Knee-protecting airbag apparatus

A knee-protecting airbag apparatus comprising an airbag folded and housed in a lower side of a column cover covering a steering column and an inflator for supplying inflation gas to the airbag,

• when fed with inflation gas from the inflator, the airbag projecting from a housing disposed in the lower side of the column cover and developing and inflating such that it covers the lower side of column cover for protecting knees of a driver,
• the inflator being housed inside the airbag at a position to be a generally middle position in the longitudinal direction of the airbag when the airbag is completely inflated,
• the airbag including a column cover side wall deployed toward the column cover and a driver's side wall deployed toward a driver's seat, respectively upon airbag deployment, and is attached to the housing at the side of the column cover side wall using the inflator, and
• in the airbag folded up to reduce the longitudinal width of the airbag, a front region of the airbag to be deployed forward of the inflator at a complete inflation of airbag is folded in such a manner as to insert a front end of the front region which front end corresponds to a boundary region of the driver's side wall and column cover side wall in between the inflator and the driver's side wall, thereby providing an inserted portion.