Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Japan Aviation Electronics Industry, Limited

Nec Home Electronics, Inc.

Nippon Koki Co., Ltd.

Koichi Kamiji

Hisakazu Okuhara

Junichi Fukuda

Teruaki Hoshino

Toshikazu Ohya

Nobuhiro Koyota

Yuji Kikuchi

Yutaka Okamoto

Kazutomo Isonaga

Hitoshi Higuchi

Tsutomu Fukui

Hiroshi Akaba

Yoshihisa Sugamata

Toru Kumasaka

Makoto Nagai

Junichi Kishimoto

Minoru Kanda

Kenichi Saito

Naoto Ishii

Nobuyuki Kawamura

Takeru Otsuka

Makie Morota

Minoru Hayashi

Masaaki Kawaguchi

Sakae Takahashi

Isao Iimori

Michio Shioda

Masao Mochiji

Muneaki Kaiguchi

Kouichi Kobari

Mitoshi Matsufuji

Naoki Okuyama

Tadahide Miyazawa

Masae Sato

A pedestrian protection airbag device is provided in which an airbag () having a closed cross section is formed by inflating and deploying a front outer panel () and a front inner panel () of a front pillar () by means of high pressure gas generated by an inflator (). This enables the head of a pedestrian to be protected from an impact due to collision with the front pillar (). Furthermore, since impact absorption performance is exhibited by plastic deformation of the deployed airbag (), as long as deployment of the airbag () is completed before restraining the pedestrian, it is unnecessary to subsequently control the internal pressure of the airbag (), and it becomes possible for an effective impact absorption performance to always be exhibited regardless of the vehicle speed at the time of collision or the physique of the pedestrian while simplifying the specification of the inflator () and reducing the cost.

Pedestrian protection airbag device

A travel safety device for a vehicle comprises: an object detecting unit () for detecting an object existing in the traveling direction of the vehicle (); a correlation calculating unit () for calculating a correlation involving the distance between the vehicle () and the object on the basis of a detection result of the corresponding object detecting unit (); an automatic brake unit () for automatically decelerating the vehicle (); a safety device () including a seatbelt device () for automatically tightening the seatbelt () and releasing the tightening thereof; and safety device operation control units () for determining a possibility of a contact between the vehicle () and the object on the basis of the correlation calculated by the correlation calculating unit () and for controlling the operation of the safety device () where it is predicted that there is a possibility of a contact; wherein the safety device operation control units () simultaneously actuate the automatic brake unit () and seatbelt device () where it is predicted that there is a possibility of a contact.

Travel safety device for motor vehicle

A seatbelt apparatus () includes a seatbelt () for restraining an occupant () in a seat () of a vehicle, an actuator () for tightening the seatbelt () at various levels of tension and for loosening the seatbelt (), plural collision prediction devices () for predicting occurrence of a collision, and a control device () for controlling the actuator () so as to exert one of the various levels of tension on the seatbelt () depending on the prediction results by the collision prediction devices ().

Seatbelt apparatus

When a small-size dummy has collided against a vehicle and once the head of the small-size dummy hits the deployed external airbag at a pre-determined velocity, the inner pressure of the deployed external airbag is set to a characteristic such that the inner pressure takes a predetermined maximum level value capable of not only preventing the dummy from bouncing off the airbag but also preventing the head of the dummy from hitting the bottom of the airbag. When a medium-size dummy has collided against the vehicle, the inner pressure of the deployed external airbag is set to a characteristic such that the inner pressure decreases away from the maximum level value at a predetermined decrease rate to prevent the medium-size dummy from bouncing off the airbag.

Method for setting inner pressure of vehicular external airbag, and vehicular external airbag system

A folded-up air bag is accommodated in a module cover of a steering wheel, and a peripheral edge of an opening in the air bag is fixed to a retainer supporting an inflator. The folded-up air bag is covered from a rear side of a vehicle to a front side of the vehicle by a deployment-limiting sheet disposed along an inner surface of the module cover and fixed at one end thereof to the retainer. The deployment-limiting sheet is longer than a length of an inner periphery of the module cover in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. Thus, it is possible to inhibit the air bag from being expanded rearwards of the vehicle body at an initial stage of deployment by the deployment-limiting sheet, thereby avoiding the early interference with an occupant.

Air bag device

A sheet-shaped sensor body includes a first protective layer formed of a resist paste layer, an antenna film formed of a PET film, a first conductive layer formed of a silver layer, a second conductive layer formed of a carbon layer, a second protective layer formed of a resist paste layer and a hot-melt film, which are laminated one on another in sequence. When the hot-melt film of the sensor body is brought into abutment against a front surface of a wadding previously adhered to a pad of a seat back and is then heat-pressed, the sensor body is fixed firmly and reliably to the wadding by an adhesive force generated by the melted hot-melt film once it again cools and solidified. Thus, the sensor of an occupant detecting system for detecting the physical constitution and the attitude of an occupant sitting on a seat can be fixed easily and reliably to the seat back.

Occupant detecting system

An inflater of an air bag device is provided which includes a first combustor, providing an output having a peak value Ma and a second combustor, providing an output having a peak value Mb (wherein Mb<Ma). After ignition of the first combustor, the second combustor is ignited with a time lag. The igniting timing of the second combustor is set later than a time point at which the peak value of the sum of the outputs from the first and second combustors can be equalized to the peak value Ma of the output from the first combustor, and earlier-than a time point at which the combustion of the first combustor is finished. Thus, it is possible to prevent the sudden deployment of the air bag to moderate the shock applied to the occupant, while ensuring the smooth deployment of the air bag. The purpose of the inflater of an air bag device is to ensure that, in an air bag device including two gas generating devices which provide different outputs, the timing of the ignition of the two gas generating devices are appropriately controlled to moderate the shock received by an occupant upon deployment of the air bag.

Process for deploying air bag in air bag device

If a seat belt is not fastened, then a first switch is turned on and a second switch is turned off, and a fastened status detector outputs an impact decision level signal to a switch, which selects a signal from a first impact decision level output unit. Thus, when the speed of a motor vehicle is about 16 km/h or higher immediately prior to a collision, an air bag is inflated upon the collision. If the seat belt is fastened, then the first switch is turned off and the second switch is turned on, and the fastened status detector outputs an impact decision level signal, selecting a signal from a second impact decision level output unit. Thus, when the speed of the motor vehicle is about 24 km/h or higher immediately prior to a collision, the air bag is inflated upon the collision. If both the first and second switches are turned on or off due to a failure, the fastened status detector outputs the impact decision level signal, inflating the air bag when the vehicle speed of the motor vehicle immediately prior to a collision becomes greater than about 16 km/h, as is the case with the seat belt being not fastened. Even when the fastened state of the seat belt cannot be detected, therefore, vehicle occupants are protected safely by a vehicle occupant protection system.

Vehicle occupant protection system

An air bag device for use in front of a passenger seat of an automobile includes a casing disposed in the instrument panel of the automobile, a folded air bag housed in the casing and inflatable through the upper opening upon impact, and a lid openably joined to the casing in covering relationship to the upper opening. An air bag restraint guide or protective cloth is joined to the casing for preventing the air bag from directly contacting an edge of the upper opening when the air bag is inflated through the upper opening.

Air bag device for passenger seat

A mounting structure for a vehicle deceleration sensor, comprising a deceleration sensor mounted on a part of a vehicle body where a longitudinal end of a front side member extending along a fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle body on one side thereof and a bulkhead separating a passenger compartment from a front part of the vehicle body are joined together with a part of the deceleration sensor protruding into the hollow interior of the front side member. Thus, a deceleration resulting from a vehicle crash is quickly transmitted to the deceleration sensor through the front side member, and the deceleration sensor is protected from adverse environmental effects as it may be located in the interior of the front side member.

Mounting structure for a vehicle deceleration sensor

An improved occupant protective system for an automotive vehicle includes an occupant-protecting member, an acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration of the vehicle, an actuator for actuating the occupant-protecting member, and a monitoring device for monitoring potentials of two signal lines connected respectively to the opposite ends of the actuator and having portions thereof extending substantially parallel with each other. One of the signal lines is connected between the acceleration sensor and the actuator. When the vehicle undergoes acceleration having a magnitude greater than a predetermined value, the acceleration sensor operates to cause an increased amount of electric current to flow through the two signal lines to thereby cause the actuator to operate. The improved occupant protective system includes a monitoring line extending parallel with the two signal lines along the portions of the two signal lines extending substantially parallel with each other. The monitoring line has one end thereof being open. A voltage, which is different from the potentials of the two signal lines when the vehicle is normally running, is applied to another end of the monitoring line.

Occupant protective system for automotive vehicles

This invention relates to an air bag inflation gas generator to feed gas for inflation of air bags such as air bags for absorbing collision shocks, life jackets, rafts, and escape chutes. The air bag inflation gas generator according to the present invention has a combustion chamber comprising a bottom-closed cylinder of a housing body and a lid covering the opening of the bottom-closed cylinder. The housing body comprises the bottom-closed cylinder, a flange extending outward and formed integrally with the opening of the bottom-closed cylinder, and an external cylinder formed on the periphery of the flange and bent toward the bottom of the housing body. A plenum chamber is formed by covering the external and bottom-closed cylinders with a covering member from the bottom of the housing body and by welding the covering member to the cylinders.

Air bag inflation gas generator

In an air bag module mounted on a steering wheel in an automobile for use, an inflater is connected to a power source through an actuating circuit to rapidly supply a high pressure gas into an air bag of the module when a dceleration of a vehicle body higher than a predetermined value is sensed, and interrupting means is provided for the purpose of preventing the malfunction of the module. The interrupting means automatically interrupts the actuating circuit in concurrence with removal of the air bag module from the steering wheel.

Malfunction preventing device for air bag module in automobiles

In an air bag module mounted on a steering wheel of an automobile for use, an inflater for rapidly supplying a high-pressure gas into an air bag of the module upon detection of a deceleration of a vehicle body higher than a predetermined value is connected in parallel to a primary power supply carried on the vehicle body and to a separate auxiliary power supply through an actuating circuit, and means for neutralizing the auxiliary power supply is provided to prevent the malfunction or accidental operation of the module.

A connector body has a plurality of contact housing holes bored therethrough for receiving socket contacts, an aperture made in one side thereof in communication with the contact housing holes, and a contact locking member molded integrally therewith to be pivotally connected thereto at one end through a hinge. The contact locking member is turned to abut against the surface of the connector body in which the aperture is made. In this state, a blocking projection formed integrally with the contact locking member projects into the contact housing holes through the aperture, locking the socket contacts. A hooked portion of the contact locking member formed integrally therewith at the other end engages a slot made in another side of the connector body. Moreover, locking means which is comprised of an engaging piece and a locking portion for engagement with a hook of the engaging piece formed at its end is provided on the connector body and the contact locking member in the vicinity of the hinge.

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Wako, Japan

Koichi Kamiji