Nhk Spring Co., Ltd.

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

Shinichi Horibata

Osamu Fukawatase

Hiroyoshi Yamaguchi

Tadanori Hisamoto

Takeaki Kato

Hiroyuki Tajima

Akiyoshi Nagano

Katsutoshi Sasaki

Takayuki Enomoto

Takuya Nishimoto

Masakazu Hashimoto

Hideki Kobayashi

Takahiko Sato

Hiroshi Matsunaga

Naobumi Kuboki

Atsuo Matsumoto

Hiroaki Nishiguma

Ko Masuda

Takashi Takeshita

Yuji Tokiwa

Tomio Matsufuji

Norio Kawashima

Yuji Niikura

Hiroaki Taga

Shin Maezawa

Ken Imai

A projection welding structure including plural projection portions that are provided to an end face at an open side end portion of a reinforcement member flange portion and are disposed at intervals along the length direction of the reinforcement member. The plural projection portions are each abutted and welded to welding projections formed in a surface of a panel frame. Contact between the welding member and the welded member is suppressed at locations other than at the welding projections by such a structure.

Protection welding structure

In a knee protection system according to the present invention, a knee protection panel is driven from a standby position surrounded by an interior member to the vehicle rear side to a knee-protecting position in front of the knees of an occupant by a drive mechanism when the vehicle is crashing, whereby the knees moving forward are protected by the knee protection panel thus driven. The drive mechanism includes a holding portion for holding the knee protection panel in such a manner that the knee protection panel is moved rearward. Engagement portions are provided, respectively, at locations where the holding portion and the knee protection panel connect with each other in such a manner as to be brought into engagement with each other. These engagement portions are brought into engagement with each other when the holding portion is moved rearward due to the activation of the drive mechanism in such a manner as to prevent displacement of the knee protection panel relative to the holding portion while moving the knee protection panel rearward, as well as allowing the knee protection panel to be displaced vertically and horizontally relative to the holding portion prior to the activation of the drive mechanism. With the knee protection system according to the invention, the knee protection panel can be disposed at the standby position so as to have a visually attractive break with the surrounding interior member, without deteriorating mounting work efficiency.

Knee protection system

An actuator of an active knee bolster is provided with a drive force generation device and a one way lock mechanism that is disposed in a vicinity of an operation end of the drive force generation device. The one way lock mechanism is configured such that, if attempted movement of a piston member in an inward insertion direction occurs, respective engagement portions are moved to a taper portion by urging force of a spring, whereby the engagement portions are abutted against an external periphery surface of the piston member such that the piston member and the engagement portions are fixed. Accordingly, as a result of the one way lock mechanism, a main body of the active knee bolster that has been moved to a restraining position cannot return in a vehicle forward direction, and thus it is possible to generate a substantial lower limb restraining force that restrains a lower limb of an occupant.

Occupant protection apparatus for a vehicle

In a vehicle seat, a central support member typically consisting of wire mesh or grid and supports most of the load of the vehicle occupant via spring members, and undergoes a relatively large displacement when the occupant is seated in the seat. Thus, by detecting the displacements of various parts of the central support member, preferably peripheral parts thereof, the magnitude of the total load and distribution of the load can be evaluated both reliably and accurately. Additionally, displacement sensors for measuring such large displacements are relatively inexpensive and easy to handle. Also, such sensors would not interfere with the existing seat designs, and would not be adversely affected by the equipment of the seat such as seat heaters.

Vehicle seat incorporated with an occupant sensor

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Shinichi Horibata