Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Michihisa Asaoka

Naohiko Ishiguro

Michio Inoue

Yuji Kuriyama

Yasushi Okada

Shun Ito

Koh Tajima

Kazuaki Bito

Ikuo Yamada

Masahiro Takimoto

Yoshiaki Goto

Tsutomu Ishii

Hitoshi Iida

Toshinori Takahashi

Bunpei Morita

Yoshinori Masatsugu

Yasumasa Tatewaki

Ichizo Shiga

Hitoshi Ida

Masao Ando

Masanari Sakamoto

Hironori Usami

Akira Tomita

An actuator includes a piston having an actuating pin, a squib, and a cylinder case. The cylinder case has a peripheral wall part that covers the circumference of the piston and a ceiling wall part having a through hole which allows an actuating pin to protrude from the through hole. The actuator is configured to make the a piston move backward along with the actuating pin by ejecting a driving gas generated from the squib to a space between the ceiling wall part and the piston during actuation. A sealing ring which is relatively movable with respect to the actuating pin while maintaining the state of sealing up a gap between the actuating pin and the through hole, is provided at an inner face side of the ceiling wall part.

Actuator with actuating pin

An actuator which has an operating pin of the invention includes a piston which has an operating pin, a squib, and a cylinder case for holding the piston, in which the piston is moved rearward along with the operating pin by a driving gas generated injected from the squib into the cylinder case. A cap portion for covering the side of the squib with a gas injection port comprises a cylindrical side portion and a front end wall portion, and the operating pin is projected from the center of this front end wall portion. The cap portion is arranged with injection holes through which the driving gas is injected. Forward movement of the piston before the actuator is operated is restricted by the front end wall portion of the cylinder case coming into contact with the ceiling wall portion of the cylinder case.

Actuator which has an operating pin

An air bag system of the invention includes an air bag having a discharge port which discharges part of inflation gas when it opens and an opening and closing control unit which enables the control of opening and closing of the discharge port. The air bag includes a bag main body, a discharge portion provided in the bag main body, and a connecting member which is provided within the bag main body and which is connected to the discharge portion on a bottom portion side thereof and connected to the opening and closing control unit on a tip end side thereof. The discharge portion is withdrawn into the bag main body by the connecting member with the connection of the connecting member with the opening and closing control unit maintained, so as to maintain the discharge port in a closed state, while with the connection of the connecting member with the opening and closing control unit canceled, the discharge portion is made to protrude from the bag main body, so as to open the discharge port.

Air bag system

The airbag apparatus includes an airbag folded and housed in a housing. The airbag includes an outer bag constituting an outer wall of the airbag and an inner bag disposed inside the outer bag. The inner bag includes an outlet port supplying inflation gas into the outer bag and an arm inflatable into a tapered bag contour. The arm holds down a peripheral defected region of the outer bag defected from the housing onto a top plane of a ring of a steering wheel all the while that the inner bag remains completely inflated at the operation of the airbag apparatus.

Airbag apparatus

A method for protecting an occupant seated on a seat of a vehicle in a side collision of the vehicle is disclosed. In the method, the lumbar region of the occupant is retained in a section that corresponds to the pelvis rearward of the acetabulum in the skeletal structure of the occupant by using an impact absorbing member. Specifically, the lumbar region of the occupant is retained in a section that corresponds to an ilium in the skeletal structure of the occupant. In a side collision of the vehicle, the impact absorbing member initially contacts the lumbar region in a section corresponding to the ilium.

Method and structure for protecting occupant

The steering wheel includes a wheel body and an airbag apparatus disposed on top of a boss. The wheel body is divided into a shaft side division joined to the steering shaft, and a ring side division disposed proximate the ring. The ring side division is rotatable with respect to the shaft side division such that a ring plane is aligned generally vertically. The boss includes an actuator that rotates and moves the ring side division to align the ring plane generally vertically. The actuator completes its operation to align the ring plane generally vertically by the time a driver contacts the inflated airbag in the course of forward motion.

Steering wheel

An airbag includes a fabric forming the airbag. The fabric has a vent hole for discharging some of gas introduced into the airbag to the outside. The vent hole is located at a position where the vent hole is not blocked when the airbag protects an occupant. This smoothly discharges gas, thereby improving the occupant protection performance.

Airbag with vent hole

The airbag device for front passenger's seat is mounted on the dashboard in front of the front passenger's seat. The airbag device for front passenger's seat includes an airbag to be inflated with the inflation gas, and an inflator for feeding the airbag with the inflation gas of pyro- and long mass flow type. The gas permeability rate of the airbag is 1.0 l/cm/min or under at 20 kPa air pressure, and its weight is 230 g/mor under. This airbag device for front passenger's seat prevents the gas leakage, expands and inflates the airbag properly, and constitutes to the weight reduction.

Airbag device for front passenger's seat

In an air bag device, a folded air bag is accommodated in a condition that the air bag is enclosed by a sheet for preventing the air bag unfolded. The sheet has a regulation wall portion which covers an upper surface of the air bag on the side from which the air bag projects at the time of expansion. The regulation wall portion is provided with a breakable portion which can be ruptured by being pressed by the air bag at the time of expansion of the air bag. Further, the breakable portion is provided so as to be ruptured from one edge side (left edge side) of the circumferential edge sides of the regulation wall portion to the right edge side through the vicinity of the center.

Air bag device

An air bag cover made from a woven textile and adapted to be used to cover a folded air bag, wherein a breakable portion allowed to be ruptured at the time of inflation of the air bag is constituted by a plurality of slits provided intermittently. An auxiliary slit is formed on a side of a connection portion between the slits so that threads disposed in the connection portion and intersecting extension line of the slits at the connection portion are cut.

Air bag cover

In an air bag system according to the invention, there is employed a control device which can control the internal pressure of an air bag after expanded in such a manner that a buffer distance, for which the air bag after expanded can be compressed when it is contacted with an occupant, can be kept constant regardless of an increase or a decrease in the weight or the like of the occupant. In operation, the control device firstly takes out the acceleration data of the occupant corresponding to the degree of a collision in accordance with a signal from an acceleration sensor. Next, in accordance with the thus taken-out acceleration, a distance from the air bag before expanded to the head and bosom portion of the occupant obtained based on a signal from a distance sensor, and the weight of the occupant head and bosom portion obtained based on a signal from a weight sensor, the control device calculates a proper value of the internal pressure of the air bag according to a velocity/distance/power balancing condition equation, and controls a gas generation device in such a manner it can produce a generated gas pressure corresponding to the thus calculated proper value.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi-ken, Japan

Michihisa Asaoka