Kabushiki Kaisha Tokai Rika Denki Seisakusho

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Toyota Shatai Kabushiki Kaisha

Teruhiko Kawaguchi

Yuji Nishimura

Akinori Fujiwara

Teruhiko Koide

Hideyuki Suzuki

Tsutomu Muraoka

Shinji Mori

Toshiaki Shimogawa

Kazuo Sakakibara

Satosi Kuwakado

Takayuki Ando

Keiichi Tamura

Kenichi Kinoshita

Masahiro Iwatsuki

Tamotsu Horiba

Hisahiro Ando

Toshio Nagata

Yasumichi Takei

Seiji Yokota

Itoshi Maeda

Kazuyuki Hashimoto

An air bag device is structured in such a manner that an air bag can expand entirely and uniformly in a three-dimensional manner from the center thereof in the radial directions and in the forward direction of the air bag device all through the process in which the air bag inflates to unfold. The flat, unfolded air bag is folded from both ends thereof to form an elongated folding body, and the elongated folding body is folded from both longitudinal-directional ends thereof toward the side opposite to that where gas ejecting holes of the inflator are formed in such a manner as to wrap these ends inside, and a pair of roll-shaped folding bodies are thereby formed. Further, a preceding expanding and first folding portion provided to expand first is formed in a space between the pair of roll-shaped folding bodies.

Air bag device and method for accommodating an air bag in the air bag device

A vehicle occupant-restraining webbing is used in a seat belt apparatus of a vehicle in which an air bag apparatus is provided as an auxiliary occupant protecting apparatus, and comprises a webbing length increasing section in which a folded portion of the webbing, formed with a portion of the webbing being folded in a longitudinal direction of the webbing, includes first, second and third regions arranged in order from a fold base end to a fold tip end, wherein the first region is formed by stitching and when a first tensile force acts in the longitudinal direction of the webbing and is applied to the first region to undo the stitching of the first region, the length of the webbing is increased, the second region is provided so as to increase the length of the webbing without applying active tensile force in the longitudinal direction of the webbing when the stitching of the second region comes undone, and the third region is formed by stitching and when a second tensile force which is smaller than the first tensile force acts in the longitudinal direction of the webbing and is applied to the third region to undo the stitching of the third region, the length of the webbing is increased.

Energy absorbing seat belt webbing

An acceleration sensor. An inertial mass moves inertially when a vehicle suddenly accelerates. A longitudinal direction portion of a trigger lever abuts a portion of a peripheral surface of the inertial mass at a side in a direction of inertial movement thereof. The trigger lever is pushed by the peripheral surface due to inertial movement of the inertial mass, and is rotated around a fulcrum from a first position to a second position. The trigger lever is provided with a trigger means which is located at a position separated by a predetermined distance from the fulcrum and at a position which is different from a position at which the trigger lever abuts the inertial mass. An ignition pin is movable from a non-actuating position at which an occupant protection device is not actuated to an actuating position at which the ignition pin actuates the occupant protection device. The ignition pin has an engaging member. When the trigger lever is at the first position, the engaging member engages with the trigger means so as to position the ignition pin at the non-actuating position. When the trigger lever is moved to the second position, the engaging member cancels engagement of the trigger means and the engaging member so that the ignition pin is movable to the actuating position. An urging means usually urges the ignition pin toward the actuating position.

Acceleration sensor

An actuator for use in an air bag device which is inflated by a gas as a firing pin is moved by the movement of an inertia member to actuate a gas generator and in a preloader of a webbing retractor actuated by the gas. A contact is provided for outputting an electrical signal by being turned on at the time of movement of the inertia member or movement of the firing pin. Accordingly, by providing another gas generating means adapted to be actuated in correspondence with an output of this contact, it is possible to actuate a plurality of air bag devices or preloaders.

Actuator for use in emergency situation of vehicle

An air bag body to be mounted on a vehicle has a built-in acceleration sensor. A restriction apparatus prevents the acceleration sensor from activating before the air bag body is fixed to a vehicle. After the air bag body is fixed to a vehicle, an operator screws a press member in, and the press body directly comes in contact with the restriction apparatus, rotates the restriction apparatus, and makes the acceleration sensor operational. As the press member directly comes in contact with and rotates the restriction apparatus, the pressing force is transmitted without fail.

Air bag device

A gas bag apparatus for a vehicle is arranged such that, when an emergency situation of the vehicle occurs, a gas bag body is inflated to absorb the impact applied to the body of an occupant of the vehicle. A soft skin is secured at the peripheral portion thereof to the outer side of the gas body in such a manner that the central portion of the soft skin is movable relative to the outer side of the gas bag body. Accordingly, the occupant's body is prevented from directly rubbing against the outer side of the gas bag body when an emergency situation of the vehicle occurs.

Gas bag apparatus for vehicle

A retaining structure for a webbing retained by a seat of a vehicle enables the tension which acts on the webbing to be transmitted to the body of the vehicle so as to be carried thereby. The tension acting on the webbing is carried by the seat and also by a retaining flexible continuous member which is retained by the vehicle body and to which the webbing tension is transmitted. Accordingly, the tension which acts on the webbing when an emergency situation of the vehicle occurs can reliably be transmitted to the vehicle body so as to be carried thereby.

Retaining structure for webbing secured to seat of vehicle

A webbing tension adjusting apparatus for use in a webbing retractor employed in a seatbelt system for a vehicle which is arranged such that one end of an occupant restraining webbing is secured to a door of the vehicle and such that it is possible for an occupant of the vehicle to be automatically secured by the webbing simply by closing the door. When the door is opened, a resilient member for winding up the webbing is disengaged from a takeup shaft by a clutch means, whereby the biasing force of the resilient member which has been applied to the takeup shaft is cancelled. There is therefore no possibility that the webbing which is being wound off from the webbing retractor in response to the door opening operation may rub strongly against the body of the occupant.

Webbing tension adjusting apparatus

A seat which is employed in combination with a seatbelt system for a vehicle designed to protect an occupant when an emergency situation of the vehicle occurs. When the tension acting on the seatbelt exceeds a predetermined value, a movable member connected to a seatbelt anchor member causes a push-up member to move upwards within a seat cushion. As a result, the push-up member forms a protuberance at the front part of the seat cushion, whereby the movement of the occupant's waist toward the front end of the vehicle is limited.

Seat

In a webbing tension device for imparting a tension to an occupant restraining webbing in an emergency situation of a vehicle, large biasing means for biasing a webbing takeup shaft in a webbing winding direction in the emergency situation of the vehicle is wound up by such winding-up drive means as a motor through reduction means and clutch means is disposed between the large biasing means and the reduction means. Accordingly, a rotation force of the winding-up drive means is transmitted to the large biasing means only when the large biasing means is wound up by the winding-up drive means.

Webbing tension device

In a webbing tension device adapted for use in a webbing retractor for a vehicle in which a takeup shaft retracting an occupant restraining webbing thereon is biased in a direction of a webbing retraction by small resilient means and in an emergency situation of the vehicle a biasing force of large resilient means is transmitted to the takeup shaft through one clutch means so that the takeup shaft is biased in the direction of the webbing retraction by the large resilient means, another clutch means is disposed between the takeup shaft and the large resilient means. Accordingly, when the webbing is fully retracted on the takeup shaft after the vehicle is released from the emergency situation, the another clutch means is put in its connected situation, and when the webbing is unwound from the takeup shaft after it is retracted fully on the takeup shaft, an unwinding rotation of the takeup shaft is transmitted to the large resilient means, so that the large resilient means is wound up.

An emergency locking retractor (ELR) for a safety seat belt system provided with a slack-take-up spring operable to instantaneously bias a belt retracting reel to take-up a slack in the seat belt in an emergency situation of the vehicle. The retractor is further provided with a rewinding mechanism including an electric motor for rewinding the slack-take-up spring after the spring energy thereof has been released. Switching circuits for automatically energizing the electric motor are also possible.

Seat belt retractor with powered rewinding arrangement for slack-take-up

In a webbing locking device locking an occupant restraining webbing, a movable locking member opposed to a fixed locking member is movable in a direction of a webbing drawing-out and approach to the webbing and trigger means causes the webbing to abut on a portion of the movable locking member, so that the webbing is locked by the fixed and movable locking members. In the locking of the webbing a webbing drawing-out force is converted to a locking, or clipping, force of the webbing by the movable and fixed locking member.

Webbing locking device

In a webbing tension device adapted for use in a webbing retractor wherein clutch means is provided for putting a webbing takeup shaft and an operation wheel biased by resilient means in a connected situation in an emergency situation of an vehicle and for putting them in a disconnected situation in an ordinary running situation of the vehicle, the clutch means is provided with lever means opposed to a gear wheel fixed to the takeup shaft and the lever means is caused to abut on the operation wheel when the lever means is latched to the gear wheel in the emergency situation of the vehicle, whereby a compression force acting upon the lever means in the emergency situation is supplementally sustained. Accordingly, the lever means is reinforced without using large-sized clutch means.

In a webbing tension device adapted for use in a webbing retractor, winding means includes a worm rotated by an occupant and a worm wheel to which a rotative operation force to the worm is subjected to reduction to be transmitted, and a rotation force of the worm wheel is transmitted through clutch means to large resilient means biasing a webbing takeup shaft in a direction of a webbing retraction. Accordingly, after a vehicle is released from an emergency situation, the worm can be rotated against a biasing force of the large resilient means so that the large resilient means is wound up.

Growing community of inventors

Aichi, Japan

Teruhiko Kawaguchi