JP2673404B2 - Base fabric for airbag and method of manufacturing airbag for passenger seat using the base fabric - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automate and mechanize the manufacture of air bag with the sewing process, suppress the costs, and also relieve extending toward a driver/ passenger, when an air bag is spread, through utilization of the sewn part. CONSTITUTION:As base cloths for an air bag, an oversurface base cloth 3 and undersurface base cloth 4 fitted at the tips with respective base cloths 2 for the mouth part are extended in a single piece from the top and bottom of a bottom surface base cloth 1 which receives driver/passenger at the time of being spred, and approx. triangular side face base cloths 5, 6 to constitute the side faces of the air bag in the form of a square pyramid formed from the side edges of these base cloths 3, 4, 1 by means of splicing them are extended in a single piece, and the specified edges 5a...5a of these side face base cloths are formed as swelling out in the form of an arc of a circle, and the resultant base cloth of single piece construction is folded and sewn according to the specified process so that the intended air bag is completed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an airbag device for automatically inflating and protecting an occupant in the event of a vehicle collision, and more particularly, to a base fabric for an airbag for a passenger seat of the device, and The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a passenger seat airbag using this base cloth.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An airbag device is used when a vehicle collides.
A safety device that protects an occupant by inflating the bag instantaneously as an aid to the seat belt when the impact is more than a predetermined value, usually an inflator which is a gas generator, a bag which is inflated by the gas of the inflator, and the inflator. And an airbag case that stores the same together with the bag. When the airbag device is operated, the gas ejected from the inflator due to an electric signal fills the airbag case and the airbag to generate an internal pressure, and the internal pressure causes the bag to be instantly deployed.

By the way, the airbag device is not limited to the one for the driver's seat, but in recent years, one for the passenger seat has been developed. A bag as shown in FIG. 6 has been conventionally used as an airbag bag body of the passenger side airbag device. The bag includes a main body cloth 10 and a main body cloth 10 which are bent in a substantially U shape. And a substantially triangular side surface cloth 11 sewn on both side surfaces of the main body cloth 10, and a square opening 18 is provided at the U-shaped end of the main body cloth 10 to serve as a gas inlet of the inflator.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional airbag, since the bag is formed by stitching the main body cloth, the side cloth, and the cloths constituting the mounting portion as described above, the respective parts are sewn. The sewing, especially the side edge of the main body cloth and the outer peripheral edge of the side cloth, must be sewn in a curved and three-dimensional manner. Therefore, in order to create the above-mentioned airbag, manual operation is required. It takes a lot of man-hours, which is a bottleneck in automation of sewing.

Therefore, the inventors of the present application have attempted to solve the above problems, and in Japanese Patent Application No. 4-105623 and Japanese Patent Application No. 4-309300, automatic operation by a machine using a single base cloth is carried out. A sewn passenger airbag is proposed.

This airbag has, for example, the structure shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG.
And the side face base cloth 1 extended from the bottom part 15 and the bottom part 15, respectively.
It is formed by sewing 6,7,18 in a laterally Y-shape. The horizontal portion 19 of the laterally Y-shape is sewn with respect to the deployment direction D of the airbag shown in FIG. It is necessary to reinforce this sewn portion because the sewn portion, which coincides with the unfolding direction and has a small stretch, receives the above unfolding force in a concentrated manner.

The present invention copes with the above-mentioned actual situation and performs new cutting on a single piece of airbag base cloth to enable substantially straight and flat sewing, thereby forming an airbag bag body. Is manufactured by automatic sewing with a machine,
Further, it is intended to prevent the concentration of force when the airbag is deployed on the sewn portion.

[0008]

That is, the feature of the airbag base fabric of the present invention which meets the above-mentioned object is that the occupant is received from the mouth portion fixed to the opening portion of the airbag case as shown in FIG. 2, for example. A base cloth for forming a substantially quadrangular pyramid-shaped airbag that spreads in a taper shape over a bottom surface portion, and, for example, as shown in FIG. The base cloths 2 and 2 are provided to integrally extend the base cloth 3 for the upper surface portion and the base cloth 4 for the lower surface portion, and the base cloth 3 for the upper surface portion, the base cloth 4 for the lower surface portion, and the bottom surface. The side base parts 5 ... 5, 6, 6 of a substantially triangular shape, which form the side parts of the quadrangular pyramid by joining the respective side edges from the respective side edges of the part base cloth 1, are integrally formed. Each side of the base cloth 3 for the upper surface and the base cloth 4 for the lower surface. Each side of the mouth portion of the parts for the base fabric 5 ... 5 5
5a is formed so as to bulge in an arc shape.

Further, the method for manufacturing a passenger airbag according to the present invention uses the above-mentioned one-piece airbag base fabric, and the airbag base fabric is folded in two,
The upper surface base cloth 3 and the lower surface base cloth 4 are superposed, and the side surface base cloths 5 ... 5 extending from the upper and lower surface base cloths 5 are bulged on the sides 5a ... 5a. The process of sewing each other together,
6a of each of the side face base fabrics 6 and 6 on the bottom face base fabric 1 side, and the side face base fabrics 5 to 5 on the upper and lower face base fabrics 3 and 4 side. a step of respectively sewn to the bottom face side sides 5b ... 5b, producing the airbag by forming an air bag body is turned over to the air bag base fabric.

Further, in the manufacturing method of the present invention, when the sides 5a ... 5a on the mouth side of the side base fabric 5 ... 5 on the upper / lower face base fabric side are sewn together, the side face It is also preferable that the bulging portions of the base fabrics 5 ... 5 are folded back and sewn together with any of the side face base fabrics 5 ...

[0011]

By carrying out the manufacturing method of the present invention using the airbag base cloth of the present invention, a passenger seat airbag having a substantially pyramidal shape is formed of a single piece of base cloth. It is possible to sew a substantially straight and flat surface, and the airbag bag can be manufactured by automatic sewing by a machine.

In the airbag produced by the present invention, the laterally Y-shaped sewn portion is formed on the side surface, and the laterally Y-shaped horizontal portion is the airbag described above. bulge in an arc shape with respect to the developing direction of, because of its type of sagging, it is possible to receive by <br/> sharing force due to the expansion in the base fabric around. Furthermore, in this airbag, the sewn portion of the horizontal portion of the Y-shaped sideways is
Together to restrict the elongation of the occupant direction upon airbag deployment, the bifurcated portions of the Y-shaped is dispersed stretching force of the occupant direction vertically, is possible to alleviate the extension out during bus Tsu grayed expansion it can.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of an airbag base fabric according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 4 are explanatory views showing a method of manufacturing an airbag using the same base fabric. The airbag after sewing is shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, it is for a passenger seat, which has a substantially quadrangular pyramid shape that spreads in a tapered shape from a mouth fixed to an opening of an airbag case (not shown) to a bottom surface that receives an occupant.

As shown in FIG. 1, the above air bag base fabric is
A trapezoidal base cloth 3 for the upper surface and a base cloth 4 for the lower surface, each of which has the base cloths 2 and 2 for the mouth portions respectively at the tips from the upper and lower ends of the rectangular base cloth 1 for the bottom surface which constitutes the bottom surface part, Side surfaces of the quadrangular pyramid that extend integrally and are joined to each other from the respective side edges of the upper surface base cloth 3, the lower surface base cloth 4 and the bottom surface base cloth 1 respectively. The side surface base cloths 5 ... 5, 6, and 6 which form the triangular shape are integrally formed of a single piece of cloth.

In the present invention, as shown in the figure, the sides of the base cloths 5 ... 5 provided on the base cloth 3 for the upper surface and the base cloth 4 for the lower surface on the mouth portion side. 5a ... 5a
It is formed so as to bulge in an arc shape from the reference line L shown in the figure. The reference line L is a reference line that forms a side surface portion without sagging when the side 5a is sewn between the lines L. In addition, the thick dotted line in the figure shows the sewn portion of the base fabric.

On the other hand, in the method of manufacturing an airbag according to the embodiment of the present invention, the airbag base cloth having the above-mentioned structure is used. First, as a first step, the airbag base cloth is placed near the folding line 7 shown in FIG. The base cloth 3 for the upper surface part and the base cloth 4 for the lower surface part are polymerized by folding, and the base cloths 5, 5 for the side surface parts extending from the base cloths 3, 4 for the upper and lower surface parts are expanded. The sides 5a ... 5a on the side of the projecting mouth are sequentially sewn as shown in FIG.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 1, the base cloth 4 for the lower surface portion has one base cloth 2 for the base portion, and the base cloth 3 for the upper surface portion has three base cloths 2 for the base portion. 2 are integrally extended, but these base fabrics 2 ...
Fold back seams at the turn back lines 8 ... 8 shown in the figure,
It is preferable to form the retainer attaching portions 9 ... 9 by forming them in a bag shape.

Next, as a second step, as shown in FIG. 2, the base fabric 1 for the bottom portion is prepared from the base fabric folded in two.
Two sides 6a, 6a of the side surface base fabrics 6, 6 respectively,
The bottom surface side edges 5b ... 5b of the respective side surface base cloths 5 ... 5 extending from the upper / lower surface base cloths 3 are sewn.
And finally turn it over.

The airbag sewn as described above is shown in FIG.
5a, the arc-shaped sides 5a ... 5a form three-dimensionally bulged surplus portions 10, 10 on both side surfaces, but as shown in FIG. 4, the arc-shaped sides 5a. Even if it is folded back along the above-mentioned reference line L and the sewing line is formed in an arc shape as shown in the figure and is sewn to any one of the upper and lower side surface base fabrics, the operation described later can be achieved.

[0020] Thus, the air bag base fabric of the present invention described embodiments described above, by sewing by the manufacturing method of the embodiment of the present invention, a passenger airbag exhibiting a schematic pyramidal, one product It is possible to fabricate the airbag bag body by automatic sewing by a machine, since it is possible to sew a substantially straight and flat surface while it is made of the base fabric.

In any of the airbags shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the lateral Y-shaped sewing portion is formed on the side surface of the airbag produced by the present invention. Since the horizontal part of the has a kind of slack that swells in an arc shape in the airbag deployment direction D shown in FIG. 5, it is possible to share the force of the deployment with the surrounding base cloth. Further, in this airbag, the lateral Y-shaped sewn portion of the horizontal portion restricts the extension toward the occupant when the airbag is deployed and inflated, and the Y-shaped bifurcated portion extends toward the occupant. the extension force is distributed up and down, it is possible to mitigate the extension out at the time of bus Tsu grayed expansion.

Further, in the above-described base fabric of the present invention, the airbag bag body can be designed in an arbitrary shape by changing the length of each side of the side face base fabric. , thereby, move the module set position and the passenger position relationship can be very easily change the design size and shape <br/> of airbags.

[0023]

As described above, the present invention is used as an air bag base cloth for the upper surface portion having the base cloth for the mouth portion and the base cloth for the bottom portion that receives the occupant during deployment. The base cloth and the base cloth for the lower surface part are integrally extended, and the base cloth for the upper surface part, the base cloth for the lower surface part, and the base cloth for the bottom surface part are spliced together to form a quadrangular pyramid shape. The substantially triangular base fabric for forming the side face, which constitutes the side face of the airbag, is integrally extended, and a predetermined side of the side face base fabric is formed to bulge in an arc shape.
Is intended to produce an air bag by folding-sutured base fabric a predetermined method-sheet, a passenger airbag exhibiting a schematic quadrangular pyramid, the base fabric of one prepared by cutting as described above In addition, since the sewing machine can be sewn on each part in a substantially linear and flat manner, the manufacturing of the airbag by sewing can be automated by a machine, and the man-hours are remarkably higher than before. The production cost of the passenger airbag is significantly reduced, and the excellent effect is obtained that it is suitable for mass production.

In the airbag produced according to the present invention, the laterally Y-shaped sewn portion is formed on the side surface, and the laterally Y-shaped horizontal portion is the deployment of the airbag described above. Since it has a kind of slack that swells in an arc shape with respect to the direction, it is possible to share the force of the above-mentioned deployment with the surrounding base cloth, and in addition, this airbag has a Y The sewn portion of the horizontal portion regulates the extension in the occupant direction when the airbag is deployed and inflated, and the Y-shaped bifurcated portion vertically distributes the extension force in the occupant direction to inflate the airbag. It has a remarkable effect of alleviating the extension of.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an airbag base fabric according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an airbag sewn by the manufacturing method of the embodiment of the present invention using the same base cloth.

3 is a cross-sectional perspective view taken along line XX of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional perspective view of an airbag according to a manufacturing method of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a deployed state of the airbag.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional passenger seat airbag.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional passenger seat airbag.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Base fabric for bottom part 2 Base fabric for mouth part 3 Base fabric for upper face part 4 Base fabric for lower face part 5 Base fabric for side part on upper / lower face part base fabric side 6 Base fabric for side part on bottom face base fabric side 9 Retainer mounting part 5a Side 5b on the mouth side of the base cloth 5 for side parts 5b Side 6a on the bottom side of the base cloth 5 for side parts 6a Side of the base cloth 6 for side parts

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A base cloth for forming a substantially quadrangular pyramid-shaped airbag that spreads in a taper shape from a mouth portion fixed to an opening portion of an airbag case to a bottom portion that receives an occupant, and constitutes the bottom portion. The base cloth 1 for the bottom part is provided with the base cloths 2, 2 for the mouth part respectively from above and below, and the base cloth 3 for the top part is provided.
And the lower surface portion base cloth 4 are integrally extended, and the upper surface portion base cloth 3 and the lower surface portion base cloth 4 as well as the respective side edges of the bottom surface portion base cloth 1 are respectively separated from each side. 5, 6 and 6 having a substantially triangular shape, which form the side surface of the quadrangular pyramid by joining them, are integrally extended, and the base cloth 3 for the upper surface and the lower surface are formed. 5a formed on the base cloth 4 for side surfaces so as to bulge each side 5a on the mouth side 5a in an arc shape. 2. A base cloth for forming a substantially quadrangular pyramid-shaped airbag that spreads in a taper shape from a mouth portion fixed to an opening portion of an airbag case to a bottom portion portion that receives an occupant, and constitutes the bottom portion. The base cloth 1 for the bottom part is provided with the base cloths 2, 2 for the mouth part respectively from above and below, and the base cloth 3 for the top part is provided.
And the lower surface portion base cloth 4 are integrally extended, and the upper surface portion base cloth 3 and the lower surface portion base cloth 4 as well as the respective side edges of the bottom surface portion base cloth 1 are respectively separated from each side. 5, 6 and 6 having a substantially triangular shape, which form the side surface of the quadrangular pyramid by joining them, are integrally extended, and the base cloth 3 for the upper surface and the lower surface are formed. 5a provided on the base cloth 4 for side surfaces is formed by bulging each side 5a ... 5a on the mouth side of the base cloth 5 ... 5 in an arc shape. The base cloth is folded in two, the upper surface base cloth 3 and the lower surface base cloth 4 are overlapped, and the side surface base cloths 5 ... 5 extending from the upper and lower surface base cloths are bulged. The step of sewing the sides 5a ... 5a on the mouth side and the two sides 6a of each of the side face base fabrics 6, 6 on the bottom face base fabric 1 side
Turn ... and 6a, a step of sewing s a bottom face side sides 5b ... 5b each of the upper-base fabric for each side portion of the lower surface portion base fabric 3,4 side 5 ... 5, the airbag base fabric A method of manufacturing an airbag for a passenger seat, which comprises a step of forming an airbag bag body. 3. When the sides 5a ... 5a on the mouth side of the side face base fabrics 5 ... 5 on the upper / lower face base fabric side are sewn together, the side face base fabrics 5 ... 3. The method for manufacturing an airbag for a passenger seat according to claim 2, wherein the bulging portion is folded back and sewn together with any of the side surface base cloths 5 ...