Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Jtekt Corporation

Aisin Corporation

Toyota Gosei Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kabuhsiki Kaisha

Daiwa Plastics Co., Ltd.

Takara Corporation Limited

Kenji Imamura

Osamu Fukawatase

Akiyoshi Sanada

Kazuaki Bito

Yuichi Adachi

Tomoyuki Moro

Shigeru Hoshino

Junichi Nakano

Eiji Tanaka

Susumu Imagaki

Hideo Kondo

Shigeru Washino

Kiminori Yoshino

Makoto Sekizuka

Takuya Nezaki

Etsuo Shimizu

Hitoshi Araki

Takahiro Itou

Hiroshi Kawakami

Hiroyuki Yao

Hiroaki Date

Atsushi Tano

Sadato Kita

Makoto Toyoda

Yoshito Nihira

Kentaro Okuno

Shin Matsumoto

Hitoshi Nakanishi

Eiji Hayashi

Ryota Sugiura

Mayumi Kamoshita

A steering device of a vehicle includes: a shaft mounted with a steering wheel; an inner tube rotatably covering the shaft; an outer tube fitting around the inner tube; a first housing reciprocably housing the outer tube along an axis direction of the shaft; an input unit provided on the outer tube; a screw member being provided in the first housing, and making the input unit reciprocable along the axis direction; and a worm gear rotating the screw member, and a motor driving the worm gear, being housed in a second housing mounted to the first housing. A vulnerable part is provided in the second housing in such a way that, when impact applies to the vehicle and another object collides with the second housing, the second housing breaks while maintaining a mounting state of the worm gear.

Steering device

A pin assembly includes: a resin pin; and a collar fitted to a round shaft portion of the resin pin and having higher hardness than the resin pin. The round shaft portion is sheared to cancel connection between a first plate and a second plate upon secondary collision of a vehicle. The collar includes an end face received by a reception surface of the second plate, and shears the round shaft portion in a shear plane along the end face upon the secondary collision. The round shaft portion includes a hollow hole. An inner circumference of the hollow hole includes a straight portion which has a generating line parallel to an axial direction of the round shaft portion and which is traversed by a plane including the end face of the collar.

Pin assembly and steering device

A first plate of a stationary bracket has long holes which extend parallel to a column movement direction, and through which large-diameter portions of suspension bolts are passed. The inner circumferences of the long holes include: recessed curved surface portions of end portions in a direction opposite to the column movement direction; first inner edge portions which are on the side of a middle position between the long holes; and second inner edge portions. In a secondary collision, when the one suspension bolt slides over the first inner edge portion of the long hole, for example, a gap is formed between the other suspension bolt and the second inner edge portion of the long hole.

A knee airbag device includes a column cover that covers a rear end portion of a steering column from below; and an airbag module. The airbag module is disposed in a column lower cover and includes a gas generation portion that generates gas and a knee airbag that is housed in the airbag module in a folded state, and is inflated and deployed by the gas supplied by the gas generation portion. The airbag module is connected to the steering column by a snap-fit action.

Knee airbag device and connecting method thereof

A vehicle airbag device has: a pad cover provided at the center of a steering wheel constituted of a spoke, a rim, and a hub and secured to the hub or to the spoke; an airbag that is provided, in a folded state, at the pad cover and deploys upon collision of the vehicle by tearing the pad cover to restrain a vehicle occupant; and an inflator secured to the hub or to the spoke to supply inflation gas into the airbag upon collision of the vehicle. The pad cover has an extension portion extending from the center of the steering wheel to the rim such that the extension portion overlaps the spoke. The extension portion has a tear portion that tears upon collision of the vehicle. A portion of the airbag is disposed, in a folded state, at the extension portion.

Vehicle airbag device

A vehicle airbag device provided in a steering apparatus, wherein the steering apparatus is configured with grips positioned on the right and left sides but are not positioned on an upper side. An airbag, installed at the center of the steering apparatus, is configured to deploy toward the driver when a vehicle collision occurs. An electronic control unit controls an inflation pressure of the airbag to be increased when the steering angle detected by a steering angle sensor is less than or equal to a predetermined reference angle, as compared to when the steering angle detected by the steering angle sensor exceeds the predetermined reference angle.

Vehicle airbag device and control method thereof

A knee airbag device and a drive motor for an electric power steering device are mounted to a steering column so as to achieve improved mass balance about an instrument panel reinforcement member. A drive motor for an electric power steering device is mounted at a position at the vehicle front direction side with respect to an instrument panel reinforcement member, the opposite side to the side of a knee airbag device. Namely, the knee airbag device is mounted at the vehicle rear direction side with respect to the instrument panel reinforcement member, and the electric power steering device is mounted at the vehicle front direction side of the instrument panel reinforcement member.

Mounting structure of knee airbag device and electric power steering drive motor

Rapidly constraining the knees of a driver, even for a steering column structure with plural obstructions projecting below the rear end side of the steering column, while also suppressing or preventing any detriment to column collapse operation during a frontal collision; the steering column is fixed to the vehicle body side with a lower bracket, an upper bracket and a housing, and a combination switch is disposed at the rear end side of an inner tube; lower portions are disposed in a state so as to protrude below a column tube and face each other, so that an airbag module is installed in an installation space between the two portions; a module case is manufactured from a fabric, and the airbag module is attached at a position in the vicinity of the combination switch through a rear attachment bracket.

Column-mounted knee airbag device

A vehicle steering system includes: a steeling operation member () that includes an auxiliary grip portion () the position of which is changed between the expected grip position, in which the auxiliary grip portion is expected to be gripped by a driver during a steering operation, and the retracted position, which is reached when the auxiliary grip portion has been retracted from the expected grip position and in which the auxiliary grip portion is not expected to be gripped by the driver during the steering operation; an auxiliary-grip-portion position changing device that changes the position of the auxiliary grip portion between the expected grip position and the retracted position; an airbag device that deploys an airbag toward the driver; and a control unit that controls an operation of the auxiliary-grip-portion position changing device.

Vehicle steering system

A knee airbag device includes an airbag module and an airbag door. The airbag module, which is provided inside a column cover that covers the rear end portion of a steering column, includes a gas generation device that generates gas when a collision occurs, and a knee airbag that is inflated and deployed from a folded state when the knee airbag receives the gas from the gas generation device. The airbag door, which is provided in the lower portion of the column cover, is opened when the inflation pressure of the knee airbag is equal to or higher than a predetermined value. When the knee airbag is deployed, at least a portion of the airbag door is positioned between an interfering object that is positioned in an area on the side of the column cover, and at least a portion of the knee airbag.

Knee airbag device

The knee-protecting airbag apparatus includes an airbag folded and housed in a lower area inside the column cover. The airbag pushes and opens a door section on the column cover upon deployment. When the door section is thus opened, a door of the door section blocks off an allowance gap formed between an outer circumference of the column cover subjected to position adjustment and a lower area of a peripheral region of an installation opening on a dashboard for installing the column cover by locating a rear edge region of the door to abut on a rear side of the dashboard or the lower area of the peripheral region of the installation opening on the rear side of the dashboard.

Knee-protecting airbag apparatus

In a knee airbag attached to a steering column, the knee airbag is inflated and deployed quickly to a small space between an instrument panel and the knees of a vehicle occupant in a collision. A knee airbagof a knee airbag deviceis formed of a first inflation portionwhich extends in a vehicle lateral direction along an instrument panelside, and a second inflation portion, which is deployed to a vehicle occupant knee side. A gas supply opening, to which gas ejected from an inflatoris supplied, is disposed at a first inflation portionside. The gas supply opening, and the pair of protection portionsprovided at left and right end portions of knee airbag, are provided on substantially the same line in a vehicle lateral direction, and the first inflation portioncommunicates the two as a gas flow path. Therefore, in a frontal collision, even if a spacebetween the instrument paneland the knees of the vehicle occupant is small, the pair of protection portionscan be quickly inflated and deployed to the small space

Vehicle knee airbag device and method of deploying vehicle knee airbag

A steering column device with a knee airbag device includes a steering column provided with a telescopic mechanism; a column cover that covers the rear end portion of the steering column; an airbag module, provided inside the column cover, which includes a gas generation device that generates gas, and a knee airbag that is inflated and deployed by the gas; an airbag door that is provided in the column cover, and that is opened when the airbag door receives the inflation pressure of the knee airbag; a collision prediction device that predicts that a vehicle will have a collision with a collision object; and a control device that operates the telescopic mechanism so that each of the column cover and the airbag module is moved rearward to a predetermined position, when the collision prediction device predicts that the vehicle will have a collision with the collision object.

Steering column device with knee airbag device

In a knee protecting airbag device of the present invention, in the lower area inside a column cover, a case housing an airbag is attached to a steering column. The steering column includes a movable member for moving toward the front side of a vehicle along the axial direction of the column at the time when an impact on the front of the vehicle acts, and an unmoving stationary member, so that the column can absorb the impact when the movable member moves. The case is attached to such an area of the movable member that the case hits the stationary member when the moving member moves and absorbs impact, and the case can be deformed before or at the time of hitting the stationary member so that the moving stroke of the movable member is preserved when it moves.

Growing community of inventors

Kosai, Japan

Kenji Imamura