the time of a collision of the vehicle, a produced high-pressure gas is supplied to the bag accommodated in the belt and the belt is expanded so that the seat occupant can be gently restrained. If the bag completes expanding due to the high-pressure gas from the inflator and the internal pressure of the bag reaches the valve-opening pressure of the relief valve, the relief valve opens to discharge an extra high-pressure gas from the bag. Accordingly, not only is it possible to control the internal pressure of the bag to an appropriate value without causing variations, but it is also possible to freely set the gas-discharging direction of the relief valve and discharge the high-pressure gas in a direction away from the body of the seat occupant.
To achieve the first object described above, according to a second feature of the present invention, a seat-occupant restraining apparatus is provided which comprises a bag accommodated in a belt for restraining a seat occupant in a seat, and when a vehicle collides, expands the bag with a high-pressure gas produced by an inflator, wherein a solenoid valve, which opens with a time delay after an ignition of the inflator, is provided in a gas passage for supplying the high-pressure gas from the inflator to the bag.
According to the above-described construction, if the inflator ignites at the time of a collision of the vehicle, a produced high-pressure gas is supplied to the bag accommodated in the belt and the belt is expanded so that the seat occupant can be gently restrained. If a sufficient amount of time, which is necessary for the bag to complete expanding, passes after the inflator ignites, the solenoid valve opens to discharge an extra high-pressure gas from the bag. Accordingly, not only is it possible to control the internal pressure of the bag to an appropriate value without causing variations, but it is also possible to freely set the gas-discharging direction of a relief valve and discharge the high-pressure gas in a direction away from the body of the seat occupant.
To achieve the first object described above, according to a third feature of the present invention, a seat-occupant restraining apparatus is provided which comprises a bag accommodated in a belt for restraining a seat occupant in a seat, and when a vehicle collides, expands the bag with a high-pressure gas produced by an inflator, wherein a relief valve, which opens according to an crease in an internal pressure of the bag, is provided in a gas passage for discharging the high-pressure gas of the bag into the atmosphere.
According to the above-described construction, if the inflator ignites at the time of a collision of the vehicle, a produced high-pressure gas is supplied to the bag accommodated in the belt and the bag is expanded so that the seat occupant can be gently restrained. If the bag completes expanding due to the high-pressure gas from the inflator and the internal pressure of the bag reaches the valve-opening pressure of the relief valve, the relief valve opens to discharge an extra high-pressure gas from the bag. Accordingly, not only is it possible to control the internal pressure of the bag to an appropriate value without causing variations, but it is also possible to freely set the gas-discharging direction of the relief valve and discharge the high-
Akaba Hiroshi
Okazaki Hidetsugu
Utsumi Hidetoshi
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Ilan Ruth
Mai Lanna
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