The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 21, 1991
Filed:
Mar. 09, 1990
Kevin J Gunning, Tokyo, JP;
Lon E Bell, Pasadena, CA (US);
TRW Technar Inc., Irwindale, CA (US);
Abstract
A gas damped deceleration switch for a vehicle performs repeatedly in a consistent manner in response to decelerating crash forces acting transversely to the direction of movement of the vehicle or traversely to the axis of the deceleration switch. A mass assembly comprising a mass and a damping member is supported for movement along the axis of the deceleration switch in response to deceleration of the vehicle. A spiral spring is connected to the mass assembly at a location in a plane which extends perpendicular to the axis of the deceleration switch and which contains the center of mass of the mass assembly. Axially transverse components of a deceleration pulse experienced by the deceleration switch act upon the movable mass assembly at the axial location wherein the movable mass assembly is least susceptible to being moved out of its position centrally aligned with the axis of the deceleration switch.