Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Other

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Mikine Hayashi

Atsushi Nagata

Tsutomu Ishii

Tooru Koyama

Naohiko Ishiguro

Hitoshi Iida

Kenichi Fukurono

Tadashi Yamamoto

Yuji Sato

Ikuo Yamada

Norio Umemura

Takanori Komatsu

Osamu Hirose

Kenji Sasaki

Minoru Hashimoto

Mitsuyoshi Ohno

Masashi Hotta

Koji Kawamura

Takashi Iida

Toshihito Yanagisawa

Shun Ito

Takahiro Kojima

Junichi Asanuma

Kosuke Shigeta

Junichi Fujita

Kenji Hayakawa

Shinsuke Shimiya

Nobuaki Okamura

A front passenger seat airbag device includes a module case; a front passenger seat airbag configured such that, in a folded state, a height of a first airbag section positioned at a vehicle outer side is lower than a height of a second airbag section positioned at a vehicle inner side, and widths of the first airbag section and the second airbag section are substantially the same; an inflator disposed at a bottom side of the module case; and a raising member disposed at a bottom portion of the module case, and that raises a height of a first support face supporting the first airbag section to be higher than a height of a second support face supporting the second airbag section, such that a height of an upper face of the first airbag section is substantially aligned with a height of an upper face of the second airbag section.

Front passenger seat airbag device

A support structure for an airbag apparatus includes an airbag apparatus having a bag holder, a pin, a pin holder, a damper holder, an elastic member, a motion transmitting portion, a motion receiving portion, and a noise suppressing portion. The pin includes a shaft portion passed through a mounting hole provided in the bag holder and a flange portion formed at the rear end of the shaft portion. The pin holder slidably covers the shaft portion. The damper holder is mounted to the airbag apparatus while covering the pin holder. The elastic member includes an elastic body portion. A gap is provided inside the motion transmitting portion. The noise suppressing portion is located between the gap and the pin holder, is made of a material softer than the pin holder, and has an inner diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the elastic body portion.

Support structure for airbag apparatus

An airbag device includes: an airbag having an inflow opening for introducing an inflation gas and being formed in a folded body; a bag holder attached to a peripheral edge of the inflow opening; an airbag cover attached to the bag holder; and an inflator disposed by inserting an upper side in the folded body from the inflow opening, wherein: the airbag cover has a ceiling wall that covers an upper surface remote from the inflow opening of the folded body; the folded body is equipped with a housing recess that is capable of housing a top of a main body unit of the inflator; a part around the housing recess is supported by the bag holder; and a ceiling surface of the housing recess is formed as a shape in which a clearance is provided between the top of the main body unit of the inserted inflator.

Airbag device and manufacturing method thereof

An airbag is inflatable in such a manner as to separate a vehicle-side wall which is deployable towards a vehicle body structure and an occupant-side wall which is deployable towards an occupant for catching the occupant. The airbag is configured to be supported by the vehicle body structure on the vehicle-side wall when catching the occupant with the occupant-side wall. The airbag includes a recessed section on left and right sides of and in a vicinity of the center of the occupant-side wall and a tether that connects the bottom of the recessed section to the vehicle-side wall in order to form the recessed section. Opposing walls of the recessed section press each other in a separable fashion when the airbag is inflated. The tether allows gas communication between a central region of the airbag and a peripheral region of the airbag which surrounds the central region, inside the airbag.

Airbag

An airbag of an airbag device for a driver's seat includes an exhaust strap which includes a cover section that closes off an outer opening of a vent hole at airbag deployment and connecting bands extending from opposite sides of the cover section and joined to the center of a driver-side wall. When the driver-side wall of the airbag cushions the driver at airbag deployment and moves toward a vehicle-side wall, the connecting bands of the exhaust strap loosen and allow a distant edge region of the cover section to loosen and pass through the outer opening such that the outer opening and an inner opening communicate to open the vent hole. The cover section includes a reinforcing element that prevents the distant edge from slipping towards a proximate edge while allowing a bending deformation of the distant edge to pass through the outer opening and open the vent hole.

Airbag device for a driver's seat

An airbag of an airbag device for a driver's seat includes an exhaust strap which includes a cover section that closes off an outer opening of a vent hole at airbag deployment in an openable fashion and connecting bands extending from opposite sides of the cover section and joined to a driver-side wall. The exhaust strap is so configured, when the driver-side wall of the airbag cushions the driver at airbag deployment and moves toward a vehicle-side wall, that the connecting bands loosen and allow a region towards a distant edge of the cover section to loosen and pass through the outer opening such that the outer opening and an inner opening communicate to open the vent hole. The length of the distant edge of the exhaust strap is shorter than a length of a proximate edge of the exhaust strap.

In a driver seat airbag apparatus, an airbag includes a belt member and a vent mechanism. The belt member includes two connecting sections extending from opposite sides of a cover portion for covering a vent hole. The vent mechanism includes an outer panel that has a vent hole and is located outside of the cover portion, an inner panel that has an inner opening and is located on an inner side of the cover portion, and a guide. The connecting sections run through the guide and move toward the vent hole for letting the cover portion open the vent hole. The guide holds the connecting sections such that the connecting sections serve as the tethers. A joint of the tethers to the driver side wall is located toward a center of the driver side wall relative to the vent hole as viewed from a side of the driver side wall.

Airbag apparatus for a driver's seat

A folded airbag includes an outer circumferential wall which has a passenger side panel section disposed at a passenger side when inflation of the folded airbag is completed and a vehicle body side panel section extending forward from the passenger side panel section when the inflation of the folded airbag is completed, and an inlet opening which is positioned at a front lower side of the vehicle body side panel section when the inflation of the folded airbag is completed. The folded airbag is formed by folding an unfolded airbag body through front-to-back reduction folding that reduces a size of the unfolded folded body in a front-to-back direction so that a length of the folded airbag in a lateral direction is greater than a length of the folded airbag in a front-to-back direction.

Passenger seat airbag apparatus and a folded airbag used therein

A steering wheel has an airbag apparatus mounted on a core metal via a horn switch mechanism for activating a horn device. The horn switch mechanism includes a supporting member that is formed of an electrically conductive material, supported on the core metal, and extends rearward, a slider that is formed of an insulating resin material, is disposed outside the supporting member to be slidable with respect to the supporting member, and urged rearward by an urging member, a cap member that is formed of an insulating resin material and covers at least a rear end of each of the supporting member and the slider, and a movable side contact that is formed of an electrically conductive metal material and disposed between the cap member and the slider. The horn switch mechanism is configured to activate the horn device.

Steering wheel

In a front passenger seat airbag apparatus, a partition wall portion is disposed in an airbag to partition the inside of the airbag into a front chamber and a rear chamber. The entire outer circumferential edge of the partition wall portion is jointed with an outer circumferential wall of the airbag, and the partition wall portion includes a communication portion for communication between the front chamber and the rear chamber. The communication portion includes a flow rate control mechanism that controls a flow rate of inflation gas flowing from the front chamber into the rear chamber by increasing or decreasing an opening area of the communication portion. The flow rate control mechanism is configured to suppress flow of the inflation gas into the rear chamber via the communication portion at initial inflation of the airbag in such a manner that the front chamber is inflated, and is configured to open the communication portion in such a manner that the inflation gas flows into the rear chamber by an internal pressure of the front chamber.

Front passenger seat airbag apparatus

An airbag of an airbag apparatus includes a vent mechanism. The vent mechanism includes a vent hole, a belt member including a cover portion for covering the vent hole and two connecting sections extending from both sides of the cover portion and serving as tethers, an outer panel located on an outer side of the cover portion, an inner panel located on an inner side of the cover portion and provided with an inner opening. The vent hole is formed on the outer panel. The connecting sections are run through the guide section so as to move toward the vent hole and let the cover portion loosen and open the vent hole when an occupant side wall of the airbag catches an occupant and moves toward a vehicle body side wall. The guide section also holds the connecting sections such that the connecting sections serve as the tethers.

Airbag apparatus

An airbag apparatus, which is incorporated in a steering wheel, includes a bag holder in the longitudinal direction of the steering wheel. An inflator is elastically supported by the bag holder with elastic support portions. A retainer includes an annular bag attachment portion. The retainer is fastened to the bag holder such that the periphery of the airbag opening is held between the bag attachment portion and the bag holder. The retainer further includes arch portions and bag encompassing portions. The arch portions extend rearward in the longitudinal direction of the steering wheel from the inner rim of the bag attachment portion, and surround the inflator. The bag encompassing portions extend inward in a radial direction of the steering shaft from the inner rim of the bag attachment portion, and encompass the periphery of the airbag opening.

A vibration control structure includes a fixed member, an airbag device that is provided at a front portion thereof with a bag holder having a mounting hole and is disposed at a rear side of the fixed member, a horn switch mechanism that includes a support member supported by the fixed member in a state where the horn switch mechanism is inserted through the mounting hole and a slider disposed between the support member and the mounting hole so as to be slidable in the front-rear direction, and an annular elastic member that is disposed on the rear side of the bag holder while being mounted to the outside of the slider. The airbag device serves as a damper mass of a dynamic damper and the elastic member serves as a spring of the damper mass.

Vibration control structure for steering wheel

The invention provides an airbag apparatus including an airbag that is folded toward an inflator attaching part and that is accommodated within a pad functioning as a case such that the airbag is provided with first and second folded parts arranged on a cabin side from an inflator. A tear line is formed on the pad at a position deviated from a center of the inflator toward the first folded part and divides the case into a first door and a second door. In the airbag apparatus, the second folded part that is covered by the first door is folded in a bellows shape.

An airbag cover including a front door located in a front area of the airbag cover so as to be openable forward and an ornament located on a top face of the front door. The front door includes a mounting section for mounting the ornament thereon, and the mounting section partially protrudes rearward from the rear edge of the front door. The front door further includes an auxiliary breakable portion that is located at the front edge of the mounting section so as to be breakable when an obstacle contacts with the ornament, and a pair of second hinges located at left and right ends of the auxiliary breakable portion. The mounting section bends about the second hinges relative to the front door in an opposite direction to an opening direction of the front door at breakage of the auxiliary breakable portion.

Growing community of inventors

Kiyosu, Japan

Mikine Hayashi