Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Noritaka Nagayama

Mikiharu Shimoda

Junichi Nakamura

Tsutomu Ookochi

Daisuke Yamamura

Setuko Hatta

Tosiyasu Hatta

Ryosuke Yamamoto

Kazuya Miwa

Tomohiro Suekuni

Takashi Yamafuji

Akira Yoshioka

Masanobu Hatta, Deceased

A side door for a vehicle includes a folded airbag which inflates upward in response to a side collision of the vehicle, and a cover member disposed above the airbag and covering the airbag. The cover member has a plurality of sections arranged in a fore-aft direction of the vehicle. The sections are defined by a hinge portion extending generally straight in the fore-aft direction of the vehicle and a plurality of lateral thin portions extending from the hinge portion generally in a lateral direction of the vehicle. When the airbag inflates, by means of inflation force of the airbag, the lateral thin portions rupture and the individual sections rotate about the hinge portion and open.

Side door for vehicle

A vehicle has an occupant protective arrangement, which a bracket. The bracket has aholding part that holds an airbag on a pillar panel and a mounting part that is mounted on the pillar panel. The mounting part is located below the lower end of a side roof panel, and the airbag is positioned above the bracket mounting part. With this arrangement, it is possible to inflate the airbag in a reliable manner while preventing the pillar trim and the airbag from interfering with each other.

Occupant protective arrangement and a vehicle therewith

A vehicular passenger protecting apparatus preferably used in an air bag to be spread at a side portion in a vehicular compartment of an automobile. The apparatus includes an air bag main body to be expanded to spread from an upper side of a side portion of a vehicle to an inside of a vehicular compartment, a pillar portion of the vehicle, a trim member for covering an inner side of the pillar portion of the vehicle and forming a gap between the trim member and the pillar portion, a strap for connecting the air bag main body and the pillar portion arranged at an inside of a space surrounded by the pillar portion and the trim member, and a strap holding member arranged at the inside of the space. The strap holding member holds the strap releasably in a predetermined direction. The strap holding member is disposed to direct in the predetermined direction towards the gap.

Vehicular passenger protecting apparatus

In a side impact air bag system, a first vent hole and a second vent hole for reducing a pressure of a part opposing a chest portion of a passenger to a lower value than the pressure of a part opposing an abdomen portion of the passenger when the bag is inflated. The vent holes are provided on a side surface of an upper inflation unit opposite to the passenger, whereby regulating gas discharge of the part opposing the chest portion while preventing early discharge of the gas, always obtaining a desired internal pressure and inflation condition, positively inflating the bag and relaxing a shock to the chest portion. Further, the first vent hole and the second vent hole are formed at positions not contacting with vehicle compartment structural members, thereby preventing the vent hole and the second vent hole from being closed even when the vehicle compartment structural members are deformed toward the inside of the vehicle compartment, eliminating disturbance to gas discharge when the bag is inflated, and always obtaining the desired internal pressure condition.

Side impact air bag system

An air bag system having an air bag module 20 including an inflator 22 and an air bag 25 is installed in a seat back 12. When a side collision occurs against a vehicle, the air bag 25 is inflated between a passenger and an inner wall of a vehicle compartment. The air bag 25 has a separator 27 for vertically separating the inside of the air bag 25 into first and second chambers 28 and 29. The separator 27 is extended along a vehicle front-to-rear direction, and defines a communication portion 27a at a vehicle rear side in the air bag 25 for interconnecting the two chambers 28 and 29 and guiding gas blown by the inflator 22 from the first chamber 28 to the second chamber 29.

In a side impact air bag system, the blowing direction of gas is regulated by connecting a bag to an inflator through a gas intake portion which suppresses the diffusion of the gas. The bag is formed of a main body, a lower inflation unit, and an upper inflation unit having a vent hole. The upper inflation unit and the lower inflation unit are contained with the main body in a shape of bellows when installed. When the bag is inflated by a gas blown out from the inflator, the bag is inflated from a portion of the main body opposing an abdomen portion having a higher shock load resistance than that of a chest portion, thereby improving the restraining condition of a passenger by regulating the inflating condition of the bag into a desired condition. Consequently, a possibility of the bag being obstructed by vehicle structural members in the process of the bag inflated from inner sides of the upper inflation unit and the lower inflation unit is eliminated, thereby positively inflating the bag.

An airbag system provided in a vehicular seat that includes a cushion pad member, comprises an inflator contained in the cushion pad member and adapted to generate gas when a vehicle is subjected to a side impact, and a seat covering member covering the cushion pad member. The covering member is designed to spread out like a bag between an occupant and the body of the vehicle by the gas generated by the inflator.

Airbag system

In a side impact air bag system having a bag comprising a main body, an upper inflation unit, and a lower inflation unit, the boundaries of the main body and the upper inflation unit and the lower inflation unit are joined and temporally sewn by sewn portions. The main body is inflated without having the upper and lower units inflated until the blowing gas from an inflator into the bag reaches a pressure above a predetermined pressure, and when the pressure inside the bag reaches the pressure above the predetermined pressure, the sewn portions are separated therefrom to flow gas into the upper and lower inflation units to deploy the upper and lower inflation units. Thus, the bag is positively inflated in a narrow space between a passenger and a vehicle without excessively increasing impact against a chest portion of the passenger.

In a side impact air bag system, a bag is formed of a main body opposing an abdomen portion of a passenger and an upper inflation unit opposing a chest portion of the passenger, a tip portion in the longitudinal direction of the upper inflation unit is deleted and a connection of a gas intake portion to an inflator is shortened to reduce a length of the upper inflation unit than the length of the main body. This reduces the length of the upper inflation unit to be shorter than the main body when the bag is inflated to relax the shock to the chest portion of the passenger when the bag is inflated, thereby positively inflating the bag in the narrow space between the vehicle body and the passenger's seat without excessively increasing the shock to the chest portion of the passenger.

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Okazaki, Japan

Noritaka Nagayama