MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY DEVICE

• US 3,741,583 A
• Filed: 06/15/1971
• Issued: 06/26/1973
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Keizaburo Usui, Takashi Haruna, Yoshinori Akiyama
• Original Assignee: Keizaburo Usui, Takashi Haruna, Yoshinori Akiyama
• Inventors: Akiyama, Yoshinori, Usui, Keizaburo, Haruna, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Friaglia, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mitchell, David M.
• Application Number:
  US05/153,180
• Time in Patent Office: 742 Days
• Field of Search: 280/15AB 49/31,141 89/1B 292/DIG.65 296/93 85/DIG.1,1R
• US Class Current: 280/735
• CPC Class Codes: B60J 1/00 Windows; Windscreens; Accessories therefor B60J10/00 takes precedence; air curtains instead of windows B60J9/04 ; sealing strips for windshields B60J10/70; sealing sash guides for sliding window panes B60J10/74; glass partitions inside vehicles to protect occupants against personal attack B60R21/12
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/164 combined with vehicle venting means for reducing or avoiding the passenger compartment overpressure during inflation

Abstract

Herein disclosed is a safety device for protecting a vehicle occupant from injury during a collision of a motor vehicle. The safety device uses an inflatable protector bag which is normally stowed in a contracted condition and which is expanded and projected to a protective condition intervening between the vehicle occupant and surrounding structural parts of the vehicle cabin when an impact resulting from the collision is detected. The safety device also uses a blasting means which is adapted to destroy or release a window pane of any of the front windshield, side door windows and a rear window immediately when the inflatable protector bag is expanded. The blasting means thus protects the vehicle occupant from hurting his eardrums and/or intestines due to a sudden rise in the atmospheric pressure in the vehicle cabin. The blasting means will also facilitate the vehicle occupant to get out of the vehicle cabin through the broken windows in the event of the collision.

Claims

1. A vehicle safety device comprising an inflatable protector bag normally stowed in a contracted condition but quickly expandable to a protective condition during a collision of a motor vehicle, normally inoperative pressurized gas supply means associated with said protector bag to expand the protector bag with a pressurized gas when made operative, sensing means responsive to a collision condition and connected to said pressurized gas supply means to release said pressurized gas for expanding said bag, and blasting means mounted on a window pane of the motor vehicle and including explosive means which is connected to said sensing means and is fired when the sensing means responds to the collision condition for blasting said window pane at the same time that the gas is released to expand said bag.

2. A vehicle safety device as claimed in claim 1, in which said blasting means further comprises a receptacle having a flange portion and a bored portion protruding from said flange portion and closed at both ends, said bored portion accommodating therein said explosive means and being securely extended through an aperture formed in said window pane;

a threaded fastener engaging said bored portion for fastening said receptacle to said window pane; and

two shock absorbing members respectively interposed between said flange portion and said window pane and between said fastener and said window pane.

3. A vehicle safety device as claimed in claim 1, in which said blasting means further includes a receptacle having a bored portion closed at both ends and accommodating therein said explosive means, said bored portion having formed therein a weakened portion.

4. A vehicle safety device as claimed in claim 1, in which said blasting means further includes a receptacle having a bored portion closed at both ends and accommodating therein said explosive means, said bored portion being fitted to said window pane through an aperture formed in the window pane, said receptacle being secured to said window pane by an adhesive.

5. A vehicle safety device as claimed in claim 1, in which said blasting means further includes a receptacle having a bored portion closed at both ends and accommodating therein said explosive means, said receptacle being covered over its ends by a structural part of the vehicle body and a molding secured to the vehicle body.

6. A vehicle safety device as claimed in claim 4, in which said receptacle is located at a peripheral edge of said window pane.

7. A vehicle safety device as claimed in claim 1, in which said explosive means includes a plurality of explosive charges which are located along an entire peripheral edge of said window pane and which are spaced from each other, each of said explosive charges being interposed between the peripheral edge of said pane and the peripheral edge of a shell structure of the vehicle and its reinforced member and securely held in position by support means attached to said window pane.

8. A vehicle safety device as claimed in claim 7, in which said support means is formed by a weather strip.