Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho

Akio Numazawa

Keisuke Imai

Hitoshi Iwata

Toshimasa Yamamoto

Tatsushi Kubota

Fuminori Teraoka

Yasutaka Watanabe

Hironori Sasaki

Masahiro Tanabe

A side-impact airbag device capable of being located in a narrow and restricted position and promptly and sufficiently inflating an airbag to a predetermined range even if a part such as an arm rest or the like is provided. An airbag body is disposed so as to be spread over a side wall such as a side door or the like. Predetermined portions of the airbag body, which correspond to the part such as the arm rest or the like attached to the side door, are bonded to one another so that the predetermined portions are prevented from inflating due to the introduction of gas therein. An inflator is used to inflate the entirety of the airbag body on the average.

Side-impact airbag device

A preloader for use in a webbing retractor for retracting an occupant-restraining webbing forcibly onto a takeup shaft at the time of a sudden deceleration of a vehicle. The preloader includes a angular shaft rotating integrally with the takeup shaft; a deformable member disposed around the angular column shaft; and a wire connected to the deformable member and wound therearound. The wire is tightly wound around the deformable member at the time of a sudden deceleration of the vehicle, thereby causing the deformable member to undergo deformation and engage with the angular shaft. The angular shaft is hence rotated integrally with the deformable member so as to positively rotate the takeup shaft in a taking-up direction.

Preloader for a webbing retractor

A preloader for use in a webbing retractor for retracting an occupant-restraining webbing onto a takeup shaft so as to allow the webbing to be applied to the occupant with appropriate tightness. A rotating drum disposed coaxially with the takeup shaft has an annular groove. A wedge member is held around the rotating drum at a certain distance from the rotating drum by a shear pin. A wire is wound in advance around the outer periphery of the wedge member. At the time of a sudden deceleration of a vehicle a driving force is applied to the wire, and the wire in turn tightens the wedge member by being more tightly wound therearound. The shear pin is broken by the tight winding by the wire, and the wedge member is wedge-fitted to the rotating drum, so that the wedge member and the rotating drum rotate integrally and cause the takeup shaft to rotate.

Preloader

A webbing retractor for taking up an occupant-restraining webbing used in a seat belt apparatus for a vehicle has a takeup shaft held by a frame, and the webbing is wound around the takeup shaft. The takeup shaft is pivotally held at a substantially intermediate portion of each of a pair of arms. One end of each arm is pivotally supported by a support shaft, and the arms are adapted to rotate about the support shaft. At the time of a sudden deceleration of the vehicle, a clamp plate held at a distal end of a clamp lever is pushed upward by an actuating device including the arms to cause the webbing to be clamped, and when a clamping force exceeding a predetermined value is applied to the webbing, a projection formed at a proximal end of the clamp lever presses a thin-walled portion toward a rectangular hole so as to deform the thin-walled portion, which in turn causes the clamp plate to move in a direction in which the clamped state of the webbing is canceled, thereby setting a webbing-clamping force at a predetermined level or below.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi, Japan

Akio Numazawa