Trw Limited

James Edward Bormann

Chek-Peng Foo

George W McIver

Roger A McCurdy

Ronald A Muckley

Mark A Carlin

An apparatus (20) for controlling actuation of front restraints (12, 14) and side restraints (16, 18). The apparatus includes sideways crash sensors (42, 44) and a frontal crash sensor (40) all mounted at a single central location. Sideways crash acceleration is derived from one sideways sensors (42) and sideways crash velocity is derived from another sideways sensor (44). The side restraints are controlled using the sideways crash acceleration and sideways crash velocity for discrimination or safing purposes. Actuation of the side restraints is disabled for a time period if a frontal crash condition is sensed.

Method and apparatus for single point sensing of front and side impact

An apparatus for sensing a vehicle crash condition includes an accelerometer (20) for sensing a vehicle crash condition and for providing a signal having a characteristic indicative of the vehicle crash condition. A crash velocity determining circuit (74) determines a crash velocity value (78) from the accelerometer. Crash metric determining circuits (80, 82, 94, 96, 104, 108) determine crash metric values functionally related to acceleration. Threshold determining circuits (88, 98, 112) determining associated threshold values functionally related to the determined crash velocity value (78). Comparators (90, 100, 116) compare the determined crash metric values against associated threshold values. A controller (34) provides a control signal to control actuation of a restraining device in response to the comparison. A shape monitoring circuit (120) determines if the shape of the acceleration signal matches a predetermined shape. If the shape matches, the controller provides the control signal.

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La Porte, IN, United States of America

James Edward Bormann