Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Timothy Scott

Paul Mark Marable

Johannes A Varcus

Markus Koelsch

Gregor Whelan

Michal Jan Swiniarski

Barry Grindle

Marcus John Scott Ward

Allen Charles Bosio

Robert William McCoy

Jamel E Belwafa

Nicholas Andrew Mazzocchi

Daniel T Jackson

Felix Haenel

Martin Fassbender

Raf Haidar

Uwe Thiesmeyer

Timothy Noble

A vehicle airbag assembly includes a vehicle trim panel including at least one door having an outer surface facing a vehicle cabin and an inner surface facing an airbag prior to deployment, In a pre-deployed state the door extends across an opening and is movably coupled to a rim to open upon deployment of the airbag to permit passage of the airbag through the opening. At least one edge of the door has a tear seam that couples the door to the vehicle trim panel. A bridging member is adjacent the inner surface of the door. The bridging member is configured to contact the inner surface at a location away from the rim and support the door in the pre-deployed state. The bridging member extends at least partially across the opening and is movable upon deployment of the airbag such that the airbag is permitted to pass through the opening.

Vehicle airbag assembly and associated method of forming

A heated steering wheel having a first electrical circuit including, in series, a first heating element disposed adjacent to a 3 o'clock of the wheel, a second heating element disposed adjacent to a 9 o'clock position of the wheel, and a positive temperature coefficient thermistor heated by one of the first and second heating elements; and a second electrical circuit including, in series, a third heating element disposed at a 6 o'clock position of the wheel, a fourth heating element disposed at a 12 o'clock position of the wheel, and a negative temperature coefficient thermistor heated by one of the first and second heating elements. The flow of electricity through the second electrical circuit is delayed until after electricity has flowed through the first electrical circuit warm those portions of the wheel to a desired temperature.

Heated steering wheel

A seat assembly for a vehicle includes a seat back having a cushion surface forming a bolster along a lateral edge thereof, a recess formed in the bolster, and a retractable seatbelt. When in a stowed condition, the seatbelt extends along the bolster between a top and a bottom thereof, and a portion of the seatbelt passes over the recess to create a space between an edge of the seatbelt and the cushion surface. The recess is sized and located to enable a seat occupant to insert fingers into the space and easily grasp the seatbelt for deploying it. The recess may be a depression in the cushion surface, or may be formed by a first portion of the bolster having a first radius smaller than a second radius of a second, un-recessed portion of the bolster adjoining the first portion.

Vehicle seat back with feature for grasping of seatbelt

An air bag system deploys from within a structural element of a vehicle. A main bag is configured for storage in a folded condition in an internal region behind a covering of the structural element, wherein the main bag has a distal end configured to rupture a tear seam in the covering. A shielding bag is disposed over an inflator and has a projection body extending away from the inflator to a remote edge within the main bag. The projection body is substantially continuous in the direction of the main bag except for at least one gas passage at the remote edge for coupling inflation gas from the inflator to the main bag. The main bag has a fold proximate to the gas passage so that inflation of the main bag begins with the unfolding of the fold in a manner that displaces the main bag toward the tear seam.

Bag-in-bag safety restraint with directional inflation

A side airbag system for a vehicle has a primary airbag and a secondary airbag at least partially surrounding the primary airbag. The primary airbag comprises at least one primary vent venting into the secondary airbag and the secondary airbag comprises at least one secondary vent. The primary airbag is inflated by an inflator and the secondary airbag is inflated by gases leaving the primary airbag through the primary vent. The secondary airbag has a panel overlying the primary vent, and inflation of the primary airbag urges the vent and panel in an outboard direction against outboard vehicle structure to restrict flow through the vent. The inflation rates of the primary and secondary airbags are thereby controlled such that the primary airbag protects a vehicle occupant against impacts with a localized load profile and the primary and secondary airbags together protect the occupant against impacts with a distributed load profile.

Dual chamber airbag system

An active bolster has a plastic-molded, expandable front wall and a plastic-molded back wall joined around a substantially sealed perimeter with the front wall to form an inflatable bladder. The back wall includes at least one active vent and at least one substantially circumferential pleated baffle. An inflator couples an inflation gas into the inflatable bladder in response to a crash event of the vehicle. The active vent comprises a window opening in the back wall and an integrally-molded flap juxtaposed to the window opening. The flap has an undeflected position corresponding to a first flow coefficient and a deflected position corresponding to a second, nonzero flow coefficient that is less than the first flow coefficient. The flap moves from the undeflected position to the deflected position when a pressure in the inflatable bladder resulting from a passenger impact is greater than a predetermined pressure.

Active bolster with active vent for load management

An airbag assembly for a motor vehicle includes an inflator and a curtain airbag securable to a body structure of the motor vehicle. The airbag includes two or more deployment tubes and two or more inflatable chambers. Vents connect the deployment chambers with the inflatable chambers. Gasses from the inflator pass first into the deployment tubes to rapidly inflate them to vertically extending positions and draw the airbag over a window opening. The gasses then pass through the vents into the inflatable chambers to complete the deployment of the curtain airbag. The rapid inflation and deployment of the deployment chambers provides cushioning for an occupant's head early in a crash event, followed by the inflation of the inflatable chambers to provide additional head protection and increasing the resistance of the curtain airbag to ejection through the underlying window apertures.

Curtain airbag assembly for a motor vehicle

An occupant protection airbag device for a vehicle includes a housing having an opening and a closed end, a strut secured to the housing adjacent the closed end and extending from the closed end toward the opening, and an inflator supported by the strut adjacent the opening and spaced from the closed end to form a storage chamber between the inflator and the closed end of the housing. The inflator is spaced from an inner wall of the housing to form a gap therebetween. An airbag is stored in a deflated condition between the inflator and the closed end of the housing, and a forward-most layer of the airbag passes through the gap and around a surface of the inflator immediately adjacent the opening.

Occupant protection airbag for a vehicle

An airbag assembly for a motor vehicle has an airbagthat is inflated by an inflatorwhen the airbagis deployed in accordance with a control signal from an electronic controller. A portion of the airbagin a region where an expected head impact with the airbagwill occur is formed by a soft panel portionwhich provides a softer or more compliant structure that can expand or stretch to an increased surface area condition to thereby reduce the risk of injury to an occupant. The soft panel portionis constructed so as to provide increased give or stretch relative to the other parts of the fabric bagwhen a head of an occupant impacts against it.

Airbag assembly

An airbag assembly for a motor vehicle is disclosed having an airbagthat is inflated by an inflator when the airbagis deployed in accordance with a control signal from an electronic controller. The airbaghas a main chamberand at least one subsidiary chamberfluidly connected to the main chamberby a transfer vent. The main and subsidiary chambersandare vented to atmosphere by respective ventsand the pressure in the subsidiary chamberis arranged to be equal to or lower than the pressure in the main chamber. The subsidiary chamberis produced in a simple manner by forming a depression in the main chamberusing a tetherand covering the depression so formed with a cover

A steering column assembly for a motor vehicle is disclosed having lower and upper steering column members that are slidingly interengaged. The upper column member is attached to a structural part of the motor vehicle by a ride down mechanism that allows the upper steering column to move in the event of a collision. A load transfer means is provided to bypass the ride down mechanism when an adjustment lever is moved to a position allowing the position of the upper steering column member to be adjusted thereby preventing accidental damage occurring to the ride down mechanism due to operator abuse.

Growing community of inventors

Benfleet, United Kingdom

Timothy Scott