JP5852847B2 - Airbag device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an occupant safety device for an automobile or the like, and more particularly to an airbag device that is deployed between an occupant and a side wall of an automobile or the like to alleviate an impact.

An airbag device that protects occupants from the impact of a car crash is inflated in front of the occupants seated in the driver's and passenger's seats. A lateral collision (lateral) airbag that inflates to the side of the vehicle is mounted on the vehicle. In addition, a rear curtain type airbag that is inflated between a back door and a back door such as a compact car or a minivan has been put into practical use.
A conventional side airbag includes a side airbag including an internal tether, the internal tether serving to interconnect two spaced regions of the airbag, and both end portions of the tether in a horizontal section. A side airbag (for example, see Patent Document 1) in which a distance between the outer circumferences of the airbag is larger in one direction than in the other direction, and the length of the tether is smaller than the shorter distance. ) Exists.

Japanese translation of PCT publication No. 2007-510581 (refer to the claims, detailed description of the invention, and FIGS.

The prior art disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a side airbag in which a tether is provided inside an airbag. The airbag inflated by the action of the tether has a seat occupant and an adjacent side surface of the vehicle. A spherical shape that forms a large thickness of the airbag is formed between them.
However, in the above prior art, by pulling the inside with a tether and causing a change in shape, the tension at the time of full deployment of the airbag changes the bag shape. When expanding forward, the width (thickness) tends to increase, and it is not easy to expand in the deployment direction more quickly. For example, a large amount of gas can be blown in an instant, and it can be quickly deployed forward. However, in order to give the airbag sufficient strength to withstand the high-pressure gas that is blown rapidly, the folding volume increases due to various reinforcements, and the airbag device cannot be stored compactly. Various problems occur, such as an increase in manufacturing cost and a need for using a high-power inflator, resulting in an increase in cost.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an airbag that can be easily inflated quickly through a narrow region from the initial stage of airbag deployment and has a cushion stroke for occupant protection.

A first aspect of the present invention is an airbag apparatus as set forth in claim 1, which is as follows.
An inflator that supplies an inflation gas, a main air chamber that is formed from the base on the expansion start side toward the deployment direction and is flat in a direction crossing the deployment direction. It is formed at the position on the occupant side at the front end side in the deployment direction, parallel to the direction intersecting the deployment direction , and extending in the vertical direction of the main air chamber, and expands upon receiving supply of inflation gas from the main air chamber It is a structure provided with the airbag which makes a cross-section substantially L shape which has a subair chamber.

A second aspect of the present invention is an airbag device as described in claim 2, which is as follows.
In addition to the invention according to claim 1, the auxiliary air chamber of the airbag has an opposing panel portion facing in a direction intersecting the deployment direction, and an edge portion connected to a peripheral edge portion of the opposing panel portion. It is the structure which consists of a side edge panel part by which the other edge part was connected with the air chamber.

Since the airbag apparatus according to the present invention has the configuration as described above, the following effects are achieved.
(1) Since the airbag device of the present invention has a different deployment direction for each air chamber and can be quickly inflated when the airbag is deployed, it is suitable for the side portion of the occupant having a small distance between the vehicle body and the occupant. Protection is possible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an essential part showing a state when an airbag apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is deployed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 shows an embodiment of an airbag main body employed in an airbag device of the present invention, wherein (a) is a schematic front view showing the entire airbag, (b) is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA, and (c) is B. FIG. It is a general | schematic disassembled perspective view which shows the structure of the airbag main body employ | adopted as the airbag apparatus of this invention. It is a schematic perspective view which shows the state which attaches the airbag of this invention to an inflator.

An inflator that supplies an inflation gas, a main air chamber that is formed from the base on the expansion start side toward the deployment direction and is flat in a direction crossing the deployment direction. It is formed at the position on the occupant side at the front end side in the deployment direction, parallel to the direction intersecting the deployment direction , and extending in the vertical direction of the main air chamber, and expands upon receiving supply of inflation gas from the main air chamber It is an airbag apparatus provided with the airbag which makes a cross-section substantially L shape which has a subair chamber.

The airbag apparatus of this invention is demonstrated based on FIGS.
As can be understood from the drawings, the airbag device of the present invention has a structure in which two air chambers 1 and 2 that are inflating chambers are provided in the airbag of the side airbag device.
The two air chambers 1 and 2 are a main air chamber 1 that is first inflated directly by gas ejected from the inflator 3 when the airbag is deployed, and vent holes 4, 5 that are set on the vehicle body front side of the main air chamber 1. 6 (note that the number of vent holes can be selected in various ways depending on the vehicle type and installation conditions) is a secondary air chamber 2 that is expanded by the gas that has passed through (see FIGS. 1 and 2A).
The main air chamber 1 is formed of a vehicle trim side base cloth 7 and an occupant side intermediate base cloth 8, and the sub air chamber 2 exists between the occupant side intermediate base cloth 8 and the opposing panel portion 9, and both base cloths are attached. It is comprised with the side edge panel part 10 to connect.
As for the relationship between the main air chamber 1 and the sub air chamber 2, the sub air chamber 2 is configured to have a size of approximately three quarters or less of the main air chamber 1 (see FIGS. 1 and 3). Further, the main air chamber 1 is provided with a tether 11 that regulates inflation in the vehicle left-right direction in the vehicle vertical direction so as to keep the airbag capacity small.
When the airbag is deployed, the main air chamber 1 is deployed on the front side of the vehicle, and the auxiliary air chamber 2 is deployed in the left-right direction of the vehicle. It is a feature of the present invention that the deployment direction is different for each air chamber.
As described above, the main air chamber 1 and the sub air chamber 2 having different deployment directions are provided, and by suppressing the capacity of the main air chamber 1 and the bag thickness, even in a narrow space between the vehicle body and the occupant, It is possible to quickly deploy to areas where passengers must be protected.

Here, the manufacturing method of the airbag of a present Example is demonstrated.
First, the tether 11 is sewn between the vehicle trim side base cloth 7 and the occupant side intermediate base cloth 8 by the sewing parts 12 and 13. The occupant side intermediate base fabric 8 and the side edge panel 10 are sewn at the sewing portion 14. The side edge panel 10 has a pair of vertical sides 10a and 10b that are linear and opposed to each other, and a pair of horizontal sides 10d and 10e that are arched and opposed to each other. However, it is divided into a plurality of short pieces by V-shaped notches. The seal patch 19 is sutured in advance on the side edges 10d and 10e so as to overlap the margin 10f. It has a function of sealing so that gas does not leak from a V-shaped notch that is a discontinuous portion of the stitching margin. Both the sealing patch 19 and the occupant-side intermediate base fabric 8 are stitched together at the sewing portion 14. The sewing portion 14 is formed up to the intermediate point 10g between the horizontal sides 10d and 10e. Thereafter, the vehicle trim side base fabric 7, the occupant side intermediate base fabric 8, and the side edge base fabric panel 10 on the front side (also the front side of the vehicle) when the airbag is deployed from the intermediate point 10g at the sewing portion 15 on the outer periphery. The three base fabrics of the vertical side 10a are stitched together. For the portion ahead of the middle point 10g of the horizontal sides 10d and 10e, four base fabrics are stitched together with the vehicle trim side base fabric 7, the occupant side intermediate base fabric 8, and the vertical side 10a of the side edge base fabric panel 10. Will be. The side surface portion of the auxiliary air chamber 2 and the opposing panel portion 9 formed by this process are sewn by the sewing portion 16, and an air bag including the auxiliary air chamber 2 and the main air chamber 1 is completed (FIGS. 1 and 2A). , (B), (c), see FIG. 3).
When this is installed in the airbag device, four insertion holes 18 are provided in the projecting piece 17 of the vehicle trim side base fabric 7 as shown in FIG. 3 (the number of insertion holes is variously selected depending on the vehicle type and installation conditions). 4) When attaching to the inflator 3 as shown in FIG. 4, the airbag is attached to the inflator so as to be involved.

  It can be used for an airbag device mounted on all vehicle types.

1 .... Main air chamber 2 .... Sub air chamber 3 .... Inflator 4 .... Vent hole 5 .... Vent hole 6 .... Vent hole 7 .... Vehicle trim Side base fabric 8 ··· Passenger side intermediate fabric 9 ··· Opposite panel portion 10 ··· Side edge panel portion 10a ··· Vertical side 10b ··· Vertical side 10d ··· Horizontal Side 10e ··· Side 10f ··· Sewing margin 10g ··· Intermediate point 11 ··· Tether 12 ··· Sewing portion 13 ··· Sewing portion 14 ··· Sewing portion 15 ... Sewing part 16 ... Sewing part 17 ... Projection piece 18 ... Insertion hole 19 ... Seal patch

Claims (2)

An inflator that supplies an inflation gas, a main air chamber that is formed from the base on the expansion start side toward the deployment direction and is flat in a direction crossing the deployment direction. It is formed at the position on the occupant side at the front end side in the deployment direction, parallel to the direction intersecting the deployment direction , and extending in the vertical direction of the main air chamber, and expands upon receiving supply of inflation gas from the main air chamber An airbag device comprising an airbag having a substantially L-shaped cross section having a secondary air chamber. The auxiliary air chamber of the airbag has a counter panel portion facing in a direction intersecting the deployment direction, and a side having one edge connected to the peripheral edge of the counter panel portion and the other edge connected to the main air chamber. The airbag device according to claim 1, comprising an edge panel portion.

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