Ashimori Industry Co., Ltd.

Mazda Motor Corporation

Sanko Gosei Kabushiki Kaisha

Keisuke Moritani

Tadaaki Sekino

Kazuhiko Soemoto

Naoki Yamaji

Toshihiro Ishikawa

Tomoki Hashizume

Koichi Ishida

Kazuyoshi Nakai

Takeshi Inazumi

Koji Korechika

Masao Kataoka

The airbag device includes an airbag including a base fabric and an occupant protection fabric whose outer peripheries are joined together. The occupant protection fabric is positioned on the vehicle rear side of the base fabric and configured to restrain an occupant, and includes: at least one protruding portion that protrudes to the vehicle rear side; a flat portion that is continuously formed from the at least one protruding portion and is designed to come into contact with the occupant; and a tether that is disposed between the base fabric and the at least one protruding portion in the airbag, extending from the flat portion to the joint between the occupant protection fabric and the base fabric. The tether is joined at its end on the joint side with a base edge of the at least one protruding portion and the outer periphery of the base fabric.

Airbag device

An airbag is inflated and deployed in a short time, and a protective panel is moved rapidly. An airbag device () is disposed in a base section () of a vehicle. The airbag device () is provided with a protective panel () covering the base section (), an airbag (), and an inflator. The inflator inflates and deploys the airbag () by generating a gas. The airbag () has at least two standing portions () and inflates and deploys between the base section () and the protective panel (). The standing portion () stands up from the base section () through inflation and moves the protective panel ().

An airbag device configured to be disposed in an instrument panel includes an inflator configured to generate gas, and an airbag that includes a gas inlet through which the gas from the inflator is introduced and is inflated and deployed in a bag shape toward a vehicle room side by the gas introduced from the inflator through the gas inlet. The airbag has, in an upper portion thereof, an extra length in a front and rear direction of a vehicle and is folded in a housed state after experiencing a folded state in an approximately planar fashion such that the extra length portion is tucked into the airbag toward the rear of the vehicle.

An air-bag device capable of improving degree of freedom in setting of reaction forces according to physical frames of occupants, a vehicle occupant's lower limb protecting device and a device for protecting an occupant at the time of vehicle side collision using the air-bag device. Knees of an occupant of large build whose inertia load at the time of collision is great are assuredly protected by collective energy absorbing action of the upper cylinders () and the lower cylinders () at the time of collision. In a case of an occupant of small build whose inertia load at the time of collision is small, loads from the upper cylinders () and the lower cylinders () are exerted on the occupant in appropriate proportions according to physical size of the occupant to fulfill impact absorption at the time of collision.

Air-bag device, and vehicle occupants lower limb protecting device and device for protecting occupant at the time of vehicle side collision using the same

An airbag () has a vent hole () in one side end portion. One end of a third base fabric () is sewn to the airbag () through a first sewn portion () that closes the vent hole (), and the other end of the third base fabricis sewn to the other side end portion of the airbag () through a second sewn portion (). The first sewn portion () has weaker binding force by sewing than the second sewn portion () so that the first sewn portion () is separated to open the vent hole () when tension force is applied from the third base fabric () to the first and second sewn portions () and ().

An airbag of a knee-protecting airbag device is prevented from being damaged during inflation and deployment, and the airbag is allowed to deploy evenly on the left and right sides to improve occupant protection function. The inside of an airbag () is defined into a plurality of air chambers (), (), and () by tethers () and (). An inflator () accommodated in a diffuser () is disposed in the first air chamber (). The diffuser () is provided with an opening () that allows gas from the inflator () to flow in the airbag () and is disposed so as to face the central portion of the first tether (). This opening () is closed in such a manner that it can be opened by the gas from the inflator (), and the entirety thereof is simultaneously opened by the gas pressure when the airbag () deploys. Thus, the gas in the accommodating portion () is supplied from the opening () to the airbag () evenly on the left and right sides. Furthermore, the diffuser () protects the airbag () from the gas generated by the inflator ().

Knee-protecting airbag device

Intended is to always provide effective impact reduction by releasing gas at a timing of pushing into airbag. An airbag () has a vent hole () in one side end portion. One end of a third base fabric () is sewn to the airbag () through a first sewn portion () that closes the vent hole (), and the other end of the third base fabricis sewn to the other side end portion of the airbag () through a second sewn portion (). The first sewn portion () has weaker binding force by sewing than the second sewn portion () so that the first sewn portion () is separated to open the vent hole () when tension force is applied from the third base fabric () to the first and second sewn portions () and ().

To enhance an occupant restraining force of an airbag, and to improve a protective function for an occupant of an airbag device by discharging gas without fail regardless of a position of the occupant, an airbag () is divided into a first chamber (A) on an inflator () side and a second chamber (B) on an occupant side by a partition wall (), and the first chamber (A) includes an opening () to which a discharge-state switching member () having vent holes to discharge the gas in the airbag () and being switchable between the discharge/non-discharge states is attached. The discharge-state switching member () is coupled to the partition wall () by a tether belt (), so that the tether belt () applies tension to close the vent holes when the airbag () inflates, and when the airbag () receives an occupant, releases the tension depending on the position of the receipt, and opens the vent holes.

The inflation and deployment speed of an airbag of a knee-protecting airbag device is increased to quickly deploy the airbag to a position where it can protect the knees of the occupant, thereby improving the occupant protection function. An airbag (), from a state in which it is arranged in a flat form, is folded sequentially through a first step in which a leading end (S) is tucked and folded into the airbag (), a second step in which left and right ends (M) of the airbag () are roll-folded toward each other toward a vehicle-body-side base fabric sheet () on the vehicle-body side, and a third step in which the leading end side of the airbag () in the deploying direction (F) is roll-folded toward the base end (T) toward the vehicle-body-side base fabric sheet (). The folded airbag () is accommodated in a case together with an inflator (), and a base end (T) thereof is fixed to the case. Thus, an airbag device () is produced and is attached to a vehicle, at a position in front of the knees of the occupant.

Growing community of inventors

Settsu, Japan

Keisuke Moritani