Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60R21/00—Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks
  • B60R21/02—Occupant safety arrangements or fittings, e.g. crash pads
  • B60R21/16—Inflatable occupant restraints or confinements designed to inflate upon impact or impending impact, e.g. air bags
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60R21/00—Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks
  • B60R21/02—Occupant safety arrangements or fittings, e.g. crash pads
  • B60R21/16—Inflatable occupant restraints or confinements designed to inflate upon impact or impending impact, e.g. air bags
  • B60R21/23—Inflatable members
  • B60R21/235—Inflatable members characterised by their material
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60R21/00—Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks
  • B60R21/02—Occupant safety arrangements or fittings, e.g. crash pads
  • B60R21/16—Inflatable occupant restraints or confinements designed to inflate upon impact or impending impact, e.g. air bags
  • B60R21/23—Inflatable members
  • B60R21/235—Inflatable members characterised by their material
  • B60R2021/23504—Inflatable members characterised by their material characterised by material
  • B60R2021/23509—Fabric
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60R21/00—Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks
  • B60R21/02—Occupant safety arrangements or fittings, e.g. crash pads
  • B60R21/16—Inflatable occupant restraints or confinements designed to inflate upon impact or impending impact, e.g. air bags
  • B60R21/23—Inflatable members
  • B60R21/235—Inflatable members characterised by their material
  • B60R2021/23533—Inflatable members characterised by their material characterised by the manufacturing process
  • B60R2021/23542—Weaving
  • B60R2021/23547—Weaving one piece weaving
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
  • B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • B60R21/00—Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks
  • B60R21/02—Occupant safety arrangements or fittings, e.g. crash pads
  • B60R21/16—Inflatable occupant restraints or confinements designed to inflate upon impact or impending impact, e.g. air bags
  • B60R21/23—Inflatable members
  • B60R21/235—Inflatable members characterised by their material
  • B60R2021/23571—Inflatable members characterised by their material characterised by connections between panels
  • B60R2021/23576—Sewing

Definitions

• THE PRESENT INVENTION relates to an air-bag, and more particularly relates to an air-bag for use in a motor vehicle to provide protection for an occupant of the vehicle in the event that an accident should occur.
• air-bags are manufactured from pieces of fabric which are cut-out from a larger piece or roll of fabric. If a generally round air-bag is to be manufactured, round pieces of fabric are cut from the larger piece or roll, and consequently there will inevitably be a lot of the original large piece or roll of fabric remaining, which will be "scrap".
• circular air- bags such as air-bags to be mounted on the steering wheel of a motor vehicle, it is quite common for between 10-20% of the original large piece, or roll of fabric to be subsequently discarded as scrap.
• the shape of the fabric pieces used to make an air-bag could be polygonal, such as square or rectangular, it would be possible to cut the polygonal-shaped pieces from a larger piece, or roll of fabric, leaving only a minimum amount of scrap.
• a polygonal air-bag is manufactured, but, when such an air-bag is inflated, it is found to be generally "flat", and thus may be termed a two-dimensional air-bag.
• an air-bag should have substantial "depth", and should thus be a three-dimensional air-bag. If would be possible to add extra pieces of fabric between a front polygonal fabric layer and a rear polygonal fabric layer to provide a three-dimensional air-bag, but this may increase the scrap rate, and also increases manufacturing complexity.
• the present invention seeks to provide an improved air-bag.
• an air-bag formed from two substantially identical polygonal elements of fabric, the comer regions of one said element being interdigitated with the corner regions of the other element, the adjacent peripheral parts of the interdigitated corner regions being interconnected by means of a seam.
• each polygonal element takes the shape of a regular rectilinear polygonal.
• each polygonal element is square in shape.
• each polygonal element is triangular in shape.
• the warp and weft yarns of one element of fabric are angularly off-set from the warp and weft yarns of the other element of fabric.
• the angle of off-set is between 25° and 65°.
• the angle of off-set is 60°. Conveniently, the angle of off-set is 45 °.
• FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic view of a roll of fabric, with smaller fabric elements being cut therefrom,
• FIGURE 2 is a view of two super-imposed fabric elements cut from the roll of fabric illustrated in Figure 1.
• FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of the air-bag of Figure 3,
• FIGURE 5 is an enlarged view corresponding to part of Figure 2
• FIGURE 9 is an enlarged view of part of Figure 7.
• the corner regions are each of triangular form, and the corner regions of the lower square element 3, after they have been folded as explained above, leave a remaining square area 13 of fabric, having an area smaller than that of the entire lower square element, as shown clearly in Figure 4. Similarly, the corner regions of the upper square element 4 leave a remaining square area 14 of fabric. The adjacent edges of the interdigitated corner regions of the two elements of fabric 3, 4 are then sewn together to form a peripheral zig-zag seam.
• the seam which interconnects the interdigitated comer regions of the two elements 3, 4 of fabric has a greater length, because of its zig-zag form, than the length of the seam provided on a conventional two-dimensional air-bag of the same volume. Deployment stresses are thus distributed over a longer seam which serves to enhance the integrity of the seam.
• Figure 9 shows quite clearly that the warp and weft yarns of the upper layer of fabric 22 are again angularly off-set, this time by 60°' relative to the warp and weft yams of the lower layer of fabric 22. This again has been found to provide a desirable inflation characteristic.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Air Bags (AREA)
• Woven Fabrics (AREA)
• Packages (AREA)
• Medical Preparation Storing Or Oral Administration Devices (AREA)

Priority Applications (5)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=9940225

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (10)

Cited By (1)

Families Citing this family (8)

Citations (3)

Family Cites Families (7)

• 2002
  • 2002-07-10 GB GB0216038A patent/GB2390574A/en not_active Withdrawn
• 2003
  • 2003-06-05 WO PCT/SE2003/000931 patent/WO2004007249A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2003-06-05 DE DE60313172T patent/DE60313172T2/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2003-06-05 CN CNB038163373A patent/CN1323872C/zh not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2003-06-05 KR KR1020057000244A patent/KR100973035B1/ko not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2003-06-05 EP EP03764265A patent/EP1519858B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2003-06-05 AU AU2003243082A patent/AU2003243082A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-06-05 JP JP2004521333A patent/JP4418750B2/ja not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2003-06-05 MX MXPA05000320A patent/MXPA05000320A/es active IP Right Grant
  • 2003-06-05 AT AT03764265T patent/ATE359198T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (3)

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