Airbag device

• US 7,637,530 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2004
• Issued: 12/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ashimori Industry Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ashimori Industry Company Limited
• Inventors: Azuma, Hidetaka, Yamaji, Naoki
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleming; Faye M.
• Application Number:
  US10/543,717
• Publication Number:
  US 20060175809A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,161 Days
• Field of Search: 280/743.1, 280/740, 280/730.2, 280/739
• US Class Current: 280/730.2
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/23316 Inner seams, e.g. creating separate compartments or used as tethering means
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/23324 Inner walls crating separate compartments, e.g. communicating with vents
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/23138 specially adapted for side protection B60R21/23184, B60R21/232 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/239 characterised by their venting means

Abstract

In an air bag device 1 against a side collision which can be expanded and spread out in a gap between an outside portion of a seat of a vehicle and a wall opposite thereto owing to gas generated by an inflator 20 in emergency situations so as to obtain the air bag device at a low cost which system is provided with plural air chambers having difference in expansion timing and pressure depending on portions of a body of a crew, an air bag 10 is structured by a lower air chamber 12 provided with the inflator and an upper air chamber 14, a partition unit 40 for partitioning the lower air chamber 12 and the upper air chamber 14 is structured by a cloth sewn to the air bag, and a communication hole 40e which introduces gas from the inflator 20 from the lower air chamber 14 into the upper air chamber and is closed when subjected to pressure of the upper chamber as the pressure of the lower air chamber is reduced is formed in the cloth.

Claims

1. An air bag device comprising;

an inflator for generating gas in emergency situations so as to be expanded and spread out by generated gas,

an air bag comprising base cloths having peripheral edges which have been joined together along a seam at said peripheral edges to form a top face side and rear face side thereof, said base cloths being further joined together along a branching line extending from said peripheral edges and defining an opening where said base cloths are not joined, to further form a first air chamber provided with the inflator and a second air chamber that is coupled to the first chamber via the opening, and

a partition cloth having a pair of opposed ends, each end joined to a respective one of said base cloths proximate the opening interposed between the first and second air chambers, and having a folded portion disposed toward the second air chamber, said partition cloth forming a partition unit joined to said base cloth on the top face side and rear face side thereof at portions other than the folded side portion of the partition cloth,

wherein the partition unit is provided with at least one communication hole which is closed by the partition cloth forming the partition unit owing to a difference in pressure between the first and second air chambers,

wherein the first chamber is oriented to extend laterally from an aft to a fore position with respect to a vehicle and the second chamber is disposed above the first chamber and is oriented to extend longitudinally from a lower to an upper position with respect to the vehicle, and

wherein an exhaust port is provided in the first air chamber.

2. An air bag device according to claim 1, further comprising a diffuser for rectifying flow of the gas from the inflator in the direction of the partition unit, wherein the diffuser is provided in the first air chamber, and the diffuser supplies gas to the second air chamber more than it supplies gas to the first air chamber.

3. An air bag device according to claim 2, further comprising a tubular chamber formed to define a passage within said second air chamber to which said communication holes of said partition unit are coupled.

4. An air bag device according to claim 1, the partition unit is continuously and integrally formed with a diffuser, and a second communication hole, which is smaller than the first communication hole in the partition unit, is provided in the diffuser for supplying gas to the first air chamber.

5. An air bag device according to claim 1, wherein a volume of the first air chamber is smaller than a volume of the second air chamber.

6. An air bag device according to claim 1, wherein the cloths on the top face side and the rear face side forming the air bag are sewn to one another so as to form guide paths in such a way that a stream of gas flown in the second air chamber is guided from a rear side of a vehicle of the air bag into an upper portion of the air bag, and further from the upper portion to a front portion thereof.

7. An air bag device according to claim 1, further comprising a tubular chamber formed to define a passage within said second air chamber to which said communication holes of said partition unit are coupled.

8. An air bag device according to claim 1, wherein said first air chamber is oriented to provide protection to a waist of an occupant and said second air chamber is oriented to provide protection to a head of an occupant.

9. An air bag device according to claim 8, wherein as a result of a side collision, a waist of an occupant is first protected by inflation of said first chamber and subsequently the arms, shoulder and head of the occupant are protected by further inflation of said second chamber.