Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Naohiko Saita

Takashi Aoki

Fumiharu Ochiai

Hidetoshi Utsumi

Yuichi Saito

Hiroyuki Ito

Takashi Honda

Minoru Kanda

Yuichi Saitoh

Fumiharu Ochial

A vehicular occupant restraint system includes an airbag, an inflator, and a seat belt system including a shoulder belt and a pre-tensioner. The airbag is disposed in a folded state along an upper edge of a door opening of a vehicle body. When the vehicle is involved in a side collision, the airbag is inflated by a gas generated by the inflator so that it is deployed into a curtain shape along an inner face of a side of an occupant compartment. Unlike conventional pre-tensioner systems that only tension a seatbelt when the vehicle is involved in a front collision, the pre-tensioner of the present invention also applies a tension to the shoulder belt of the seat belt system when the vehicle is involved in a side collision. Since a tension is applied to the shoulder belt by operation of the pre-tensioner that normally operates only when the vehicle is involved in a front collision, it is possible to maintain a correct positional relationship between the shoulder belt and an occupant even in the case where there is interference between the shoulder belt and the airbag that is deploying downward from above along the inner face of the side of the occupant compartment.

Occupant restraint system

An occupant restraint system includes an airbag and an inflator. A gas supply pipe extending from the inflator is inserted into the interior of the airbag and immovably fixed in a manner in which the gas supply pipe is clamped from above and below by a pipe support formed in the airbag from a part of stitching defining a plurality of cells. The gas supply pipe can thus be fixed without employing any special fixing member, thereby reliably preventing blockage of the gas nozzle that would cause interference with smooth issuing of the gas and preventing damage to a base fabric of the airbag by the heat and pressure of the gas.

An occupant restraint system includes a side airbag and an inflator. The airbag includes six cells that are defined by stitching and are adapted to be inflated by a gas generated by the inflator. Among six end parts a to f of these cells, four end parts b to e are positioned on top of or in the vicinity of a center pillar garnish and a rear pillar garnish that include respective impact absorbing ribs. When the airbag is deployed, even if the end parts b to e cannot be inflated sufficiently due to the stitching, thereby exhibiting no impact-absorbing effect, the center pillar garnish and the rear pillar garnish instead exhibit an impact-absorbing effect, thereby protecting an occupant.

An occupant restraint system includes an airbag and an inflator. An impact absorbing member is disposed at an upper part of the folded airbag, which is disposed along a roof side rail, at positions other than that of a center pillar, and an impact absorbing member is disposed at a lower part of the folded airbag at the position of the center pillar. This arrangement ensures that there is a distance between the airbag and the upper end of a center pillar garnish, thereby making it difficult for the deploying airbag to catch on the upper end of the garnish, and the impact absorbing member can guide the deploying airbag toward the occupant compartment, thereby more reliably preventing it from catching on the upper end of the garnish.

An air bag device includes an inflater having a retainer retained thereon and being inserted into a folded air bag through a slit defined in the air bag and then, a protector sheet is wound around an outer periphery of the folded air bag. The air bag device is secured by a bolt inserted through the superposed retainer, air bag and protector sheet and fastened by a nut. The slit in the air bag is covered with the protector sheet and closed thereby, whereby the slit can be closed without provision of a special closing member to prevent leakage of a high-pressure gas from the inflater.

Air bag device

A sun-visor provided in a vehicle includes a sun-visor body, a shaft, and low strength region. The sun-visor body is used for blocking off the outside light. One end of the shaft is inserted into the sun-visor body and another end of the shaft is rotatably supported at the roof of the vehicle through a base. The low strength region of the shaft permits the sun-visor to be readily deformed by a side air bag deployed into the vehicle cabin, thereby achieving a certain inflation of the air bag irrespective of the position of the sun-visor.

Sun-visor of a vehicle equipping an occupant restraint system

An air bag of an inflatable curtain device includes a first cell group and a second cell group whose internal spaces are independent from each other. A high-pressure gas discharged from opposite ends of a common inflater disposed between both of the first and second cell groups and is supplied to a high-pressure gas supply port in the first cell group and a high-pressure gas supply port in the second cell group. The first and second cell groups can be expanded simultaneously by the common inflater, whereby the entire air bag can be deployed promptly, but also even when one of the first and second cell groups and is damaged, the deployment of the other cell group can be achieved without hindrance.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Naohiko Saita