This patent application claims priority from Italian patent application no. 102022000006824 filed on Apr. 6, 2022, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to a seat with a side airbag for a vehicle.
When dealing with motor vehicles, with a percentage of approximately 20%, lateral collisions are the second most common accidents after front crashes and take place at crossroads, when a driver does not give way, or when a vehicle goes off the road and hits the side against a post, a tree or other objects. In order to reduce the consequences of lateral collisions, side airbags have been introduced so as to protect the trunk and the head of the vehicle passengers and constitute an important innovation in motor vehicle passive safety. For the driver and the front passenger, the side airbags are usually accommodated in the backrests of the front seats so that they always are in the right position to protect the upper part of the body; on the other hand, for rear passengers, the side airbags are usually accommodated in the panels of the doors.
From a constructive point of view, a seat comprises a frame, which is fixed to the floorboard of the vehicle, a bearing structure (typically made of polyurethane foam), which is mounted on the frame and is elastically yielding, and an upholstery, which covers the bearing structure and makes up the aesthetic and tactile interface to the outside (the upholstery can be made of fabric or leather). The bearing structure and the upholstery are currently pre-weakened along one or more guided breaking lines arranged in the area of the side airbag; by so doing, when, in case of impact, the side airbag is inflated, the side airbag breaks the bearing structure and the upholstery along the guided breaking lines, thus coming out of the seat in order to place itself between the occupant of the seat and the side walls of the passenger compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,905,431B1 discloses a seat provided with a side airbag.
The object of the invention is to provide a seat with a side airbag for a vehicle, which is capable of increasing the safety of the passengers of the vehicle in case of lateral collision.
According to the invention, there is provided a seat with a side airbag for a vehicle as claimed in the appended claims.
The appended claims describe preferred embodiments of the invention and form an integral part of the description.
The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings showing a non-limiting embodiment thereof, wherein:
In
The seat 1 consists of a seat cushion 2 having a substantially horizontal arrangement and of a backrest 3 having a substantially vertical arrangement; together, the seat cushion 2 and the backrest 3 give the seat 1 an “L” shape. The backrest 3 ends, at the top, with a headrest 4, which is included in the backrest 3 itself (namely, forms one single indivisible body with the backrest 3).
From a constructive point of view and according to
Furthermore, the seat 1 comprises a (rear) covering shell (panel) 8, which is made of a plastic material (alternatively, it could be made of a composite material) and is mounted on the rear part of the frame 5 so as to make up the rear wall of the seat 1. In particular, the covering shell 8 has a rear wall 9 and two side walls 10 (namely, flanks), which come into contact with the bearing structure 6 covered by the upholstery 7.
According to
According to a preferred embodiment, the deflector plate 12 has the shape of a “U” facing the front, namely facing the lateral airbag 11. The “U”-shape of the deflector plate 12 is asymmetric, as it is more extended on the outside; namely, an outer side appendage of the deflector plate 12 extends more towards the front (i.e. is longer in a longitudinal direction) than an inner side appendage of the deflector plate 12.
The function of the deflector plate 12 is that of guiding the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11 so that the cushion expands towards the front (i.e. towards the occupant of the seat 1) and does not expand towards the rear (namely, towards the covering shell 8). From another point of view, the deflector plate 12 “protects” the covering shell 8 from the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11, thus preventing the cushion from expanding towards (against) the covering shell 8, hence forcing the cushion to expand towards the front (i.e. towards the occupant of the seat 1).
The deflector plate 12 is made of a metal material, for it has to have a relatively high mechanical resistance; alternatively, in order to reduce its weight, the deflector plate 12 could be made of a composite material.
According to
In case of expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11 (obviously, following a collision), the cushion of the side airbag 11 (also pushed by the deflector plate 12) frontally and directly presses against the outer portion 14 of the bearing structure 6 and laterally presses against the outer side wall 10 of the covering shell 8, thus causing two effects: the outer portion 14 of the bearing structure 6 deforms forwards due to the thrust of the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11, which directly presses against the outer portion 14 of the bearing structure 6, while the outer side wall 10 of the covering shell 8 detaches itself from the outer portion 14 of the bearing structure 6 (as mentioned above, their connection 15 has a calibrated and relatively weak mechanical resistance so as to break due to the thrust of the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11) and the outer portion 14 of the bearing structure 6 rotates outwards around the pre-weakened hinge line 16 so as to open the passage opening 17, through which the cushion of the side airbag 11 comes out of the seat 1 and protrudes forward in order to place itself between the occupant of the seat 1 and the side walls of the passenger compartment.
In other words, the outer (side) portion 14 of the bearing structure 6 is configured not to break, but to deform forward due to the thrust of the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11, which directly presses against the outer portion 14 of the bearing structure 6, thus pushing the outer portion 14 of the bearing structure 6 forward. Therefore, the outer (side) portion 14 of the bearing structure 6 is not broken by the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11, but is only deformed (namely, is pushed forward towards the inside and, hence, towards the occupant of the seat 1) by the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11; in this way, the outer (side) portion 14 of the bearing structure 6 protects the occupant of the seat 1 from possible pieces (generally made of plastic) present inside the seat 1, which could get broken and be thrown towards the passenger by the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11.
The embodiments described herein can be combined with one another, without for this reason going beyond the scope of protection of the invention.
The seat 1 described above has numerous advantages. First of all, the seat 5 disclosed above is capable of increasing the safety of the passengers of the vehicle in case of lateral collision. This result is obtained thanks to the fact that the cushion of the side airbag 11 expands in an ideal manner, namely by being basically projected forward in order to place itself, in its entirety, between the occupant of the seat 1 and the side walls of the passenger compartment. This result is also obtained thanks to the fact that the bearing structure 6 of the seat 1 is not broken by the expansion of the cushion of the side airbag 11 and can provide a greater protection for the occupant of the seat 1.
Finally, the seat 5 described above is simple and economic to be manufactured.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
102022000006824 | Apr 2022 | IT | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5762363 | Brown | Jun 1998 | A |
5799971 | Asada | Sep 1998 | A |
5967546 | Homier | Oct 1999 | A |
8814203 | Tracht | Aug 2014 | B2 |
8905431 | Line et al. | Dec 2014 | B1 |
9707920 | Sahashi | Jul 2017 | B2 |
9764708 | Garret | Sep 2017 | B2 |
20140008898 | Tracht | Jan 2014 | A1 |
20150283970 | Line | Oct 2015 | A1 |
20190210551 | Veggian et al. | Jul 2019 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
202294664 | Jul 2012 | CN |
2842802 | Mar 2015 | EP |
Entry |
---|
Italian Search Report for Application No. 102022000006824; Filing Date: Apr. 6, 2022; dated Nov. 28, 2022, 7 pages. |
Extended European Search Report for European Patent Application No. 23166449.1; dated Aug. 28, 2023, 6 pages. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20230322177 A1 | Oct 2023 | US |