Air bag module assembly

Abstract

An air bag module comprises an air bag, an air bag mounting bracket and a unitary flexible plastic housing having a front, opposed sides, a top, a bottom, a rear opening, and an integral door connected to each opposed side by a flexible hinge. The doors are sized to overlap and close the opening when folded closed. The mounting bracket includes a pair of spaced T-shaped tabs, and vehicle attachment portions extending from each end. A pair of upper and lower spaced slots are formed in each door and are slightly offset from alignment with each other and with one of the tabs when folded. The housing top and bottom adjacent the rear opening is relieved to create an opening to accommodate the vehicle attachment portions when the doors are closed. The housing may be deformed by manually squeezing the sides to align the slots to enable the tab head to protrude through the aligned slots. When the housing is manually released, the slots misalign to grip the tab stem beneath the enlarged head to secure the doors closed. In an alternate embodiment, only one of the doors has slots and the other door is vertically shortened to fit between the slots when the doors are folded closed. Since the shortened door is folded closed first, this shortening expands the upper and lower openings for the mounting bracket vehicle attachment portions.