JPH08183422A - Hood airbag device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] The hood is deformed to reduce the thickness of the airbag that can absorb impact. A central portion of the airbag 16 corresponding to a portion of the hood 15 provided with a space on the lower surface side for allowing the downward deformation of the hood 15 that absorbs impact by deforming the thickness of the airbag 16 when deployed. The portion 16a is made thinner than the side edge portion 16b and the rear edge portion 16c of the airbag 16 which do not correspond to the portion provided with the space, and the volume of the airbag 16 is reduced without lowering the pedestrian protection function. Therefore, the amount of gas required to deploy the airbag can be reduced, and the time required to deploy the airbag can be shortened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention, when a running vehicle collides with a pedestrian, deploys an airbag on the hood of the vehicle and absorbs the impact of the secondary collision with the hood. The present invention relates to a hood airbag device that is relaxed to protect pedestrians.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is known that when a running vehicle collides with a pedestrian, the collided pedestrian is secondarily collided with the lower half of the body by the front portion of the vehicle body and the upper surface of the hood at the front portion of the vehicle body. . For example, FIGS. 5 and 6 show Japanese Patent Application No. 5-294.
6 shows a hood airbag device disclosed in the specification of No. 636 (not known at the time of application), in which a collision with a pedestrian is detected by a sensor 3 provided on a bumper 2 at a front end portion of a vehicle 1. Then, a signal is sent to the inflator 5 housed in the opening 4a formed near the front end of the hood 4, the gas generating agent in the inflator 5 is ignited, and the generated gas is filled in the airbag 6. It The gas-filled airbag 6 inflates, pushes open the lid 7 that closes the opening 4a, and deploys the hood 4 toward the windshield 8 at the rear of the vehicle.

Therefore, the impact generated when the pedestrian who collides with the vehicle 1 collides with the hood 4 for the second time is protected by being absorbed by the airbag 6 deployed on the hood 4.

[0004]

However, in the conventional hood airbag device, the inflated and deployed airbag 6 is used.
However, since the hood 4 is configured to cover almost the entire surface with a uniform thickness, there are the following inconveniences. That is, the hood 4 itself is formed of a thin steel plate, and can deform to absorb the shock to some extent. However, inside the engine room covered by the hood 4, various types of components other than the engine can be accommodated. Since auxiliary equipment, body members, etc. are arranged, there are places where deformation of the hood 4 to the lower surface side is hindered, and the portion near the wiper pivot and the outer edge of the hood 4 have high rigidity, which causes deformation. It's hard to do. As described above, the easiness of the deformation of the respective parts of the hood 4 to the lower surface side is different, and therefore, the hood 4 itself can partially absorb the impact of the secondary collision of the pedestrian.

However, in the prior art, the impact absorbing action of the hood 4 itself has not been effectively utilized, and since the impact is uniformly absorbed by the airbag, the airbag capacity must be increased. As a result, the size of the gas generating means such as the inflator is increased, and the freedom of layout of the hood airbag device, that is, the vehicle mountability is impaired.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and reduces the time required for deployment by reducing the volume of the airbag deployed on the hood when a running vehicle collides with a pedestrian. It is an object of the present invention to provide a hood airbag device that can be made compact and can be made compact.

[0007]

As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the hood airbag device of the present invention comprises a pedestrian collision detection means for detecting a collision with a pedestrian and this pedestrian collision detection means. A hood airbag device including an airbag that inflates based on outputting a detection signal and is deployed on a hood of a vehicle, wherein the thickness of the airbag is below the hood that deforms and absorbs impact. It is characterized in that it is formed to be thinner at a portion corresponding to a portion provided with a space on the lower surface side of the hood that allows a predetermined amount of deformation to a portion not corresponding to a portion provided with the space. .

[0008]

When the collision with the pedestrian is detected by the pedestrian collision detection means, the airbag is filled with gas, inflates and inflates on the hood. In this airbag, the thickness of the airbag when inflated is sufficient on the lower surface side of the hood for the area where the lower surface side of the hood has enough space for deformation and shock absorption. Since it is formed to be thinner than other parts that do not have a space,
For the part with a thin bag, in addition to the shock absorption by that part of the air bag, the hood below it deforms and absorbs the shock, so the shock at the time of the secondary collision is sufficiently mitigated, and the pedestrian is sure to Be protected. Further, by forming the bag thickness to be partially thin, the volume of the airbag is reduced, so that the amount of gas required for deployment can be reduced and the time required for deployment can be shortened.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the hood airbag device of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

In a vehicle equipped with this hood airbag device, a pedestrian collision detection sensor 14 is embedded on the front side of a front bumper 13 provided at the front end of the vehicle body 11 over the entire area in the vehicle width direction. ing. The pedestrian collision detection sensor 14 is a touch sensor in which contacts are made conductive by being compressed by a collision load input from the front, and is capable of detecting a collision with a pedestrian when the vehicle is traveling. There is.

A storage recess (not shown) for storing the airbag 16 is formed near the front of the hood 15 at the front of the vehicle body, and the folded airbag 16 is contained in the storage portion. An inflator (not shown) for inflating the airbag 16 is stored. When the pedestrian collision detection sensor 14 detects a collision with a pedestrian, an ignition current flows in the inflator, the gas generating agent in the inflator is ignited to generate gas, and the generated gas is charged to fill the gas. The airbag 16 is provided so as to be inflated, inflated from the storage portion, and deployed on the hood 15.

The airbag 1 which is deployed on the hood 15
6, the thickness of the hood 15 is not uniform, and both side portions and the rear end portion of the hood 15 are thickened and the central portion is formed thin. This is because the space provided on the lower surface side of the hood 15 has a predetermined height h at which the hood 15 can be deformed and shock-absorbed.
If it is above, since the load that needs to be buffered by the airbag 16 can be reduced by the load that can be buffered by the hood 15, the bag thickness of the corresponding portion can be reduced without lowering the protection performance for the pedestrian who collided. The air bag 16 is formed thin, and as a result, the volume of the airbag 16 is reduced.

Therefore, the shape of the airbag 16 when inflated is such that the airbag central portion 16a covering the vicinity of the center of the hood 15 where there is a space for allowing the deformation of the hood 15 on the lower surface side is thin and The rear end of the hood 15 in which the side members 16b, 16b covering the vicinity of the fender where the body member 17 such as a fender apron is present on the side and the non-deformable parts such as the wiper pivot 18 are arranged close to the lower surface of the hood 15. The rear edge portion 16c that covers the portion is thickly formed in a bank shape that is continuous in a U shape as shown by hatching in FIG. Note that in FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, reference numeral 19 is a windshield.

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be described.

When a running vehicle collides with a pedestrian, the pedestrian collision detection sensor 1 mounted on the front bumper 13
4 is compressed by the collision load and becomes conductive, and an ignition current is passed to the inflator. Then, the gas generated by the inflator is filled and the airbag 16 is inflated and deployed so as to cover the hood 15 (see FIG. 2). At this time, since the center portion 16a of the airbag 16 is formed thinner than other portions to reduce the bag volume, the airbag 16 is inflated to a predetermined size in a short time with a small amount of gas,
It can be expanded to a predetermined range.

As described above, the airbag 16 deployed on the hood 15 has both side edge portions 16 on the lower surface side of the hood 15 which does not have enough space to allow the deformation of the hood 15.
Since the b and 16b and the rear edge portion 16c are formed thick respectively, the portion of the body of the pedestrian who collided with the side edge portion 16a or the rear edge portion 16c hits the impact absorbing capacity of the airbag 16. It is sufficiently buffered by itself and is protected from the impact of the secondary collision on the hood 15. The portion of the pedestrian's body that hits the thin central portion 16a of the airbag 16 is shock-absorbed by the central portion 16a of the airbag 16 and has a sufficient space on the lower surface side. Since the vicinity of the center of the hood 15 moves downward and is deformed to the position of the hood 15a shown by the broken line in FIG. 1 to absorb the shock, the pedestrian can be sufficiently protected.

As described above, according to the hood airbag apparatus of this embodiment, since the volume of the airbag 16 is reduced, it is possible to reduce the amount of gas required to inflate and deploy the airbag 16, and Since the inflator that generates gas can be downsized and the space for accommodating the inflator and the airbag 16 can be reduced, there is an advantage that the degree of freedom in selecting an installation location such as an airbag storage portion is increased.

[0018]

As described above, in the hood airbag device of the present invention, the space for allowing a predetermined amount of downward deformation of the hood which absorbs impact by deforming the thickness of the airbag when deployed. Since it is formed so as to be thinner than the portion corresponding to the portion provided on the lower surface side of the hood and the portion not corresponding to the portion provided with the space, the volume of the airbag can be reduced without lowering the pedestrian protection function. The amount of gas required for deploying the airbag can be reduced, and the time required for deploying the airbag can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an airbag deployed state of a hood airbag device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1 also showing an airbag deployed state.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an airbag deployment range of a vehicle equipped with a conventional hood airbag device.

6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line VI-VI of FIG. 5 showing a deployed state of the airbag in the vehicle of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 vehicle body 14 pedestrian collision detection sensor 15 hood 16 airbag 16a central portion of airbag 16b side edge portion of airbag 16c rear edge portion of airbag 17 body member 18 wiper pivot

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Yoshito Hori, Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture 1 Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor, Toshiaki Matsumoto 1 Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (72) Invention Person Satoshi Sakakibara Ichishin Seiki Co., Ltd., 2-chome, Asahi-cho, Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture (72) Inventor Michio Inoue 1 Nagachihata, Ochiai, Kasuga-cho, Nishikasugai-gun, Aichi Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Horiuchi Noriyuki No. 1 Nagahata, Ochiai, Kasuga-cho, Nishikasugai-gun, Aichi Prefecture Toyota Gosei Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A pedestrian collision detection means for detecting a collision with a pedestrian, and an airbag which is inflated based on the detection signal output by the pedestrian collision detection means and is deployed on a hood of a vehicle. In a hood airbag device provided with, the thickness of the airbag corresponds to a portion provided with a space on the lower surface side of the hood that allows a predetermined amount of downward deformation of the hood that deforms and absorbs impact. The hood airbag device is formed so as to be thinner than a portion that does not correspond to the portion having the space.