JP3052653B2 - Airbag device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an airbag device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional airbag device, there is, for example, one shown in FIGS.
-87849).

FIG. 4 shows the front part of the vehicle interior.
The airbag device is provided on the front passenger seat side in the front part of the passenger compartment. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the airbag unit 103 is mounted in the instrument panel 101 on the passenger seat side in the passenger compartment.

The peripheral structure of the airbag unit 103 will be further described with reference to a cross-sectional view of FIG.

[0005] The airbag unit 103 is attached to a steering member 105 as a strength member in the instrument panel 101. On the other hand, the instrument panel 101 includes the airbag unit 10.
An opening 107 corresponding to No. 3 is provided. Opening 107
Is closed by an air bag grid 109. A lid support portion 111 is provided on the air bag grid 109,
The lid support 111 is provided on the instrument panel 10.
It is fixed to the mounting portion 113 on one side by a bolt nut 115.

Accordingly, the air bag grid 109 is normally used.
The opening 107 is closed by the airbag unit 1
03 is covered. When the inflator 103a is activated by a vehicle collision detection signal or the like, the gas pressure causes the airbag 117 to expand from the airbag unit 103 and push the airbag grid 109 open. At this time, the air bag grid 109 rotates around the point A. This opens the opening 107,
The airbag 117 is deployed toward the occupant side through the opening 107.

[0007]

However, like the instrument panel 101, the air bag grid 109 is composed of the core material 119, the pad 121, and the skin 123, and has a structure having some rigidity.
Therefore, when the deployment force of the airbag 117 acts on the airbag grid 109, the force is applied via the lid support 111 to the mounting portion 113 on the instrument panel 101 side.
Is input to Thus, the mounting portion 113 receives a rotational moment about the point a. Accordingly, the mounting portion 113 rotates around the point a by the deployment force, and the point A of the rotation center of the air bag grid 109 tends to move in the direction A ′.

Accordingly, the force applied to rotationally deform the air bag grid 109 about point A is applied to the mounting portion 11.
As a result, the air bag grid 109 escapes as a rotational deformation centered on the point a, and the smoothness of the opening of the air bag grid 109 may be slightly impaired.

Therefore, conventionally, the air bag grid 109
The rigidity of the instrument itself could not be increased so much, and the rigidity was inferior to that of the instrument panel 101, and there was a possibility that the consistency with the instrument panel 101 became a problem.

Therefore, the present invention provides an air bag grid 1
It is an object of the present invention to provide an airbag device that can smoothly open an airbag lid with the deployment force of the airbag while maintaining the rigidity of the airbag.

[0011]

An airbag unit is disposed in an instrument panel at a front portion of a vehicle interior, is fixed to a strength member on a vehicle body side, and is capable of deploying an airbag.
An opening provided in the instrument panel corresponding to the airbag unit and capable of passing through the airbag; an airbag lid closing the opening and being opened by a deployment force of the airbag; and a peripheral portion of the opening. A mounting portion on the instrument panel side provided on the airbag lid; a lid support portion provided on the back surface of the airbag lid and mounted on the mounting portion from outside the instrument panel; and mounted on the mounting portion from inside the instrument panel A rotation restricting bracket having an arm portion that approaches or contacts the inside of the instrument panel at a peripheral portion of the opening.

[0012]

According to the above arrangement, when the airbag is deployed by detecting a vehicle collision or the like, the deployment force is transmitted to the airbag grid. The deployment force transmitted to the air bag grid is input to the mounting portion on the instrument panel side via the lid support portion, and attempts to rotate the mounting portion. At this time, the arm portion of the rotation restricting bracket attached to the attachment portion comes into contact with the inner surface of the instrument panel at the periphery of the opening.

Therefore, the rotational force of the mounting portion is distributed to the instrument panel side, and the rotation of the mounting portion can be restricted.

Therefore, the deployment force of the airbag is transmitted to the airbag lid as it is, and the airbag lid is opened smoothly by this force.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view substantially similar to FIG. FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part seen through the instrument panel, and FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line II in FIG.

The airbag device of this embodiment is provided on the passenger seat side in the vehicle interior similarly to the above, and the airbag unit 3 is disposed in the instrument panel 1. The airbag unit 3 is fixed to a steering member 5 which is a strength member in the instrument panel 1 as described above. That is, the housing 9 containing the airbag 7 is attached to the guide plate 11, and the lower portion of the guide plate 11 is fixed to the steering member 5 via the housing bracket 13.

On the other hand, the instrument panel 1
It has an opening 23 which comprises a panel body 17, an instrument pad 19 and a skin 21, and which can pass through the airbag 7 corresponding to the airbag unit 3. In the opening 23, a part of the panel main body 17 is bent obliquely downward on the front side to form a mounting portion 25. A lid lock 2 is provided on both left and right sides of the opening 23 (in the direction perpendicular to the paper surface).
7 is attached. The instrument pad 19 is formed thin around the opening 23 to form a fitting portion 29. The air bag grid 31 is fitted into the fitting portion 29.

The air bag grid 31 is composed of a pad material 33.
And a skin 35 and a core material 37 made of aluminum. The peripheral edge 31 a of the air bag grid 31 is formed in a shape corresponding to the fitting portion 29. A lid support portion 39 made of aluminum fixed to a core material 37 by a rivet 38 is attached to a substantially middle portion of the back surface of the air bag grid 31. The lid support portion 39 is fastened and fixed to the mounting portion 25 of the instrument panel 1 by a bolt nut 41. This allows the air back lid 31
Are supported by the instrument panel 1.

Further, a pin 43 is provided on the back surface of the air bag grid 31 at a position corresponding to the lid lock 27. The pin 43 has an enlarged head and is elastically fitted to the lid lock 27. Therefore, the air bag grid 31 is positioned on the panel main body 17 of the instrument panel 1 via the pin 43 and the lid lock 27.

On the other hand, in the embodiment of the present invention,
5, a rotation restricting bracket 45 is attached by tightening together. The rotation restricting bracket 45 includes a main body 45a.
And one end 45b, the other end 45c, and an arm 45d are integrally formed. The one end 45b is bent along the mounting portion 25 and is formed obliquely downward with respect to the main body 45a. The other end 45c is bent substantially at a right angle to the main body 45a and stands up. One end 45 a is jointly fastened to the mounting portion 25 by the bolt nut 41. The other end 45c is fastened and fixed to the connection bracket 47 by a bolt nut 49.

The connection bracket 47 is fixed to the panel body 17 of the instrument panel 1.

The arm portion 45d extends along the opening 23, and is in contact with the inner surface of the instrument panel 1 at the periphery of the opening 23. The arm 45d
Is not necessarily required to contact the inner surface of the instrument panel 1 and may be in a close state.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 51 denotes a front window panel, and 53 denotes a glove box.

Here, regarding the rotation restricting bracket 45,
This will be further described with reference to the perspective view of FIG.

At one end 45b of the rotation restricting bracket 45, four holes 45e for co-fastening are provided. Between each hole 45e, a groove 45f formed by press molding has an end 45.
b to the main body 45a. Therefore,
The bending strength in the front-rear direction of the rotation restricting bracket 45 is improved. Further, the degree of adhesion of the one end 45b to the mounting portion 25 around each hole 45e is also improved.

The other end 45c has a structure conforming to the shape of the instrument panel 1 side.

Further, a pair of the arm portions 45d are provided on both left and right sides of the rotation restricting bracket 45, and the cross section is formed in a channel shape to increase the rigidity.
In addition, a non-woven fabric 4
5 g are stuck. The arm 4 having this configuration
5 d is in contact with the inner surface of the panel main body 17 of the instrument panel 1 on both the left and right sides of the opening 23. At this time, due to the presence of the nonwoven fabric 45g, even when the arm portion 45d is in contact with the inner surface of the panel main body 17, generation of abnormal noise due to vibration of the vehicle body or the like can be suppressed.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the airbag device.

As shown in FIG. 3, the panel main body 17 is partially exposed around the opening 23 of the instrument panel 1, and the mounting portion 25 extends along the opening 23.

The lid locks 27 are arranged in a pair on the left and right sides of the opening 23.

The lid support 39 of the air bag grid
Also has a configuration extending in the left-right direction corresponding to the mounting portion 25.

Next, the operation will be described.

When the vehicle collision is detected, the inflator 3a
When the airbag is ignited, the gas pressure inflates the airbag 7 to break the housing 9 and transmit the deployment force to the airbag lid 31. This force is transmitted to the mounting portion 25 on the instrument panel 1 side via the lid support portion 39. Therefore, the mounting portion 25 receives a rotational moment at a point a on the base side as shown in FIG. 1 and tries to rotate in the deployment direction of the airbag 7.

At this time, since the arm 45d of the rotation restricting bracket 45 abuts on the panel main body 17 at the periphery of the opening 23, the rotational force of the mounting portion 25 is distributed to the panel main body 17. Accordingly, the rotation of the mounting portion 25 about the point a is restricted.

At the same time, since the rotation restricting bracket 45 is also connected to the connecting bracket 47 on the instrument panel 1, the rotational force of the mounting portion 25 is also transmitted to the connecting bracket 47 via the main body 45a and the other end 45c. As a result, the rotation of the mounting portion 25 is further restricted.

For this reason, the deployment force of the airbag 7 is substantially transmitted to the airbag grid 31, and the airbag grid 31
It is immediately rotated about a point and opened as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. In this manner, the opening operation of the airbag grid 31 is performed extremely smoothly, and the airbag 7 is deployed to the occupant side without difficulty.

The open air bag grid 31 does not interfere with the front window panel 55 as shown by the two-dot chain line.

Further, since all the deployment force of the airbag 7 is input to the airbag grid 31 and the airbag grid 31 is opened smoothly, the rigidity of the airbag grid 31 can be increased to the same level as the instrument panel 1. Therefore, the air bag grid 31 fitted to the fitting portion 29 has high shape retention performance together with the instrument panel 1,
This is an aspect with extremely high consistency.

[0040]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the structure of the present invention, when the deployment force of the airbag acts on the airbag grid, the arm of the rotation restricting bracket is positioned at the periphery of the opening on the back side of the instrument panel. , And the airbag lid is smoothly opened to restrict the rotation of the mounting portion on the instrument panel side. Therefore,
The deployment of the airbag can be performed extremely smoothly.
Further, since the force acting on the airbag grid from the airbag does not escape to the rotation of the mounting portion, the rigidity of the airbag grid itself can be increased, and the consistency with the instrument panel can be significantly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a transparent perspective view of a main part.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a front portion of a vehicle interior showing an arrangement of an airbag device according to a conventional example.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line VV of FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Instrument panel 3 Airbag unit 5 Steering member (strength member on the vehicle body side) 7 Airbag 23 Opening 25 Mounting part 31 Airbag grid 39 Lid support part 45 Rotation restriction bracket 45d Arm part

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-5-4556 (JP, A) JP-A-4-191140 (JP, A) JP-A-4-87849 (JP, A) JP-A-6-86 278563 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B60R 21/20

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An airbag unit disposed in an instrument panel at a front portion of a vehicle interior and fixed to a strength member on a vehicle body side and capable of deploying an airbag; and the instrument panel corresponding to the airbag unit. An opening that can pass through the airbag, an airbag lid that closes the opening and is opened by the deployment force of the airbag, and an instrument panel-side attachment portion that is provided at a peripheral portion of the opening. A lid support portion provided on the back surface of the air bag grid and attached to the attachment portion from the outside of the instrument panel; attached to the attachment portion from the inside of the instrument panel; With a rotation restricting bracket having an arm portion that approaches or abuts inside the device Air bag device according to claim.