Vehicle Side Air Bag Stable Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional side air bags face challenges in stabilizing their deploying attitude and ensuring a consistent protection region during side collisions, often resulting in unstable deployment and inadequate impact absorption due to varying thickness and complex construction methods.
Innovation Solution
The air bag is designed with a first, second, and third panel connected along entire outer peripheries except around an opening, forming a flat box shape upon deployment, with an inflator and fixing means to stabilize the air bag between the occupant and the vehicle's interior, ensuring a predetermined impact-absorption stroke and simplified construction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If the air bag is constructed by overlapping and sewing base clothes to form a flat bag shape, then the air bag can be inflated and deployed, but the air bag deforms into a spindle shape with varying thickness, making stable deployment difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The air bag is divided into multiple cells (first cell, second cell, third cell) with different functions. The first cell provides gas introduction, the second cell provides impact absorption, and the third cell provides structural support. This segmentation allows each cell to be optimized for its specific function, preventing the spindle deformation that occurs in single-cell designs.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the air bag are given different thicknesses and structures according to their specific functions. The second cell has greater thickness for impact absorption, while the third cell has a specific structure for maintaining deployment attitude. This local quality approach ensures that each part contributes to stable deployment rather than causing deformation.
2Reliability
If the air bag is constructed with increased base clothes to ensure a predetermined protection region and impact-absorption stroke, then occupant protection is improved, but the construction becomes more complex and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The air bag is divided into multiple cells with different functions. The second cell is specifically designed for impact absorption with appropriate thickness, while the third cell provides structural support to maintain shape. This segmentation allows each cell to be optimized for its specific function rather than requiring the entire air bag to be uniformly thick, reducing material usage and construction complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple cells are combined within a single air bag structure, integrating gas introduction, impact absorption, and shape maintenance functions into one unified component. This merging eliminates the need for separate protective structures and reduces overall system complexity while maintaining reliable occupant protection.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple U-shaped base clothes are overlapped and sewed to form multiple tubular air cells, then the air bag can be deployed from the door side, but the sewing work becomes complicated and troublesome
Solution Approach 1:
The air bag is divided into distinct cells that can be manufactured separately and then assembled. Each cell serves a specific function (gas introduction, impact absorption, shape maintenance), allowing for specialized manufacturing of each component before final assembly, thereby simplifying the overall production process.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple functional cells are merged into a single integrated air bag structure that can be manufactured as one piece or pre-assembled unit. This merging reduces the number of separate components and assembly steps required, simplifying manufacturing while maintaining the ability to deploy from the door side.
Data Source
AI summary
An air bag including a first panel, a second panel opposed to the first panel, and a third panel cooperating with the first and second panels to define an opening in the vicinity of one end portion of the air bag that serves as a starting point for deployment. The first and third panels are connected with each other along entire outer peripheries thereof except around the opening of the air bag. The second and third panels are connected with each other along entire outer peripheries thereof except around the opening. The air bag is disposed at a folded state behind a back of an occupant and deployable between the occupant and an inside surface of a side of a vehicle compartment so as to cover a side of the occupant.