JP2009023437A - Air bag device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a door mount inflatable curtain air bag device holding a shock absorption property and enabling prompt deployment to the longitudinal direction of a vehicle even at the time of a collision with a pole-shaped obstacle such as an electric pole, and improved in the safety of occupants. <P>SOLUTION: The air bag device includes a storage part 172 arranged at a peripheral edge below a side window 102 of the vehicle 50 and an air bag 100 stored in the storage part 172 and inflated upward by gas. The air bag 100 has a plurality of chambers 100A-100C longitudinal in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle 50 and juxtaposed in the approximately vertical direction. The chambers 100A-100C are partitioned by partition walls 108 extended in the vehicle longitudinal direction, and are made to communicate with each other by air holes 112 formed at the partition walls 108 with intervals. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention is a door mount inflatable curtain (Door Mount Inflatable Curtain; which is housed in a side door of a vehicle and expands upward in a curtain shape along a side door window, pillar, etc. at the time of a side collision or rollover, etc. The present invention relates to an airbag device of the type (hereinafter abbreviated as “DMIC”).

  Various DMIC airbags have been proposed for the purpose of protecting vehicle occupants during a vehicle side collision or rollover (vehicle overturn). For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a DMIC airbag having a plurality of cells (chambers) that are arranged in parallel in the front-rear direction of a vehicle and are long in a substantially vertical direction. Conventionally, a plurality of substantially cylindrical chambers extending in a substantially vertical direction are used in parallel in the DMIC airbag.

Patent Document 2 describes an airbag that inflates and expands upward from the center of a door at the height of the chest and abdomen of an occupant.
JP 2007-38960 A JP-A-9-39710

  In view of the recent trend of emphasizing passenger head protection, conventional airbags have the following problems. In the configuration in which chambers that are long in a substantially vertical direction are arranged side by side in the front-rear direction of the vehicle as in Patent Document 1, when a vehicle collides (side collision) with a pole-like object such as a utility pole, the chambers are changed depending on the location of the collision. The thickness varies. When both the pole and the occupant collide across the valley of the chamber boundary and recessed from the periphery, it is assumed that the amount of energy absorbed by the airbag decreases.

  Further, in order to protect the head, it is indispensable to quickly deploy and inflate the airbag. Since the region where the DMIC airbag should be deployed covers almost the entire side window that is long in the front-rear direction of the vehicle, it is important how quickly it can be deployed in the region that is long in the front-rear direction. However, in the case of a conventional airbag in which chambers that are long in a substantially vertical direction are arranged side by side, a partition inside the airbag is also installed so as to extend in a substantially vertical direction. Although gas supplied from a gas source such as an inflator flows smoothly in a substantially vertical direction, it hardly flows in the front-rear direction, which is one factor that hinders the development in the vehicle front-rear direction.

  Furthermore, it takes time for conventional DMIC airbags to be deployed over the entire area to be protected. The DMIC airbag is deployed upward from the door toward the side window. In the case of the airbag deployed from the vicinity of the center of the door at the height of the chest and abdomen of the occupant as in Patent Document 2, This is because there is a distance to the window.

  In view of such a problem, the present invention retains the shock absorption of an airbag even when it collides with an obstacle that is long in the vertical direction, and is quickly deployed in a region to be deployed. An object of the present invention is to provide a DMIC-type airbag device with improved performance.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, in a typical configuration of the present invention, in an airbag device that is housed in a housing portion that is disposed on an edge under a window of a side door of a vehicle and inflates upward by gas, It has a plurality of chambers arranged side by side in a substantially vertical direction with the front-rear direction as the longitudinal direction, and a partition wall that partitions the plurality of chambers and extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle. The plurality of chambers are spaced apart from the partition wall. It is characterized by communicating with a vent hole provided.

  According to the above configuration, even when a vertically long object such as a utility pole collides with the vehicle, the distance between the object and the passenger's head can be maintained, and the shock absorption of the airbag is maintained. .

  According to the partition wall as described above, in addition to maintaining the shock absorption, it is possible to shorten the time required for deployment in the front-rear direction of the vehicle, thereby further ensuring passenger protection.

  When the airbag device is inflated, it is preferable to form a valley that is recessed from the periphery and a peak that is inflated from the periphery between the valleys along the partition wall.

  In this way, due to the crests that are formed on the front and back surfaces of the airbag and that are long in the front-rear direction of the vehicle, impacts from obstacles that are long in the vertical direction are not concentrated in the troughs but are distributed to the crests. This is because the safety of passengers increases.

  The airbag device may have a shape that, when inflated, expands from the storage portion to a region that develops in at least one direction of the front direction or the rear direction.

  The airbag device according to the present invention has a short time to deploy in the front-rear direction. Therefore, even if only a small storage space can be secured compared to the length of the region to be protected (front-rear direction), it can be quickly deployed in the region to be protected.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, even when it collides with a pole-shaped obstacle like a utility pole, distance can be maintained between a passenger | crew head and an obstacle, and a passenger | crew's safety improves. In addition, it can contribute to the improvement of the safety of passengers in that the vehicle can be quickly deployed in the longitudinal direction. Furthermore, even when the storage space for the airbag is small, the airbag is quickly deployed in the region to be deployed.

  Next, an embodiment of an airbag device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the figure, elements not directly related to the present invention are not shown. Similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals. The dimensions, materials, and other specific numerical values shown in the following embodiments are merely examples for facilitating understanding of the invention, and do not limit the present invention unless otherwise specified.

  1A and 1B are diagrams illustrating a part of a vehicle to which an airbag apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention to be described later is applied. FIG. 1A is a front view, and FIG. 1B is a side view. As shown in FIG. 1, the side airbag 100 which is a main component of the airbag device is a DMIC airbag that inflates upward from the lower edge of the side window of the vehicle 50.

  Although the side airbag 100 is shown only on the passenger 170 side in FIG. 1, it goes without saying that the side airbag 100 is also provided on the passenger seat side.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic view illustrating an embodiment of the present invention. However, Fig.2 (a) is a comparative example compared with this embodiment, FIG.2 (b) is embodiment, and has shown the figure which looked at each from three directions, the front, the side, and the upper surface. .

  The side airbag 80 shown in the comparative example of FIG. 2A has a configuration in which chambers 80 </ b> A to 80 </ b> C that are long in a substantially vertical direction are arranged in parallel in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 50. For this reason, when a pole 82 such as a utility pole collides with a vehicle (side collision), the chamber thickness varies depending on the location of the collision. The pole 82 and the occupant 170 may collide with the peak portion 84 of the chamber, but in particular, when both collide with the valley portion 86 at the boundary of the chamber, the energy absorption amount by the airbag 80 may be reduced. .

  On the other hand, in the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2B, the airbag 100 that is inflated upward by gas has a plurality of chambers 100 </ b> A to 100 </ b> A arranged in parallel in a substantially vertical direction with the longitudinal direction of the vehicle 50 as the longitudinal direction. 100C. The number of chambers is three in this embodiment, but there is no limit.

  According to the configuration of the present embodiment, when the head of the occupant 170 is located on the mountain portion 104 of the airbag 100, the distance between the pole 82 and the head of the occupant 170 is the thickest part of the airbag. It is kept almost the same as the thickness, and passenger safety is ensured. Further, even if the head of the occupant 170 has fallen somewhat into the trough 106 of the airbag 100, the pole 82 does not fall into the trough 106 extending in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 50. Therefore, the distance D <b> 2 (> D <b> 1) between the pole 82 and the head of the occupant 170 is maintained with almost no decrease compared to the case where the head of the occupant 170 collides with the mountain portion 104.

  Therefore, even when an obstacle such as the pole 82 that extends in the substantially vertical direction collides with the vehicle 50, the shock absorption of the airbag is maintained.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the internal structure of the airbag apparatus according to this embodiment shown in FIG. The plurality of chambers 100 </ b> A to 100 </ b> C are partitioned by a partition wall 108 extending in the front-rear direction of the vehicle, and communicated by a vent hole 112 provided at an interval in the partition wall 108. The chambers 100 </ b> A to 100 </ b> C may be formed by sewing the base fabric 116 constituting the surface of the airbag 100 on the front and back sides and providing the partition wall 108. Further, for example, OPW (One-Piece Woven) may be used to form a bag by spinning.

  According to the partition wall 108 extending in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 50, in addition to maintaining the above-described shock absorption, the time for deployment in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 50 can be shortened, so that the occupant 170 is more reliably protected. Since the side window 102 is usually long in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 50, it is important how quickly the airbag is deployed in the front-rear direction. In that respect, the partition 108 for guiding the gas supplied from the lower part of the airbag 100 of the present embodiment is long in the front-rear direction. Therefore, as indicated by the gas flow 114, it is possible to quickly flow the gas in the longitudinal direction of each of the chambers 100A to 100C.

  On the other hand, in the comparative example of FIG. 2A, since the partition wall (not shown) extends in the substantially vertical direction, the gas flow in the substantially vertical direction can be performed smoothly, It is difficult for gas to flow, and it takes time to expand in the front-rear direction.

  The airbag 100 of this embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 forms a trough portion 106 and a crest portion 104 along the partition wall 108 of the chambers 100A to 100C when inflated. As shown in FIG. 2B, the valley 106 is recessed from the periphery, and the peak 104 is between the valleys 106 and swells from the periphery.

  As described above, the mountain portions 104 that are long in the front-rear direction of the vehicle 50 are formed on the front and back surfaces of the airbag 100. Thereby, the impact from the obstacle of the pole 82 shape long in the substantially vertical direction as described above is not concentrated on the valley portion 106, and the safety of the occupant 170 is improved.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the behavior of this embodiment shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4A, the door 60 is generally composed of an outer outer panel (not shown), an inner panel 62, a door lining 64, and a window (side window 102).

  The airbag 100 is stored in a storage portion 172 disposed on the lower edge of the side window 102. This is for shortening the distance to the side window 102 as much as possible and reducing the time required for deployment.

  When a side collision or rollover is detected, the airbag 100 is inflated by a gas supplied from an inflator (not shown), goes through the state of FIG. 4 (b), and becomes the state of FIG. 4 (c). Complete.

  As shown in FIG. 4B, the region 174 where the airbag 100 should be deployed covers almost the entire side window 102 that is long in the front-rear direction. In particular, the airbag 100 has a shape that expands from the storage portion 172 to a region 176 that extends forward when inflated.

  As described above, the airbag 100 according to the present embodiment has a short time to deploy in the front-rear direction. Therefore, even when only a small storage space can be secured with respect to the length (in the front-rear direction) of the region 174 to be protected, the region 174 can be quickly expanded.

  In the present embodiment, the airbag 100 that is deployed from the storage portion 172 to the region 176 that extends forward is shown, but it is needless to say that the airbag 100 may be deployed from the storage portion 172 to the region that extends backward.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the embodiments described above are preferred examples of the present invention, and other embodiments can be implemented by various methods. Can be carried out. The invention is not limited to the detailed shape, size, configuration, and the like of the components shown in the accompanying drawings unless otherwise specified in the present specification. In addition, expressions and terms used in the present specification are for the purpose of explanation, and are not limited thereto unless otherwise specified.

  Therefore, it is obvious for those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be conceived within the scope of the claims, and these naturally belong to the technical scope of the present invention. It is understood.

  The present invention is applicable to a DMIC airbag that is housed in a side door of a vehicle and inflates upward in a curtain shape along a side door window, a pillar, or the like when a side collision or rollover occurs.

It is a figure which illustrates a part of vehicle to which the airbag apparatus which is embodiment of this invention is applied. It is the schematic diagram which illustrates the comparative example contrasted with embodiment of this invention, and embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the internal structure of the airbag apparatus of this embodiment shown in FIG.2 (b). It is a figure which illustrates the behavior of this embodiment shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

50 Vehicle 60 Side door 100 Air bag 100A, 100B, 100C Chamber 102 Side window 104 Mountain portion 106 Valley portion 108 Bulkhead 172 Storage portion

Claims (3)

In an airbag device that is housed in a housing portion that is disposed on an edge under a window of a side door of a vehicle and that is inflated upward by gas,
A plurality of chambers arranged in parallel in a substantially vertical direction, the longitudinal direction of the vehicle being the longitudinal direction;
A partition partitioning the plurality of chambers and extending in the front-rear direction of the vehicle;
The airbag apparatus, wherein the plurality of chambers communicate with each other through a vent hole provided at an interval in the partition wall.   2. The airbag device according to claim 1, wherein, when inflated, a trough that is recessed from the periphery along the partition wall and a crest that is inflated from the periphery between the troughs are formed. The airbag apparatus as described in.   3. The airbag device according to claim 1, wherein the airbag device has a shape that, when inflated, expands from the storage portion to a region that develops in at least one direction of the front direction or the rear direction.

Images