Nippon Kayaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Sensor Technology Co., Ltd.

Hiroyuki Ochi

Yasushi Masuda

Toru Ozaki

Koji Tanaka

Hirotaka Mukunoki

Yoshiyuki Kishino

Seigo Taguchi

Kenjiro Nishida

Shinichi Hayakawa

Shinya Hasegawa

Hisafumi Kobayashi

Kenji Sako

An inflator includes in a combustion chamber a first gas generating charge and a second gas generating charge to be ignited and burned to generate an inflation gas. The second gas generating charge is slower in speed of combustion than the first gas generating charge. The inflator further includes a partition wall that segregates the first and second gas generating charges. The partition wall is located away from an ignition area of an ignition device that ignites the first gas generating charge, with the first gas generating charge located between itself and the ignition area. The partition wall is burnable to destruction by the fire generated by combustion of the first gas generating charge so as to permit propagation of the fire to the second gas generating charge by its generally entire area.

Inflator

A gas generator that can controllably allow the airbag to inflate and expand slowly at an initial stage of the inflation and thereafter inflate and expand rapidly so that the intended function of the airbag can be fulfilled. In the gas generator, an enclosed space (S) in a housing ( ) is partitioned into two combustion chambers ( ), in which gas generating agents ( ), a filtering member ( ) and an igniter ( ) are arranged, respectively. The combustion chambers ( ) are communicated to each other through the filtering member ( ). The igniters are operated with time difference so that the airbag can be inflated and expanded moderately by a small amount of gas generated in one combustion chamber at the initial stage of inflation and then is inflated and expanded rapidly by a large amount of gas generated in the respective combustion chambers, thus achieving multistage control of the expansion of the airbag.

Gas generator

Gas generator with gas generant cushioning member and method of making

Growing community of inventors

Himeji, Japan

Hiroyuki Ochi