Variable crimped expanded metal filters, bi-directionally expanded metal filters, combinations thereof and expanding methods for manufacturing expanded sheet metal

Abstract

Light weight and efficient airbag filter devices are made from expanded metal strips. In some embodiments, an expanded metal strip is a bi-directionally expanded metal sheet where the blade alternately comes from the top-down direction as well as from the bottom-up direction, so that one continuous strip of steel can be expanded facing up in one section and then facing down in the next section without cutting or removing the strip from the processing line. In some embodiments, an expanded metal strip may be crimped variably based upon the layer's length. In some embodiments, bi-directional expanding may be combined with variable crimping of the individual sections/layers allowing for a single strip of metal to be both expanded in two directions and crimped layer by layer during a continuous process on one sheet of metal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.