KR0180177B1 - Impact switch in airbag system - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to an airbag-operated impact switch that is rapidly operated in a multi-directional impact upon an automobile collision in an airbag device of an automobile.

The present invention relates to a mechanical impact switch for connecting an operating power source to an airbag device when an external impact quantity is greater than a predetermined value in the event of a vehicle collision, the mechanical impact switch comprising: a casing (10) of an insulating material having a closed box structure; A rotor 11 rotatably mounted on the rotor shaft 14 inside the casing 10 and having a toothed portion 11a formed on an outer circumferential surface thereof; An eccentric weight 12 installed at a position spaced apart from the rotation center of the rotor 11; As long as a gear portion 15a is provided on both sides of the rotor 11 so as to be slidable on the guide rail 16 and engaged with the gear portion 11a of the rotor 11 on each inner side surface A pair of sliders 15; And an impacting means for determining an amount of impact for moving the slider 15 and forming a predetermined signal in accordance with the movement of the slider 15. [

Accordingly, the present invention has the effect of improving the reliability of the airbag operation by applying the mechanical impact switch which is quickly operated in accordance with the multi-directional impact when the vehicle collides with the airbag device which is one of the passenger protection means of the automobile.

Description

Airbag actuating shock switch

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to an impact sensor, and more particularly, to an airbag device, which is one of passenger protection means of an automobile, for improving the reliability of airbag operation by applying a mechanical impact switch, Air bag operating shock switch.

Conventional airbag devices are installed in front of the steering wheel or passenger seat to protect the driver in the event of a vehicle collision. In the airbag device, when an amount of impact equal to or greater than a predetermined value is detected by the acceleration sensor, the battery power is ignited to generate high-pressure gas, and the airbag is deployed with the gas pressure. Since such an airbag apparatus is a relatively expensive and infrequent apparatus, extremely high reliability is required in its operation.

To this end, a backup power source comprising a large-capacity condenser, and a diagnosis circuit for monitoring and warning the abnormality of the entire airbag system may be installed.

However, if the abnormality is not detected by the means described above, for example, when the acceleration sensor is malfunctioned or inoperable, the driver does not have a chance to repair or replace it beforehand and the ignition of the ignition device does not explode, Since the device becomes obsolete, a mechanical impact detection sensor may be used in combination.

Generally, a spring-mass sensor, which is a combination of a mass having a predetermined mass and a spring having a predetermined elasticity, is used for mechanical detection of an impact quantity. When an external impact quantity is transmitted to the sensor, And the relative position is changed. The change of the relative position is converted into a predetermined electric physical quantity (for example, a resistance value) proportional to the magnitude of the deceleration depending on the impact, and is sent to the control circuit of various mechanical devices or connects the input side and the output side circuit in critical shock.

On the other hand, the spring-mass type sensor used as a mechanical detection means of impact is advantageous in that it is not affected by noise as compared with a semiconductor type sensor in which a piezo resistor, an amplifier, a filter, have.

However, such a spring-mass type mechanical sensor uses a linear motion by a coil spring, so that it is difficult to generate an accurate signal if an impact is applied at a right angle with respect to the direction of motion, . In addition, since the coil spring tends to generate vibration, it is difficult to ensure high accuracy, and a separate device structure for damping vibration using damping oil is required. In addition, the coil spring is always affected by vibration even in a relatively weak impact from the production process of the impact switch to the use process, and it is easy to deform the spring characteristic, thereby causing a defect to be high.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an airbag operation switch for improving the reliability of airbag operation by applying a mechanical impact switch that is quickly operated in accordance with a multi-directional impact in the event of an automobile collision in an airbag device, For that purpose.

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing the interior of the impact switch. FIG.

2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 1;

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMERALS

10: casing 11: rotor

11a, 15a: Toothed portion 12: Eccentric weight

13: microswitch 14: rotor shaft

14a: end portion 15: slider

16: guide rail 17: elastic member

L: Lead wire

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a mechanical impact switch for connecting an operating power source to an airbag device when an external impact amount is greater than a predetermined value at the time of a vehicle collision, the mechanical impact switch comprising: a casing of an insulating material having a closed box structure; A rotor 11 rotatably mounted on the rotor shaft 14 inside the casing 10 and having a toothed portion 11a formed on an outer circumferential surface thereof; An eccentric weight 12 installed at a position spaced apart from the rotation center of the rotor 11; As long as a gear portion 15a is provided on both sides of the rotor 11 so as to be slidable on the guide rail 16 and engaged with the gear portion 11a of the rotor 11 on each inner side surface A pair of sliders 15; And an impact sensing means for determining an impact amount for moving the slider (15) and forming a predetermined signal in accordance with the movement of the slider (15).

At this time, the rotor 11 uses a metal having a low density such as aluminum, and the eccentric weight 12 uses a metal having a higher density.

The shock sensing means includes a micro switch 13 provided at both ends of one side of the slider 15 and an elastic member 17 provided at both ends of the other side of the slider 15. [

[Example]

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the interior of the impact switch.

The present invention is applied to a mechanical impact switch that connects an operating power source to an airbag device when an impact amount to the outside is greater than a predetermined value at the time of a vehicle collision. The casing 10, the eccentric weight 12, the rotor shaft 14, 16, and a movable portion such as a rotor 11 and a slider 15, as shown in Fig.

The casing 10 has a closed box structure, and an insulating material is used. So that moisture, foreign matter and the like are prevented from penetrating from the outside, and a malfunction is not caused from external electric shock.

The rotor 11 of the present invention is rotatably mounted on the rotor shaft 14 inside the casing 10 and a gear portion 11a is formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof. The rotor 11 uses a plate material processed with a full circle and forms a tooth portion 11a over a position symmetrical on both sides or over the entire outer circumferential surface.

The eccentric weight 12 of the present invention is installed at a position spaced apart from the center of rotation of the rotor 11.

Since the eccentric weight 12 serves to rotate the rotor 11 by an external impact, it is preferable that the eccentric weight 12 is spaced from the rotor shaft 14 as much as possible in terms of the rotation torque. The eccentric weight 12 may be screwed and mounted on the rotor 11 or welded to the rotor 11. When the material of the rotor 11 and the eccentric weight 12 is difficult to weld, .

At this time, the rotor 11 uses a metal having a low density such as aluminum, and the eccentric weight 12 uses a metal having a higher density. The rotor 11 may be made of a plastic material instead of aluminum. In this case, the rotor 11 needs to have strength that is not broken by the impact load of the eccentric weight 12. [

The pair of sliders 15 according to the present invention are provided on both side surfaces of the rotor 11 so as to be slidable on the guide rails 16, A gear portion 15a engaging with the gear portion 11a is formed. The slider 15 converts a rotational motion of the rotor 11 into a linear motion through a tooth portion 15a of a certain size and uses a material having a small density so that the rotational motion of the rotor 11 can be quickly moved by the rotational torque of the rotor 11 Minimize its inertial force.

As described above, the conventional impact switch is a spring-mass type mechanical sensor and uses linear motion by the coil spring. Therefore, when impact is applied at a right angle to the direction of motion, reliability of operation is reduced. In the present invention, The unbalance of the rotor 11 is used to solve such a problem.

The invention also includes an impact sensing means for determining the amount of impact for moving the slider 15 and for forming a predetermined signal in accordance with the movement of the slider 15. [

The shock sensitive means includes a micro switch 13 provided at both ends of one side of the slider 15 and an elastic member 17 provided at both ends of the other side of the slider 15. [ The micro switch 13 is a switch whose internal contact state is inverted by the pressure of the contact, and the present invention uses a (low output) a contact open in the normal state. The elastic member 17 uses a coil spring or a leaf spring as means for applying an elastic force to both ends of the slider 15 to prevent the rotor 11 from rotating until the rotor 11 receives an impact of at least a predetermined value, It is preferable that the latter is less susceptible to deterioration of the spring force due to the influence of the impact.

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

An end portion 14a is formed in the rotor shaft 14 supporting the rotor 11. The end portion 14a serves as a sliding bearing for the rotor 11 to rotate the rotor 11 smoothly. It is also possible to provide a rolling bearing (not shown) on the rotor shaft 14 instead of the end portion 14a. In this case, only the thrust method may be used, or the radial method and the thrust method may be used in combination.

In addition, the surface roughness of the contact portions of the gears 11a, 15a, the slider 15, and the guide rail 16 is kept good so as not to receive unnecessary torque when the rotor 11 rotates.

1 and 2, when the rotor 11 is rotated in the clockwise direction by the impact force exceeding the deformation force of the elastic member 17, a signal is generated at the upper micro switch 13, On the contrary, when the rotor 11 rotates in the counterclockwise direction, a signal is generated at the lower micro switch 13. When the shock is applied to the rotor shaft 14 and the eccentric weight 12 on the line, the rotor 11 is not supposed to rotate. However, when the eccentric weight 12 is impacted by the impact from the ground, There is no such case because it vibrates within a minute angular range.

At this time, by appropriately adjusting the spring force of the elastic member 17 and the mass of the eccentric weight 12, the operating conditions of the switch can be changed, and a multi-directional sensing shock switch suitable for the use can be realized. For example, when the airbag apparatus is used in an automobile airbag apparatus, when the deceleration threshold for operating the airbag is 17 g (g is gravitational acceleration), the rotor 11 continues to rotate in one direction, 13) to select a spring force-mass that will generate a signal.

Therefore, when the present invention is applied to an airbag system of an automobile, it is possible to input an input to the ECU in response to a speed change due to a vehicle collision in any direction, and the ECU can proceed to an operation flow of deploying the airbag using the input.

As described above, the airbag operation impact switch of the present invention is effective in improving the reliability of the airbag operation by applying a mechanical impact switch that is quickly operated in accordance with a multi-directional impact when an automobile collides with an airbag device, .

Although the present invention has been shown and described with respect to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims Those skilled in the art will readily know what is known in the art.

Claims (3)

1. A mechanical impact switch for connecting an operating power source to an airbag device when an external impact is greater than a predetermined value in the event of an automobile crash, comprising: a casing (10) of an insulating material with a closed box structure; A rotor 11 rotatably mounted on the rotor shaft 14 inside the casing 10 and having a toothed portion 11a formed on an outer circumferential surface thereof; An eccentric weight 12 installed at a position spaced apart from the rotation center of the rotor 11; As long as a gear portion 15a is provided on both sides of the rotor 11 so as to be slidable on the guide rail 16 and engaged with the gear portion 11a of the rotor 11 on each inner side surface A pair of sliders 15; And an impact sensing means for determining an impact amount for moving the slider (15) and forming a predetermined signal in accordance with the movement of the slider (15). The airbag-operated shock absorber according to claim 1, wherein the rotor (11) uses a metal having a low density such as aluminum, and the eccentric weight (12) uses a metal having a higher density. The impact sensing device according to claim 1, wherein the shock sensing means comprises a micro switch (13) installed at both ends of one slider (15) and an elastic member (17) installed at both ends of the slider (15) Airbag actuation shock switch.