Airbag Door Structure with Protruding Tear Portions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing airbag door structures face difficulties in breaking a skin member in one direction when deployed, especially when using materials that are easily cut in one direction but hard to cut in another, making it challenging to adopt such materials for the airbag door's skin.
Innovation Solution
An airbag door structure featuring a tubular frame portion with a predetermined dividing line and protruding portions that facilitate splitting along a specific direction, preventing breakage orthogonal to the dividing line and allowing the skin member to break in one direction, utilizing a tear portion with a frame alongside portion, dividing line, and protruding portions to create an elliptical opening during deployment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the tear portion uses a double Y type or H type configuration, then the door member can be split into first and second door portions, but the skin member must be broken in two directions which is difficult for materials that are easily cut in one direction but hard to cut in the other direction
Solution Approach 1:
The tear portion is segmented into three distinct parts: a frame alongside portion formed along the frame portion, a dividing line portion formed along the predetermined dividing line, and a pair of protruding portions. This segmentation allows the base material to break along a single predetermined dividing line rather than requiring breaking in two directions, thus resolving the contradiction between ease of door member splitting and ease of skin member breaking.
Solution Approach 2:
The protruding portions are specifically positioned to concentrate the breaking force at the predetermined dividing line. By creating a localized weak point at the vertex of each protruding portion, the skin member is guided to break only along the intended single direction, making it compatible with materials that are easily cut in one direction but hard to cut in other directions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the skin member is required to break in two directions, then the door member can be fully split, but materials with directional cutting properties cannot be used for the skin member
Solution Approach 1:
The tear portion structure, including the frame alongside portion, dividing line portion, and protruding portions, is pre-formed in the base material before deployment. This preliminary configuration ensures that when the airbag deploys, the breaking action follows the predetermined single dividing line, making the system reliable for splitting while enabling the use of directionally-cuttable materials for the skin member.
3Ease of operation
If the tear portion is formed on the back surface of the base material, then the door member can be split, but the skin member on the front side becomes difficult to break in controlled directions
Solution Approach 1:
The protruding portions act as intermediaries that transfer the splitting force from the door member back side to the skin member front side along a controlled path. By positioning these protruding portions at specific locations on the back surface, the breaking force is channeled through them to create precise breakage at the predetermined dividing line, thus achieving both ease of door splitting and precision of breakage direction.
Data Source
AI summary
An airbag door structure includes a base material and a door member. The door member has a frame portion formed in a tubular shape and a first door portion and a second door portion which are partitioned while interposing a predetermined dividing line to be split when an airbag is deployed. The base material has a tear portion formed on an inner side of a frame than the frame portion in a back surface of the base material. The tear portion has a frame alongside portion formed along the frame portion, a dividing line portion formed along the predetermined dividing line, and a pair of protruding portions protruding toward the frame outside direction from the frame alongside portion and formed so that both skirt ends are connected to the frame alongside portion and vertices are connected to ends of the dividing line portion.