Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-12
2002-10-01
English, Peter C. (Department: 3616)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
C280S739000, C280S743100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06457741
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an occupant protecting device designed so that an air bag, accommodated within a seat back, is deployed into a vehicle passenger compartment upon collision of a vehicle to protect an occupant.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a system is known, for example, from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 3-108564. In general, an occupant protecting device of such a type includes an air bag module which has a folded air bag and an inflater.
FIGS. 12A
to
12
C show a prior art method for folding up an air bag B. As shown in
FIG. 12A
, the air bag B in a deployed state has a vertical dimension L
2
larger than a vertical dimension L
1
of the inflater I, and a longitudinal dimension L
3
substantially equal to the vertical dimension L
2
. To fold up the air bag B, upper and lower portions of the air bag B are first folded inwardly, as shown in
FIG. 12B
, so that the vertical dimension L
2
is near to the vertical dimension L
1
. Then, the air bag B is longitudinally folded into a bellows-like shape, as shown in
FIG. 12C
, thereby forming a module wherein the inflater I is accommodated within the air bag B.
The air bag B folded up in the above-described manner is deployed in a straight forward direction of a vehicle body from a side of a seat back
2
, as shown in FIG.
14
. For this reason, there is a possibility that the air bag B cannot be smoothly deployed due to interference with a side and an arm of an occupant. To avoid such a problem, it is necessary to deploy the air bag B obliquely forwardly toward a center pillar
4
and a front door in order to permit the air bag B to properly penetrate into a space between the center pillar
4
as well as the front door
5
and the occupant.
FIGS. 13A
to
13
C show a course of deployment of the air bag B which has been folded up in the above-described prior art method. The air bag B is first deployed longitudinally as shown in
FIG. 13A
, and then vertically as shown in
FIG. 13B
to finally be in a completely deployed state shown in FIG.
13
C. If the vertical deployment is performed behind the longitudinal deployment in the above-described manner, there is a problem that the side of the occupant cannot be held back at an initial stage of the deployment over a vertical wide range.
Further, such an occupant protecting device is known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 8-225054 (hereinafter “JP '054”), in which an air bag is formed by integrally sewing two left and right main basic fabrics with a single side basic fabric to connect outer peripheral edges of the two main basic fabrics to each other, and vent holes are defined in the side basic fabric corresponding to a front surface of the deployed air bag. By the fact that the vent holes are defined in the front surface of the air bag in the above described manner, the vent holes can be prevented from being occluded by a door and/or an occupant upon deployment of the air bag.
However, if the air bag is formed by sewing the three basic fabrics together as in the above-described known occupant protecting device of JP '054, the number of parts and the number of manufacturing steps are increased. Therefore, it is conceived that an air bag is formed from a single basic fabric. More specifically, an air bag
03
shown in
FIG. 15B
can be formed by double-folding a single basic fabric
01
. cut into a substantially band-like shape at a central folding line
02
, as shown in
FIG. 15A
, and sewing outer peripheral portions of the folded basic fabric
01
excluding the folding line
02
together. In this case, there is a problem that it is impossible to define vent holes
04
, so that the vent holes
04
lie on a sewing portion
05
. Therefore, the positions of the vent holes are deviated laterally from a front surface of the air bag
03
and as a result, when the air bag
03
has been expanded, the vent holes
04
are occluded by a door and/or an occupant.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a first object of the present invention to ensure that an air bag provided within a seat back is deployed obliquely forwardly, so that the air bag is permitted to reliably penetrate into a space between an occupant and an inner surface of a side of a vehicle body.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide an occupant protecting device designed so that an air bag accommodated within a seat back is deployed between an occupant and an inner surface of a side of a vehicle body upon collision of a vehicle, wherein the vertical deployment of the air bag is carried out promptly.
It is a third object of the present invention to ensure that an air bag functioning upon a side collision and including vent holes in its front surface is formed with a smaller number of parts.
To achieve the first object, according to a first aspect. and feature of the present invention, an occupant protecting device is provided which comprises: an air bag accommodated in a folded-up state within a seat back of a seat on which an occupant sits down, wherein when the air bag is expanded by a gas generated by an inflater, the air bag is deployed between the occupant and an inner surface of a side of a vehicle body, the air bag having a rear-side base portion fixed to a fixing member, and a front-side foldable portion folded up in a longitudinal direction, and the base portion having a surplus section provided thereon at a location remote from the inner surface of the side of the vehicle body for permitting the movement of the foldable portion toward the inner surface of the side of the vehicle body.
With the above-described arrangement, when the foldable portion of the air bag is expanded by the gas generated by the inflater, the foldable portion can be moved toward the inner surface of the side of the vehicle body by the surplus section provided on the base portion of the air bag at the location remote from the inner surface of the side of the vehicle body. Therefore, the air bag can be deployed obliquely forwardly to reliably penetrate into a space between the occupant and the inner surface of the side of the vehicle body.
In addition, to achieve the above-described first object, according to a second aspect and feature of the present invention, an occupant protecting device is provided which comprises: an air bag is accommodated in a folded-up state within a seat back of a seat on which an occupant sits down, wherein when the air bag is expanded by a gas generated by an inflater, the air bag is deployed into a space between the occupant and an inner surface of a side of a vehicle body, inner and outer (as viewed from inside of the vehicle body) portions of the air bag being folded up to form pleats, the number of the pleats on the inner portion being set smaller than the number of the pleats on the outer portion.
With the above-described arrangement, when the foldable portion of the air bag is expanded by the gas generated by the inflater, the inner portion (as viewed from inside of the vehicle body) of the air bag, having the smaller number of the pleats, is expanded earlier than the outer portion, having the larger number of the pleats. Hence, the inner portion (as viewed from inside of the vehicle body), which is expanded earlier, urges the outer portion in an outward direction of the vehicle body. As a result, the air bag can be deployed obliquely forwardly to reliably penetrate into the space between the occupant and the inner surface of the side of the vehicle body.
To achieve the second object of the present invention, according to a third aspect and feature of the, present invention, a process for folding up an air bag in an occupant protecting device which is designed so that the air bag, accommodated in a folded-up state within a seat back of a seat on which an occupant sits down, is expanded by a gas generated by an inflater, whereby the air bag is deployed between the occupant and an inner surface of a side of a vehicle body, the process comprising: a first step of folding the air b
Aoki Takashi
Honda Takashi
Maeda Hiroyuki
Seki Kazuhiro
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