Patent Application
20050236819
The invention relates to a safety device for a motor vehicle. In particular, to a safety device including an inflatable airbag which is configured to inflate and deploy laterally next to the vehicle occupant.
A safety device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,862 (incorporated by reference herein). The disclosed safety device is arranged between a vehicle outer wall, for example a vehicle door, of a vehicle and a vehicle seat on which the vehicle occupant to be protected is situated. In the event of an accident, an airbag of the safety device is inflated in such a manner that it is deployed between the vehicle occupant and the vehicle outer wall. As a result, the vehicle occupant is protected from striking against or coming into contact with the vehicle outer wall. A tensioning strap is arranged on the airbag as a supporting device. The tensioning strap secures the airbag laterally, so that a lateral movement of the airbag when the vehicle occupant plunges into the airbag is prevented or at least reduced.
German patent specification 42 07 253 C2 and German laid-open specification 199 04 071 A1 (both incorporated by reference herein) also disclose safety devices, in which an airbag is deployed between two seats of a seat bench in the event of an accident in order to prevent the vehicle occupants situated on the seat bench from colliding.
According to an embodiment of the invention, provision for the airbag together with the supporting device to be arranged on the inside of the vehicle, i.e. on that side of the vehicle occupant which faces the inside of the vehicle or on that side of the vehicle seat which faces the inside of the vehicle. The vehicle seat may be an “individual seat” or a seat of a seat bench.
One substantial advantage of the safety device according to the invention is that, owing to the arrangement of the airbag on the inside of the vehicle, an interaction of the seat belt on the belt-buckle side with the vehicle occupant's abdomen region is prevented. Protection against injuries to the abdomen region due to the belt buckle or the seat belt is provided by the airbag arranged on the inside of the vehicle because a lateral movement of the vehicle occupant in the direction of the interior of the vehicle is prevented.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, vehicle occupants sitting next to each other may be prevented from colliding; in particular, a collision of the occupants' heads can be prevented.
Another potential advantage of an embodiment of the present invention, is to provide additional protection even if the vehicle occupant who is to be protected sits on the vehicle side facing away from the impact; this is because, in this case, the airbag which is deployed on the inside of the vehicle protects a vehicle occupant (sitting facing away from the impact) against colliding with a vehicle occupant sitting facing the impact or with intruding vehicle regions (for example the interior of the vehicle).
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the safety device may include a supporting device which prevents or at least reduces a lateral movement of the airbag. The supporting device prevents the airbag, when the vehicle occupant plunges into it, from buckling away or “giving way”, as a result of which the protective effect of the airbag could be reduced.
According to another particular embodiment of the present invention, provision is made for the airbag to be able to inflated to a pressure of at least 100 kPa, in particular of at least 150 kPa, in the event of an accident. Such a high internal pressure of the airbag reduces the risk that the airbag could buckle away under the action of the occupant's body mass and the protective effect of the airbag could be reduced. A safety device having an airbag pressure of at least 100 kPa also makes it possible to reliably restrain both the vehicle occupant's head and the vehicle occupant's entire body.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the airbag is provided with an insulating layer or a coating which is less gas-permeable than the rest of the airbag in order to reduce the likelihood of inflation gas from unintentionally or prematurely leaving the airbag under a drop in pressure. The insulating layer or the coating of the airbag covering preferably includes silicone or a silicone compound, since silicone is a particularly gas-tight material and can easily be processed.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the supporting device for fixing the airbag in its “protective position” can be formed, for example, by at least one tensioning strap which is connected at its one tensioning-strap end to the airbag and at its other tensioning-strap end to the vehicle seat. The tensioning-strap end which is connected to the airbag is preferably fitted in the region of that airbag covering section which is as far away as possible from the gas generator of the safety device. The further the fastening point of the tensioning strap to the airbag is from the fastening point of the airbag to the vehicle, the greater is the fixing effect of the tensioning strap. Accordingly, it is particularly advantageous if the tensioning-strap end which is connected to the airbag is fitted in the region of a front edge of the airbag.
In order to achieve a tensioning-strap tensioning force which is dependent on the severity of the accident, the tensioning strap is preferably arranged in such a manner that it is automatically tensioned or “retensioned” by the vehicle occupant plunging into the airbag. For this purpose, the tensioning strap may preferably extend in the region of the vehicle occupant's shoulder and/or back, so that the vehicle occupant acts on the tensioning strap when he plunges into the airbag. An automatic tensioning of tensioning straps by the vehicle occupant is not only possible in the case of safety devices, in which the airbag is arranged on the inside of the vehicle, but also in the case of safety devices such as those described at the beginning, in which the airbag is arranged on the outside of the vehicle—i.e. between the vehicle occupant and the vehicle outer wall.
According to yet another alternative embodiment of the present invention, the supporting device may comprise at least one supporting element which is arranged in the interior of the airbag or on the outside of the airbag and absorbs lateral forces when the vehicle occupant plunges into the airbag in the event of an accident. A supporting element of this type may be formed, for example, by a plate or the like.
According to embodiments of the invention, the supporting element can be brought into its working or protective position in the event of an accident in various ways. For example, it is conceivable to bring the supporting element into the protective or supporting position by folding, by rotating, by extension of a telescopic system, by pivoting or by a roller blind technique.
In order to reduce the likelihood that the vehicle occupant may come directly into contact with the supporting element and can be injured as a result, an embodiment of the present invention provides for the supporting element to be connected to the airbag layer of the airbag that faces away from the vehicle occupant. In the case of this arrangement of the supporting element, it is ensured that there is an “air cushion layer” between the supporting element and the vehicle occupant protecting the vehicle occupant from the supporting element.
Moreover, according to another embodiment of the invention, the safety device may be mounted on the seat or on the seat bench. The mounting ensures that the safety device—before an accident—is at the same time moved over the entire seat-adjusting region or the entire region of the backrest setting (in the event of being positioned in the seat back). As a result, an always optimum position of the safety device is ensured, so that a minimum airbag size suffices for an effective protection of the occupant.
In addition, an embodiment of the invention relates to a method for protecting a vehicle occupant in the event of an accident, in which an airbag is inflated and deployed laterally next to the vehicle occupant, the airbag being supported in such a manner that a lateral movement of the airbag when the vehicle occupant plunges into the airbag is prevented or at least reduced.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only, and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description, appended claims, and the accompanying exemplary embodiments shown in the drawings, which are briefly described below.
The same reference numbers are used in FIGS. 1 to 5 for identical or comparable components.
A vehicle seat 10 having a backrest 20 and a head restraint 30 can be seen in
The airbag 50 has a covering section 60 with which the airbag 50 is fastened in the region of the vehicle seat. The covering section 60 may therefore be referred to as the “fastening section”. A front edge 70 of the airbag 50 faces away from the covering section 60, which front edge, when the airbag is deployed, is arranged laterally next to the vehicle seat 10 and projects forwards in the direction of travel in relation to the backrest 20 (in the event of a vehicle seat oriented in the direction of travel).
Three tensioning straps 80, 90 and 100 are fitted to the front edge 70 of the airbag 50 and are connected to the vehicle seat 10. The tensioning straps 80, 90 and 100 laterally hold the airbag 50, which is deployed in the event of an accident, so that a vehicle occupant plunging into the airbag 50 cannot cause the airbag 50 to buckle or give way.
As can be seen in
The position of the three tensioning straps 80, 90 and 100 when a vehicle occupant 130 is on a seat surface 140 of the vehicle seat 10 can be seen in
The airbag 50 according to FIGS. 1 to 4 may be inflated at an internal pressure of the airbag of at least 100 kPa, preferably of at least 150 kPa, in order to ensure that the airbag is sufficiently stable and fixed and a yielding of the airbag or a buckling away of the airbag is prevented.
The supporting element 200 can be pivoted into its “protective position” shown in
For the sake of clarity,
According to other embodiments, the tensioning straps 80, 90 and 100 explained in conjunction with
A common feature of the three exemplary embodiments explained in conjunction with FIGS. 1 to 5 is that the vehicle occupant 130 is fixed in his seat region by the airbag 50. As a result, the occupant cannot come into contact with intruding vehicle parts, with the interior of the vehicle or with other vehicle occupants. In addition, abdomen injuries due to the seat belt (not illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 5 for the sake of clarity) cutting into “soft parts” of the vehicle occupant are prevented if the latter is moved in the event of an accident in the direction of the belt buckle of the seat belt.
The mounting (shown in the figures) of the safety device 40 in a manner fixed on the seat ensures that the said safety device moves at the same time over the entire seat-adjusting region and the entire backrest-setting region; the effect achieved by this is that the airbag 50 always takes up the optimum position relative to the vehicle occupant. The airbag size and therefore the covering region of the airbag can therefore be selected to be very small.
The priority application, German Patent Application No. 10 2004 020643.0 filed on Apr. 22, 2004 is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2004 020 643.0 | Apr 2004 | DE | national |
