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:
Feb. 03, 1998
Filed:
Apr. 22, 1996
Todd R Bailey, Higley, AZ (US);
TRW Inc., Lyndhurst, OH (US);
Abstract
Inflation fluid (18) for an inflatable vehicle occupant protection device, such as an air bag (12), is contained in a pressure vessel (30) at an elevated storage pressure. The pressure vessel (30) further contains ignitable material (18) which, when ignited, heats the inflation fluid (18). An ohmic heating element (92) is maintained in an ignitable heat transferring relationship with the ignitable material (18) under the influence of the storage pressure. When the vehicle experiences a predetermined collision-indicating condition, an actuating level of electric current is directed through the heating element (92) to ignite the ignitable material (18). The storage pressure is monitored by monitoring an electrical characteristic, such as the resistance, of the heating element (92) which has a predetermined relationship to the storage pressure.