JPH06286568A - Air bag system for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an air bag system for a vehicle of which the expansion is quickly completed when gas is fed into the air bag so as to expand it, a shock applied on a crew is effectively mitigated when the crew is hit by the expanded air bag, and the cost is low. CONSTITUTION:An exhaust hole 5, is formed on an air bag 1, the projecting part 6 of the air bag with the exhaust hole formed thereon is folded up inside the air bag 1, the exhaust hole 5 is covered with a part 9 of the air bgg 1, the air bag 1 is sewn so as to maintain the folded state, The sewn part 10 is released by the gas pressure fed into the air bag 1, so as to open the exhaust hole.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle air bag for inflating an air bag between an occupant and an indoor part in front of the occupant to prevent the occupant from directly contacting the indoor part in a vehicle collision. It relates to a bag system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is well known in the prior art to mount an airbag system for restraining the occupant by restraining the movement of the occupant by an inflated airbag when the vehicle collides with a vehicle such as an automobile (for example, an actual flat tire). No. 1-150155).

In this type of airbag system, a vehicle collision is detected by a sensor that detects the vehicle deceleration at the time of a collision, and the detection signal is used to operate an inflator provided in front of the occupant to generate gas. The gas is sent into the airbag that has been folded so far to inflate the bag, and the occupant is received by the airbag to protect the occupant. An exhaust hole is formed in such an airbag, and by discharging a part of the gas in the airbag from the exhaust hole, when an occupant hits the airbag, the repulsion of the occupant is mitigated, and the air bag for the occupant is restrained. I try to absorb the shock.

[0004]

Such an air bag is configured to complete inflation in an extremely short time after the sensor detects a collision, for example, a short time of about 30 msec, and reliably receive the occupant. Has been done. However, since the exhaust hole is formed in the airbag as described above, the gas constantly flows out from the exhaust hole until the gas is sent from the folded state of the bag until the inflation is completed. To configure the airbag system so that the time from the start of inflation of the bag to the completion of inflation is extremely short as described above, the total cost is high and the airbag system is expensive. I couldn't avoid the drawback.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and to provide an airbag system for a vehicle which can reduce the cost as compared with the conventional one.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a sensor for detecting a collision of a vehicle, an inflator which operates in response to the detection signal to generate gas, and the gas which is fed to expand the gas. And an airbag that
In an airbag system for a vehicle, wherein an exhaust hole for discharging gas inside the airbag is formed in the airbag, an airbag portion near the exhaust hole is covered with the exhaust hole by a part of the airbag. Fold it down like
The airbag is sewn so that the folded state can be maintained, and the strength of the sewn portion is set at a suitable time from immediately before the inflation of the airbag infused with gas to immediately after the completion of inflation. We propose an airbag system for a vehicle that is set so that the sewing can be released by the pressure of gas.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an airbag 1 of an airbag system according to the present invention. This airbag 1
Is made of a non-breathable flexible material, for example, a bag-shaped nylon cloth whose inside is coated with rubber. A gas inflow hole 3 is formed in the center of the back surface 2 of the airbag 1.

The above-described airbag 1 is arranged in a state of being folded in front of an occupant in a vehicle compartment. For example, although not shown in the drawing, the inflator is arranged on a support plate provided on the central hub portion of the steering wheel located in front of the driver's seat in the passenger compartment, and the airbag 1 has the gas inflow hole 3 of the inflator. The peripheral portion of the gas inflow hole 3 is fixed to the support plate in a state of being fitted to. The airbag 1 is stored in a cover attached to the support plate in a folded state.

Since such a mounting structure of the airbag 1 is well known in the art, as described in detail in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-150155, further description will be omitted.

The airbag system according to the present invention has, in addition to the airbag 1 and the inflator described above, a sensor (not shown) disposed at a proper position on the vehicle body, and this sensor detects a collision of an automobile. Upon detection, the detection signal causes the inflator to operate and generate, for example, nitrogen gas. The gas thus generated is sent into the airbag 1 through the gas inflow hole 3 shown in FIG. 1, whereby the airbag 1 starts inflating, and the pressure thereof causes the above-mentioned cover surrounding the airbag 1 to be inflated. To break. Then, the airbag 1 largely inflates between the steering wheel and the occupant, and the front surface side 4 receives the body of the occupant, particularly the face thereof, and protects the occupant.

When the inflated airbag 1 receives an occupant, it is necessary to discharge a part of the gas in the airbag 1 for the purpose of reducing the impact on the occupant. For this reason,
The airbag 1 of this example is formed with an exhaust hole for exhausting the gas therein. The configuration related to this will be clarified below.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory views showing a state during manufacturing before the airbag 1 shown in FIG. 1 is completed. In this state, the bag-shaped airbag 1 is ear-shaped. The projecting part 6 is provided so as to project. As shown in FIG. 3, the inside of each protrusion 6 is also hollow, and this hollow portion 7 communicates with the hollow portion 8 of the entire central portion of the airbag.

An exhaust hole 5 for exhausting gas inside the airbag is formed in a portion on the back side 2 of each protrusion 6, and the airbag portion near the exhaust hole 5, in this example, is formed of the exhaust hole 5. The protrusion 6 is folded as shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG.
It is pushed inward and the protrusion 6 is folded as shown in FIG. When the protrusion 6 is folded in this manner, the exhaust hole 5 is covered with a part 9 of the airbag 1 as shown in FIG. Then, the root side of the protrusion 6 of the airbag 1 is sewn as indicated by reference numeral 10 in FIG. 4 so that the folded state can be maintained.

Thus, the airbag 1 shown in FIG.
As described above, the airbag 1 is used by being attached to the steering wheel in front of the occupant. That is, gas is sent into the airbag 1 at the time of a vehicle collision, and at that time, the strength of the sewing portion 10 is from immediately before the inflation of the airbag 1 to which the gas is sent is completed to immediately after the completion. The sewing is set to be released by the pressure of the gas in the airbag at an appropriate time. That is, in the state before the gas is sent to the airbag 1, the exhaust hole 5 is covered by the part 9 of the bag 1 as shown in FIG. The thread inside the sewing portion 10 is cut by the internal pressure between the time immediately before the airbag 1 is inflated and the pressure inside the airbag 1 is inflated, and immediately after that. Thus, the sewing part 10
2 is released, the protrusion 6 projects outward due to the pressure in the airbag, and the exhaust hole 5 is opened. Therefore, from this exhaust hole 5,
Also, the gas in the airbag 1 is released as indicated by the chain line arrow in FIG.

Here, since the timing at which the sewn portion 10 is unwound is set as described above, the exhaust holes 5 are part of the airbag 1 in the initial stage when gas is introduced into the airbag 1. It is covered by 9 and little gas escapes from here. Therefore, the pressure in the airbag 1 rises quickly, and the airbag 1 completes the inflation in a very short time. Therefore, the occupant can be reliably received by the inflated airbag 1.

Further, since the sewn portion 10 is unfastened and the exhaust hole 5 is opened between immediately before and immediately after the completion of the inflation of the airbag 1, the gas therein is suddenly discharged. If the occupant hits the airbag 1 in such a state,
The pressure inside the airbag 1 does not become too high, and even after the occupant hits the airbag 1, the gas inside the airbag 1 is effectively released through the open exhaust hole 5, so The shock can be reliably reduced.

In this way, the inflation of the airbag 1 can be completed in a very short time, and the impact of the airbag 1 on the occupant can be effectively softened.

When the airbag 1 is provided with a plurality of exhaust holes, the sewn portions 10 are made to have different sewing strengths, and as the internal pressure of the airbag 1 increases,
The sewn portion 10 can be unwound to open the exhaust hole 5. At that time, when the occupant hits the airbag 1, a part of the sewn portion is not yet unwound, and the sewn portion may be unwound immediately after hitting. In this way, by appropriately setting the sewing strength of each sewing portion 10, it is possible to control the change in the internal pressure of the airbag 1 when the airbag 1 is inflated.

[0020]

According to the structure described in claim 1, when the airbag is quickly inflated and the occupant is received by the airbag, the impact given to the occupant can be effectively mitigated, and The structure of the airbag system is simple, and there is an advantage that the cost can be reduced as compared with the conventional one.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an airbag.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the airbag before folding the protrusion.

3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 3, after folding the protrusion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Airbag 5 Exhaust hole 9 Part 10 Sewing part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sensor for detecting a collision of a vehicle, and an inflator which operates by the detection signal to generate gas.
An air bag system for a vehicle, comprising: an air bag that is fed with the gas and inflates, the air bag having an exhaust hole for discharging the gas therein. Fold the bag part so that its exhaust hole is covered by a part of the airbag, sew the airbag so that the folded state can be maintained, and the strength of the sewn part is Timely from immediately before the expansion is completed to immediately after it is completed,
An airbag system for a vehicle, characterized in that the sewing is set to be released by the pressure of gas in the airbag.