Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Keiichi Tamura

Shinji Mori

Kenji Matsui

Shingo Izuchi

Yuji Nishimura

Noritada Yoshitsugu

Takashi Kawaharazaki

Koki Sato

Masahiro Iwatsuki

Naoki Oe

Tosio Saitou

Teruhiko Koide

Teruhiko Kawaguchi

Hiroaki Shinto

Mitsuo Inukai

Yasutaka Watanabe

Kenichi Kinoshita

Tsutomu Muraoka

Motonobu Sugiura

Muneharu Matsunami

Tamotsu Horiba

Sumio Sakaguchi

Hisahiro Ando

Toshio Saitow

An air bag apparatus mounted in a vehicle in an immovable state comprises an inflator for expelling gas during a sudden deceleration of a vehicle, a bag disposed in a folded state on the occupant side of the inflator and a restricting member made of a soft material with both ends thereof being fastened to the inner circumferential surface of the bag so as to restrict the expansion height of the bag which expands in the form of a sphere toward the occupant by the gas expelled upon sudden deceleration of the vehicle. Thus, the fastening position of one end of the restricting member is defined in the vicinity of the inflator and the fastening position of the other end of the restricting member is displaced by a predetermined length on the upper side in the direction of the radius of the inflator with reference to the axis of the inflator. Therefore, the bag is able to ensure protection of the head of an occupant, without being caused to inflate upward more than necessary.

Tethered air bag

An apparatus is provided for an air bag mounted in a Vehicle such that a steering wheel rotates with respect to the air bag. The air bag inflates towards an occupant upon sudden decelerations of the vehicle, thereby protecting the occupant's head. The air bag includes a lower portion formed into a substantially straight line restricting the air bag's expanded volume and height to facilitate use with a seat belt.

An actuator for use in an air bag device which is inflated by a gas as a firing pin is moved by the movement of an inertia member to actuate a gas generator and in a preloader of a webbing retractor actuated by the gas. A contact is provided for outputting an electrical signal by being turned on at the time of movement of the inertia member or movement of the firing pin. Accordingly, by providing another gas generating means adapted to be actuated in correspondence with an output of this contact, it is possible to actuate a plurality of air bag devices or preloaders.

Actuator for use in emergency situation of vehicle

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

A lock mechanism for a webbing retractor prevents an occupant restraining webbing from being wound off from a webbing takeup shaft when a vehicular emergency occurs. The lock mechanism is provided with a member to which the rotational force of the takeup shaft is transmitted through frictional contact and which cancels the locked state of the lock mechanism when the takeup shaft rotates in the webbing wind-up direction. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the webbing from being gradually wound up when the vehicle is running thus avoiding any possibility of causing the webbing to undesirably tighten against the body of the occupant.

Locking mechanism for webbing retractor

An apparatus for driving an intermediate portion of a webbing for use in a seatbelt system for restraining an occupant of a vehicle by means of a webbing having one end accommodated in a webbing accommodating device through a biasing force is arranged to withdraw the webbing from the accommodating device in opposition to the biasing force. Accordingly, when an occupant is to apply the webbing to himself by withdrawing it from the accommodating device, the webbing can be withdrawn and applied with a small manual force.

Apparatus for driving an intermediate portion of webbing

An automatic seat belt apparatus capable of automatically applying a webbing around an occupant of a vehicle. This seat belt apparatus has a reinforcement member which is disposed near the end of a guide rail along which a slider is guided, the slider being accommodated in the reinforcement at the stroke end. The apparatus also has a holder at which a limit switch for detecting the stroke end of the slider is attached and which covers the reinforcement member, and an anchor pin for supporting a load caused at the time of an emergency, the holder and the anchor pin encircling the reinforcement member. The position of the anchor pin varies in accordance with the adjustment of the stroke end of the slider so as to constantly correspond to that of the slider while the webbing is being fitted around the occupant's body. At the time of an emergency, the tensile force of the webbing is positively transmitted to the body of the vehicle via the anchor pin, the holder and the reinforcement member.

Automatic seat belt apparatus

A lock mechanism for a webbing retractor is designed to prevent unwinding of an occupant restraining webbing for a vehicle when an emergency situation of the vehicle occurs. The lock mechanism has a lock wheel adapted to rotate by means of biasing force in unison with the rotation of a webbing take-up shaft in a direction in which the webbing is unwound, and a pawl lever activated by the action of an acceleration sensor to engage with the lock wheel, thereby causing the rotation of the lock wheel to be delayed with respect to the rotation of the take-up shaft, and thus stopping the take-up shaft from rotating in the webbing unwinding direction. The lock mechanism further has a leaf spring member adapted to receive the rotational force from the take-up shaft through friction at three points and limit the action of the pawl lever when the take-up shaft rotates in a direction in which the webbing is wound up. Accordingly, when the vehicle is running on a rough road, the webbing is prevented from being gradually wound up onto the take-up shaft.

Lock mechanism for webbing retractor

A webbing retractor for use in an occupant restraining seatbelt system for a vehicle includes a lock wheel supported on one end portion of a webbing take-up shaft and an acceleration sensor. When an emergency situation of the vehicle occurs, the lock wheel and the acceleration sensor are engaged with each other, thereby causing a lock bar to be engaged with a ratchet wheel rigidly secured to the take-up shaft, and thus locking the take-up shaft from rotating in a direction in which the webbing is unwound. The lock wheel and the lock bar are connected together through a friction member by a predetermined frictional force. Accordingly, even when the lock wheel and the acceleration sensor are still engaged with each other after an emergency situation of the vehicle has ceased, the webbing can be unwound from the take-up shaft with a force which is greater than the predetermined frictional force.

Webbing retractor for vehicle

An apparatus for adjusting the position of a seatbelt webbing fastened to the body of an occupant at which it is retained by the body of a vehicle has a base member secured to the vehicle body, a main shaft rotatably supported by the base member and having an external thread formed on the outer periphery thereof, and a subsidiary shaft secured to the base member and extending parallel to the main shaft. A movable member is thread-engaged with the external thread of the main shaft and slidably fitted on the subsidiary shaft, whereby, as the main shaft rotates, the movable member is prevented from rotating by the connection with the subsidiary shaft but moves along the main and subsidiary shafts through the thread engagement with the main shaft. A guide member which retains the webbing is secured to the movable member. Thus, the position of the webbing at which it is retained by the vehicle body is adjusted.

Apparatus for adjusting position of seatbelt webbing at which it is

Disclosed is an automatic seatbelt apparatus which is capable of automatically applying, or canceling the application of, a webbing around an applicant of a vehicle as a slider to which one end of the webbing is retained along a guide rail disposed in the vicinity of the roof of the vehicle is moved in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle via a flexible elongated member driven by the driving force of a driving means. A switch, when located in its webbing-application position, is adapted to stop a motor by detecting the application of the webbing and is so disposed at this time as to be capable of moving in accordance with the bending of a flexible guide member. Accordingly, since the switch can be moved when the guide member bends, the webbing-application position can be altered even in the webbing-applied state.

Automatic seatbelt apparatus

A webbing lock apparatus for use in a vehicle has a U-shaped frame, and a webbing take-up shaft rotatably supported by a shaft carriage. The carriage is pivotally mounted on the frame and biased toward one direction. When an emergency situation of a vehicle occurs, a ratchet is activated so as to lock the take-up shaft and to cause the shaft carriage to pivot on the frame in another direction as a result of the webbing tension. This movement causes the webbing wound around the take-up shaft to abut against a fixed pressing member also mounted on the frame. In consequence, the amount of webbing wound off of the take-up shaft in an emergency situation of the vehicle is minimized.

Webbing lock apparatus

In a mounting construction of a webbing retractor on a panel of a vehicle body, one of engaging means of the webbing retractor is latched to one of engaging holes from the back side of the panel and, thereafter, the other of the engaging means is forced into the other of the engaging holes from the front side of the panel. Accordingly, the webbing retractor can readily be mounted on the panel of the vehicle body without use of such a mounting member as a bolt.

Mounting construction of webbing retractor

In a locking mechanism for a webbing retractor in which a plurality of lock plates rotated together with a takeup shaft winding an occupant-restraining webbing are moved in tangential directions of the takeup shaft in an emergency situation of a vehicle and teeth portions of the lock plates come into mesh with an internal gear ratchet wheel, whereby a webbing-unwinding rotation of the takeup shaft is stopped, the teeth portion of one of the lock plates is disposed nearer to the internal gear ratchet wheel than the teeth portion of the other lock plate, so that the teeth portion of the one of the lock plates comes into mesh with the internal gear ratchet wheel earlier than the teeth portion of the other lock plate.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi, Japan

Keiichi Tamura