Davidson Textron Inc.

Textron Automotive Interiors, Inc.

Paul Hagenow

John D Gray

Colin C Frost

Alfred T Poliquin

A cover for covering an air bag in a motor vehicle has a thin elastic plastic skin, a rigid substrate and an intermediate layer of soft plastic foam. The skin has a tear seam and the substrate includes a door that is impacted by the inflating air bag and presses outward against the foam layer and the skin to tear the foam layer and the tear seam and then swing outward with a torn section of the foam layer and skin to form an opening in the cover for deployment of the air bag into the passenger space in the vehicle. The tear seam in the skin is formed with extremely small laser machined holes that are not observable to a person of normal vision when viewed from a normal viewing distance in the passenger compartment by having a maximum hole size dimension at the outer side of the skin that does not exceed about 0.0005 inches. The array of holes are arranged in a prescribed tear seam pattern and relative to each other so as to reduce the tensile strength of the skin along the tear seam by not more than about 50 percent whereby the structural integrity of the skin is maintained prior to air bag inflation but then on the occurrence of the latter, the tear seam will assuredly tear from the force of the inflating air bag to form an opening therefor in the skin.

Motor vehicle air bag cover having a skin with a virtually invisible

A metallizing apparatus for vacuum-metallizing both recessed and non-recessed surfaces of relatively massive articles such as automotive wheels includes a vacuum chamber and a linear array of electron beam-type metal particle emitters. The emitter array is positioned in the chamber to thermally evaporate metal onto each article. A rack is supported within the chamber and rotates about a horizontal rack axis between two vertical end braces. Two or more identical articles are supported to rotate on the rack about respective second and third axes as the rack rotates about the horizontal rack axis. The articles both rotate around the rack axis and each simultaneously rotate around their respective second and third rotational axes while being held in the path of metal particles emanating from the emitters. The articles are mounted on the rack so that their respective second and third rotational axes are positioned at an angle to the rack axis. Adjustable pivot mechanisms allow an operator to vary these angles.

Growing community of inventors

Dover, NH, United States of America

Paul Hagenow