JPH0939710A - Occupant protecting device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To downsize an occupant protecting device for vehicle for protecting an occupant from an impact received from the lateral side surface of a vehicle at low cost. SOLUTION: A connecting part intermittently connected so as to form an air passage 16 is provided between a main bag 10A and a sub bag part 10B in one bag body to form an air bag 10, a blown gas of an inflator is guided into the air bag through an inflator air hole provided on the main bag part 10A of the air bag 10 to expand the main bag part 10A, and the gas is supplied to the sub-bag part 10B through the air passage 16 by the motion for crushing this part to expand the sub-bag part 10B.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle occupant protection device for detecting an acceleration applied laterally to a traveling direction of a vehicle and inflating an airbag to protect a side portion of an occupant.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a vehicle occupant protection device has been proposed which is inflated and deployed between an occupant and a door when a large acceleration is applied laterally to the traveling direction of the vehicle such as a side collision of the vehicle. Has been done.

In such a device, it is necessary to use a large air bag so as to cover a wide area extending over the inner surface of the door trim corresponding to the chest of the occupant and the inner surface of the window glass corresponding to the head of the occupant.

In order to deploy such a large-sized and large-capacity airbag within a predetermined short time, it is necessary to use an inflator having a large gas generating capacity. Since the vehicle occupant protection device including the large inflator and the large airbag as described above becomes large in size as a whole, it is difficult to store it in the space inside the door trim.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In consideration of the above points, the present invention provides a vehicle occupant protection device which is compact and has a simple structure which responds to acceleration from the lateral side of the vehicle and which is inexpensive. With the goal.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a vehicle occupant protection device which operates in response to lateral acceleration with respect to the traveling direction of a vehicle, in which the periphery of a sheet-like front material and a backing material are joined together. One bag body formed into one closed bag, a front material and a backing material from one side to the other side of the bag body are intermittently coupled to each other, and a main bag portion and a sub bag portion are provided. Supplying gas into the main bag part, and a joint part that forms two air chambers and forms an air passage for gas distribution that is narrower than the width of the bag between the main bag part and the sub bag part. And an inflator.

With such a structure, the gas ejected from the inflator is introduced into the main bag, and the main bag portion is first inflated and deployed to absorb the kinetic energy on the chest side of the occupant and inflated at this time. By the operation of crushing the main bag portion, gas is supplied to the sub bag portion through the ventilation passage and inflated and expanded.

The inflated and expanded sub-bag portion absorbs the kinetic energy of the passenger's head.

[0009]

1 to 6 show an occupant protection device for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The airbag 10, which is the bag body of the vehicle occupant protection device, is formed in a large rectangular shape so that it can be inflated and expanded over a wide range from the inside of the door trim 20 to the inner surface of the window glass 22 in the inflated and expanded state. I am doing it. The airbag 10 is formed in a bag shape by joining two sheets of a rectangular-shaped front material and backing material having rounded corners and sewing the periphery 12 thereof.

Further, the position between the main bag portion 10A and the sub-bag portion 10B of the airbag 10 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the two front and back materials are intermittently sewn or joined by means such as sticking to provide the joint portion 14, and at the same time, as shown in FIG. An air passage 16 is provided to allow gas to pass between the two cloth materials at the interposition. Therefore, the total width dimension W1 of the ventilation passage 16 is smaller than the width dimension W2 of the airbag 10.

Further, an inflator vent hole 18 is provided at a predetermined position of the main bag portion 10A in the backing material of the airbag 10.

The vent hole 18 for the inflator is connected to a gas ejection port of an inflator (not shown) provided in the door, so that gas generated by the inflator is supplied to the airbag 10.
It is designed to be introduced into the main bag portion 10A. The inflator is configured to generate at least a gas amount corresponding to the capacity of the main bag portion 10A of the airbag 10.

The airbag 10 is folded so that it can be easily deployed, and an inflator (not shown) is set to form a vehicle occupant protection device.

The vehicle occupant protection device thus constructed is mounted so as to be housed in the recess 24 of the door trim 20 as shown in FIG.

Next, the operation and operation of the vehicle occupant protection system of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described.

The vehicle occupant protection device is normally housed in the recess 24 of the door trim 20. Then, when acceleration is applied to the vehicle from the side and the acceleration sensor of the inflator detects a large acceleration that is greater than or equal to a predetermined value in the lateral direction with respect to the traveling direction of the vehicle, the inflator is activated and gas is ejected from the inflator vent hole 18. First, the airbag 1
No. 0 main bag portion 10A is filled with gas and expanded as in the initial operation state shown in FIG.

In this state, the lateral acceleration applied to the vehicle causes the passenger 26 to move toward the door. At this time,
As in the mid-operation state shown in FIG. 5, between the chest side of the passenger 26 closest to the door and the door trim 20, the expanded and inflated main bag portion 10A is crushed,
The kinetic energy on the chest side of the passenger 26 is absorbed. At the same time, by the operation of crushing the main bag portion 10A toward the chest side of the passenger 26, the gas filled in the main bag portion 10A passes through the ventilation passage 16 and the sub bag portion 1A.
It flows into OB and is expanded and expanded so as to widely cover the window glass 22 portion.

As described above, in the state where the sub-bag portion 10B covers the window glass 22, the occupant's head 28 moving toward the window glass 22 later than the body side of the occupant 26 is in the latter operation state shown in FIG. As described above, the kinetic energy of the passenger's head 28 is absorbed by being pressed against the expanded and inflated sub-bag portion 10B.

Further, the inflator of the vehicle occupant protection system is provided with the main bag portion 10A of the airbag 10.
The capacity may be such that a sufficient amount of gas is ejected to expand and inflate the portion, and it is not always necessary to eject a large amount of gas for expanding and inflating both the main bag portion 10A and the sub-bag portion 10B.

Further, since there is a time difference between the expansion of the main bag portion 10A and the expansion of the sub bag portion 10B, a small inflator can be used.

Further, the airbag 10 comprises one bag-shaped bag, a main bag portion 10A and a sub-bag portion 10 thereof.
Since it has a simple structure in which the connecting portion 14 which is intermittently connected by means such as sewing is provided so as to form the ventilation passage 16 at a position between B and B, it can be easily and inexpensively manufactured. Moreover, the inflator can be downsized to a small capacity and can be made inexpensive, so that an inexpensive product as a whole can be provided.

In the embodiment of the present invention described above,
The vehicle occupant protection device attached to the door trim portion has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the vehicle occupant protection device is attached to the seat side of the vehicle without departing from the scope of the present invention. Of course, various configurations can be adopted within the range.

As described above, the airbag 10 is not only constructed by using two sheet materials on the front and back sides, but also one sheet material is folded in two and the three open end sides are sewn together to be joined. By doing so, it is of course possible to form a single sealed bag and provide the connecting portion 14 on this.

[0025]

Since the present invention has the above-described structure, the vehicle side occupant protection device can be made compact and simple, and can be manufactured at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an airbag according to an embodiment of the present invention.

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

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

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an initial operating state of the vehicle occupant protection device portion according to the exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing an intermediate operating state of the vehicle occupant protection device according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a late state of operation of the vehicle occupant protection device portion according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Airbag (bag body) 10A Main bag part 10B Sub-bag part 14 Coupling part 16 Ventilation path 18 Ventilation port for inflator

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle occupant protection device that operates in response to lateral acceleration with respect to a traveling direction of a vehicle, wherein a sheet-shaped front member and a back member are joined together to form a single sealed bag. One air bag, the front material and the back material from one side to the other side of the one air bag are intermittently coupled to each other to form two air chambers of a main bag portion and a sub bag portion. Along with the main bag portion and the sub-bag portion, a connecting portion configured to form a gas passage for gas flow narrower than the width of the bag body, an inflator for supplying gas into the main bag portion, An occupant protection device for a vehicle, comprising: