Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Michio Inoue

Toshinori Tanase

Tadashi Yamamoto

Shigeyuki Suzuki

Takeki Hayashi

Makoto Kanai

Shinji Oguchi

Junichi Mizutani

Yuji Sato

Minoru Niwa

Daisuke Yamamura

Takanori Kantoh

Hitoshi Ida

Kimio Muramatsu

Takashi Naito

Hiroshi Ogawa

Takaki Fukuyama

Michihisa Asaoka

Atsushi Nagata

Takashi Yamamoto

Chiharu Totani

Hajime Kitte

Shuji Inui

Takanobu Ikeda

Takuji Nagata

Masashi Aoki

Hirokazu Matsuura

Mariko Nakashima

Tsukasa Sugiyama

Tetsushi Hiramitsu

Tetsuya Ogata

Hisaaki Kato

Ichizo Shiga

Satoshi Ohno

Kenji Hayakawa

Masao Ando

Akihiko Sonobe

Nobuhiko Sakamoto

Makoto Shiota

Takanori Kanich

Mariko Kawashima

An air bag system M includes an air bagwhich can cover a front surfaceside of a front pillarof a vehicle V, an inflator, an air bag cover, a casewhich stores and holds the air bag and the inflator and holds the air bag cover, and boltswhich are provided so as to extend from the case for mounting the air bag system on to an installation portion of a front side door. A portion of an outer reinforcementwhich reinforces an outer panelof the front side door is configured as a mounting portionof the front side door where the bolts are attached, and the air bag system M is installed at a portion of the front side door which lies in proximity to a belt lineon a side facing a vehicle's outer side by the boltsbeing attached to the mounting portionon the outer reinforcement.

Air bag system

An air bag system includes an air bag which can cover a front surface side of a front pillar of a vehicle. The air bag includes an inflatable main body portion and a supporting inflatable portion. The inflatable main body portion covers a front surface of the front pillar when the air bag is inflated completely. The supporting inflatable portion stretches continuously from the inflation main body portion so as to extend towards an outside of the vehicle from the inflation main body portion and is disposed to be brought into abutment with an upper surface of a mirror main body of a door mirror which is in a usable position on a lower surface side so as to be supported thereon to thereby support the inflatable main body portion, when the air bag is inflated completely.

An air bag system Mis installed in a vehicle having front side doorswhich are installed adjacent to the rear of front pillarsand which each have an outside rearview mirror. An air bagincludes a pillar covering portionwhich is disposed to cover a front surfaceof the front pillarwhen it completes its inflation and a fitting cell portionwhich is installed below the pillar covering portionand which is disposed so that when it completes its inflation, a rear end side portion thereof fits in a space defined between the outside rearview mirrorand a lateral side of the vehicle on an upper surface side of the outside rearview mirror. The fitting cell portionis connected to a lower edge side of the pillar covering portionover substantially the whole area in a front-rear direction thereof.

An air bag device for pedestrian includes an inflator which discharges an inflating gas, in operation, and an air bag which is inflated with the inflating gas supplied from the inflator thereby to cover a front face of the front pillar. The air bag is contained in a folded state, in an area covered with the front fender panel which is positioned in front of a front pillar and outside of a vehicle along a lateral direction of a hood panel. The front fender panel includes a cover part which is positioned at its back edge close to the front pillar, and arranged so as to cover an upper part of the air bag in the folded state. The cover part is deformed and opened, when it is pressed with the air bag which is being inflated, thereby to protrude the air bag so that the air bag can cover the front face side of the front pillar.

Air bag device for pedestrian

The occupant protection system includes a catching body that is housed in a housing located between a near-by seat and a distant seat for upward deployment and a support body that supports the catching body. The catching body covers the impact side of a distant-side occupant to catch the occupant moving toward the impacted lateral and includes a distal end acting as a free end swingable in a left and right direction. The support body is located on a side of the near-by seat close to the impacted lateral for deployment to support the catching body when the catching body swings toward the impacted lateral after receiving the distant-side occupant.

Occupant protection system

A side airbag apparatus is provided with an inflator, and an airbag. The airbag is stored in a vehicle seat, is inflated and deployed by gas from the inflator, breaks the vehicle seat so as to jump out, and is inflated and deployed between a body side portion of a vehicle and the vehicle seat. In this side airbag apparatus, a controller predicts a side collision of the vehicle, and makes the inflator start an actuation in advance of the side collision in response to the prediction. Further, in the airbag inflated and deployed in accordance with the actuation start of the inflator, a deploying speed of the airbag is lowered in comparison with the deploying speed at a time of starting the actuation of the inflator after the side collision, at least outside the vehicle seat.

Side airbag apparatus

A pedestrian protection system is mounted in the front portion of a vehicle, and includes a controller, a forward movement holding mechanism controlled in actuation by the controller, and a contact body that a pedestrian can contact. The controller, when having predicted a collision of a pedestrian with the vehicle based on a signal from a collision predicting sensor, actuates the forward movement holding mechanism to cause a forward movement of the contact body, and based on a signal from a turn sensor when the forward movement holding mechanism carries out an upward rotation or a downward rotation at the time of contact of the forwardly moved contact body with a pedestrian, controls actuation of the restraint body so as to correspond to a pedestrian moving to a front upper side of the vehicle and a pedestrian moving to a front lower side of the vehicle, respectively.

Pedestrian protection system

A side airbag apparatus has an airbag assembly that protects a passenger seated on a seat in a passenger compartment by being inflated and deployed at a side wall portion of the passenger compartment corresponding to the seat in a collision of a vehicle. The airbag assembly includes a main airbag and an auxiliary airbag that inflate and deployed in a state arranged along a lateral direction of the vehicle. If the body size of the passenger is greater than or equal to a predetermined size, the main airbag is inflated and deployed and the auxiliary airbag is not inflated or deployed. If the body size of the passenger is smaller than the predetermined size, the main airbag and the auxiliary airbag are both inflated and deployed. Thus, in the latter case, the airbag assembly in the inflated and deployed state has a great thickness in the lateral direction of the vehicle compared to the case in which the body size of the passenger is greater than or equal to the predetermined size.

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

An airbag apparatus comprising an airbag module installed in a backrest of a vehicle seat is provided. The backrest has a side support on each side. Each side support has a base portion located at a position closer to a center of the backrest. The airbag module is installed in a side portion of the back rest that faces the exterior of the vehicle. The airbag module includes a gas generator that generates gas in response to impact from a side of the vehicle, and first and second airbag portions that are inflated and deployed by the gas generated by the gas generator. The airbag module is installed in the backrest in such a manner that, when the airbag is inflated and deployed, the first airbag portion pushes the base portion of the side support on the exterior side obliquely forward and further into the passenger compartment.

Airbag apparatus

In a vehicle to which a side airbag apparatus is applied, a rear frame portion of a seat frame is arranged near a rear end of an intermediate portion in a seat back, and an intermediate pad portion of a seat pad is arranged near a front end of the intermediate portion. An airbag is provided with a main airbag and an auxiliary airbag. The main airbag is inflated between a body side portion of the vehicle and an occupant by shooting out forward from an outer side portion of the seat back by a gas jetted out of an inflator. The auxiliary airbag presses a position near the outer side portion of the intermediate pad portion forward by being inflated between the rear frame portion and the intermediate pad portion by the gas jetted out of the inflator.

An occupant restraining device (S) is provided with: a shielding member () to be let off from the peripheral edge (DW/VW) of a vehicle window (WF) arranged in a door of a vehicle, so as to shield the window; and a let-off means () for letting off the housed shielding member () so as to shield the window (WF). The shielding member () and the let-off means () are arranged in the door (FD). A garnish () is arranged on the peripheral edge of the door (FD) for covering the housed shielding member () so that the shielding member () is let off. An airbag device (ABM) can be arranged in the vehicle without any problem even if the occupant restraining device (S) is mounted together with the airbag device (ABM) on the vehicle.

Occupant restraining device

An occupant restraint apparatus includes a head protecting airbag which is housed on an upper part of windows. In the airbag, a front end portion of a lower edge thereof is connected to a pretensioner situated in the vicinity of a lower portion of a pillar portion, via a connecting material, and a rear end portion on the lower edge is connected to a guide block, which engages with a guide rail of a pillar portion, via a connecting material. When the airbag is deployed, a tension is generated in the lower edge of the airbag between the connecting materials by moving the block downward and by hauling by the pretensioner.

Occupant restraint apparatus

A head-protecting airbag of the present invention includes an airbag body having a gas admissive portion for covering side windows upon deployment, and a belt for pulling a lower part of the airbag body toward exterior of vehicle during deployment. The gas admissive portion includes an initially inflatable portion located along upper edge of the airbag body, and a protective portion located at side of an occupant's head. The protective portion includes a main cell that inflates thickly when a temporary joint joining the inner wall and the outer wall is separated. The airbag body folded together with the belt and housed above the windows is provided, in the initially inflatable portion, with a folded and piled portion folded and piled in vertical direction, and below the folded and piled portion, with a roll-folded portion rolled toward exterior of vehicle from lower edge side. The head-protecting airbag of the present invention is developed smoothly and stably in a clearance between the side windows and occupants' heads, even if the clearance is narrow.

Head-protecting airbag

An occupant protection apparatus includes a cover sheet adapted to be fed out from a peripheral edge of a window of a vehicle, when a pulling unit is activated, so as to cover the window. The pulling unit includes a pulling string having flexibility and a pulling device to which the pulling string is connected so as to be pulled thereby and which is disposed below the window. When the pulling device is activated, the pulling string is pulled such that a portion thereof which extends from a fixed end to where it is supported by a support member becomes a straight line while a portion thereof which is disposed along a lower edge portion of the peripheral edge of the window is caused to rise. The cover sheet includes a passageway portion through which the pulling string is passed on an upper side part thereof and is folded to be accommodated in the window only along the lower edge side of the peripheral edge thereof with the portion of the pulling string which has not yet been activated inserted into the passageway portion so as to be staying therein.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi-ken, Japan

Michio Inoue