Air bag tether construction

A method of manufacturing airbag cushions, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a fabric, said fabric being configured in a plane, said fabric being comprised of a group of warp yarns and a group of fill yarns, said warp yarns being oriented generally perpendicular to said fill yarns;
• (b) cutting planar portions from said fabric, said planar portions including at least a first tether panel and a second tether panel, said tether panels having an elongated dimension along their length, wherein said first tether panel is cut such that the elongated dimension of said first tether panel is substantially aligned with one of said warp or fill yarns, further wherein said second tether panel is cut such that the elongated dimension of said second tether panel is substantially out of alignment with respect to the direction of both said warp yarns and said fill yarns;
• (c) further cutting from said fabric airbag cushion components needed to manufacture at least one complete airbag cushion, wherein said fabric comprises less than about 1.69 square yards of fabric;
• and
• (d) assembling said first tether panel with said second tether panel, thereby forming a tether system;
• and
• (e) connecting said components together to form an airbag cushion, wherein said airbag cushion includes a fully inflated volume of at least about 52 liters and exhibits a burst pressure of at least about 13 Psi.

A method of forming an airbag cushion, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a fabric blank having a warp yarn fiber direction and a perpendicular fill yarn fiber direction;
• (b) cutting from said fabric blank multiple components adapted to form an airbag cushion, said components including at least a first tether panel and a second tether panel;
• (c) wherein said first tether panel is cut from said fabric blank in a manner so as to provide a long dimension of said first tether panel that is in alignment with said warp or fill yarn direction of said fabric blank;
• (d) wherein said second tether panel is cut from said fabric blank in a manner so as to provide a long dimension of said second tether panel which is out of alignment with said warp and said fill yarn directions of said fabric blank.
• (e) attaching said components together to form an airbag cushion, wherein said airbag cushion includes a fully inflated volume of about 52 liters and exhibits a burst pressure of at least about 13 Psi;
• and
• (f) wherein all of said components collectively are cut from less than about 1.69 square yards of fabric.