JP2008094244A - Airbag module - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an airbag module capable of easily and efficiently performing inactivation even in an open state in which an inflator is connected to a conduit part and a gas outlet is opened. <P>SOLUTION: The airbag module comprises an airbag having a gas inlet and an inflator 2 for feeding gas to the airbag, a conduit part 11 for connecting the inflator 2 to the airbag in a gas-passable manner in one direction, and a vent part 10 formed at the intermediate position of the conduit part 11. The vent part 10 is located outside the airbag and constantly closed by a closing member 16. The closing member 16 releases the closing before the ignition point or the melting point of a material constituting the airbag to open the vent part toward the direction 10a opposite to one direction 19 connected to a gas inlet of the conduit part 11. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an airbag module mounted on a vehicle or the like and inflated and deployed in the event of a collision, and more particularly to an airbag module in which a bag body and an inflator are connected via a conduit to inflate inflation gas. .

Today, an airbag module is mounted on various vehicles, and in particular, an airbag module for a driver's seat has been widely used as an essential equipment. As other air bag modules, the position of the passenger seat, the side air bag, the side curtain air bag, and the like, the target collision mode, and the like are diversified.
There are various types of inflation gas for inflating an air bag, such as nitrogen, helium, and argon. A method of opening the bag and releasing it into an air bag outside the pressure vessel is used.

As a conventional example, an airbag that is folded and stored in a storage part of a vehicle, inflated gas flows in, protrudes and expands from the storage part, and an inflator that supplies the inflation gas to the airbag is provided. In order to allow the inflation gas from the inflator to flow in, the airbag is externally mounted on the inflator and tightened by a clamp to thereby form a cylindrical connection port connected to the inflator. An airbag device comprising the airbag main body that has the connection port portion and that is expanded and inflated by flowing an inflation gas, and the connection port portion and the inflator. And a reinforcing cloth having flexibility for improving the connection strength. A gas inflow portion that swells away from each other, and a non-inflow portion that does not allow the inflating gas to flow by connecting the opposing wall portions, and the reinforcing cloth is externally connected to the inflator It has both end portions arranged at positions facing each other along the direction from the inflator at the mouth portion, and one end portion side is coupled to the non-inflow portion at the periphery of the connection mouth portion of the airbag body. There is an airbag device (see, for example, Patent Document 1), characterized in that the airbag device is disposed as a coupling attachment portion and the other end side is attached and fixed to the inflator. Yes.
In this conventional example, an example of an airbag module connected via a conduit and inflated with inflation gas is described.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-96288 (refer to the claims section, detailed description of the invention, and FIGS. 1 to 9)

The airbag module may be deactivated as a result of the vehicle being dismantled without being used throughout the lifetime of the vehicle.
In other words, since the majority of vehicles that end their lives without encountering an accident will never use an airbag, all installed airbag modules will not be used and will not be transported to a demolition factory. It is activated (intentionally activates the inflator and uses up the medicine etc. peacefully). Only a part of the vehicle that is produced and sold is damaged in an accident or the like and cannot be repaired.
In such vehicle dismantling work, the airbag that was installed in the direction related to the collision such as an accident has already been activated, but if the direction of the collision is from the front, the side Side airbags, side curtain airbags, etc., prepared for crashes will not be activated. For this reason, there may be an unstarted airbag module in the accident vehicle, which is also deactivated at the time of disassembly.
In the dismantling factory, for example, the airbag module is removed from the vehicle body and disassembled to the component level, or the part other than the bag is cut out with a cutter or the like from the module composed of the inflator, the conduit and the bag. Even if it enters into a regeneration process, the bag part left uncut may remain in the front-end | tip part of a conduit | pipe. As a simple method, it is conceivable to start the inflator to emit gas, but since a large amount of gas sufficient to inflate the air bag is ejected at a time, the inflator should be firmly attached in consideration of the reaction of gas injection. It is good to fix. However, it is not realistic to have each dismantling factory prepare a fixing jig that can carry various types of vehicles in the dismantling factory and have various inflator specifications, in particular, various external shapes, and fits securely.
If the inflator is started with the air bag on, the inflator's retention accuracy requirement will be somewhat reduced, but it is possible to recycle it by exposing the intact and recoverable base fabric to the inflation gas. The use is narrowed or eliminated, which is not preferable. That is, if gas is blown in, there will be no influence of a hot gas, and depending on the specification of an inflator, some residue will enter into an air bag as particles. If it is an unused bag, the weaving yarn has almost the same strength as the initial stage and does not contain residual particles, so it is relatively easy to crush and recycle it mechanically or chemically. This bag is not preferable because a material unsuitable for recycling adheres to the bag. It is better to recycle the bag as clean as possible as a single bag in advance as clean as possible.
Thus, when an air bag composed of a nylon base fabric is removed for recycling separately, the inflator and the conduit portion are connected (the bag module is removed from the air bag module, hereinafter “sub”). Module ”).
As described above, a part of the nylon base fabric may remain in the conduit portion. In such a state, when the temperature is raised and the inflator is started, and when the remaining nylon base fabric is removed by melting or burning, when the so-called deactivation treatment is performed, the nylon base fabric is It is not preferable that the inflator gas is blown out in a single direction under conditions such as melting. In addition, as described above, it is extremely inefficient to inactivate the sub-modules firmly fixed one by one, and various fixing jigs are provided to accurately handle various inflators. To do is not realistic at all.

  The present invention aims to solve the problems of the prior art described above, and is simply and efficiently inactive even in an open state in which an inflator and a conduit portion are connected and a gas supply port is released. An object of the present invention is to provide an airbag module that can be processed.

A first invention of the present invention for solving the above-described problems is an airbag module as described in claim 1, and is as follows.
An air bag having a gas inlet, an inflator that supplies gas to the air bag, a conduit portion that connects the inflator and the air bag so that gas can flow in one direction, and a vent portion formed at an intermediate position of the conduit portion The vent part is located outside the airbag and is always closed by a closing member. The closing member is released to the ignition point or melting point of the material constituting the airbag and connected to the gas inlet of the conduit part. It is the structure which opens toward the other direction opposite to one direction.

A second invention of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is an airbag module as described in claim 2, and is as follows.
In addition to the invention described in claim 1, the opening of the vent part and the opening of the supply port part are arranged on one axis.

A third invention of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is an airbag module as described in claim 3, which is as follows.
In addition to the invention described in claim 1 or claim 2, the vent portion is configured to be formed at the tip of a branching portion that allows gas flow to branch from an intermediate position of the conduit portion.

A fourth invention of the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is an airbag module as described in claim 4, and is as follows.
In addition to the invention according to claim 3, a restricting member that deforms or dissolves up to the ignition point or melting point of the material constituting the airbag is provided in the branch portion between the intermediate position of the conduit portion and the vent portion. It is the structure which occupies at least one part of the gas distribution cross section in a branch pipe always.

Since the airbag module according to the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects are achieved.
(1) During the inactivation process, gas is injected in one direction and gas is also injected in the other direction opposite to the one direction, so that the reaction of the gas injection in the two directions cancels each other. It works to meet. Therefore, the holding power of the fixing jig is not required to a very high level, and the fixing jig can be simplified and a general-purpose jig can be applied. In addition, if several submodules are put into a simple bowl-shaped container and started without using a jig or the like, a large number of submodules can be inactivated in the container at the same time. Fixing is unnecessary. Since the normally closed conduit part releases the closure until the ignition point or melting point of the material constituting the airbag is reached, the vent part is closed in the event of a collision of a vehicle that deploys a normal airbag to ensure that it is in one direction. Gas can be injected only into the air bag, and an airbag attached in one direction can be inflated. Also, when a plurality of airbag modules are packed in one box and the box encounters a fire, etc., gas is injected in the same two directions, canceling the reaction and Phenomena such as collisions between submodules are suppressed.
(2) If the opening of the vent portion and the opening of the supply port portion are aligned on one axis, the reaction of the gas injection in the two directions acts so as to cancel each other very well.
(3) If the vent part is formed at the tip of the branch part where the gas can flow that branches from the middle part of the conduit part, the branch part from the middle position to the tip has the effect of cooling the hot gas and mitigating the impact, and is closed It is not necessary to strictly manage the threshold temperature of the release temperature of the member, and if the branch part is occupied by a deformable member, the action of hot gas cooling and impact mitigation at the branch part will be further enhanced, so that it can be applied to mass production. As a result, the yield is improved and the overall production cost can be suppressed.

  An air bag having a gas inlet, an inflator that supplies gas to the air bag, a conduit portion that connects the inflator and the air bag so that gas can flow in one direction, and a vent portion formed at an intermediate position of the conduit portion The vent part is formed at the tip of a branch part where the gas can flow that branches from an intermediate position of the conduit part, the opening of the vent part and the opening of the supply port part are aligned on one axis, and the vent part is One direction which is located outside the airbag and is always closed by a closing member, which is released to the ignition point or melting point of the material constituting the airbag and is connected to the gas inlet of the conduit portion; This is an airbag module that opens in the opposite direction.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a submodule 1 which is one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows an example of a curtain-type side airbag module 2 (hereinafter referred to as “SCAB2”) to which the submodule 1 is applied.
First, SCAB will be described with reference to FIGS.
The inflator 12 includes a steel container in which a medicine such as ammonium nitrate is sealed, and a squib (not shown) inside. The squib is activated by supplying electric energy for activation to the squib using a connector (not shown) at the end 12a. . The drug reacts instantly when the squib is activated, and a large amount of gas such as nitrogen gas is generated. Various types of inflators are known, and various types of known inflators can be selected in addition to the pyrotechnique type (pyrotechnic type) used in this embodiment.
A pipe connecting portion is formed at the other end portion 12b, and the main pipe portion 11a of the pipe 11 is inserted and tightened with a nut 13 to be hermetically fixed. A bifurcated shape of a main pipe part 11c extending to the left in FIG. 1 from a branch point 11b and a vent pipe part 10 extending straight in the opposite direction of the main pipe part 11c. A large diameter portion 20 is formed at the distal end 19 of the main tube portion 11c, and the main tube portion 11c is inserted into a cylindrical portion (not shown) which is a gas introduction portion of the SCAB 2, and from above, FIG. As shown, a screw-type band material (metal hose band) 19 is fastened and fixed. The strip-shaped member 19 is prevented from coming off by the large diameter portion 20, and the connection between the tubular portion and the main tube portion 11c is maintained when the SCAB 2 is expanded.
In addition, a seal 16 made of a low melting point alloy is formed at the tip 10a of the vent pipe portion 10. The alloy constituting the seal 16 may be selected from known alloys, for example, a combination of tin, bismuth, lead, etc., or an appropriate addition of tin, cadmium, indium, etc. Can do.

Next, the operation of the airbag module of the present invention will be described.
When the submodule 1 is put in a heating pot (not shown) and the temperature in the pot is raised with an electric heater, the base cloth piece such as nylon remaining in the main pipe portion 11c is melted, and only the metal part such as steel is melted. become. The alloy constituting the seal 16 is also melted down, and the pipe 11 is in a state where two openings of the main pipe portion 11c and the vent pipe portion 10 are formed. When the temperature is further increased, auto ignition occurs and the inflator 12 is activated. The temperature at which autoignition occurs is a high temperature of about 200 to 300 degrees Celsius, for example. Then, the gas prepared for inflating the airbag is ejected, but the gas is simultaneously ejected into the two openings. Since the gas in the two directions is opposite to each other, so-called back-to-back injection, the submodule 1 is substantially thrust neutral.

Next, another embodiment of the airbag module according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
In addition, about the structure etc. which are common in a previous Example, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.
In this embodiment, a valve mechanism 26 is used instead of the seal 16 of the previous embodiment. The valve mechanism 26 has a valve main body 27 and an arm 28 extending from the base of the valve main body 27. A shaft portion 10 b is provided at the tip 10 a, and a rod 29 a of a drive mechanism 29 is connected to the tip 28 a of the arm 28. In the rod 29a, for example, a drive spring 31 made of a so-called shape memory alloy such as a copper-zinc-aluminum alloy or a titanium-nickel alloy and a bias spring 32 made of a general spring steel are arranged in series with an intermediate plate 33 interposed therebetween. It is. Supported by the base 30 and attached to the vent pipe 10. When the ambient temperature reaches about 120 degrees Celsius, the drive spring 31 extends to compress the bias spring 32, and the rod 29a is moved leftward as shown in FIG. As a result, the valve body 27 is opened, so that the gas can be simultaneously injected into the two openings together with the main pipe portion 11c that is normally open.
For example, the drive spring 31 does not return to 300 degrees Celsius without returning from the temperature range in which the drive spring 31 operates to a temperature range of about 200 degrees Celsius or above which the base fabric constituting the airbag melts. When the temperature range is exceeded, the property of the shape memory is lost and it remains elongated, so that the vent pipe portion 10 is always open at the temperature at which the inflator auto-ignition occurs.
Therefore, as in the previous embodiment, the submodule 1 is in a substantially thrust neutral state.
In operation of a normal airbag module, since the drive spring 31 is outside the vent pipe portion 10, even if hot gas from the inflator increases the temperature of the vent pipe portion 10, the bag deployment time is extremely short. Since the drive spring 31 does not operate inside, the valve mechanism 26 does not open and the gas for inflating the airbag is not lost.

FIG. 4 shows a modification of the present invention in which an insertion piece 39 obtained by injection molding of nylon 6 resin or the like is used for the vent pipe portion 10. The vent pipe portion 10 between the branch point 11b and the tip 10a is press-fitted and held by the rib 39a. In normal handling, the insertion piece 39 does not move and no abnormal noise is generated due to vibration or the like. In the normal operation of the air bag module 2, when a pyrotechnic type inflator is used, high-temperature gas flows through the pipe 11, but the main pipe portion 11 c generates a quick flow while venting. It is possible to suppress the inflow into the tube portion 10 and the thermal influence on the seal 36 at the tip 10a. When the temperature is raised in the state of the submodule 1, the resin insertion piece 39 melts and does not substantially obstruct the gas flow in the vent pipe portion 10. If the insertion piece partially occupies the flow passage cross section of the vent pipe portion 10, the seal 36 can be protected from thermal effects, but it occupies the entire flow passage cross section. There may be.
For the seal 36, the low melting point alloy described in the above embodiment is used, and the same or similar resin material as the insertion piece 39, for example, nylon 6, 66, thermoplastic resin such as polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polycarbonate or the like. It can be used by appropriately selecting from them.

  In addition to branching and extending the vent pipe portion 10 as in the above-described embodiment, an opening 112 is provided at the rear of the main pipe portion 111 in the pipe 110 having a crank shape as in the submodule 100 of FIG. It may be opened in the direction opposite to 111 and normally closed with a seal 113 made of a low melting point alloy. Further, it is most preferable that the gas flow rate balance to the main pipe portion and the vent pipe is completely equal. However, even if it is not equal, for example, the side air bag for Solux-Pervis generates a small inflator. Since the amount of gas is also relatively small, it is practical to set the vent pipe to 75 or more with respect to the flow rate ratio 100 of the main pipe portion, and for side curtain airbags that require a large amount of gas generation A practically preferable result can be obtained by setting the vent pipe to 90 or more with respect to the flow rate ratio 100 of the main pipe portion.

  It can be used in all of the airbag modules incorporated in various automobiles.

It is a schematic perspective view which shows the submodule which is one of the Examples of this invention. It is a schematic perspective view which shows an example of the curtain type side airbag module to which the submodule of this invention is applied. It is a principal part schematic sectional drawing which shows the vent pipe front-end | tip part of the submodule which is another Example of this invention. It is a principal part schematic perspective sectional drawing which shows the vent pipe front-end | tip part of the modification of the submodule of this invention. It is a schematic perspective view which shows the other Example of the submodule of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Submodule 2 ... Side airbag module 10 ... Vent pipe part 10a ... Tip 10b ... Shaft part 11 ... Pipe 11a ... Main pipe Part 11b ... Branch point 11c ... Main pipe part 12 ... Inflator 12a ... End 12b ... Other end 13 ... Nut 16 ... Seal DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 19 .... Strip-shaped material 20 .... Large diameter part 26 ... Valve mechanism 27 ... Valve body part 28 ... Arm 28a ... Tip 29 ... Drive mechanism 29a .... Rod 30 ... Base 31 ... Drive spring 32 ... Bias spring 33 ... Intermediate plate 36 ... Seal 39 ... Insert piece 39a ... Rib 100 ・ ・ ・ ・ Submodule 110 ・ ・ ・ ・ Pipe 111 ・... Main pipe part 112 ... Open 113 ... Seal

Claims (4)

An airbag having a gas inlet, an inflator that supplies gas to the airbag, a conduit portion that connects the inflator and the airbag so that gas can flow in one direction, and a vent portion formed at an intermediate position of the conduit portion The vent part is located outside the airbag and is always closed with a closing member. The closing member is released to the ignition point or melting point of the material constituting the airbag and connected to the gas inlet of the conduit part. An air bag module that opens in another direction opposite to the one direction. The airbag module according to claim 1, wherein the opening of the vent portion and the opening of the supply port portion are aligned on one axis. The airbag module according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the vent portion is formed at a distal end of a branching portion that allows gas to branch from an intermediate position of the conduit portion. In the branch part, a restricting member that is deformed or dissolved up to the ignition point or melting point of the material constituting the airbag between the intermediate position of the conduit part and the vent part is always at least one of the gas flow cross sections in the branch pipe. The airbag module of Claim 3 which occupies a part.

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