Curtain Airbag Tether Stabilization via Integrated Bracket
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Solution Overview
Problem
Curtain airbag devices experience unstable deployment behavior due to varying tether positions and long intervals between attachment points, leading to insufficient protection of the occupant's head during collisions, as the tether's position changes and the cushion sags, creating gaps in coverage.
Innovation Solution
A curtain airbag design where the tab and tether are attached to the same bracket, with strategically positioned through-holes to stabilize the tether's path and prevent shifting, ensuring consistent deployment and improved attachment ease, and additional tethers are used to address long intervals between tabs to maintain cushion stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the tab and tether are attached to separate brackets, then the attachment structure is flexible, but the tether position varies during deployment causing unstable end chamber behavior
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the tab attachment and tether attachment functions into a single integrated bracket structure. The bracket includes a tab receiving portion and a tether receiving portion, both located on the same bracket body. This merging eliminates the relative movement between separate brackets while maintaining the functional separation of tab and tether attachment, thereby stabilizing the tether position during deployment.
2Shape
If the tether length is short, then the end chamber bends effectively toward the vehicle inner side, but the tether may become too taut and restrict natural deployment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent specifies that the tether length is set to be shorter than the distance from the predetermined location on the end chamber to the bracket when the main chamber and end chamber are inflated and deployed without the tether. This parameter adjustment ensures the tether provides sufficient pulling force to bend the end chamber toward the vehicle inner side while allowing controlled deployment through the tether's tension characteristics.
3Adaptability or versatility
If tabs are spaced far apart to accommodate vehicle layout, then attachment points can be positioned at optimal locations, but the cushion sags in the regions between tabs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces additional tethers as intermediary elements between the tabs and the cushion regions that would otherwise sag. These intermediate tethers provide support at strategic locations, preventing excessive sagging while allowing the primary tabs to remain positioned at optimal attachment points that accommodate the vehicle layout requirements.
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 solution stabilizes the deployment behavior of the end chamber, ensures consistent protection of the occupant's head by maintaining the tether's position and reducing sagging, thereby enhancing the curtain airbag's effectiveness in side-on collisions.
Implementation Method 1
An airbag device is a safety device activated during an emergency such as a vehicle collision, in which a cushion is inflated and deployed by gas pressure
Implementation Method 2
a tether attached so as to extend from a predetermined location on an upper portion of the end chamber to the bracket, wherein a length of the tether is shorter than a distance from the predetermined location to the bracket
Data Source
AI summary
A curtain airbag device with which the position of a tether that pulls an end chamber during inflation and deployment thereof can be stabilized, thereby stabilizing the deployment behavior of the end chamber. A curtain airbag device 100 is housed in a side face upper portion of a vehicle cabin and inflated and deployed along the side face, and includes a main chamber 132 that is inflated and deployed using gas from an inflator 122, an end chamber 134 that is disposed on a front end 136 of the main chamber and inflated and deployed by gas received from the main chamber, a tab 144 attached to an upper portion of the main chamber, a bracket 128 fixed to the side face upper portion of the vehicle cabin, the tab being passed through the bracket, and a tether 126 attached so as to extend from a front end 138 of an upper portion of the end chamber to the bracket, wherein a length La of the tether is shorter than a distance Lb from the front end of the upper portion of the end chamber to the bracket in a case where the main chamber and the end chamber are inflated and deployed without the tether.