Nissan Motor Company Limited

Nippon Oil Fats Co., Ltd.

Masayoshi Katoh

Tadahiko Nagaoka

Takashi Ishii

Hideoki Matsuoka

Takashi Nakamori

Tsuneo Kasama

Hikaru Fujiyama

Kiyomi Matsushita

Zensho Matsumoto

A section of a shock absorbing member, which is located in the vicinity of a hard projection, has higher stiffness than another section of the same which is located in the distance from the hard projection, so that when the occupant's knee portion is forced to move toward the hard projection and collides with the shock absorbing member upon vehicle collision, the knee portion under movement is forced to turn in a lateral direction, that is toward the low stiffness or safety section of the member, losing its kinetic energy.

Occupant's knee protecting device

A gas generator for instantaneously supplying a gas to an inflatable bag such as a gas bag for protection of a car passenger from injuries in a collision, of the type comprising a solid gas-generating composition confined in a reaction chamber defined in a housing having a perforated wall. The reaction chamber is bounded by a wire screen which is spaced from the perforated wall, and another wire screen is arranged along the inside of the perforated wall. Adequately sized granules of SiC are packed in a space bounded by the two wire screens to efficiently absorb heat and remove solid matter from the generated gas without offering an unduly great resistance to the gas flow. Best cooling and filtering effects can be gained by the use of .alpha.-SiC granules of a sharp-edged particle shape.

Gas generator utilizing granular silicon carbide as coolant

A device comprising a perforated housing containing therein pellets of a chemical composition which undergoes self-sustaining combustion with generation of a combustion gas and an initiator attached to the housing to ignite the pellets. To prevent breaking of the pellets resulting from their movements in the housing, a hollow and resilient retainer member is placed in the housing such that the initiator is exposed to the interior of the retainer and that the pellets are spaced from the initiator by the retainer and held under a compressive force by the resiliency of the retainer. The retainer has openings which allow a gas to pass therethrough but do not allow the pellets to pass therethrough. A helical spring and a perforated bellows are examples of the retainer.

Combusting device for generation of a combustion gas

Growing community of inventors

Kawagoe, Japan

Masayoshi Katoh