S-Hinged Air Bag Chute Apron Shifts Door Flap Sweep Zone
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air bag deployment systems in automotive vehicles face challenges in maintaining a seamless 'Class A' surface on the instrument panel while ensuring safe deployment, as the door flap can impact the windshield during inflation, especially with sloping windshields and reduced instrument panel depth, risking damage and expulsion of substrate pieces into the passenger cabin.
Innovation Solution
An air bag chute assembly with an S-shaped hinge and an apron that shifts the door flap's sweep zone laterally, reducing the width of the deployment path to avoid windshield interference, utilizing a tubular chute and apron pockets for structural support, allowing unimpeded air bag deployment without additional parts or costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the door flap is positioned close to the windshield for optimum passenger protection, then the air bag deployment speed and effectiveness are improved, but the risk of windshield impact and damage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge is offset laterally from the centerline of the chute assembly, shifting the door flap's arc of motion into a different spatial dimension. This lateral displacement causes the door to open away from the windshield rather than toward it, eliminating the harmful impact while preserving the close positioning for effective air bag deployment
Solution Approach 2:
The hinge position is intentionally made asymmetric relative to the chute centerline, creating an uneven distribution of the door's sweep zone. This asymmetric placement ensures that the maximum extent of door motion occurs laterally offset from the windshield plane, preventing contact while maintaining deployment effectiveness
2Adaptability or versatility
If the instrument panel depth is reduced for modern styling trends, then the vehicle interior design flexibility is improved, but the door flap's arc of motion increases the risk of substrate piece expulsion into the passenger cabin
Solution Approach 1:
By offsetting the hinge laterally, the door's rotation path is redirected into a different dimensional plane that does not intersect with the potential expulsion trajectory of substrate pieces toward the passenger cabin, thereby reducing the harmful effect while accommodating reduced panel depth
Solution Approach 2:
The harmful motion component (the portion of the door's arc that could cause substrate expulsion) is effectively extracted or removed from the system by repositioning the hinge, so that the remaining door motion only performs the useful function of opening the air bag pathway without generating harmful effects
3Productivity
If the windshield slope is increased for aerodynamic efficiency, then the vehicle aerodynamic performance is improved, but the door flap's sweep zone is more likely to intersect with the windshield
Solution Approach 1:
The lateral hinge offset moves the door's arc of motion into a different spatial dimension that is less sensitive to windshield slope variations, effectively decoupling the door's deployment path from the windshield's angular orientation and maintaining safety across different aerodynamic designs
Data Source
AI summary
An air bag chute assembly mounts a passenger air bag module to an automotive instrument panel. An outer flange collar of the assembly attaches to the instrument panel and defines a windshield-facing side. A tubular chute extends interiorly from the collar to a lower end that attaches to the air bag module. A door flap is disposed in an upper end of the chute. An S-shaped hinge has a first edge attached to the door flap. An apron extends from the collar laterally into the deployment path from the windshield-facing side. A second edge of the hinge attaches to the apron so that a sweep zone of the door flap is shifted by a distance corresponding to a reduction in a width of the deployment path at the upper end caused by the apron, reducing interference between the flap and a windshield during air bag deployment.