Airbag Seam Loop Design for Inflatable Area
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional one-piece woven air-bags have non-inflatable 'mushroom' regions where seams terminate, reducing protection during crashes due to increased seam reliability at the cost of inflatable space.
Innovation Solution
The air-bag design features seams that form closed loops or segmented patterns, avoiding free ends within the peripheral seam, allowing for efficient airflow and distributing deployment forces, thereby increasing inflatable space and protection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If large interwoven areas (mushrooms) are provided at seam free ends to reduce damage risk, then seam reliability is improved, but inflatable area is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the problematic mushroom regions from the seam design by ensuring seams terminate at the peripheral seam where the fabric structure naturally provides reinforcement. This removes the need for large interwoven areas while maintaining seam reliability during deployment
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of adding large interwoven areas at seam free ends to improve reliability, the invention inverts the approach by strategically positioning seam free ends at the peripheral seam where the fabric's edge structure already provides the necessary strength and damage resistance
2Strength
If seams terminate within the peripheral seam to form mushrooms, then seam strength is improved, but airflow efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the airflow restriction caused by mushroom regions by repositioning seam terminations to the peripheral seam. This eliminates the non-inflatable zones that blocked air flow while maintaining seam integrity through the peripheral seam's structural design
Data Source
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AI summary
An air-bag comprising: first and second sheets of fabric; an inlet into which gas will be introduced into the air-bag to inflate the air-bag when the air-bag is deployed; and a first seam which describes or forms part of a loop which encloses or substantially encloses an interior region, so that the interior region is separated from the inlet by at least the first seam, wherein at least one part of the first seam comprises one or more regions at which the first and second sheets of fabric are not joined to one another, to allow gas to flow into the interior region from a region outside the interior region, to allow inflation of the interior region during deployment of the air-bag.