JPH0769161A - Air bag door structure for automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the structure of an air bag door which not only prevents the breakage of the belt member installation seat part of the air bag door in the development of an air bag but softens the shock in the case where the air bag door collides with a front glass or instrument panel and can be safely opened. CONSTITUTION:As for an air bag structure which is constituted so that one edge side of a belt member 12 is installed on an air bag door 10 and the other edge side of the belt member 12 is installed on an air bag accommodation part, the belt member has a loosened part 16 in the intermediate part, and the loosened part is superposed by a temporary fitting member 30, and when the belt member is applied with the force having a certain value, the superposition of the meoravily fifting member for superposing the loosened part is released.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of an automobile air bag door.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, an airbag device on the passenger side of an automobile is mounted inside a vehicle cabin side member (specifically, an instrument panel) on the front side of the passenger seat. An airbag deployment opening is formed in this vehicle interior side member, and the opening is covered by an airbag door having the same appearance as the vehicle interior side member in normal times. Then, when the vehicle receives a large impact due to a collision or the like, the airbag accommodated in the airbag accommodating portion (canister) in the opening is operated and inflates, and the expansion opening causes the airbag to inflate. The airbag door that covers the vehicle is pushed open, and the airbag is deployed from the opening into the vehicle compartment to protect the occupant safely.

The inventors of the present invention have previously proposed an airbag door attached to an airbag deployment opening provided in a vehicle compartment side member, the airbag door having one end The airbag door is attached to the back surface side and the other end is coupled by a flexible hinge member attached to the attachment portion of the air bag accommodating portion in the opening, and the airbag door is further connected to the hinge portion of the hinge portion. In both front side portions, one end is attached to a back surface side of the airbag door, and the other end is connected by a belt member attached to a mounting portion of the airbag housing portion in the opening portion. Provided a door structure (filed on June 25, 1993). An example of this is shown in FIG.
Shown in 1. Reference numeral 100 is an airbag door, 101 is a flexible hinge member, 102 is a belt member, 103 is a member on the vehicle interior side, 104 is an airbag deployment opening portion, and 105 is an airbag housing portion.

According to this structure, the impact energy from the airbag is relaxed by the expansion of the flexible hinge member, and the opening speed thereof is reduced by the belt member immediately before the windshield, so that the glass or the door is damaged. No worries. Therefore, there is no scattered matter due to such damage, which is extremely effective in terms of safety.

However, in this structure, the belt member 102 is made of a material having sufficient strength so as not to be broken by the deployment pressure from the airbag. Therefore, when the energy of the deployment pressure of the airbag is applied to the door-side attachment seat portion 106 and the airbag door 100 is opened, an excessive force may be applied to the attachment seat portion 106 and the airbag seat 100 may be destroyed. Also, depending on the shape of the airbag door, the explosive force of the inflator, the positional relationship between the airbag door and the windshield, etc.
Since it is necessary to set the installation conditions of the belt member and the shape of the door-side mounting seat part that are not defeated by the opening energy of the airbag, it is very troublesome in manufacturing. Further, if the door-side attachment seat portion is deteriorated by heat or the like, the attachment seat portion 106 may be easily broken and the fragments may be scattered by the tensile force of the belt member when the airbag is deployed.

[0006]

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above problems, and not only prevents the belt member mounting seat portion of the airbag door from being damaged when the airbag is deployed, It is an object of the present invention to provide a structure of an airbag door that can absorb a shock when the airbag door hits a windshield or an instrument panel and can be opened safely.

[0007]

That is, the present invention is
In an airbag door structure in which one end side of the belt member is attached to the airbag door and the other end side is attached to the airbag accommodating portion, the belt member has a slack portion provided at an intermediate portion thereof, and the slack portion is provided by a temporary fixing member. The airbag door for an automobile, characterized in that it is polymerized and is structured so that the polymerisation of the temporary fixing member which superposes the slack portion is released when a force exceeding a certain level is applied to the belt member. Related to the structure of.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the structure of the present invention, FIG.
Is a cross-sectional view showing its operation step by step, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an essential part showing another example of the structure of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a temporary fixing member used in FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing another example of the structure of the present invention, FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing yet another example, and FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an example of the temporary fixing member. FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing another example of the temporary fixing member, and FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing another example.

As shown in FIG. 1, the structure of the present invention is
When deploying the airbag, the airbag door 10 is provided with a vehicle interior member 2 such as a windshield or an instrument panel.
It is a structure that effectively absorbs a shock without hitting 0 or hits it and opens it securely and safely.

The air bag door 10 has a well-known structure formed in a predetermined door shape, is attached to the air bag accommodating portion 22 via a hinge member 11 and a belt member 12, and has an air bag deployment opening portion 21. cover. Inside the opening 21, the airbag storage portion (canister) 2
2 are installed. An airbag (not shown) is folded and accommodated in the airbag accommodating portion 22.

In this example, a net-shaped flexible hinge member is used for the hinge member 11, and the airbag door 10 is flexibly and flexibly coupled to the airbag housing portion 22. . Reference numeral 13 is a mounting plate of the hinge member 11, and 14 is a mounting tool thereof. The material forming the flexible hinge member needs to have a strength capable of withstanding a tensile load when the airbag door is deployed. For example, nylon 6 or nylon 6-6 fiber, or tough fiber such as polyester fiber or aramid fiber is suitable. The hinge member 11 may be made of metal or resin.

The belt members 12 are provided on both front sides of the hinge member 11, one end of which is the airbag door 10.
The other end is attached to the back side of the above and above the front side of the airbag accommodating portion 22.

In this embodiment, one belt member 12 is inserted into the mounting seat portion 15 on the side of the airbag door to form a ring shape, and both ends of the belt-shaped member 12 are attached to the mounting portion 23 on the side of the airbag housing portion. As a result, the airbag housing portion and the airbag door are connected.

The belt member 12 is made of the same tough material as the hinge member 11. For example, nylon 6 or nylon 6-6 fiber, polyester fiber, aramid fiber or the like is suitable, and these fibers are appropriately formed into a belt shape by plain weave, twill weave, entangled weave and the like. The surface may be covered with silicone rubber or Teflon for the purpose of preventing deterioration due to heat.

A slack portion 16 is provided at an intermediate portion of the belt member 12, and the slack portion 16 is superposed by a temporary fixing member 30. The belt member 12 has such a length that the slack portion 16 is overlapped by the temporary fastening member 30 and does not hit the windshield or the vehicle interior member located in the opening direction when the airbag door 10 opens. It is formed. Therefore, when the airbag door is opened, it is possible to prevent the airbag door from directly colliding with the windshield or the passenger compartment member.

The temporary fixing member 30 is used to temporarily fix the slack portion 16 of the belt member 12 by superposing the slack portion 16 on the belt member 1 when the airbag door 10 is opened.
It is configured so that the polymerization is released when a force of 2 or more is applied. In this example, the sewing thread 31 is used for the temporary fixing member 30, and the intermediate portion of the belt member 12 is superposed for a predetermined length and temporarily fixed. That is, when the opening energy applied to the airbag door 10 exceeds a certain level, the temporary fixing member 30 is released from the polymerization due to the temporary fixing.
The slack portion 16 is extended to absorb the opening energy. This prevents an excessive load from being applied to the belt member 12 and destroying the mounting seat portion 15 or the belt member 12 itself. Therefore, the fixing strength of the belt member 12 by the temporary fixing member 30 needs to be set lower than the breaking strength of the belt member 12, and, for example, the breaking strength of the belt member 12 is 10 or less.
In the case of 0 to 2000 kgf, the fixing strength by the temporary fixing member 30 is 30 to 1000 kgf.

According to this structure, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, when the airbag door 10 is opened by the inflation of the airbag B as the airbag B is inflated and deployed, the belt member 12 is removed. The sewing thread 31 once extends the slack portion 16 to the overlapped length. Then, when a larger force is applied to the belt member 12, the sewing thread 31 is torn and the overlapping thereof is released to extend the belt member 12, as can be understood from FIG. By the extension of the belt member 12 at this time, the deployment energy of the airbag is absorbed and the airbag door 10 is also sufficiently decelerated, so that the impact applied to the mounting seat portion 15 is alleviated.
It also prevents the destruction of windshields. The belt member may be a string-like material.

FIG. 3 shows another example of the structure of the present invention. In the drawings, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 indicate the same members. As shown, this airbag door 1
0 is a slack portion 16 provided in the middle of the belt member 12.
Are overlapped by the clip member 40. The clip member 40 is shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the clip member 40 is formed by bending a flat plate-shaped synthetic resin or a metal plate and fastening both ends thereof with fixing members 42 such as bolts. The slack portion 16 is sandwiched and temporarily fixed. The force with which the clip member 40 temporarily fixes the belt member 12 is preferably set lower than the breaking strength of the belt, as in the case of the sewing thread, and the amount of tightening of the fixing member 42 is adjusted. The force is adjusted by. The force with which the belt member is pressed by the clip member 40 is appropriately adjusted by the opening speed of the airbag door 10 and the explosive force of the inflator. According to the structure of the airbag door of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 5 (A) and 5 (B),
When the airbag door 10 opens, the belt member 12 is pulled by the opening energy. Then, when a larger force is applied, the belt member 12 is depolymerized by the clip member 40, and the slack portion 16 extends to absorb the opening energy and the airbag door 10 of the airbag door 10 is absorbed, as shown in FIG. The opening speed is reduced.

6 to 10 show another example of the clip member used in the structure of the present invention.
First, the clip member 50 shown in FIG. 6 is a buckle member 5 provided with two parallel belt insertion holes 51, 51.
It consists of 2. The buckle member 52 is made of resin or the like, and is provided with an engaging portion 53 for sandwiching and temporarily fixing the inserted belt member 12. As shown in the figure, the clip member 50 temporarily fixes the overlapping portion of the belt inserted from the lower side of the belt insertion hole 51 to the buckle member 52 by bending the engaging portion 53. Reference numeral 54 is an engaging claw for attaching to the buckle member 52 provided in the engaging portion 53.

Clip member 6 shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.
Reference numeral 0 is a buckle member 62 having the belt insertion holes 61, 61 as described above, and a spring member 63 detachably formed on the buckle member 62. The spring member 63 is made of metal or the like and has a substantially U-shaped cross section as shown in the drawing. A belt pressing portion 64 is formed on the upper side and a buckle pressing portion 65 is formed on the lower side. The belt pressing portion 64 is formed in a bifurcated shape so that the belt member 12 can be pressed wide. In addition, the buckle holding portion 65
Is formed in a wavy shape, and the elasticity of the spring member 63 strongly presses the buckle member 62 from the back side to clamp and temporarily fix the belt member 12. Reference numeral 66 is a notch portion for fixing the position of the spring member 63 provided on the buckle member 62.

Further, the clip member 70 shown in FIG.
Is composed of two flat plates 71, 71 and fixing members 72, 72 such as bolts for fixing both ends thereof by tightening. The slack portion of the belt member is superposed and sandwiched between the flat plates 71, 71, and temporarily fixed by the fixing members 72, 72.

In FIG. 10, a clip body 81 having an oval annular shape is provided, and a belt pressing member 84 is provided from the end portion 82 to the other end 83 thereof. The slack portion of the belt member 12 is inserted into the belt insertion portions 85, 85 defined by the belt pressing member 84, and temporarily fixed by the belt pressing member 84 as shown in the figure.

[0023]

As shown and described above, according to the structure of the air bag door for an automobile of the present invention, the belt member can prevent the air bag door from directly colliding with the windshield or the passenger compartment member. it can. Also, when a certain force or more is applied to the belt, the slack is extended by releasing the overlapping of the belt member by the temporary fixing member, so that the opening energy of the airbag door is absorbed and relaxed, and the belt mounting seat of the airbag door is seated. It is possible to prevent the breakage of the portion and the generation of scattered matter due to it, and reduce the opening speed of the airbag door immediately before the windshield to provide an extremely safe airbag door structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the present invention structure.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing its operation step by step.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a main part showing another example of the structure of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a temporary fixing member used in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the operation stepwise.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing another example of the present invention structure.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing still another example.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an example of the temporary fixing member.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing another example of the temporary fixing member.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing still another example.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing a structure of a conventional automobile airbag door.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Airbag Door 11 Hinge Member 12 Belt Member 16 Slack Section 20 Cabin Member 30 Temporary Fixing Member

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An airbag door structure in which one end side of a belt member is attached to an airbag door and the other end side is attached to an airbag accommodating portion, wherein the belt member is provided with a slack portion at an intermediate portion thereof. Is superposed by the temporary fastening member, and the superposition of the temporary fastening member that superposes the slack portion is released when a force of a certain amount or more is applied to the belt member. The structure of an automobile airbag door. 2. The structure of an automobile airbag door according to claim 1, wherein the temporary fixing member is a sewing thread. 3. The structure of an automobile airbag door according to claim 1, wherein the temporary fixing member is a clip.