Side airbag device and method of sewing side airbag

• US 8,696,021 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Kazuhito
• Primary Examiner(s): VERLEY, NICOLE T
• Application Number:
  US13/502,665
• Publication Number:
  US 20120248746A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,576 Days
• Field of Search: 280/730.2
• US Class Current: 280/730.2
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/23146 seat mounted
• 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 2021/23538 Sewing
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/23576 Sewing
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/23138 specially adapted for side protection B60R21/23184, B60R21/232 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/233 comprising a plurality of individual compartments; comprising two or more bag-like members, one within the other B60R21/232 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/2342 Tear seams
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/2346 Soft diffusers
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/235 characterised by their material

Abstract

A side airbag device has: a side airbag that inflates and expands at a time of a side collision, and that has a lower chamber (high pressure chamber), and an upper chamber (low pressure chamber), the high pressure chamber and the low pressure chamber being formed by base cloths (a lower base cloth, an upper base cloth) that are respectively separate bodies; an inflator; a partitioning wall that is formed by a portion of the lower base cloth, and that divides the lower chamber and the upper chamber; and a check valve that is provided at a partial region of the partitioning wall, and that is provided convexly toward the lower chamber side when the side airbag is not inflated, and that permits flowing of the gas for inflation from the upper chamber side to the lower chamber side, and restricts flowing of gas in a direction opposite thereto.

Claims

1. A side airbag device comprising:

a side airbag that inflates and expands at a time of a side collision, and that has a high pressure chamber that becomes a high pressure side at a time of inflation and expansion, and a low pressure chamber that becomes a lower pressure than the high pressure chamber, the high pressure chamber and the low pressure chamber being formed by base cloths that are respectively separate bodies;

an inflator that supplies gas for inflation into the side airbag;

a partitioning wall that is formed by a portion of a base cloth that forms the high pressure chamber, and that divides the high pressure chamber and the low pressure chamber; and

a check valve that is provided at a partial region of the partitioning wall, and that is provided convexly toward the high pressure chamber side when the side airbag is not inflated, and that permits flowing of the gas for inflation from the low pressure chamber side to the high pressure chamber side, and restricts flowing of gas in a direction opposite thereto,

wherein the base cloth that forms the high pressure chamber is folded in two convexly toward the high pressure chamber side at a region that becomes a central portion of the partitioning wall, and is further folded-over respectively toward a bag outer side and the high pressure chamber side at both end portions in a bag thickness direction of a region that becomes the partitioning wall, and end edges that are positioned at a peripheral edge portion of the high pressure chamber are sewn together.

2. The side airbag device of claim 1, wherein,

at the side airbag in an inflated and expanded state,

the high pressure chamber is a lower chamber that corresponds to a waist portion of a passenger seated in a vehicle seat, and

the low pressure chamber is an upper chamber that corresponds to at least one of a chest portion or a shoulder portion of the passenger.

3. The side airbag device of claim 2, comprising:

a diffuser that guides the gas for inflation mainly to the lower chamber side, and also guides the gas for inflation to the upper chamber side,

wherein the diffuser has a main opening portion that opens to the lower chamber side, and an auxiliary opening portion that opens to the upper chamber side.

4. The side airbag device of claim 3, wherein a base cloth that forms the diffuser is sewn together with a base cloth that forms the low pressure chamber at at least a peripheral edge portion of the low pressure chamber, and is formed in a form of a tube.

5. A method of sewing a side airbag, the side airbag having a high pressure chamber that becomes a high pressure side at a time of inflation and expansion, and a low pressure chamber that becomes a lower pressure than the high pressure chamber, and in which the high pressure chamber and the low pressure chamber are formed by base cloths, that are respectively separate bodies, and are divided by a partitioning wall, and in which the partitioning wall is formed by a portion of a base cloth that forms the high pressure chamber, the method comprising:

a step of forming, at a partial region of the partitioning wall, a check valve that permits flowing of gas for inflation from the low pressure chamber side to the high pressure chamber side, and restricts flowing of the gas in a direction opposite thereto;

a step of folding the base cloth that forms the high pressure chamber in two convexly toward the high pressure chamber side at a region that becomes a central portion of the partitioning wall, and sewing both end portions in a bag thickness direction of a region that becomes the partitioning wall to a base cloth that forms the low pressure chamber; and

a step of folding-over the base cloth that forms the high pressure chamber, respectively toward a bag outer side and the high pressure chamber side at both end portions in the bag thickness direction of the region that becomes the partitioning wall, and, at a peripheral edge portion of the high pressure chamber, sewing together end edges of the base cloth that forms the high pressure chamber, and, at a peripheral edge portion of the low pressure chamber, sewing together end edges of the base cloth that forms the low pressure chamber.