JP3060747B2 - Pad for 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 a pad for covering an upper surface of a steering wheel of an automobile or an airbag device mounted on an instrument panel in front of a passenger seat, and more particularly to a thermoplastic elastomer which can be manufactured with good productivity. (Hereinafter, abbreviated as “TPE”).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional pad for an air bag device is usually manufactured as follows.

[0003] The pad is usually made of a polyurethane material for reaction injection molding (RIM) of a foaming formulation, and is manufactured by burying a net insert and injection molding. This net insert is for reinforcing the pad upper wall portion when the airbag is activated.

However, in the case of this manufacturing method, since a net insert is used, the setting operation is required,
Production man-hours increase, Poriu Letter <br/> emission material used in the RIM molding are the thermoset can not recyclable materials, problems like occurs.

For this reason, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 3-18925
No. 2, the soft first resin material (styrene-based TP
E) A pad is proposed in which a skin layer formed of a material and a core layer formed of a second resin material (olefin-based resin) harder than the first resin material are integrally formed.

[0006]

However, in the case of the pad having the above-described structure, it is necessary to form the core layer separately and insert-mold the skin layer later using the core layer as an insert. And the mold structure became complicated due to insert molding.

[0007] In view of the above, the present invention eliminates the need to insert mold the core layer separately, thereby greatly reducing the number of manufacturing steps and simplifying the injection mold. It is an object to provide a pad for a bag device.

[0008]

The pad for an airbag device according to the present invention solves the above problems by the following constitution.

A pad for covering an upper surface of an airbag device, wherein the pad body is continuously provided with a deployment groove portion which breaks when the airbag is inflated and allows an upper wall portion to be deployed. The main body has a low temperature tensile strength T _B (−
35 ° C.): 200 to 500 kgf / cm ² (19.6 to 49 MPa)
A) a styrene-based TPE or a polyester-based TPE,
The single-layer molding is performed so that the average thickness of the upper wall is 2.5 to 6 mm, and the remaining thickness of the developing groove is 0.3 to 1.5.
a mm, part comprising a hinge portion when the upper wall expansion,
The upper wall portion is thinner than the average thickness .

[0010]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

A. First, the basic configuration will be described.

That is, the pad which covers the upper surface of the airbag device 11, and in which the pad body 13 continuously breaks the deployment groove portion 19 which breaks when the airbag 15 inflates and allows the upper wall portion 17 to be deployed. It is a configuration provided. Here, the whole continuous shape of the developing groove 19 is not particularly limited, but is usually an H-shape as shown in FIG.

B. In the above configuration, the present application has the following characteristic configuration.

(1) The first characteristic aspect is a low-temperature tensile strength T
_B (-35 ° C): 200 to 500 kgf / cm ² (19.
(6 to 49 MPa) styrene-based TPE or polyester-based TPE, and is formed into a single layer so that the average thickness of the upper wall is 2.5 to 6 mm.

If the low-temperature tensile strength is less than the above numerical range, the groove portion 19 may be broken by an allowable external force in a normal state. If the low-temperature tensile strength exceeds the above numerical range, the groove portion may be broken when the airbag is inflated. May not be broken smoothly.

If the average wall thickness of the upper wall is less than 2.5 mm, the shape-retaining ability is not sufficient, and if it exceeds 6 mm, the weight increases, which is not desirable. In addition, the average thickness of the peripheral wall portion 21 is set to 2.5 to 6 mm in consideration of the shape retention ability and the like, and usually, as shown in FIG. A plurality of reinforcing ribs 23 between the outer periphery of
Is desirably formed in advance.

The reason why styrene-based TPE or polyester-based TPE is used as the TPE is that they have excellent low-temperature impact resistance and good inflation test results at low temperatures.

(I) As the styrene-based TPE, each of the soft segments is a polybutadiene SB.
S system is a polyisobutyl Puren SIS system, SEBS is a polyolefin-based, can be used either equal. Among them, SEBS is preferable because it has no double bond between molecules and is excellent in weather resistance, abrasion resistance, heat resistance and the like. Specifically, "ToughTech" (manufactured by Asahi Kasei Corporation) or the like can be used.

(Ii) The polyester-based TPE includes:
The hard segment is made of polyester such as polybutylene terephthalate, and the soft segments are made of polytetramethylene glycol ether (PTMG) and P, respectively.
Polyester / polyether type as polyether such as TMEGT (condensate of PTMG and terephthalic acid),
Any polyester / polyester type in which the hard segment is a polyester similar to the above and the soft segment is an aliphatic polyester such as polycaprolactone can be used. Specifically, "Lowmod" (manufactured by General Electric), "Hytrel" (manufactured by DuPont) and the like can be used.

(2) The second characteristic mode is that the developing groove 19
The remaining thickness t of 0.3 to 1.5 mm (preferably 0.5 to
1.0 mm).

If the remaining thickness is less than 0.3 mm, the groove 19 may be broken by an allowable external force in a normal state.
If it exceeds 1.5 mm, the groove 19 may not be broken smoothly when the airbag is inflated.

At this time, the back groove angle α is set to 30 to
Preferably, it is 90 °. Backside groove angle is 30 °
If it is less than 90 degrees, shrinkage is likely to occur on the pad surface, and 90 °
If the air pressure exceeds the range, the groove may not be smoothly broken when the airbag is operated. Since the front groove angle of the developing groove portion 19 hardly affects the expanding operation of the upper wall portion 17, both the groove shape and the groove angle are arbitrary.

[0023] Note that sites comprising the hinge region H at the upper wall portion deployment when the airbag bulges, so that expansion unit to easily deploy thin meat than the average thickness of the upper wall portion 17, typically, 2
~ 4mm.

C. The method for manufacturing the pad is not particularly limited, but is performed, for example, as follows.

The above-mentioned polystyrene-based TPE is placed in a molding die.
Alternatively, it is manufactured by injection molding using a polyester-based TPE compound as a molding material. In the above, the molded product is finished by applying a weather-resistant paint to the surface, if necessary.

D. This pad is connected to an airbag 15 disposed above a steering wheel boss (not shown).
Is fixed to the inflator 25 to which is attached by means of a rivet 29 or the like via a retainer 27.

[0027]

As described above, the pad for an air bag device of the present invention is made of a specific type of TPE (styrene-based or polyester-based) having a low-temperature tensile strength within a predetermined range as a TPE material, and is developed. By specifying the remaining thickness of the groove for use, even if a single-layer molding is made of a TPE material, there is no problem in the expansion performance and the like when the pad swells as shown in a test example described later.

Therefore, in the airbag device pad of the present invention, it is not necessary to insert-mold the core layer separately as in the related art. Therefore, the number of manufacturing steps can be significantly reduced, and the mold structure at the time of molding is simplified.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 2-171364 discloses a technical idea of forming a single-layer airbag device pad with TPE.
A configuration in which the material characteristics (low-temperature tensile strength) of E are limited to a specific range and a specific type of material and a configuration in which the remaining thickness of the developing groove portion is in a specific range are combined to develop the pad when the pad bulges There is no disclosure or suggestion of the idea of maintaining the deployment performance of the unit.

[0030]

Test Examples Hereinafter, test examples performed to confirm the effects of the present invention will be described.

Using the materials shown in Table 1, pads of Examples and Comparative Examples were molded. The TPE used in the comparative example was
Both are urethane-based, Comparative Example 1 is made by "Dainippon Ink Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.", and Comparative Example 2 is made by "Nippon Elastollan".

The specifications of the pad are as follows.

Type A: Upper wall area: 300 cm ² , Upper wall average thickness: 5 mm, Remaining wall thickness of the developing groove: 1.0 mm, Groove angle on the back side of the developing groove: 60 °, Type B: Upper wall Area: 270cm ² , average thickness of upper wall:
4.5 mm, deployment groove remaining wall thickness: 0.5 mm, development groove back side included angle: 50 °, and equipped with the same airbag device as when each pad is mounted on an actual vehicle. An inflation test was performed at the temperature.

Then, the developed state of the pad was visually observed, and the state was beautifully defined as ○, a crack was generated in a part of the pad △, and the pad was scattered Χ. The results are shown. In each example, there was no problem in pad expandability in all items under the room temperature, 85 ° C. atmosphere, and −35 ° C. atmosphere. It turns out that there is a problem.

Table 1 shows physical property data of each material used for reference. Each physical property data is obtained by preparing a test piece and actually measuring it.

The test methods for the respective physical property data were as follows: tensile strength (T _B ): ASTM D638, tensile elongation (E
_B ): ASTM D638, Izod impact strength: A
This was performed based on STM D256.

[0037]

[Table 1]

*) Commercially available modified material

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a semi-longitudinal sectional view showing a mounting mode of a pad to an airbag device, showing an example of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a part II in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the pad of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Airbag apparatus 13 Pad main body 15 Airbag 17 Upper wall part of pad main body 19 Expansion groove part 21 Peripheral wall part of pad main body t Remaining thickness of expansion groove part α Back groove angle of expansion groove part

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Ogawa 1 Ochiai-gai Nagahata, Kasuga-cho, Nishi-Kasugai-gun, Aichi Prefecture Inside Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-3-189252 (JP, A) JP-A Heihei 4-151348 (JP, A) JP-A-5-69788 (JP, A) JP-A-1-83652 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B60R 21/20

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A pad for covering an upper surface of an airbag device, wherein a pad body is continuously provided with a deployment groove portion which breaks when the airbag inflates and allows an upper wall portion to be deployed. The pad body has a low-temperature tensile strength T _B (−35 ° C.) of 2
A styrene-based thermoplastic elastomer having an average thickness of 2.5 to 500 kgf / cm ² (19.6 to 49 MPa) and an upper wall portion of 2.5 to 2.5 kgf / cm ² (19.6 to 49 MPa).
The thickness of the unfolding groove is 0.3 to 1.5 mm, and the hinge portion when the upper wall is unfolded is the upper wall.
A pad for an airbag device, wherein the pad is thinner than the average thickness of the airbag device. 2. A pad that covers an upper surface of an airbag device, wherein the pad body is continuously provided with a deployment groove that breaks when the airbag inflates and allows the upper wall to be deployed. The pad body has a low-temperature tensile strength T _B (−35 ° C.) of 2
A polyester-based thermoplastic elastomer of 00 to 500 kgf / cm ² (19.6 to 49 MPa), which is formed as a single layer so that the average thickness of the upper wall is 2.5 to 6 mm. The part having a thickness of 0.3 to 1.5 mm and serving as a hinge when the upper wall is unfolded is the upper wall.
A pad for an airbag device, wherein the pad is thinner than the average thickness of the airbag device.