Vehicle having a roof mounted inflatable cushion

Details Vehicle having a roof mounted inflatable cushion Vehicle having a roof mounted inflatable cushion

2000-05-04

2001-06-05

Culbreth, Eric (Department: 3611)

Land vehicles

Wheeled

Attachment

C280S730100, C280S728200, C280S749000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06241278

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to motor vehicle safety restraint apparatus, and in particular to safety restraint apparatus which protects vehicle passengers by deploying an inflatable cushion in the event of a accident.
BACKGROUND
The safety of vehicle passengers is an important consideration in the interior design of most modern automotive vehicles. When a vehicle suffers an accident, a vehicle passenger can undergo multiple collisions with the interior surfaces of the vehicle. The interior trim of the vehicle can be designed to cushion the impact of such collisions and, in addition, inflatable cushions can be provided which inflate within the interior of a vehicle in order to restrain the passengers in the event of an accident.
However, inflators used to inflate side cushions are normally mounted on a roof-supporting pillar. Since inflators are normally hard objects, this can make it difficult to design the interior trim of a pillar so that the trim will effectively absorb the energy of internal collisions.
It is known to position an inflator in the roof of a vehicle, behind the B-pillar. See, for example, WO 96/07563. The inflator is rigidly supported and, in the event of a collision of the driver's head with the roof, serious head injury may result.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a motor vehicle comprising a passenger compartment, a roof having a front edge and a side edge, a front reinforcement member within the roof and extending along the front edge to define an adjacent recess within the roof, an inflatable cushion disposed along the side edge to inflate downwards into the passenger compartment in the event of an accident, and an inflator to inflate the inflatable cushion, the inflator positioned adjacent to the structural member within the recess.
The inflator can therefore conveniently be positioned in the space created in many vehicles by the presence of the front reinforcement member between the roof panel and the interior roof lining of a vehicle.
Since the inflator is not placed against a structural pillar supporting the vehicle roof, the lining of the structural pillars may be optimized to absorb the internal collisions without being constrained by taking into account the presence of an inflator.
In order to reduce the impact of a collision with a vehicle passenger, and in particular to reduce the risk of head injury, the inflator is preferably secured to the vehicle by means of a deformable member, arranged such that if a generally upward force is applied to the inflator, it will cause the inflator to move relative to the reinforcement member. Thus if a passenger collides with the inflator, as may be the case in a roll-over situation, the deformable member will deform and absorb some of the energy of the collision, thereby reducing the force of the impact.
Although the inflator may be attached to the roof panel of a vehicle, the inflator is preferably attached to the front reinforcement member for ease of attachment.
For convenience hereinafter, the invention will be described with reference to attachment of the inflator to the front reinforcement member.
The deformable member may be a bracket formed from sheet metal secured at one point to the inflator and at another point to the reinforcement member. The deformable member may for example be welded to the inflator at one end and screw mounted to the reinforcement member at the other end.
So as to make most efficient use of the recess space adjacent to the front reinforcement member, the inflator may have a long axis which is aligned substantially parallel to the front reinforcement member. The inflator may be cylindrical, or any other elongate shape which can conveniently fit in the recess space.
In a preferred embodiment, the inflator is operatively connected to the inflatable cushion via a tube smoothly curving though approximately 90 degrees, the tube being aligned with the axis of the cylinder at one end and with a side edge of the vehicle roof at the other end. The curved tube allows the folded cushion and the inflator to be aligned generally perpendicular to one another, the smoothness of the curvature being important to reduce the sudden transfer of momentum of fast flowing gas to the tube.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2806737 (1957-09-01), Maxwell
patent: 5588672 (1996-12-01), Karlow et al.
patent: 5795014 (1998-08-01), Balgaard
patent: 96/07563 (1995-03-01), None

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