JP5026026B2 - Airbag - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an airbag that protects a driver's occupant by inflating and deploying at the time of a vehicle collision.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an airbag device that protects an occupant by interposing between a steering wheel and a driver's occupant by detecting and inflating the collision at the time of a vehicle collision has been put into practical use.

As such an airbag apparatus, Patent Document 1 proposes an apparatus in which a strap is built in an airbag and the deployment shape of the airbag is defined by the strap (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In this prior art, the deployment shape of the airbag is defined by the strap in accordance with the space between the steering wheel and the occupant to improve the protection for the occupant.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-260996 (paragraph numbers 0016 and 0017, FIG. 4)

  However, the conventional technology described above has a problem that the structure of the airbag is complicated because the deployed shape of the airbag is defined by the strap.

  Then, an object of this invention is to provide the airbag which can protect a passenger | crew with a simple structure.

The invention according to claim 1 is an airbag that includes a front part facing a passenger in a driver's seat and a rear part located on the steering wheel side of the front part, and is freely inflated and deployed when gas is injected. A head support part for supporting the head of the occupant and an abdomen support part for supporting the abdomen of the occupant, and the head support part is more inflated than the abdomen support part in the expanded state. However, the distance between the front portion and the rear portion along the axial direction of the steering shaft connected to the steering wheel is formed long, and protrudes downward from the left and right side portions of the abdomen support portion in the left- right direction. airbag, characterized in that e Bei the lumbar support portion that supports the occupant's waist, the lumbar support part configured to support and engage the occupant lumbar region from the left and right sides recessed center of.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the airbag is freely inflated and deployed, it does not require a strap for regulating the shape when the airbag is deployed. Further, in a state where the airbag is inflated and deployed, the distance between the front surface portion and the back surface portion along the axial direction of the steering shaft connected to the steering wheel is greater in the head support portion than in the abdomen support portion. Since the distance between the front part and the rear part along the vehicle longitudinal direction is long, the head support part approaches the passenger's head, so that the passenger is attached forward in the vehicle longitudinal direction due to an impact at the time of the vehicle collision. When being urged, the head support portion can support the occupant's head from a relatively early stage and can sufficiently absorb the inertial force of the occupant's head over a long distance, thus protecting the occupant. Therefore, according to the present invention, a passenger can be protected with a simple configuration.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the waist portion of the occupant can be protected by providing the waist portion support portion.

  An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view showing an airbag according to this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the airbag according to this embodiment, and FIG. 3 shows a sewing process of the airbag fabric according to this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a folding process of the airbag fabric according to the present embodiment, and FIG. It is a side view which shows the state which protects a passenger | crew with the airbag which concerns on embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the airbag 1 is provided on a steering wheel 10. In FIG. 1, the airbag 1 in a deployed state is shown, but the airbag 1 is normally housed in an airbag cover (not shown) provided on the steering wheel 10.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the airbag 1 includes a front portion 1 a that faces the passenger 2 (see FIG. 6) of the driver's seat, and a back portion 1 b that is located on the steering wheel 10 side of the front portion 1 a. The upper portion 1c, the lower portion 1e, and the pair of left and right side portions 1d connecting the front portion 1a and the rear portion 1b are provided. In addition, a head support portion 1 f that supports the head 2 a (see FIG. 6) of the occupant 2 is formed on the upper portion of the airbag 1, while the abdominal portion 2 b ( An abdominal support portion 1g for supporting the abdomen is provided. Further, a lower portion of the airbag 1 is provided with a lower back support portion 1h that protrudes downward from the side of the abdominal support portion 1g and supports the lower back portion 2c (see FIG. 6) of the occupant 2.

  As shown in FIG. 1, when the airbag 1 is inflated and deployed, the head support portion 1f is more along the axial direction B of the steering shaft 11 connected to the steering wheel 10 than the abdominal support portion 1g. The distance D between the front part 1a and the back part 1b is long. That is, if the distances D in the head support part 1f and the abdomen support part 1g are D1 and D2, respectively, the distance D1 is longer than the distance D2. That is, when the airbag 1 of the present embodiment is in an inflated and deployed state, the head support portion 1f has a front portion 1a and a rear portion 1b along the vehicle longitudinal direction C rather than the abdominal portion support portion 1g. The distance E between is long. That is, if the distances E in the head support part 1f and the abdomen support part 1g are E1 and E2, respectively, the distance E1 is longer than the distance E2. Here, the steering wheel 10 is disposed so as to be inclined with respect to the vehicle vertical direction so that the upper end portion thereof is positioned forward in the vehicle longitudinal direction C with respect to the lower end portion.

  A deployable folding part 3 is provided on the upper part of the airbag 1. Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the back surface portion 1 b is provided with an opening 5 for connecting an inflator and an exhaust port 7. Furthermore, a retainer hole 6 (see FIG. 5) is provided around the opening 5 for connecting the inflator on the back surface portion 1b.

  A method for manufacturing the airbag 1 will be described. The airbag 1 before sewing consists of an airbag base fabric 8 cut out from one original fabric as shown in FIG. Then, the base fabric 8 is valley-folded (concave bent) at the longitudinal center line L1 as shown in FIG. 5B, and a folding line L2 that is separated from the longitudinal center line L1 by a predetermined dimension in the longitudinal direction. , L3 are respectively folded (convexly bent) to form four overlapping portions 8a to 8d as shown in FIG. 5 (c). These overlapping portions 8 a to 8 d become the folding portion 3. Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the end portion of the bent base fabric 8 is stitched to form an outer peripheral sewing portion 9. At this time, the end portions of the overlapping portions 8a to 8d are sewn in a quadruple state. Thus, the airbag 1 (FIG. 3) is formed.

  In such a configuration, the airbag 1 is freely expanded and deployed by sending gas to the airbag 1 by an inflator (not shown) at the time of a vehicle frontal collision. At this time, the upper folding part 3 shown in FIG. 4 is unfolded, that is, the overlapping parts 8a to 8d that overlap each other extend in the vehicle front-rear direction C and protrude upward, and the overlapping parts 8b and 8c constitute the upper surface part 1c. become. At this time, the left and right end portions of the upper surface portion 1c are concave. Then, the rear surface portion 1 b comes into contact with the steering wheel 10, and the front surface portion 1 a is arranged substantially vertically, and approaches the upper body of the occupant 2.

  In the inflated and deployed state as described above, as described above, the head support portion 1f is more than the abdomen support portion 1g along the axial direction B of the steering shaft 11 connected to the steering wheel 10 and the rear portion. The distance D between 1b is long. Moreover, the distance E between the front part 1a and the back part 1b along the vehicle front-back direction C is longer in the head support part 1f than in the abdomen support part 1g. As a result, the head support portion 1f approaches the head 2a of the occupant 2, so when the occupant 2 is urged forward in the vehicle front-rear direction C by an impact at the time of a vehicle collision, the head support portion 1f The head 2a can be supported from a relatively early stage, and the inertial force of the head 2a of the occupant 2 can be sufficiently absorbed over a long distance. At this time, the abdomen support part 1g supports the abdomen 2b of the occupant 2 to support the abdomen 2b of the occupant 2, and the portion between the head support part 1f and the abdomen support part 1g supports the chest 2d of the occupant 2. The waist support part 1h engages with the waist part 2c of the occupant 2 to support the waist part 2c. Therefore, the upper body of the occupant 2 can be reliably protected. And since this airbag 1 expand | deploys freely, the strap which controls a shape at the time of expansion | deployment of the airbag 1 is not required. That is, according to this embodiment, the passenger 2 can be protected by the airbag 1 having a simple configuration.

  Moreover, according to this embodiment, since the waist | hip | lumbar part support part 1h protrudes below from the side part of the abdominal part support part 1g, the waist | hip | lumbar part 2c of the passenger | crew 2 can be reliably supported by the waist | hip | lumbar part support part 1h.

  The present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and various other embodiments can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

It is a side view which shows the airbag which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the airbag which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the sewing process of the base fabric for airbags which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is sectional drawing which follows the AA line of FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the folding process of the base fabric for airbags which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a side view which shows the state which protects a passenger | crew with the airbag which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Airbag 1a ... Front part 1b ... Back part 1f ... Head support part 1g ... Abdominal part support part 1h ... Lumbar support part 2 ... Crew 2a ... Head 2b ... Abdomen 2c ... Lumbar part 10 ... Steering wheel 11 ... Steering shaft D ... Distance E ... Distance

Claims (1)

An airbag that includes a front portion facing a passenger on a driver's seat and a rear portion located on the steering wheel side of the front portion, and is freely inflated and deployed when gas is injected,
A head support part for supporting the head of the occupant;
An abdomen support part for supporting the abdomen of the occupant;
With
In the inflated and deployed state, the head support part has a longer distance between the front part and the back part along the axial direction of the steering shaft connected to the steering wheel than the abdomen support part. while being formed, e Bei the lumbar support portion that supports the occupant lumbar region from the left and right sides of the abdomen support part recessed central ejector lateral direction downward, the waist portion support portion of the passenger's waist from left and right sides An airbag configured to be engaged and supported .

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