Air bag apparatus

• US 7,147,244 B2
• Filed: 12/27/2001
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Takahara, Isamu
• Primary Examiner(s): Dunn, David R.
• Application Number:
  US10/450,739
• Publication Number:
  US 20040070184A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,811 Days
• Field of Search: 280/730.2, 280/740, 280/742, 280/736
• US Class Current: 280/730.2
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/2617 Curtain bag nozzles
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/232 Curtain-type airbags deploying mainly in a vertical direction from their top edge
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/26 characterised by the inflation fluid source or means to control inflation fluid flow arrangement or mounting thereof to the vehicle B60R21/20; blasting cartridges for producing gas under pressure in general F42B3/04; initiators or igniters therefor F42B3/10

Abstract

In an air bag apparatus structured such that an air bag (11) housed in a part of a vehicle in a folded manner is inflated and deployed by a gas supplied from an inflator (14) so as to protect an occupant, the gas supplied from the inflator (14) is dispersed in a three-dimensional direction by a shower head (13a) so as to be supplied to a gas passage (11b) of the air bag (11).

Claims

1. An air bag apparatus wherein an air bag is housed along a roof side rail and is inflated and deployed in a curtain-like shape along a vehicle compartment side wall due to gas supplied from an inflator that is disposed outside the air bag and is arranged in a center portion along a longitudinal direction of a vehicle so as to protect a head portion of an occupant, the air bag is provided with an inflating portion for a front seat and an inflating portion for a rear seat, a gas passage for communicating upper portions of both of these inflating portions and a single gas supply port that opens into the gas passage from upward, and wherein a shower head for dispersing the gas supplied from the inflator in a three-dimensional direction is disposed so as to face the gas supply port of the air bag and the shower head has a plurality of injection holes which are directed to the three-dimensional direction.

2. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head is formed in a semispherical shape and has the plurality of injection holes on a spherical surface thereof.

3. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the injection holes of the shower head are provided symmetrically with respect to a point of a center of the shower head.

4. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head is formed by a mesh.

5. An air bag apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the shower head is formed in a semispherical shape.

6. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head is formed by a porous body.

7. An air bag apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the shower head is formed in a semispherical shape.

8. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head is provided in a front end of a diffuser pipe assembled in the inflator.

9. An air bag apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the front end portion of the diffuser pipe is formed so as to have a small diameter and the shower head is fitted and fixed to an outer periphery of the front end portion of the diffuser pipe.

10. An air bag apparatus according to claim 9, wherein a gas supply port forming portion of the air bag is fixed to the step portion formed by the front end portion of the diffuser pipe and the shower head.

11. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head is integrally provided in the inflator.

12. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head does not protrude within the gas passage of the air bag.

13. An air bag apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the inflator is arranged in a center portion in a longitudinal direction of a vehicle.

14. An air bag apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the inflator is arranged in a longitudinal direction along the roof side rail above the air bag.

15. An air bag apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the inflator is arranged in a vehicle width direction along a roof panel above the air bag.

16. An air bag apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the diffuser pipe is formed in a substantially J shape.

17. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head is coaxially arranged with respect to the longitudinal direction of the gas passage communicating with the inflating chamber of the air bag.

18. An air bag apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the inflator is arranged in front of or at the rear of the vehicle of the air bag.

19. An air bag apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the shower head is arranged in the gas passage at a portion of the air bag communicating with the inflating chamber.

20. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of injection holes provided in the shower head are concentrically arranged with a center of the front end of the shower head so as to form a plurality of lines.

21. An air bag apparatus according to claim 20, wherein a plurality of inner and outer injection holes concentrically arranged and being adjacent to each other in a radial direction are arranged in a circumferential direction so as to form a zigzag form.

22. An air bag apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the shower head is formed in a stepped shape having multiple steps which become smaller toward the front end, and the plurality of injection holes is formed in the respective step portions in an inclined manner.

23. An air bag apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the injection holes are formed in a fan shape expanding toward the front end.

24. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the front end of the shower head is formed in an asymmetrical shape with respect to a center axis thereof and the injection holes are formed in the asymmetrical surface.

25. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the injection holes are formed in a stepped shape and a thickness of a minimum hole portion is made small.

26. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the injection holes formed in the front end wall of the shower head are inclined with respect to the wall surface of the front end wall.

27. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head is formed in a closed-end cylindrical shape or a closed-end polygonal tubular shape, the injection holes are formed in the front end wall of the shower head, and the injection holes are formed so as to ride over the front wall of the shower head and a peripheral wall.

28. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein distribution in a longitudinal direction with respect to the center of the front end in the shower head is made different between the front seat injection hole and the rear seat injection hole which are provided in the shower head.

29. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the injection holes provided in the shower head are formed in a long hole longer in the longitudinal direction.

30. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an opening area of the injection hole being most apart in the longitudinal direction from the center of the front end of the shower head among the plurality of injection holes provided in the shower head is made larger than an opening area of the other injection holes.

31. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein opening areas of the injection holes provided in the shower head are made different between an inner portion and an outer portion in the vehicle width direction.

32. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein numbers of the injection holes provided in the shower head are made different between an inner portion and an outer portion in the vehicle width direction.

33. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the gas supply port of the air bag to which the shower head is inserted is formed in a shape expanding at a predetermined angle toward the gas passage, and an angle of diffusion of the gas supplied from the shower head is made equal to or less than the predetermined angle.

34. An air bag apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an auxiliary inflating chamber communicating with the gas passage at an upper end below the front end of the shower head and extending in a vertical direction is provided in the air bag, and an angle of diffusion in the longitudinal direction of the gas supplied from the shower head is set to be equal to or greater than a predetermined value so that the gas is injected farther forward than an end point disposed in a forward portion of the upper end of the auxiliary inflating chamber and farther rearward than an end point disposed in a rearward portion of the upper end.

35. An air bag apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the angle of forward diffusion of the gas from the shower head is made different from the angle of rearward diffusion.

36. An air bag apparatus wherein an air bag is housed along a roof side rail and is inflated and deployed in a curtain-like shape along a vehicle compartment side wall due to gas supplied from an inflator so as to protect a head portion of an occupant, the air bag is provided with an inflating portion for a front seat and an inflating portion for a rear seat and a gas passage for communicating upper portions of both of these inflating portions, and wherein a shower head for dispersing the gas supplied from the inflator in a three-dimensional direction is disposed so as to face the gas passage of the air bag and the shower head has a plurality of injection holes which are directed to the three-dimensional direction, wherein

opening areas of an injection hole for the front seat and an injection hole for the rear seat provided in the shower head are set according to capacities of expansion chambers in the front seat inflating portion and the rear seat inflating portion.

37. An air bag apparatus according to claim 36, wherein hole diameters are made different between the front seat injection hole and the rear seat injection hole which are provided in the shower head, whereby it is possible to set the opening areas of the front seat injection hole and the rear seat injection hole according to the capacities of the inflating chambers in the front seat inflating portion and the rear seat inflating portion.

38. An air bag apparatus according to claim 37, wherein the front seat injection holes and the rear seat injection holes are respectively constituted by the plurality of injection holes, and a hole diameter of any one thereof is gradually reduced toward the center of the front end in the shower head.

39. An air bag apparatus according to claim 36, wherein numbers of holes are made different between the front seat injection hole and the rear seat injection hole which are provided in the shower head, whereby it is possible to set the opening areas of the front seat injection hole and the rear seat injection hole according to the capacities of the inflating chambers in the front seat inflating portion and the rear seat inflating portion.

40. An air bag apparatus according to claim 36, wherein an auxiliary inflating chamber communicating with the gas passage at an upper end below the front end of the shower head so as to extend in a vertical direction is provided in the air bag.

41. An air bag apparatus according to claim 40, wherein a lower end of the auxiliary inflating chamber is communicated with at least one of the front seat inflating portion and the rear seat inflating portion.

42. An air bag apparatus according to claim 40, wherein an opening area of a passage for communicating the auxiliary inflating chamber with the front seat inflating portion and an opening area of a passage for communicating the auxiliary inflating chamber with the rear seat inflating portion are set according to the capacities of the inflating chambers in the front seat inflating portion and the rear seat inflating portion.