Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Daicel Chemical Industries, Ltd.

Hiroaki Shinto

Teruhiko Koide

Sumio Sakaguchi

Kozi Buma

Shinji Mori

Yasunori Iwai

Akihisa Ogawa

Tsutomu Muraoka

Terumoto Yamaguchi

Masaru Masaki

Takashi Ogasawara

Syuji Nakamura

Tadashi Yamamoto

Atsushi Watanabe

Nobuo Kobayashi

Keiichi Tamura

Chikahisa Hayashi

Shigemichi Yamada

Yoshio Sano

Junichi Mizutani

Kouji Shiraki

Tuneo Terashima

Iwao Tanimoto

Katuki Asagiri

Takanori Kantou

Tomoji Oguri

Tomiji Oguri

The present invention is a small, light-weight gas generator for a passenger air bag. The gas generator includes a housing having a diffuser shell and a closure shell. The diffuser shell includes a round portion, a center cylindrical portion extending concentrically from inside a peripheral portion of the round portion, and an inner cylindrical portion. The center cylindrical portion is disposed at the center of the round portion for storing therein a squib-enhancer. The inner cylindrical portion is disposed outside the center cylindrical portion to provide a combustion chamber. The closure shell includes an annular portion equipped with a center hole for receiving the center cylindrical portion, and a peripheral wall portion extending from the peripheral portion of the annular portion to the peripheral portion of the round portion of the diffuser shell. This peripheral wall portion defines a coolant-filter chamber and includes a gas discharge port and a flange portion extending in a radial direction. Welding bonds the closure and diffuser shells together at the outer peripheral portion of the center cylindrical portion and the peripheral portion of the center hole; at the tip of the inner cylindrical portion and the region of the annular portion coming into contact with the tip; and at the peripheral portion of the round portion and the tip portion of the peripheral wall portion.

Gas generator formed with electron beam welding

A small, light-weight gas generator is provided for an air bag for protecting a passenger from impact by introducing a generated gas into an air bag. The gas generator includes a housing having a diffuser shell and a closure shell. The diffuser shell includes a round portion, a cylindrical portion extending concentrically from the round portion and an inner cylindrical portion extending about the center cylindrical portion and extending from the round portion. The closure shell includes an annular portion having a center hole for receiving the center cylindrical portion and a peripheral wall portion extending from the peripheral portion of the annular portion. This peripheral wall portion extends to the peripheral portion of the round portion of the diffuser. Electron beam welding may be used to bond the closure and diffuser shells together at the outer peripheral portion of the center cylindrical portion and the center hole; the inner cylindrical portion and the annular portion; and the peripheral portion of the round portion and the inner surface of the peripheral wall.

An insert plate is formed by a base portion, a coupling portion and a mesh material. Notches are formed on both sides of a connecting position at which the coupling portion and the base portion are connected. Accordingly, a line which connects bottoms of the respective notches is defined as a position of a center of unfolding of an unfolding portion of an air bag cover. Since a plurality of slits are formed in the coupling portion to weaken the coupling portion, the unfolding portion can be reliably unfolded about the line for which connects the bottoms of the respective notches. Further, ends of adjacent slits are staggered to prevent a crack from spreading along the entire coupling portion even if the coupling portion is cracked.

Insert material of air bag cover

A horn switch for a steering wheel having an air bag device. The steering wheel includes a multilayer membrane switch as the horn switch in which spacers in one layer are not aligned with the spacers in the other layers. Accordingly, even when the membrane switch is depressed just over one of the spacers in one layer, the electrode plates in the other layers can make contact with each other. Thus the operable area of the membrane switch is enlarged. Further, the membrane switch is supported on its lower surface by a number of ribs which define a number of spaces between the pad lower surface and air bag device. As a result of this space, the operation on the membrane switch can be made resilient in spite of the provision of the air bag device directly under the steering wheel pad. Further, because each part of the pad separated by the air bag device upon impact, each part must be provided with a membrane switch. For this reason, a wiring structure for the two membrane switches is provided such that the manufacture of the pad and the assembly of the steering wheel is more easily facilitated.

Steering wheel having insert molded membrane switch

An air bag apparatus is disclosed having a locking device which is adapted to prevent the inflation of a bag accommodated in an air bag body before the air bag body is mounted on a chassis, the bag being adapted to be inflated in front of a seat occupant when a predetermined acceleration has acted on the air bag body. This locking device is arranged such that an actuating member is driven by an operator's operation after mounting the air bag body on the chassis to release the locking device, thereby canceling a locked state and making the air bag body operable.

Air bag apparatus

An air bag device is equipped with a restricting member for preventing an air bag accommodated in an air bag main body from being inflated erroneously upon impact before the air bag main body is attached to a body of a vehicle inclusive of a steering wheel. This restricting member, only when a deactivating member for deactivating the operation of an acceleration sensor is in operation, allows the air bag main body to approach a designated attaching area of the body of a vehicle. After the air bag main body is secured, the operation of the deactivating member is released to the put the acceleration sensor in an operation activating condition.

Air bag device

A pad covering an inflatable air bag for use in an air bag device provided with an upper wall which is broken by inflation of the air bag, and side walls which extend downward from the peripheral edges of the upper wall. A base insert made of metal is disposed next to the side walls, and a flexible net insert is connected to the inner surface side of the upper side of the base insert through the attaching plate. The base insert, the net insert and the attaching plate are covered by the coating layer made of soft synthetic resin. The net insert is connected to the attaching plate by means of sewing, and the attaching plate is fixed to the base insert preferably by rivets.

Pad for air bag device

An air bag device in which an internal acceleration sensor is prevented from operating a main body of an air bag device is mounted on a vehicle. The device is provided with a stopper for interlinking a fixing bolt for mounting the main body of the air bag device on the vehicle with a canceling screw for canceling the state of preventing the actuation of the acceleration sensor. Before the main body of the air bag device is threadingly inserted into the vehicle by means of the fixing screw and is thereby secure, the stopper keeps the canceling screw from being threadingly inserted.

A mechanism for mounting an air bag assembly on a steering wheel. Before the air bag assembly is firmly screwed to the steering wheel, claws projecting from the air bag assembly engage with claws of the steering wheel so as to temporarily fix the air bag assembly to the steering wheel. Subsequently, the air bag assembly is screwed to the steering wheel, and the air bag assembly does not move inadvertently without being manually pressed firmly at the time of screwing, thereby rendering the mounting operation speedy and accurate.

Air bag assembly mounting mechanism

An air bag cover for covering an air bag in a folded state, the air bag being adapted to expand in front of a seat occupant at a sudden deceleration of the vehicle speed. The air bag cover includes a first thin-wall portion which is first broken by the expanding pressure at the time of the inflation of the air bag and a second thin-wall portion which is broken after the breakage of the first thin-walled portion has advanced. The first thin-walled portion and the second thin-walled portion are connected to each other in such a manner as to be substantially perpendicular to each other. A connecting portion between the two thin-walled portions has an even smaller thickness than the thicknesses of the two thin-walled portions, thereby permitting the breakage of the first thin-walled portion to advance smoothly to the second thin-walled portion.

Air bag cover

An air bag includes a base plate, and a cover, together with the base plate, forming a bag accommodating space. The air bag is mounted on a vehicle by passing bolts through the base plate into the bag accommodating space and threading them with nuts fixed to the side of the base plate located in the bag accommodating space. The nuts are covered by caps so as to prevent damage to a bag accommodated in the bag accommodating space.

Air bag

A steering wheel for a vehicle includes spokes made of a flexible casing alloy by a molding process so that they integrally connect a boss and a steering wheel rim. Accordingly, the production of the steering wheel is facilitated.

Steering wheel for vehicle

An energy absorbing apparatus for a steering wheel includes an energy absorbing portion or member disposed between a steering shaft and a steering wheel rim. The energy absorbing member is constituted by an annular relatively thin plate which surrounds the axis of the steering shaft. A portion of the energy absorbing member is bent in the plane orthogonal to the axis of the steering shaft, whereby the bent portion is deformed when a collision occurs, and the kinetic energy is thereby absorbed. The deformable bent portion is provided with a plurality of slits extending radially of the steering shaft and has embossed portions each defined between a pair of adjacent slits, whereby it is possible to control the absorption of any impact load and adjust the amount of kinetic energy which it is intended should be absorbed.

Energy absorbing apparatus for steering wheel

A rack-and-pinion type steering gear for automotive vehicles including a columnar rack guide made of resin having a small coefficient of friction. An outer diameter of the rack guide in the direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of a rack bar is greater than an inner diameter of a rack guide hole for insertion of the rack guide in such a manner that the transverse cross-section of the rack guide is elliptical. With this arrangement, vibration of the rack guide in the rack guide hole due to an external force dynamically acting on the rack bar, thereby preventing generation of noise from the rack guide hole.

Rack-and-pinion type steering gear for automotive vehicles

Disclosed herein is a device for turning over a clutch pedal which comprises an arm for turning the clutch pedal over, a rod connecting the arm to the clutch pedal for joint rotation upon working of the clutch pedal and a tension spring provided between the arm and the clutch pedal. When the clutch pedal is worked until it reaches a predetermined position, the direction of force of the tension spring acting on the clutch pedal for returning it to its initial position is changed to assist forward movement of the clutch pedal. The device further includes a means connected to the rod for applying lateral force to the rod.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi, Japan

Hiroaki Shinto