Folding method and folding tool for airbag

Abstract

The present application discloses a folding method for an airbag, comprising: compressing the airbag into a preset shape using a folding tool; using the bottom surface of the airbag of the preset shape as a reference surface, squeezing the airbag of the preset shape along four horizontal sides and the top surface of the airbag of the preset shape until the airbag is compressed into a shape that meets installation conditions.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of traffic safety, and in particular to a folding method for an airbag. The present application also relates to a folding tool for folding an airbag. Background Art

[0002] Nowadays, in order to ensure the safety of motor vehicle drivers as much as possible, airbags have become an indispensable part of automobiles.

[0003] A typical vehicle airbag system includes at least a sensor, an igniter, a gas generator, and an airbag; the sensor is used to sense whether a collision has occurred. If a collision is detected, the igniter is activated, which ignites the primer. The primer explodes and generates heat instantly. The inflator in the gas generator decomposes due to the heat, instantly generating a large amount of gas that enters the airbag, causing the airbag to deploy and provide protection for the occupants.

[0004] In an airbag system, the airbag sometimes refers to the entire airbag system, and sometimes refers to the elastic bag used to wrap gas for deployment. In order to distinguish the two, the latter is sometimes called an airbag; the airbag in this application generally refers to the latter, i.e., the airbag.

[0005] In the absence of a collision, airbags are generally installed in appropriate positions of the car in an uninflated, folded state to ensure that the airbags can effectively deploy when triggered to expand and protect the critical parts of the occupants. To this end, the airbags need to be folded regularly in advance so that they can be installed in the reserved position and can be effectively deployed when needed.

[0006] In the prior art, the most common method of folding an airbag is to fold it according to a pre-designed folding process. Due to the installation space limitations and operational requirements of the airbag, the folding process must consider both whether the installation space can accommodate the folded airbag and whether the airbag can be effectively deployed in the event of a collision. Therefore, a carefully designed and complex folding process must be used to achieve the above-mentioned effects.

[0007] Under the above-mentioned existing technology, since the folding process is extremely complicated, folding errors are prone to occur. Once a folding error occurs, the airbag may not be able to be effectively deployed during the opening process; in addition, the complexity of the folding process will also cause the folding process to take too long and the work efficiency to be too low. Summary of the Invention

[0008] The present application provides a folding method for an airbag and a folding tool for folding an airbag. The above method helps to simplify the folding process of the airbag, shorten the folding time, and enable the airbag to be opened quickly and evenly.

[0009] The present application provides a folding method for an airbag, comprising:

[0010] Compress the airbag into a preset shape using a folding tool;

[0011] Taking the bottom surface of the preset-shaped airbag as a reference surface, the preset-shaped airbag is squeezed along four horizontal surfaces and a top surface of the preset-shaped airbag until the airbag is compressed into a shape that meets installation conditions.

[0012] Preferably, the folding tool is divided into an upper tool and a lower tool that cooperate with each other; at least one of the upper tool and the lower tool is provided with a pattern that matches the preset shape;

[0013] The method of compressing the airbag into a preset shape by using the folding tool comprises:

[0014] Laying the airbag on the lower layer of the folding tooling;

[0015] The lower tooling is buckled with the upper tooling, and the airbag is compressed into a preset shape through the squeezing of the upper tooling and the lower tooling.

[0016] Preferably, the airbag is an airbag installed with a fixing ring, and the airbag is positioned on the lower tooling by a positioning structure provided on the fixing ring, and the airbag is laid flat along the surface of the lower tooling.

[0017] Preferably, the fixing ring is installed at the inflation port of the airbag, the bottom of the fixing ring has at least one fixing post for positioning the airbag, and the surface of the lower tooling has a groove or through hole corresponding to the fixing post for fixing and positioning the airbag;

[0018] The airbag is laid flat along the surface of the lower tooling by inserting the fixing ring fixing post into the groove or through hole of the lower tooling, and laying the airbag flat along the surface of the lower tooling with the fixing post as the center.

[0019] Preferably, the method of using the bottom surface of the preset-shaped airbag as a reference surface and squeezing the preset-shaped airbag along four horizontal surfaces and the top surface of the preset-shaped airbag until the airbag is compressed into a shape that meets installation conditions includes:

[0020] Placing the airbag of the preset shape on a pre-prepared workbench of a folding device with the bottom surface contacting the workbench surface;

[0021] The extrusion working head of the folding device extrude the preset-shaped airbag from the side and top surfaces of the preset-shaped airbag along a preset track until the preset-shaped airbag is compressed to a shape that meets the installation conditions; the surface of the extrusion working head in contact with the airbag has a preset shape.

[0022] Preferably, the preset shape is a half-open shape of an automatic umbrella.

[0023] This application also applies to a folding tool for folding an airbag, comprising:

[0024] The folding tool is used to compress the airbag into a preset shape;

[0025] The airbag of the preset shape can be compressed along the horizontal direction and the top surface of the airbag of the preset shape with the bottom surface as the reference surface until the airbag meets the installation conditions.

[0026] Preferably, the folding tool is divided into an upper tool and a lower tool that cooperate with each other; at least one of the upper tool and the lower tool is provided with a pattern that matches the preset shape;

[0027] The lower tooling is used for placing the flat airbag;

[0028] The upper tooling is used to compress the airbag into a preset shape by buckling with the lower tooling.

[0029] Preferably, the lower tooling is used to place the flat airbag, including: the surface of the lower tooling has grooves or through holes for fixing and positioning the airbag.

[0030] Preferably, at least one of the upper tooling and the lower tooling is provided with a pattern that matches the preset shape, including:

[0031] At least one of the upper and lower tooling has a uniform concave pattern along its circumference, and the shape of the pattern is that of a half-open automatic umbrella.

[0032] Preferably, the groove or through hole is provided in the central area of the upper surface of the lower tooling.

[0033] Compared with the prior art, this application has the following advantages:

[0034] The airbag folding method provided in this application first compresses the airbag into a preset shape using a folding tool. Then, using the bottom surface of the preset airbag as a reference plane, the preset airbag is squeezed along its four horizontal sides and top surface until the airbag is compressed into a shape that meets installation requirements. Compared to the prior art, the technical solution of this application uses a folding tool to compress the airbag into the preset shape, ensuring that the airbag follows a specific pattern during inflation and deployment. This allows the airbag to deploy quickly and evenly according to the preset shape during inflation and deployment, effectively avoiding the irregular deployment caused by disordered folding in the prior art.

[0035] In addition, by using the folding method provided in this application, it is only necessary to perform simple compression on the basis of the preset shape of the airbag to meet the installation conditions, and the process of obtaining the preset shape can be quickly completed with the help of pre-designed folding tooling. Therefore, the technical solution provided in this application can effectively speed up the folding process of the airbag and significantly improve work efficiency. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] Figure 1 is a flow chart of the folding method provided in the first embodiment of the present application;

[0037] Figure 2 This is a flow chart of a method for compressing an airbag into a preset shape in the first embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 3 is a flow chart of a method for compressing the preset-shape airbag into a shape that meets installation conditions in the first embodiment of the present application;

[0039] Figure 4 is a schematic front view of the folding tool described in the second embodiment of the present application;

[0040] Figure 5 It is a schematic top view of the lower tooling described in the second embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] The following description sets forth many specific details to facilitate a full understanding of the present application. However, the present application can be implemented in many other ways than those described herein, and those skilled in the art can make similar generalizations without violating the scope of the present application. Therefore, the present application is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed below.

[0042] The present application provides a folding method for an airbag and a folding tool for folding an airbag, which are described in detail in the following embodiments.

[0043] The first embodiment of the present application provides a folding method for an airbag, comprising: compressing the airbag into a preset shape using a folding tool; using the bottom surface as a reference surface, squeezing the airbag of the preset shape along four horizontal sides and the top surface of the airbag until the airbag is compressed into a shape that meets installation conditions.

[0044] The above description of the airbag folding method described in this application shows that the folding method of this application is mainly divided into two steps: first, compressing the airbag using a folding tool to give it a predetermined shape; second, squeezing the airbag based on the predetermined shape to prepare the airbag for installation. Therefore, it can be seen that using the folding tool to squeeze the airbag is an essential part of implementing the first embodiment of this application, so how to construct a folding tool is particularly important. In addition, to make it easier for readers to understand this solution, this application first briefly introduces a folding tool for folding an airbag described in the second embodiment of this application.

[0045] Please see Figure 4 , which is a schematic diagram of the main view of the folding tool described in the second embodiment of this application.

[0046] The folding tool is used to compress the airbag into a preset shape. The folding tool is divided into an upper tool 101 and a lower tool 102 that cooperate with each other. In addition, in order to enable the airbag to form a preset shape after being squeezed by the folding tool, at least one of the upper tool 101 and the lower tool 102 is provided with a pattern that matches the preset shape.

[0047] It can be seen from the above description of the folding tool that the folding tool has the conditions to compress the airbag and compress the airbag into a preset shape. Therefore, based on the above folding tool, it can be used to implement the folding method for the airbag described in the first embodiment of the present application.

[0048] Please see Figure 1 , which is a flow chart of the method of the first embodiment of the present application.

[0049] Step S101: compressing the airbag into a preset shape using a folding tool.

[0050] This step is the key to this embodiment. Due to the airbag's preset shape, the subsequent folding process is based on this preset shape. Under the above process, once the airbag is securely installed and the vehicle impact meets the conditions for airbag deployment, the airbag will first expand into the preset shape during the initial inflation process, and then deploy along this preset shape. The preset shape itself ensures uniform and full deployment of the airbag. Therefore, the preset shape in this step is key to ensuring rapid and uniform deployment of the airbag during inflation.

[0051] like Figure 2 As shown, it is a flow chart of the method of using folding tooling to compress an airbag into a preset shape in this application. The compression method includes the following steps S101-1 to S101-2, which are described in detail below.

[0052] Step S101 - 1 , laying the airbag on the lower layer tooling 102 of the folding tooling.

[0053] In order to smoothly compress the airbag into a predetermined shape, it is necessary to secure the airbag to the compression tooling before compression. This is done to prevent the airbag from shifting during compression and to improve production efficiency by allowing for more accurate positioning of the airbag on the lower tooling 102 when laying it flat.

[0054] In order to achieve this technical effect, the first embodiment of the present application provides a fixing ring for positioning the airbag, and also designs a structure for positioning the folding tool.

[0055] The folding tool and the airbag will be described in detail below in conjunction with the process of laying the airbag on the lower tool 102 of the folding tool.

[0056] The airbag is an airbag installed with a fixing ring. The airbag is positioned on the lower tooling 102 by a positioning structure provided on the fixing ring, and is laid flat along the surface of the lower tooling 102 .

[0057] The fixing ring is installed at the inflation port of the airbag, and the bottom of the fixing ring has at least one fixing column for positioning the airbag.

[0058] In addition, in order to facilitate the fixation of the airbag, the size of the fixing ring should be designed according to the size of the inflation port of the airbag to ensure that the fixing ring matches the airbag.

[0059] It should be noted that the retaining ring can be installed not only at the airbag's inflation port. In the event of an accident or if the airbag installed inside the vehicle is triggered for some reason, the airbag will deflate after a momentary inflation. Therefore, a corresponding outlet is also designed during the airbag design process. Therefore, the retaining ring can also be installed at the outlet. In this case, the size of the retaining ring should be designed according to the size of the outlet to ensure that the two are compatible.

[0060] Regardless of where the fixing ring is installed on the airbag, the surface of the lower tooling 102 should have a groove or through hole corresponding to the fixing post for fixing and positioning the airbag;

[0061] The airbag is spread out along the surface of the lower tooling 102 by inserting the fixing ring fixing post into the groove or through hole of the lower tooling 102 , and spreading the airbag out along the surface of the lower tooling 102 with the fixing post as the center.

[0062] Step S101 - 2 , buckling the lower tooling 102 with the upper tooling 101 , and compressing the airbag into a preset shape through the squeezing of the upper tooling 101 and the lower tooling 102 .

[0063] After compression, the airbag has assumed a predetermined shape. When the predetermined shape of the airbag is removed from the folding tool, the airbag still does not meet installation requirements and needs to be reshaped based on the predetermined shape. Furthermore, during this reshaped process, the predetermined shape should be maintained as much as possible to prevent it from being destroyed.

[0064] Step S102 : Taking the bottom surface as a reference surface, the airbag of the preset shape is squeezed along four horizontal surfaces and the top surface of the airbag of the preset shape until the airbag is compressed into a shape that meets installation conditions.

[0065] Airbags primarily deploy when the driver's vehicle is involved in a collision. At this point, the airbag rapidly inflates, protecting the driver and passengers from injury to their heads, chests, or other critical body parts. However, while the airbag already has a pre-set shape and can deploy quickly and evenly during inflation, it still doesn't meet the required size for installation. Therefore, it's necessary to squeeze the airbag to meet the required size for installation. This step further squeezes the airbag to meet the required size for installation.

[0066] like Figure 3As shown, it is a flow chart of the method of compressing the preset-shape airbag into a shape that meets the installation conditions in the present application. The method includes the following steps S102-1 to S102-2, which are described in detail below.

[0067] Step S102-1: Place the airbag of the preset shape on a workbench of a pre-prepared folding device, with the bottom surface contacting the workbench surface.

[0068] The folding device is a special device specially used to quickly further extrude an airbag that already has a preset shape; the folding device is provided with a workbench and an extrusion work head; the workbench surface is the reference surface of the airbag with the preset shape.

[0069] Step S102-2: The extrusion working head of the folding device extrude the airbag of preset shape from the side and top surfaces of the airbag of preset shape along a preset track until the airbag of preset shape is compressed to a shape that meets the installation conditions; the surface of the extrusion working head in contact with the airbag has a preset shape.

[0070] The working head is a component that directly applies extrusion force to the airbag, and its final movement position, together with the workbench surface, defines the shape of the airbag; the working head can be driven by air pressure or hydraulic pressure, and the surface of the working head in contact with the airbag is adapted according to the surface shape required after the airbag is extruded; the working head can include several separate extrusion blocks such as the top, front, and rear, or more extrusion blocks can be set as needed.

[0071] Extruding the pre-set airbag shape inevitably results in changes in its morphology. To ensure that the extruded airbag can still deploy quickly and evenly, the extrusion process must ensure that the side and top surfaces of the pre-set airbag are extruded simultaneously, and that the pressure amplitude at each angle of the side surfaces is consistent. Furthermore, because the airbag's shape, which meets installation requirements, is formed by extruding the various extrusion blocks, the final shape can be either circular or polygonal. These requirements can be achieved through electrical and mechanical control of the working head, and will not be detailed here.

[0072] In addition, in order to make the airbag more regular during the folding process and also to make the airbag deploy quickly and evenly during the rapid deployment when inflated and opened, the preset shape is a half-open shape of an automatic umbrella.

[0073] It should be noted that the above-mentioned preset shape of the semi-open shape of the automatic umbrella is only a preferred embodiment proposed in this application. Different shapes can be used in other embodiments. For example, the above-mentioned preset shape can be a hemispherical shape or a conical shape, etc. The preset shape can be designed by relevant staff as needed. It is a simple transformation of the folding method described in this application, does not deviate from the core of this application, and is within the scope of protection of this application.

[0074] To sum up, the first embodiment of the present application proposes the idea of using a folding tool to compress the airbag to form a preset shape to ensure that the airbag follows specific rules during the deployment process. In addition, in order to meet the installation conditions, the airbag compressed by the folding tool only needs to be simply compressed on the basis of the preset shape of the airbag, which greatly saves the workload of the relevant staff and abandons the traditional folding process of the airbag. Due to the emergence of the folding tool for folding the airbag, the relevant staff no longer need to consider the complicated folding process.

[0075] In the above embodiment, a folding method for an airbag is provided. Accordingly, the second embodiment of the present application also provides a folding tool for folding an airbag. The folding tool provided in the second embodiment of the present application is used in the folding method for an airbag provided in the first embodiment of the present application. The folding process required for describing the folding tool has been described in detail in the first embodiment and is only briefly described in this embodiment.

[0076] The second embodiment of the present application describes a folding tool for folding an airbag, which is used to compress the airbag into a preset shape; the airbag of the preset shape can use the bottom surface as a reference surface, and the airbag of the preset shape can be squeezed along the horizontal direction and the top surface of the airbag of the preset shape until the airbag can meet the installation conditions.

[0077] like Figure 4 As shown, it is a main view of the folding tool described in the second embodiment of the present application. The folding tool is divided into an upper tool 101 and a lower tool 102 that cooperate with each other; at least one of the upper tool 101 and the lower tool 102 is provided with a pattern that matches the preset shape.

[0078] The lower tooling is used to place the flat airbag; the upper tooling 101 is used to compress the airbag into a preset shape by buckling with the lower tooling 102.

[0079] like Figure 5As shown, it is a top view of the lower tooling 102 described in the second embodiment of the present application. In order to fix the airbag on the lower tooling 102, the surface of the lower tooling has grooves or through holes 1021 for fixing and positioning the airbag.

[0080] In addition, in order to achieve rapid and uniform deployment of the airbag, at least one of the upper and lower tooling has a uniform concave pattern along its circumference, and the shape of the pattern is similar to that of a half-opened automatic umbrella.

[0081] The groove or through hole 1021 is provided in the central area of the upper surface of the lower tooling.

[0082] It should be noted that the above-mentioned pattern shape and the position of the grooves or through-holes are only a preferred embodiment proposed by this application. In other embodiments, different patterns and position structures can be used. For example, the pattern can also be a plurality of isosceles triangles, and the isosceles triangles are evenly distributed on the side of the lower tooling, and the grooves or through-holes 1021 can be set at a position off-center. These are simple changes to the folding tooling described in this application, do not deviate from the core of this application, and are all within the scope of protection of this application.

[0083] In summary, the second embodiment of the present application proposes a folding tool for compressing an airbag into a predetermined shape. This folding tool, for the first time, is capable of compressing an airbag into a predetermined shape, and the predetermined shape can be prepared for installation through extrusion, making the airbag easier to form during the folding process and effectively controlling the size of the folded airbag.

[0084] Although the present invention is disclosed above in terms of preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person skilled in the art may make possible changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention shall be based on the scope defined by the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. A folding method for an airbag, characterized in that: include: compressing the airbag into a first preset shape using a folding tool; The method comprises: placing the airbag of the first preset shape on a pre-prepared workbench of a folding device with the bottom surface of the airbag of the first preset shape being a reference surface, and simultaneously extruding the airbag of the first preset shape along four horizontal sides and the top surface of the airbag of the first preset shape until the airbag is compressed into a shape that meets installation conditions; the method comprises: placing the airbag of the first preset shape on a pre-prepared workbench of a folding device with the bottom surface contacting the workbench surface; an extrusion working head of the folding device extruding the airbag of the first preset shape along a pre-prepared track from the side surfaces and the top surface of the airbag of the first preset shape until the airbag of the first preset shape is compressed into a shape that meets installation conditions; and the surface of the extrusion working head that contacts the airbag has a second pre-prepared shape. The first preset shape is a half-open shape of an automatic umbrella, so that the airbag can be deployed quickly and evenly; The folding tool is divided into an upper tool and a lower tool that cooperate with each other; at least one of the upper tool and the lower tool is provided with a pattern that matches the first preset shape; Laying the airbag on the lower tooling of the folding tooling, buckling the lower tooling with the upper tooling, and compressing the airbag into the first preset shape by squeezing the upper tooling and the lower tooling; The airbag is an airbag installed with a fixing ring, and the airbag is positioned on the lower tooling by a positioning structure provided on the fixing ring, and the airbag is laid flat along the surface of the lower tooling; The fixing ring is installed at the inflation port of the airbag, and the bottom of the fixing ring has at least one fixing post for positioning the airbag, and the surface of the lower tooling has a groove or through hole corresponding to the fixing post for fixing and positioning the airbag; The airbag is laid flat along the surface of the lower tooling by inserting the fixing ring fixing post into the groove or through hole of the lower tooling, and laying the airbag flat along the surface of the lower tooling with the fixing post as the center.

2. A folding tool for folding an airbag, characterized in that: include: The folding tool is used to compress the airbag into a first preset shape; The airbag of the first preset shape can be extruded simultaneously along the horizontal direction and the top surface of the airbag of the first preset shape with the bottom surface as a reference surface until the airbag meets the installation conditions, including: placing the airbag of the first preset shape on a pre-prepared workbench of a folding device with the bottom surface contacting the workbench surface; an extrusion working head of the folding device extruding the airbag of the first preset shape from the side surface and the top surface of the airbag of the first preset shape along a preset track until the airbag of the first preset shape meets the installation conditions; the surface of the extrusion working head contacting the airbag has a second preset shape; The folding tool is divided into an upper tool and a lower tool that cooperate with each other; at least one of the upper tool and the lower tool is provided with a pattern that matches the first preset shape, including: at least one of the upper tool and the lower tool has a uniform concave pattern along its circumference, and the shape of the pattern is the shape of a half-open automatic umbrella; The lower tooling is used to place the flat airbag, and the upper tooling is used to compress the airbag into the first preset shape by buckling with the lower tooling; The surface of the lower tooling has a groove or a through hole for fixing and positioning the airbag; the groove or the through hole is arranged in the central area of the upper surface of the lower tooling.

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