Passenger Seat Air Bag Tether and Cover Sheet Inflation Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional passenger seat air bags allow significant lateral projection of the passenger side wall portion during the early inflation stage, leading to inadequate control over the air bag's shape and direction of inflation, which can result in excessive backward projection.
Innovation Solution
A passenger seat air bag design featuring a bag main body with a passenger side wall portion and a peripheral wall portion that includes a gas supply opening, a tether extending from the back edge of the opening to the center of the passenger side wall, and a cover sheet connected to the front edge of the gas supply opening and the tether, deflecting inflating gas laterally to prevent excessive backward projection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the air bag is allowed to inflate quickly, then rapid deployment is achieved, but the lateral two sides project greatly toward the back side during early inflation
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the air bag are given different quality characteristics: the tether-connected central region has restricted motion properties to control separation distance, while the lateral wall portions have free expansion properties to enable rapid inflation. This local differentiation allows the air bag to inflate quickly overall while maintaining shape control where needed.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design effectively prevents the air bag from projecting excessively backward during the early inflation stage by deflecting inflating gas laterally, allowing for controlled inflation and rapid development of the air bag while maintaining shape restriction at completion.
Implementation Method 1
the inflating gas flowing toward the back side (toward the passenger side wall portion) strikes at the cover sheet and is thereby so deflected as to go toward the lateral direction
Implementation Method 2
the tether extends backward from the back rear edge side of the gas supply opening and has a back end side connected to the vicinity of the center of the passenger side wall portion to thereby restrict the distance of the passenger side wall portion from the gas supply opening
Data Source
AI summary
A passenger seat air bag includes: a bag main body; and a tether arranged within the bag main body, wherein: the bag main body includes a passenger side wall portion and a peripheral wall portion, the peripheral wall portion including a gas supply opening so opened up as to enable the inflating gas to flow therethrough and having a peripheral edge mountable onto the storage portion side; the tether has a back end side connected to the vicinity of the center of the passenger side wall portion to thereby restrict the distance of the passenger side wall portion from the gas supply opening; and a cover sheet formed of a belt-shaped flexible sheet member, the front end side of the cover sheet being connected to the front edge side of the gas supply opening, and the back end side thereof being connected to the tether.