Autoliv Development Ab

Gary Wootton

Mats Berntsson

Hugh Finn

Altay Kismir

David Stow

Ralf Koehnen

Tae Ik Gwon

Yong Hyun Jung

Simon Valkenburg

Wan Dong Yoo

Carl-Johan Svensson

Dae Chang Jung

Will Winzinger

Gonzalo Alves

Helen Dean

Kyu Soung Jang

Kai-Stephan Müller

Andy Hollies

Goncalo Alves

A curtain airbag of a vehicle is provided adjacent to the roof of the vehicle in a folded state, is configured to have a shape that unfolds downward between an inner side surface of the vehicle and an occupant when the vehicle crashes, and includes an outer panel that proceeds toward the side surface of the vehicle and an inner panel that proceeds toward the occupant upon expansion. The curtain airbag further includes a head support part configured to have a shape in which an expansion thickness, which is defined by the outer panel and the inner panel in a portion that the head of the occupant contacts due to the car crash, gradually increases toward the front of the vehicle, so as to prevent the head of the occupant from rotating while moving toward the front of the vehicle. The curtain airbag may effectively stop the head of the occupant from rotating while moving toward the front of the vehicle during a vehicle crash.

Curtain airbag of vehicle

An air-bag for a motor vehicle is formed from first and second superposed layers of fabric, each woven from a plurality of yarns. The layers of fabric are connected to each other at least partially through interweaving of the yarns of the two layers with each other. The air-bag includes at least one inflatable region, in which the two layers of fabric are substantially not connected to each other, and at least one non-inflatable region. There is a first number of crossing points of yarns that form the one layer of fabric, and there is a second number of connections between the two layers, wherein at each connection a yarn of the layer of fabric extends across to the other layer and passes over the far side of the a yarn of the other layer, and wherein the second number is no more than 0.0033 times the first number.

Air-bags

A safety device for use in a vehicle includes an air-bag inflatable by a gas source. At least part of the air-bag is woven and includes a plurality of generally parallel woven yarns. An elongate tether is attached to the air-bag by an attachment arrangement including a first portion in which part of the tether passes between two adjacent yarns of the air-bag from one side to another side of the air-bag and partly around at least two adjacent yarns on one side of the air-bag. The arrangement incorporates a second portion in which the tether is interwoven with a pre-determined number of single adjacent yarns of the air-bag. The arrangement incorporates a third portion in which the tether passes between two adjacent yarns of the air-bag from one side to another side of the air-bag and partly around at least two adjacent yarns on one side of the air-bag.

Safety device

A fabric for use in the manufacture of an inflatable air-bag, the fabric having interwoven warp fibers and weft fibers which are arranged substantially perpendicular to one another, one or more of the warp and weft fibers being at least partially coated with an adhesive substance to increase the friction between the warp and weft fibers at their intersections. In another embodiment, the fabric is formed from fibers having a central core and another sheath.

Fabric for use in the manufacture of an inflatable air-bag

A method of forming a fabric for an air-bag, the method comprising providing a plurality of yarns, each yarn being formed from a plurality of individual fibres; applying an activatable additive or coating to each yarn, the additive or coating initially not being activated and wherein, prior to activation, the additive or coating presents little or no impedance to the relative movement of the fibres within the yarn and, following activation, the additive or coating binds fibres within the yarn to one another to prevent or hinder relative movement of the fibres in the yarn with respect to one another; and passing the yarns through an activation zone including a compressing component which applies a compressive force to the yarns, the additive or coating being activated as the yarns pass through the activation zone so that the yarns each have a substantially flat configuration.

Inflatable airbag and a method for making the same

There is disclosed a safety device for a motor vehicle. The device comprises an inflatable () element formed from two opposing layers of fabric () and the two layers of fabric are interconnected by a plurality of tether yarns () extending between said layers. Each said tether yarn () is a composite yarn comprising an outer thread () and a core thread (), with the outer thread () being overfed on the core thread () and having a higher breaking strength than the core thread (). The device is preferably configured such that the core threads () of the tether yarns () break () upon inflation of said inflatable element (), thereby permitting the outer thread () to unravel and extend the effective length of the tether yarns () between said layers.

Motor vehicle safety device

Growing community of inventors

Staffordshire, United Kingdom

Gary Wootton