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US 5,312,132 AGranted
Gas cushion and method and apparatus for its manufacture
OwnerJean-Francois Pilletinventor
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OwnerJean-Francois Pilletinventor
Estimating the term…
An inflatable air cushion for use as a safety device in an automobile is made of two blanks cut from strips of fabric interwoven with one another along a seam extending along the peripheries of the blanks. The strips are initially flat, but include at least two side regions spaced from and on opposite sides of the central axis of the resulting cushion and running parallel to either the weft or warp threads of the fabric. These side regions are shrinkable under the influence of heat to a greater degree than a region lying between them to give each blank a convex shape and giving the cushion a more desirable rounded shape when inflated than if made with flat blanks. The ability to form the blanks into convex shapes by heat shrinking avoids the need for employing other more complicated and time consuming shaping procedures.
A gas cushion, in particular for the safety system of a vehicle, having two overlying fabric blanks woven out of a set of weft threads and a set of warp threads, said blanks having a center axis and being joined with one another at their peripheries by means of mutual interweaving at a seam, said blanks each having at least two side regions located on opposite sides of and spaced from said center axis and each having at least one center region located between its two side regions, said side regions extending parallel to the threads of one of said sets of threads, characterized in that each of said fabric blanks is shrunk in its said side regions to a greater degree than in its said center region.
A method for manufacturing a gas cushion in which a material strip made from two fabric strips of equal width, directly overlying one another and composed of weft threads (S) and warp threads (K), is formed in a process in which said warp and weft threads of said two fabric strips are interwoven with one another at a predetermined seam to form a cushion shaped section, characterized in that the side regions of said material strip which extend into said cushion shaped section are first so made that said side regions will shrink under a warming effect, said interwoven fabric strips are then shrunk in said side regions by means of a warming effect, and finally, said cushion shaped section is cut from said material strip along said interwoven seam.
An apparatus for manufacturing a gas cushion comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.