Safety device for a vehicle

Abstract

Safety device (11) for a vehicle for protecting an occupant located in the rear, who is seated on a rear seat having a backrest, comprising at least one airbag module (12) comprising a gas generator and a gas cushion inflatable by the gas generator, and comprising a side part (14) that can be attached to a side wall or rear wall of the vehicle, wherein the side part (14) has a recess (13) in which the airbag module (12) is arranged, wherein the recess (13) comprises a rear wall (15) that supports the airbag module (12) from behind, and wherein the side part (14) is made of plastic, and wherein a reinforcing element (22) is embedded in the plastic wall (24) of the side part (14) forming the recess (13), characterized in that the side part (14) is designed in the manner of an injection-molded part, wherein the reinforcing element (22) is formed with a plastic matrix (21) forming the side part (14). is over-sprayed.

Description

The invention relates to a safety device for a vehicle according to the preamble of claim 1.In the development of modern vehicles, increased attention has been paid in the course of increasing safety requirements, in particular to the accident situation involving side impacts. In the event of accidents involving the vehicle parts, the spatial distance between the impact point and the occupants to be protected is very small, so that high requirements must be placed on the effectiveness of an occupant protection device. The focus here is in particular on airbag devices which are fastened in the region of the vehicle side either to the vehicle body itself or else to a seat which accommodates the occupants.From the prior art, airbag devices are known which are arranged for rear seat banks in the backrest in the shoulder and head region. However, the protective effect is thus limited only to a part of the upper body. For the chest and hip region of the occupant seated in the rear, these solutions do not offer any protection possibilities.To improve this limited protection, DE 195 15 851 C2 proposes a safety device which comprises a gas generator with an inflatable gas cushion (airbag module). The airbag module itself is fastened by means of a side part to a side wall or rear wall of the vehicle. The gas generator itself is supported rearward via a supporting dome of the vehicle body, so that the supporting dome can absorb the very high reaction forces occurring during the expansion of the gas cushion. This type of safety device with a side part is disadvantageous, however, in that the mounting of the airbag module together with the side part on the vehicle body is relatively complicated.Furthermore, DE 10 2012 201 034 A1 discloses a vehicle side airbag device which has a seat frame which is produced from resin and carries a cushion which is arranged in the interior of a side section of the backrest. The seat frame also includes a depression that extends in an up-down direction of a vehicle and that opens to the vehicle front side. In the interior of the depression, a module housing is arranged, which comprises a side airbag in folded form.Furthermore, DE 10 2011 106 749 A1 discloses a method for producing an airbag package, which comprises the following steps: folding an airbag, introducing an airbag into a soft cover made of a resilient material and curing at least a part of the soft cover.Starting from this prior art, it is therefore the object of the present invention to propose a novel safety device which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art.Advantageous embodiments of the invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims.The safety device according to the invention comprises, like the safety device known from DE 195 15 851 C2, a side part for mounting on the side wall of the vehicle body. This side part is fastened laterally to the actual rear seat bench, so that in the event of an accident the expanding gas bag can realize an optimal lateral protection of the vehicle occupants. The side part of the side device according to the invention has a depression in which the airbag module with the gas generator and the inflatable gas cushion is arranged. According to the invention, the safety device is characterized in that the side part is designed in the manner of an injection-molded part, wherein the reinforcing element is encapsulated by injection molding with a plastic matrix forming the side part.In this way, the airbag module can be preassembled in the side part, which significantly facilitates the actual final assembly of the safety device in the vehicle. In order to realize an exact positioning of the airbag module relative to the side part, the depression in the side part for receiving the airbag module has a rear wall which comes to bear against the airbag module in a supporting manner from the rear. Since the depression of the side part supports the airbag module from behind, considerable mechanical loads act on the rear wall and the surrounding regions of the side part when the gas generator is activated, in order to be able to support the expansion forces emanating from the gas generator.When using simple plastics, as are known from the automobile industry, for producing the side part, the mechanical loads acting on the depression and the surrounding wall regions cannot be reliably absorbed. Rather, when using these plastics, there is the risk that the side part at least partially tears open in the region of the depression and the tear particles which are produced in the process are thrown together with the gas cushion into the vehicle interior and present there a considerable risk of injury. In order to reliably exclude this, it is provided in the safety device according to the invention that a reinforcing element is embedded in the plastic wall of the side part forming the depression. By means of this reinforcing element, the mechanical properties of the plastic wall in the highly loaded region of the depression are increased to such an extent that tearing open of the plastic wall is reliably prevented.In which way the reinforcing element is embedded in the plastic wall, it is fundamentally arbitrary. This is done particularly cost-effectively in that the side part is designed according to the invention in the manner of an injection-molded part, wherein the reinforcing element is encapsulated by injection molding with the plastic forming the side part during the production of the side part. In other words, this means that, during the production of the side part, the reinforcing element is initially inserted into the injection mold and is there encapsulated with the still liquid plastic during the injection molding process.In principle, which type of reinforcing element is used for reinforcing the plastic wall is arbitrary. A particularly high reinforcing effect results if the reinforcing element consists of a woven material, for example of a carbon fiber woven material or a polyethylene or polypropylene or polyamide woven material.If the reinforcing element is to be produced by injection molding with the plastic of the side part, it is particularly advantageous if a nonwoven material is used as the reinforcing element. This nonwoven material, in which the reinforcing fibers form a nonwoven fabric, can be outstandingly encapsulated with plastic. A particularly high strength of the nonwoven material injection-molded with plastic results if the nonwoven material itself consists of carbon fiber material, polyamide, polyethylene or polypropylene.With a view to improving the assembly capability of the safety device according to the invention, it is particularly advantageous if the side part is overpadded with at least one foam element on the side facing the vehicle interior. As a result, the side part with the padding and the airbag module arranged therein then forms a premountable functional module which now has to be mounted at corresponding fastening points in the vehicle body.In order to facilitate the passage of the gas cushion in the event of an accident, the foam element should preferably have a separating point for the passage of the expanding gas cushion.An embodiment of the invention is schematically illustrated in the drawings and is explained in the following by way of example.The following are shown: FIG. 1 shows a safety device in the rear seat bank area of a vehicle in a perspective side view; FIG. 2 shows the safety device according to FIG. 1 in a partial cross section in a view from above; FIG. 3 shows a safety device according to the invention in cross section from above; FIG. 4 shows the wall of the side part of the safety device according to FIG. 3 in section along the section line I-I.FIGS. 1 and 2 show a safety device according to the prior art (DE 195 15 851 C2) and serve to explain the technical background of the safety device according to the invention. FIG. 1 shows the rear seat bench 01 in a vehicle with a side part 02 attached laterally thereto, wherein the rear seat bench 01 and the side part 02 together form a rear seat 03. The side part 02 arranged in the region of a so-called C-pillar 04 is here a cushion part in which a gas cushion 05 indicated by dashed lines is arranged. This gas cushion can be expanded with a gas generator 06 (see FIG. 2 ) in the event of an accident. It is preferred that the inflation of the gas cushion 05 takes place both toward the front in the area of an armrest 07 in the direction of view of the occupants and for covering a belt deflection fitting 08 arranged on the C-pillar 04. The backrest of the rear seat 01 can be fixed with respect to the vehicle body by means of a locking device 09.As can be seen from FIG. 2, the side part 02 is open toward the rear, and the gas generator 06 is supported on the wheel arch 10 by means of a supporting dome.FIG. 3 shows a safety device 11 according to the invention, which is arranged corresponding to the configuration in FIGS. 1 and 2 laterally of the actual rear seat bench. The safety device comprises an airbag module 12 which is pre-mounted in a depression 13 of a side part 14. The airbag module 12 contains a gas generator and a gas cushion, which are not shown in detail here. The depression 13 of the side part 14 comprises a rear wall 15 which supports the airbag module 12 from behind. On the front side, the airbag module 12 is overpadded with a foam element 16, wherein the foam element 16 is in turn covered with a covering material 17 (fabric / leather). All parts of the safety device 11 can be pre-assembled and are then fixed as a functional module at various fastening points 18 in the vehicle body 19 in the region of the wheel arch. The foam element 16 has a shot channel 20 through which the expanding gas cushion can emerge forwards.FIG. 4 shows the side part 14 in cross section along the section line I-I. The side part 14 is designed in the manner of an injection-molded part, wherein a reinforcing element, namely a nonwoven mat 22, is embedded in the plastic matrix 21 produced by injection molding. The fibers 23 forming the nonwoven mat 22 likewise consist of plastic, for example of polyamide or polyethylene. By embedding the fibers 23 of the nonwoven mat 22 in the plastic matrix 21, the plastic wall 24 of the side part 14 is considerably reinforced, so that tearing open of the plastic wall 24 when the airbag module 12 is triggered is reliably prevented.

Claims

Safety device (11) for a vehicle for protecting an occupant in the rear, which is accommodated on a rear seat having a backrest, having at least one airbag module (12), which comprises a gas generator and a gas cushion inflatable with the gas generator, and having a side part (14), which can be fastened to a side wall or rear wall of the vehicle, wherein the side part (14) has a depression (13) in which the airbag module (12) is arranged, wherein the depression (13) comprises a rear wall (15), which supports the airbag module (12) from behind, and wherein the side part (14) is produced from plastic, and wherein a reinforcing element (22) is embedded in the plastic wall (24) of the side part (14), which wall forms the depression (13), characterized in that the side part (14) is designed in the manner of an injection-moulded part, wherein the reinforcing element (22) is injection-molded with a plastic matrix (21) forming the side part (14).Safety device (11) according to claim 1, characterised in that the reinforcing element (22) consists of a woven material.Safety device (11) according to claim 1, characterised in that the reinforcing element (22) consists of a non-woven material (22).Safety device (11) according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the reinforcing element (22), in particular the non-woven material (22), is made of carbon fibre, polyamide, polyethylene or polypropylene.Safety device (11) according to one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the side part (14) is overbapped with at least one foam element (16) on the side facing the vehicle interior.

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