Rear seat air-bag apparatus for vehicle and controlling method thereof

• US 9,296,353 B1
• Filed: 12/05/2014
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group)
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group)
• Inventors: Choi, Jae Ho
• Primary Examiner(s): Freedman, Laura
• Application Number:
  US14/562,289
• Publication Number:
  US 20160096501A1
• Time in Patent Office: 480 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/161 characterised by additional means for controlling deployment trajectory
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/23153 specially adapted for rear seat passengers
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2021/23384 having ends which are movable or detachable during deployment
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/01554 Seat position sensors
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/207 in vehicle seats
• 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 21/2338 Tethers

Abstract

A rear seat air-bag apparatus for a vehicle may include an air-bag module including a housing provided in a front seat, an air-bag cushion provided in the housing and deployed to protect a rear seat passenger as needed, and an inflator deploying the air-bag cushion, an angle variable controlling mechanism adjusting an angle of the air-bag cushion in the case in which an angle adjustment of the air-bag cushion is required upon the deploying of the air-bag cushion, and a controlling unit adjusting an angle of the angle variable controlling mechanism as needed.

Claims

1. A rear seat air-bag apparatus for a vehicle, the rear seat air-bag apparatus comprising:

an air-bag module including a housing provided in a front seat, an air-bag cushion provided in the housing and deployed to protect a rear seat passenger as needed, and an inflator deploying the air-bag cushion;

an angle variable controlling mechanism adjusting an angle of the air-bag cushion in the case in which an angle adjustment of the air-bag cushion is required upon the deploying of the air-bag cushion; and

a controlling unit adjusting an angle of the angle variable controlling mechanism as needed,

wherein the angle variable controlling mechanism is provided in a seat back and linked to a reclining upon an operation of the reclining of the front seat to thereby adjust an angle of the air-bag module.

2. The rear seat air-bag apparatus of claim 1, wherein the air-bag module further includes an area variable device capable of increasing a volume of the air-bag cushion depending on an angle of the front seat upon the deploying of the air-bag cushion.

3. The rear seat air-bag apparatus of claim 2, wherein the air-bag cushion includes a main chamber and a variable chamber sewed on the main chamber, and the area variable device includes a tether binding the variable chamber and a cutting member cutting the tether, such that the tether binding the variable chamber is cut by the cutting member and the variable chamber is deployed.

4. The rear seat air-bag apparatus of claim 3, wherein the cutting member includes a squib and a cutter.

5. The rear seat air-bag apparatus of claim 3, wherein the air-bag module is provided with inflators having one or more pressures, such that the pressures of the inflators are selectively operated upon the deploying of the variable chamber to thereby allow the air-bag cushion to be deployed at higher pressure than when only the main chamber is deployed in a case in which the variable chamber needs to be deployed.

6. The rear seat air-bag apparatus of claim 3, wherein the inflator adjusts a deploying speed of the air-bag cushion by controlling pressure of injected air to be varied depending on whether or not the variable chamber is deployed upon the deploying of the air-bag cushion.

7. A controlling method of the rear seat air-bag apparatus for the vehicle of claim 1, the controlling method comprising:

an angle checking step of checking an angle of a seat back upon sensing a collision of the vehicle and comparing an angle of the seat back which is pre-input to the controlling unit with a current angle of the seat back; and

an air-bag cushion deploying step of deploying the air-bag cushion when the angle of the seat back checked in the angle checking step is within a deployable angle range of the air-bag cushion,

wherein in the angle checking step, when the angle of the seat back corresponds to an angle out of the deployable angle range of the air-bag cushion, the controlling unit does not deploy the air-bag cushion.

8. A controlling method of the rear seat air-bag apparatus for the vehicle of claim 1, the controlling method comprising:

an angle checking step of checking an angle of the seat back upon sensing a collision of the vehicle and comparing an angle of a seat back which is pre-input to the controlling unit with a current angle of the seat back; and

an air-bag cushion deploying step of deploying the air-bag cushion when the angle of the seat back checked in the angle checking step is within a deployable angle range of the air-bag cushion,

wherein when the angle of the seat back checked in the angle checking step is within the deployable angle range of the air-bag cushion and is within a predetermined range, a module angle adjusting step of adjusting an angle of the air-bag module is performed by the controlling unit and the air-bag cushion deploying step is then performed.

9. The controlling method of claim 8, further comprising a variable chamber deploying step of additionally deploying a variable chamber provided in a main chamber by cutting a tether coupled to the air-bag module by a cutting member upon performing the air-bag cushion deploying step, when the angle of the seat back checked in the angle checking step is within the deployable angle range of the air-bag cushion and is within a predetermined range.

10. The controlling method of claim 7, further comprising a variable chamber deploying step of additionally deploying a variable chamber provided in a main chamber by cutting a tether coupled to the air-bag module by a cutting member upon performing the air-bag cushion deploying step, when the angle of the seat back checked in the angle checking step is within the deployable angle range of the air-bag cushion and is within a predetermined range.