Air bag filter and seal arrangement

摘要

A filter, seal and port arrangement for a pyrotechnic air bag inflator (12). The seal (10) consists of a ring or annulus of sheet metal which has a foot section (56) abutting against the filter (52), and a leg section (62) of the seal angled to form an interference fit against an interior surface of a wall (18) of the generator housing (14). For annular filters used in axial flow inflators, a ring is used at the radially inner and outer edges of the annular filter. For tubular filters used in radial flow inflators, a single seal at a longitudinal end may be sufficient. With such tubular filters, the seal may include a stand-off to form an annular void between the radially outer face of the filter and the wall of the housing. This void will act as a plenum to ensure that a greater volume of the filter is used. The tubular filter itself may also be formed with raised lands such that the interposed grooves form such a plenum. In a similar manner the disk filters may also have plenum producing lands on their outer faces, or the housing may include such lands. The housing may also be provided with tangentially oriented ports (38) between the ignitor (30) and the gas generating material (36) to increase the contact area between the combusting ignitor and the generant, and to reduce the impingement force produced by the combusting ignitor.