Substantially smoke-free and particulate-free inflator for inflatable safety restraint system

An inflator for providing, when actuated, propellant gases to inflate a bag of an inflatable safety system, the inflator comprising;

• a housing having disposed therein a solid gas-generating propellant composition capable of generating propellant gases in a chemical reaction when the inflator is actuated;
• wherein said solid-generating propellant comprises a solid fuel-rich component and a plurality of ammonium nitrate granules, each said granule of ammonium nitrate being coated with a polymeric material;
• and
• wherein said solid gas-generating propellant composition is substantially free of metal-containing constituents.

An inflator for providing, when actuated, propellant gases to inflate a bag of an inflatable safety system, the inflator comprising:

• a housing having disposed therein a solid gas-generating propellant composition capable of generating propellant gases in a chemical reaction when the inflator is actuated;
• said solid gas-generating propellant composition comprising a first solid combustible component that, when combusted alone, generates gases comprising a first mole fraction of carbon monoxide gas, said first solid combustible component being in the form of a plurality of grains;
• said solid gas-generating propellant composition also comprising a second solid combustible component that, when combusted in combination with said first component, generates, together with first component, gases having a second mole fraction of carbon monoxide gas that is smaller than said first concentration;
• wherein said solid gas-generating propellant composition is substantially free of metal-containing materials, such that said propellant gases generated from said solid gas-generating propellant composition are substantially in the absence of metal-containing particulate materials and metal-containing condensable materials, and wherein said propellant composition is made by the process of mixing a plurality of particles of said second solid combustible component in a polymeric material, forming a web structure from said polymeric material which contains each of said particles of said second solid combustible component, disrupting said web structure with said particles of said second solid combustible component to define a plurality of coated said solid combustible component which are coated with said polymeric material, distributing said plurality of coated said second solid combustible components throughout said plurality of grains of said first solid combustible component and fixing a position of said plurality of coated second solid combustible components relative to said plurality of grains of said first solid combustible component;
• and
• wherein said inflator, when actuated to ignite said first component and said second component, provides gases that are substantially entirely said propellant gases generated from said solid gas-generating propellant composition.