Air bag with adaptive tether

Abstract

An apparatus (10) for helping to protect an occupant (20) of a vehicle (12) includes an inflatable vehicle occupant protection device (14) having a deflated condition and an inflated condition. An anchor tether (102) is secured to the vehicle (12). A shaping tether (104) is secured to a first portion (116) of the protection device (14). A releasable connection (170) connects the anchor tether (102) and shaping tether (104). The shaping tether (104) secured to the vehicle (12) via the connection (170) with the anchor tether (102) restricting deployment of the first portion (116) of the protection device (14). A trigger tether (106) is secured to a second portion (122) of the protection device (14) and is configured to release the connection (170) between the anchor tether (102) and shaping tether (104) when tension in the trigger tether reaches a predetermined level. The tension in the trigger tether (106) reaches the predetermined level in response to deployment of the second portion (122) of the protection device (14) a predetermined distance.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.