AIRBAG INFLATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• Main Authors: FISCHER CHRISTOPHER K, LAUBACHER BRIAN A, SMITH BRADLEY W
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 14.05.2015
• Subjects: PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; SEPARATION; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR

An airbag assembly may include an airbag and an inflator in fluid communication with the airbag. The inflator may have a gas source chamber containing a gas source and a centrifugal flow chamber into which the gas flows from the gas source chamber through a centrifugal flow barrier. As the gas moves through the centrifugal flow barrier, it may be urged to move along a pathway that encircles at least a part of a longitudinal axis of the inflator. The gas may then move toward the longitudinal axis to flow through an orifice of an inward flow barrier. this inward flow may occur at a velocity that is generally too large for entrained particulates. Thus, such particulates may remain in the centrifugal flow chamber. The gas may flow from the orifice into a plenum chamber that releases the gas to the airbag via a plurality of apertures.