Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Utility Patent
1998-11-18
2001-01-02
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C180S271000, C280S735000, C307S010100, C340S457100
Utility Patent
active
06169947
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle occupant protection system for inflating an air bag with a gas introduced from an inflator in a motor vehicle having a seat belt.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, motor vehicles are equipped with a vehicle occupant protection system usually referred to as an air bag for protecting vehicle occupants against damage from collisions. When the motor vehicle collides with an object, the vehicle occupant protection system introduces a gas from an inflator into bags for thereby inflating the bags in response to a start signal representing a large acceleration caused by the collision. The vehicle occupant protection system is set to operate upon a collision at a relatively low speed of about 16 km/h (10 mph) so that it can protect vehicle occupants even when seat belts are not fastened.
When the seat belts are fastened, they can satisfactorily protect the vehicle occupants only with the restraint forces from the seat belts upon collisions at certain speeds higher than about 16 km/h. However, since the vehicle occupant protection system is also activated upon collisions at lower speeds, any subsequent repair of the motor vehicle entails a relatively large expenditure of money because the vehicle occupant protection system also needs to be repaired for reuse.
Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 50-112935 discloses an air bag activating device capable of detecting whether seat belts are fastened or not, and switching between air bag operation levels depending on the detected status.
The disclosed air bag activating device is disadvantageous in that if it erroneously detects that seat belts are fastened even though vehicle occupants do not fasten the seat belts, then the air bag activating device may possibly fail to activate the air bags properly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which can detect a fastened status of a seat belt to switch between air bag operation levels upon a collision, and which can be operated safely even when a fastened status of a seat belt cannot be detected.
A major object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which is capable of detecting whether a seat belt is fastened or not based on a signal from a first switch that is turned off when the seat belt is fastened and a signal from a second switch that is turned on when the seat belt is fastened, switching between an impact decision level at the time the seat belt is not fastened and an impact decision level at the time the seat belt is fastened, based on the signals from the first and second switches, and comparing the magnitude of an impact caused by a collision with the impact decision level to decide whether a gas is to be introduced into an air bag.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which has a first switch that is turned off when a seat belt is fastened and a second switch that is turned on when the seat belt is fastened, the first and second switches being mounted in a buckle for receiving the tongue of the seat belt, so that the first and second switches can automatically be turned on or off in response to the tongue being inserted into or removed from the buckle.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5626359 (1997-05-01), Steffens, Jr. et al.
patent: 5900677 (1999-05-01), Musiol et al.
Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 50-112935 (filed Feb. 18, 1974) for “Air Bag Activating Device” (partial English branslation provided).
Fukui Tsutomu
Isonaga Kazutomo
Kamiji Koichi
Koyota Nobuhiro
Armstrong, Westerman Hattori, McLeland & Naughton
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Pipala Edward
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