JP3239834B2 - Interior parts for airbags - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interior member for an airbag, and more particularly to a structure for preventing a lid from being scattered, which is formed integrally with an interior member body and closes an airbag inflation opening.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an airbag for a passenger seat or a so-called side airbag has been provided to improve safety. In this case, an airbag is used for an instrument panel (instrument panel), a door trim, or the like. The air conditioner is installed inside a synthetic resin interior member, and swells into the vehicle compartment from an airbag inflation outlet provided in the interior member. Usually, the airbag inflation outlet is closed by a lid (airbag cover) having a thin portion that easily breaks when the airbag is inflated.

[0003] In order to prevent the airbag cover from breaking into pieces when the airbag is inflated, physical characteristics such as required flexibility and tensile strength are different from those of instrument panels and the like. For this reason, conventionally, an airbag cover is manufactured separately from an instrument panel made of a hard synthetic resin material, etc.
The opening of the airbag inflation outlet is covered with screws or the like. An example is shown in FIG. 10, which is an exploded perspective view of the passenger seat side portion of the instrument panel 1 '. In FIG. 10, a substantially square airbag inflation opening 13 is formed on the upper surface of the instrument panel 1 ′, and its opening peripheral wall 14 protrudes into the instrument panel 1 ′, and the front peripheral wall 141 of the opening peripheral wall 14 has a wall surface. Are provided with a plurality of mounting holes 15. The airbag cover 7 for closing the airbag inflation opening 13 has a substantially square shape in which the cover body 71 follows the airbag inflation opening 13, and its front side is bent downward at a right angle to form a rectangular connecting piece 72. ing.

[0004] The connecting piece 72 is provided with a plurality of mounting holes 73 in the longitudinal direction.
Is inserted into the airbag inflation opening 13, the cover body 71 closely contacts the inner periphery of the opening of the airbag inflation opening 13 and closes it. The mounting hole 73 of the connecting piece 72 is located on the front side wall portion 14.
In this state, a metal retainer 8 having a U-shaped cross section provided with a similar mounting hole 81 is placed on the connecting piece 72 and the front side wall 141 from below, and the mounting hole 8 is formed.
These are joined together by bolts penetrating into one. When an unillustrated airbag installed in the airbag inflation opening 13 is inflated, the cover body 71 of the airbag cover 7 pivotally opens upward with the boundary between the airbag cover 7 and the connecting piece 72 as a hinge. At this time, an upward pulling force acts on the cover body 71, but the connecting piece 72 is attached to the front side wall 1 of the airbag inflation opening 13.
41 is connected to the airbag cover 7 by bolts.
Will not scatter.

[0005]

However, the instrument panel 1 '
If the airbag cover 7 and the airbag cover 7 are separated from each other as in the related art, it takes time to manufacture and assemble. For this reason, it is conceivable that these are integrally formed by two-color molding or the like. In this case, a structure for reliably preventing the airbag cover from scattering is required.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and provides an interior member for an airbag in which an airbag inflation opening is closed and a lid integrally formed with the interior member main body is prevented from scattering. The purpose is to.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, in an interior member for an airbag according to the present invention, a main body (11) having an airbag inflation port (12) and an airbag inflation port (12) are closed. The lid (2) partially formed with a thin portion (24) that breaks when the airbag is inflated is formed integrally with a synthetic resin material, and the thin portion (2) is formed on the back surface of the lid (2).
A cover for opening the cover (2) when 4) is broken.
A rib (23) is formed at the center of the edge to protrude.
A metal connecting member (5) extending from an airbag case (3) for accommodating the bag is connected to the rib (23), and the connecting member (5) is stamped with a plurality of projections (52) on its surface.
The connecting member (5) is formed by cutting and raising the rib (2).
The projection (52) is designed to cut into the surface of the rib (23) when it is connected to (3).

In the present invention, the thin portion is broken with the inflation of the airbag, and the lid is pivotally opened into the vehicle cabin around the base of the rib as a hinge center. At this time, the upward pulling force acts on the lid, but the two are coupled so that the protrusion of the connecting member bites into the rib of the lid, so that the lid does not detach from the connecting member. In addition, scattering of the lid is reliably prevented.

The reference numerals in parentheses indicate the correspondence with the specific means described in the embodiments described later.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is an enlarged perspective view of a passenger seat side portion of an instrument panel 1 as an example of an interior member for an airbag. The instrument panel 1 is made of a thermoplastic hard synthetic resin material such as polypropylene (PP) mixed with rubber or filler, and has a substantially rectangular airbag on the upper surface of its main body 11 at the center in the front-rear direction (oblique vertical direction in FIG. 1). A bulge 12 is formed. The airbag inflation opening 12 is closed by an airbag cover 2 made of an olefin-based thermoplastic elastomer (TPO) or the like integrally formed by two-color molding. FIG. 2 shows a cross section of the airbag inflation opening 12 part.

In FIG. 2, the outer peripheral edge 21 of the airbag cover 2 is bent along the lower surface of the peripheral edge of the airbag inflation opening 12 of the instrument panel body 11 and welded to each other. Further, the entire outer peripheral surface of the airbag cover 2 is stepped lower, and a concave groove 22 is formed between the outer peripheral surface and the peripheral surface of the opening of the airbag inflation opening 12. On the back surface of the front side (left side in FIG. 2) of the airbag cover 2, a plate-like rib 23 having a constant thickness is formed which extends along the same and projects linearly obliquely forward. A bracket 5 as a connecting member to be described later is connected. The bracket 5 reaches the airbag case 3 in which the airbag is stored.
The airbag case 3 is fixed to the insert 13 of the instrument panel body 11 via a bracket 31 with bolts 43 and nuts 44.

The back surface along the three sides of the airbag cover 2 excluding the front side is deeply recessed toward the front surface, and a thin portion 24 that is broken when the airbag is inflated is formed between the airbag cover 2 and the concave groove 22. Therefore, when the airbag is inflated, the thin portions 24 (FIG. 1) on three sides of the airbag cover 2 are broken, and the airbag cover 2 is moved around the base of the rib 23 around the hinge as a hinge (FIG. 2). Upward), and the airbag inflates from the airbag inflation opening 12.

The bracket 5 is connected to the rib 23 as described above, and the details thereof will be described below. As shown in FIG. 3, a U-shaped notch 231 extending from the tip into the plate is formed at a plurality of positions (four in this embodiment) at intervals in the width direction at the leading end of the rib 23 on the plate surface. ing. The bracket 5 is formed by bending a metal plate having a constant width into a substantially U-shape.
(FIG. 2), and the plate surface of the tip 54 is located along the lower surface of the rib 23.

At the plate surface of the tip end 54 of the bracket 5, a mounting hole 5 is provided at the same position as the notch 231 at intervals in the width direction.
As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of (three in this embodiment, three on each side) protrusions 52 are formed at the left and right positions of each mounting hole 51 as shown in FIG. 4. . These projections 52 have a trapezoidal shape as shown in FIG. 5, and are formed by punching, cutting and raising the plate surface of the tip end 54 of the bracket 5 (FIGS. 6 and 7). As shown in FIG. 2, the metal retainer plate 6 is located on the upper surface of the rib 23. The retainer plate 6 is a long plate having a length substantially equal to the width of the rib 23 (FIG. 3). A mounting hole 61 is provided at the same position as the notch 231 of the rib 23.

The connection between the rib 23 and the bracket 5 is performed by connecting the mounting holes 61 and 51 of the retainer plate 6 and the bracket 5 to the rib 23.
Of the mounting holes 61,
This is performed by inserting a bolt 41 (FIG. 2) through 51 and tightening it with a nut 42. At the time of this tightening, the projections 52 formed on the plate surface of the tip end 54 of the bracket 5 bite into the plate surface of the rib 23 made of a synthetic resin material. When the airbag is activated, as described above, the thin portion 24 (FIG. 1) is broken with the inflation of the airbag, and the airbag cover 2 is pivotally opened into the vehicle cabin around the base of the rib 23 as a hinge center. Is done. At this time, the heat of the inflator in the airbag case 3 is transmitted to the airbag cover 2 to soften the synthetic resin material, and at the same time, an upward pulling force acts. Here, the projections 52 of the bracket 5 bite into the ribs 23 of the airbag cover 2 and are connected to each other. Therefore, even if the synthetic resin material is softened at this portion, the ribs 23 are formed.
Does not come off the bracket 5. This allows
The scattering of the airbag cover 2 is reliably prevented.

(Other Embodiments) The arrangement of the projections 52 is not limited to the first embodiment. For example, the projections 52 are linearly arranged at the left and right positions of the mounting hole 51 as shown in FIG. As described above, the mounting holes 51 may be surrounded and arranged in a horseshoe shape. The shape of the projection 51 is not limited to the first embodiment as long as it easily penetrates the synthetic resin material of the rib 23, and may be, for example, a wedge shape. Furthermore, the number of the projections 51 is determined by design according to the use situation, and is not limited to the number of the first embodiment. In the first embodiment, an instrument panel has been described as an example of a synthetic resin interior member, but a door trim or the like may be used.
Instead of fixing the base end of the bracket 5 to the airbag case, the bracket 5 may be fixed to a structural member on the instrument panel side or the door trim side.

[0017]

As described above, according to the interior member for an airbag of the present invention, it is possible to reliably prevent the lid body integrally formed with the interior member main body, which closes the airbag inflation opening, from scattering. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged perspective view of a passenger seat side portion of an airbag instrument panel according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a coupling portion between a rib and a bracket.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a bracket.

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

FIG. 6 is an enlarged plan view of a projection forming portion.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line VII-VII in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a partially enlarged plan view of a bracket according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a partially enlarged plan view of a bracket according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an enlarged perspective view of a passenger seat side portion of an instrument panel for an airbag, showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Instrument panel, 11 ... Main body, 12 ... Airbag inflation outlet, 2 ... Airbag cover, 23 ... Rib, 2
4 ... Thin portion, 5 ... Bracket (connecting member), 52 ... Protrusion.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Hirofumi Yamada 100 Kanayama, Ichiriyama-cho, Kariya-shi, Aichi Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-9-315250 (JP, A) JP-A-6-298033 (JP, A) JP-A-9-267708 (JP, A) JP-A-6-286551 (JP, A) A) JP-A-9-277897 (JP, A) JP-A-7-69158 (JP, A) JP-A-6-65119 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) ) B60R 21/16-21/32 B60R 21/045 B60K 37/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A body having a 1. A airbag inflating opening, made by integral molding and a lid which is formed in a part of the thin portion to break when the airbag inflated closed-airbag inflating opening in a synthetic resin material, the On the back side of the lid, when the thin part breaks
A rib at the center of the hinge to open the lid
An airbag that projects and forms the airbag
A metal connecting member extending from the case is connected to the rib,
A plurality of projections are punched on the surface of the connecting member , and cut out.
Ri raised and formed, an interior member for an air bag, characterized in that said protrusion of the coupling member when bound to the ribs was set to bite into the surface of the rib.