Vehicle frontal airbag system

摘要

The present invention comprises an external airbag system for mounting on a vehicle ( 24 ) that deploys into the region above the bumper ( 38 ) to prevent or mitigate injuries that would have otherwise been caused by a person striking the grill ( 28 ) or hood area ( 26 ) of the vehicle. The airbag ( 20 ) is stored in a housing ( 40 ) mounted within the front bumper ( 38 ) of the vehicle. The airbag ( 20 ) is deployed upwardly through an opening ( 42 ) in the upper surface of the bumper ( 38 ) into the region between the upper surface of the bumper ( 38 ) and the front surface of the grill ( 28 ) and hood ( 26 ). The airbag ( 20 ) is generally T-shaped and includes a plurality of internal tethers ( 30,31 ) extending internally between the opposing inner surfaces ( 74 ) at regular intervals to cause the airbag ( 20 ) to be tufted. The internal tethers ( 30, 31 ) reduce the volume of the airbag ( 20 ) for a given frontal area thereby decreasing the inflation time required, without resort to fabricating the airbag ( 20 ) from multiple independent chambers. Selected of the internal tethers ( 31 ) may be designed to break as the airbag reaches close to its full inflation pressure to allow a portion of the airbag to bulge outwardly after the air bag is fully deployed. The remaining tethers ( 30 ) are designed to break as the pressure increases when the airbag is collapsed in a collision.