SAFETY DEVICE

• US 3,773,350 A
• Filed: 05/25/1971
• Issued: 11/20/1973
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Iwao Shibamoto
• Original Assignee: Iwao Shibamoto
• Inventors: Shibamoto, Iwao
• Primary Examiner(s): Betts, Kenneth H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Silverstrim, John P.
• Application Number:
  US05/146,644
• Time in Patent Office: 910 Days
• Field of Search: 280/15AB,15B 244/138R 182/137
• US Class Current: 280/729
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/23153 specially adapted for rear seat passengers
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/16 Inflatable occupant restraints or confinements designed to inflate upon impact or impending impact, e.g. air bags protective garments with automatically inflatable shock-absorbing means A41D13/018; connection of valves to inflatable elastic bodies B60C29/00

Abstract

A safety device comprises a bag made of an air-impervious flexible material, means for abruptly expanding said bag from the foled state to its original shape, air passage openings for sucking the ambient air into said bag therethrough under the pressure differential between inside and outside of the bag in the bag expanding process and means for closing said air passage openings for sealably trapping the air in said bag.

Claims

1. A safety device for a vehicle having a passenger compartment, comprising a bag made of an air-impervious flexible material and having a portion secured to a stationary mounting within said vehicle;

a flexible, inflatable framework operatively associated with said bag, said inflatable framework including a tubular member extending along the peripheral edge of the front wall of said bag, an air space formed between the inner surface of the bag and an inner membrane extending along the inner surface of said bag over the top wall, the rear wall and the bottom wall of the bag, and being secured to the end walls of the bag at its side edges, said air space and said tubular member communicating with each other;

a source of pressurized gas operable upon the sensing of a vehicle collision, said framework being connected to said source for receiving said pressurized gas therefrom upon said source being operated, said framework, when inflated, being adapted to abruptly expand said bag from the folded state to its expanded shape to create a pressure differential between the interior and the exterior of said bag; and

air passage openings for allowing introduction of ambient air into said expanded bag under said pressure differential.

2. A safety device according to claim 1, comprising check valves for closing said air passage openings to trap the introduced air in said bag.

3. A safety device according to claim 2, said air passage openings being provided in the wall of the bag, and said check valves being mounted on said wall adjacent the air passage openings.

4. A safety device according to claim 2, said air passage openings being provided in the top wall of the bag and said check valves being mounted on the inner surface of the top wall adjacent said passage openings.

5. A safety device according to claim 2, said air passage openings being provided in the front wall of the bag and said check valves are mounted on the inneR surface of the front wall adjacent said passage openings.

6. A safety device according to claim 1, said inflatable framework forming a portion of said bag and being positioned on said bag so as to expand the bag to its expanded shape.

7. A safety device according to claim 1, said inflatable framework including end tubular members extending substantially along the peripheral edges of the opposed longitudinal ends of said bag, and a longitudinal tubular member extending between and communicating with said end tubular members.

8. A safety device according to claim 7, comprising auxiliary longitudinal tubular members between said end tubular members and in communication therewith.