Inflatable occupant protective cushion

[0002] The invention relates to an inflatable occupant protective cushion for use along an upper side area in vehicles between a A-column and a C-column, comprising at least two inflatable chambers connected to each other and spaced from each other in a lengthwise direction of the vehicle, said chambers including a front chamber that extends, when inflated, next to typical sitting positions of front occupants and a rear chamber that extends, when inflated, next to typical sitting positions of rear occupants.

[0003] In the unfolded state, such an occupant protective cushion can extend over a partial area or over the entire area of the side windows, thus providing protection in case of a side impact.

[0004] In order to ensure the best possible protection for the occupants in case of a collision, the size of the chambers of the occupant protective cushion has to be dimensioned in such a way that a sufficiently large chamber volume is available to absorb the energy, taking into account the different body sizes and sitting positions of the occupants. According to the state of the art, the horizontal delineation of the chambers of the occupant protective cushions runs along the lower roof edge or upper window edge of the vehicle, whereas the vertical chamber delineation runs approximately parallel to the lengthwise axis of the occupants in their various sitting positions. The resulting chamber shape is essentially a parallelogram. The inside wall and the outside wall of the occupant protective cushion are joined to each other by means of seams.

[0005] The present invention provides an occupant protective cushion with chambers that provide the best possible protection for all kinds of body sizes and sitting positions of the occupants in case of side collisions.

[0006] This is achieved by an occupant protective cushion of the type described above having at least two inflatable chambers connected to each other, the front and rear chambers having front and rear delineation lines that are curved in a manner to correspond to a perpendicular projection of the typical sitting positions onto the inflated cushion. This means that the chambers have an essentially circular or elliptical contour on said projection plane. Consequently, the occupant protective cushion can be designed in such a way that the front and rear delineation lines of the chambers are oriented primarily according to the sitting positions and body sizes of the occupants in order to ensure the best possible protection of the occupants. Another advantage of the invention lies in the fact that, when two textile layers that lie on top of each other and that are joined along a circumferential edge and joined to each other by means of a plurality of spacers inside the circumferential edge, there are no larger continuous areas in the chambers in which the penetration resistance is diminished. Since the inner and outer textile layers are only directly joined to each other at the edge, but not in the surface area of the protective cushion that is effective for the protection of the occupants, the protective effect of the occupant protective cushion is fully retained, even in the extreme case of penetration by a vertical object. The occupant protective cushion can support and restrain the occupants over its entire surface area that is effective for the protection of the occupants.

[0007] Advantageous embodiments of the invention ensue from the additional subordinate claims.

[0008] The invention will be described below the reference to a preferred embodiment that is shown in the appended drawing in which:

[0009] FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of an occupant protective cushion according to the invention.

[0010] FIG. 1 shows an inflatable occupant protective cushion 10 with a front chamber 12aand a rear chamber 12bwhich are connected to each other. In the inflated state, the front chamber 12aprotects a front occupant 14, whose possible sitting positions are shown by the contours 14a-14c.In the inflated state, the rear chamber 12bprotects a rear occupant 16, whose possible sitting positions are shown by the contours 16a-16c.The front chamber 12ahas a front delineation line 18aand a rear delineation line 20a,while the rear chamber 12bhas a front delineation line 18band a rear delineation line 20b.According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the front delineation lines 18aand 18bhave a bulge towards the front while the rear delineation lines 20aand 20bhave a bulge towards the rear.

[0011] In a preferred embodiment, the chambers 12aand 12bconsist of two textile layers opposite from each other which are each joined to each other by means of a plurality of spacers 22. In this manner, it is achieved that the occupant protective cushion does not exceed a certain thickness in the limited space between the occupant and the vehicle wall.

[0012] In another preferred embodiment, the spacers 22 are designed in such a way that the textile layers are held at a distance from each other that does not fall considerably below 25 mm, as a result of which a reliable protection is achieved by the occupant protective cushion.

[0013] Preferably, the spacers of the front chamber 12aare arranged in a line 24 that rises from the front towards the back, whereby preferably an ascending angle of about 20° to 40° relative to the horizontal is selected. This is advantageous since smaller occupants 14a,14busually sit somewhat further forward than larger occupants 14d,14e.

[0014] Advantageously, the line 24 runs approximately through the apex of the bulges of the front and rear delineation lines 18a,20aof the front chamber 12a,thus achieving a uniform thickness of the front chamber over the entire surface area that is effective for the protection of the occupant.

[0015] In the rear chamber 12b,preferably at least two spacers 22 are arranged at different heights between the front and rear delineation lines 18b,20bof the chambers in order to achieve a uniform thickness of the chambers and thus an optimal protection for larger occupants 16aas well as for smaller occupants 16c.