Flat-lying cutter/ripper foldable into upstanding position during

Abstract

In a vehicle airbag installation in which a deployment door in a panel becomes detached along a tearable region of the panel for creating an outlet in the panel through which an inflating airbag deploys, apparatus for detaching the deployment door at such a tear region includes a cutter/ripper which is flat-lying in an inactive position. During deployment of the airbag a cutting part of the cutter/ripper is pushed forwardly for swinging into an upright active position for detaching the deployment door. This forward swinging involves a hinge-like bending or folding of an intermediate region of the cutter/ripper causing two simultaneous components of motion. In a first motion, the cutting part is moving away from the outlet being created thereby compressing and inhibiting fragmentation of nearby core foam in the panel. In a second motion the cutting part extends forwardly into a confining position for retaining core foam between front and rear surface layers of the panel. A substrate of the deployment door may serve as a pushing element which thrusts forwardly against the cutting part of the cutter/ripper for swinging it into upright active position. In addition to the flat-lying cutter/ripper, a flat-lying cutter/tearer may be mounted on the door substrate extending beyond a perimeter of the substrate into overlapping relationship with the cutter/ripper for cooperative cutting action of the cutters in detaching the deployment door along the tear region during deployment of the airbag.