Autoliv Development Ab

Autoliv Asp, Incorporated

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Yutaka Hirota

Kazuhiro Abe

Hiroyoshi Shimono

Koichi Akiyama

Takashi Kondo

Marcus Weber

Ryota Ishigaki

Travis B Hess

Christopher Donald Morgan

Keisuke Honma

Yukihiro Kunitake

Terry Allen Sella

Remi Baillivet

David Robert Palm, Jr

Derrick Staheli

Yutaka Tsuchida

Sumit Kumar

Zhiyong Jiang

Kunitomo Miyahara

Akira Koizumi

Christopher Banatin

Kunio Ohbayashi

Hiroshi Takamori

A driver seat airbag device includes an airbag cushion installed at a center portionof a steering wheel of a vehicle which is configured to expand and deploy toward an occupant in a driver seat; and an inflator that supplies gas to the airbag cushion. The airbag cushion includes a steering side panel provided on the steering wheel side and an occupant side panel joined to the occupant side of the steering side panel. The shape of the expanded and deployed airbag cushion is such that the portion, which is the largest area of the cross section orthogonal to the axis of rotation of the steering wheel, is formed further toward the front side of the vehicle than the center portion between the frontmost portion of the steering side panel and the rearmost portion of the occupant side panel.

Driverseat airbag device

[Problem] To provide a steering wheel including a damper unit with an excellent vibration absorbing effect. [Resolution Means] The steering wheel according to the present invention includes: a cored bar member; an airbag module which houses an airbag cushion and an inflator and is coupled to the cored bar member; and a damper unit arranged between the cored bar member and the airbag module. Here, the damper unit includes: a buffer member including an elastic material; an upper support member supporting the buffer member from above; and a lower support member supporting the buffer member from below. Moreover, the buffer member includes a laterally protruding flange part configured so as to be sandwiched between the upper support member and the lower support member. In addition, a gap is formed between the flange and at least one of the upper support member or the lower support member.

Steering wheel

[Problem] To enable an airbag module to be assuredly assembled to a cored bar. [Resolution Means] The present invention is applied to a steering wheel including: a cored bar member; and an airbag module which houses an airbag cushion and an inflator and is coupled to the cored bar member via a coupling pin, wherein the steering wheel employs a configuration in which the coupling pin extends from the airbag module side to the cored bar member side. The steering wheel according to the present invention includes: a coil spring arranged outside the coupling pin; and a support member supporting the upper end of the coil spring at a peripheral part of the coupling pin. Moreover, the support member includes a hook which includes: a support surface protruding in the direction vertical to the shaft of the coupling pin in order to support the upper end part of the coil spring; and a side extending from this support surface towards the lower side of the coupling pin. In addition, the coil spring is configured so as not to interfere with the side of the hook.

Problem: To provide a damper mechanism of a steering wheel and a steering wheel apparatus for a vehicle in which it is possible to ensure a damping effect comparable to that of the known art and to decrease an airbag module in size so as to achieve a reduction in cost. Solution: A damper mechanism of a steering wheel includes: two damper unitsthat are provided between a steering wheeland an airbag modulefunctioning as a damper mass and damp vibration of the steering wheel; and an engaging mechanism (hook of a plate-shaped damper) that is provided in parallel with the damper unit, between the steering wheel and the airbag module, and holds the steering wheel and the airbag module in a relatively displaceable manner.

Damper mechanism of steering wheel and steering wheel apparatus for vehicle

An inflatable airbag system can be configured to be mounted to a frontal region of a vehicle. The inflatable airbag system includes a housing configured to be mounted on a steering wheel of a vehicle and an inflator assembly at least partially disposed within the housing. The inflatable airbag system includes an airbag that receives inflation gas from the inflator assembly to expand and deploy out of the housing from a packaged configuration to a deployed configuration to provide occupant crash protection during a collision event, the airbag defining an inflatable chamber. A diffuser is disposed within the inflatable chamber and is in fluid communication with the inflator assembly. An occupant-facing panel of the diffuser comprises an aperture disposed in the center of the occupant-facing panel of the diffuser.

Frontal airbag systems

Driver airbag cushion assemblies comprising dampening means. In some embodiments, the assembly may comprise a driver airbag module, a steering wheel armature, and an intermediate plate positioned between the driver airbag module and the steering wheel armature. The assembly may further comprise one or more horn actuators, such as horn springs coupled to the airbag module, and one or more dampening members. The one or more dampening members may be used to couple two or more of the armature, plate, and airbag module together. In some embodiments, the dampening member(s) may be functionally and/or physically decoupled from the one or more horn actuators.

Dampening driver airbag assemblies and related systems and methods

A steering wheel structure with an airbag module having a horn bracket fixed to a steering wheel, an airbag module having an inflator and serving as a weight, a spring unit installed between the airbag module and the horn bracket and transmitting vibrations of the steering wheel to the airbag module for configuring a dynamic damper. The spring unit including an elastic body that transmits the vibrations and a protector attached to the horn bracket and housing the elastic body therein in an elastically deformable manner.

Steering wheel structure with airbag module

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Yutaka Hirota