OCCUPANT RESTRAINT DEVICE

• US 20110006507A1
• Filed: 07/13/2010
• Published: 01/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Fukawatase, Osamu, Kondo, Toshiki, Sugiyama, Takahiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,448,983 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 280/733
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/23308 the individual compartments defining the external shape of the bag
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/2612 Gas guiding means, e.g. ducts
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/18 the inflatable member formed as a belt or harness or combined with a belt or harness arrangement
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/268 using instantaneous release of stored pressurised gas B60R21/26005 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 22/12 Construction of belts or harnesses B60R21/18 takes precedence ; woven fabrics for safety belts D03D1/0005
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 22/26 secured to the seat

Abstract

An air belt device includes: a seat belt that restrains a seated occupant; an air belt that is provided in a shoulder belt portion of the seat belt and that is deployed when supplied with a gas; a retractor that extractably winds up the seat belt from a side of a shoulder portion of the occupant; an inflator that supplies gas to the air belt; and a flexible hose that is curved when the seat belt is not worn and that communicates the inflator with the end of the air belt that extends into the seat back.

Claims

1. An occupant restraint device comprising:

a seat belt that restrains an occupant, wherein the seat belt includes an expandable portion provided at a portion of the seat belt that extends from a shoulder portion to a waist of the occupant when the seat belt is worn by the occupant, and the expandable portion expands when supplied with gas;

a retractor that allows the seat belt to be extracted and wound up from a side of the shoulder portion;

an inflator that supplies the gas to the expandable portion; and

a flow path member that is flexible, and that communicates an end of the expandable portion oriented towards the retractor with the inflator, wherein the flow path member has a curved shape when the seat belt is not worn by the occupant.

2. The occupant restraint device according to claim 1, wherein the flow path member is supported on a vehicle body or a seat at a supported portion that is positioned at a part of the flow path member that is nearest the inflator at an inner circumferential side of a curved portion of the flow path member.

3. The occupant restraint device according to claim 1, wherein the retractor and the inflator are disposed in a seat back.

4. The occupant restraint device according to claim 3, wherein the retractor is disposed in a lower portion of the seat back in a vertical direction of a seat.

5. The occupant restraint device according to claim 1, wherein a base material of the flow path member at an outer circumferential side of a curved portion is longer than a base material of the flow path member at an inner circumferential side of the curved portion.

6. The occupant restraint device according to claim 1, wherein:

the flow path member includes a first folded back portion and a second folded back portion, provided downstream of the first folded back portion in a direction in which the gas flows, when the seat belt is not worn by the occupant; and

the first folded back portion is positioned above the second folded back portion in a vertical direction of a seat back, when the seat belt is not worn by the occupant.