Airbag with conical portion
AssigneeZf Passive Safety Systems US Inc.
InventorsJorge Valles, Rigo Solis, Oscar Garcia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inflatable vehicle occupant protection device (14b) includes a front panel (102b) and a rear panel (122b) that are interconnected to at least partially define an inflatable volume (54b) of the protection device. The rear panel (122b) has a conical configuration resulting from portions of the rear panel being interconnected with each other. The rear panel (122b) comprises portions interconnected along a seam (214), the seam being configured to deviate laterally from a deployment direction so that portions of the air bag that engage and move along the seam shift laterally during deployment to reduce damage due to friction with the seam.
Claims16
An inflatable vehicle occupant protection device comprising:
- a front panel and a rear panel that are interconnected to at least partially define an inflatable volume of the protection device, the rear panel having a conical configuration resulting from interconnected portions of the rear panel that are interconnected with each other along a seam, the seam being configured to deviate laterally from a deployment direction of the protection device so that portions of the protection device that engage and move along the seam shift laterally during deployment to reduce damage due to friction with the seam.
A method for constructing an inflatable vehicle occupant protection device, comprising:
- providing a panel of material for constructing the protection device;
- forming a cutout portion in the panel, the cutout portion defining first and second edge portions that extend inward from a periphery of the panel toward each other in a converging manner;
- folding or otherwise manipulating the panel to position the first and second edge portions overlapping each other;
- and
- interconnecting the overlying first and second edge portions to define a seam of the airbag;
- wherein the step of forming a cutout portion comprises configuring the cutout portion so that the first and second edge portions have curved configurations resulting in a curved configuration of the seam that deviates from a more efficient linear seam configuration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.