JPH0858512A - Structure of air bag door part in cabin side member - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an air bag door structure not required to form an air bag door separately from a cabin side member thereby dispensing with assembling them together and presenting a fin appearance with the air bag door boundary line not showing conspicuously on the surface. CONSTITUTION: An air bag door part D, which is integrally formed on an interior side member 1 having a skin material 20 on the surface of a synthetic resin foam layer 50, has a door opening provided on the back side of a general thickness surface of the skin material 20 by a half-cut part 23 not reaching the surface of the skin material 20.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of an automobile air bag door, and more particularly to an air bag door structure formed on a skin material of a vehicle cabin side member such as an instrument panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to safely protect an occupant in a vehicle from a shock at the time of a collision, an airbag device is installed in a front passenger compartment member, here, an instrument panel, for example, on the passenger side. To be done. The instrument panel is formed with an airbag deployment opening, which is normally covered by an airbag door having an appearance similar to that of a normal instrument panel.
Then, when the vehicle receives a large impact due to a collision or the like, the airbag device mounted inside the opening operates to inflate the airbag, and the inflation pressure opens the airbag door, so that the airbag is in the passenger compartment. Be deployed to.

By the way, the airbag door is usually formed separately from the instrument panel, and after the instrument panel is assembled to the vehicle, it is fitted and attached to the airbag deployment opening. However, in this conventional structure, not only the extremely complicated work process of attaching the airbag door is required, but also when attaching the separately formed airbag door to the airbag deployment opening of the instrument panel, There is a problem that a step or a gap is not formed at the boundary between the two and the appearance of the product is greatly impaired.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

The present invention has been proposed in order to solve such problems all at once, and the airbag door is formed integrally with the vehicle interior side member, so that the airbag door is used as the vehicle interior side member. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an air bag door structure which does not require separate molding and therefore does not need to be assembled, and has a beautiful appearance in which the boundary line of the air bag door is not conspicuous on the surface.

[0005]

That is, the present invention provides:
An airbag door portion integrally formed with a vehicle interior side member having a skin material on an upper surface of a synthetic resin foam layer, wherein the airbag door portion is on the back surface side of the general thickness surface of the skin material. The present invention relates to the structure of the airbag door portion of the vehicle interior side member, wherein the door opening is defined by a half-cut portion that does not reach the height.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an example of an instrument panel provided with an airbag door structure of the present invention,
2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of an arrow 3 portion of FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a sectional view when the airbag is deployed, and FIG. 5 is an airbag door structure of the present invention. FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part showing an example, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a half-cut part is formed on a skin material.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the present invention relates to an airbag door D formed integrally with a vehicle interior side member I having a skin material 20 on the upper surface of a synthetic resin foam layer 50. . In the figure, reference numeral 90 is a core material of the instrument panel I, 91 is an airbag deployment opening portion, 93 is a reinforcing plate that covers the airbag door deployment opening portion 91, 100 is an airbag container, 101 is an airbag, and 102 is external. The inflator 105 expands and deploys the airbag 101 by the impact from the above, and 105 is a mounting bolt for fixing the reinforcing plate 93 and the airbag container 100 to the instrument panel core 90.

In the structure of the air bag door portion of the present invention, the air bag door D is formed integrally with the instrument panel I which is a vehicle interior side member. That is, as will be understood from FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 which is an enlarged view of the arrow 3 part, the airbag door D reaches the surface material surface 20S on the back surface side of the general thickness surface of the surface material 20. A half cut portion 23 is formed.

Now, the material of the constituent parts of the instrument panel will be described. The skin material 20 is preferably made of a non-foamed soft synthetic resin and has a large elongation (for example, tensile strength of 1.3 kg / mm ² or more), and is preferably made of soft PVC, PVC-urethane copolymer, thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer, A thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer or the like is used. A polyurethane resin is generally used as the synthetic resin foam 50.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4, when the inflator 102 of the airbag device is actuated by the impact from the outside to inflate the airbag 101, the pressure reinforces the airbag deployment opening 91 of the instrument panel I. The plate 93 is pushed outward. Along with this, the synthetic resin foam layer 50 having low tensile strength cracks and the fragile half-cut portion 23 provided at the bent tip of the skin material 20.
The instrument panel I breaks and tears along a tear line T consisting of and is released as an airbag door D, and the airbag 101 is deployed in the vehicle compartment.

FIG. 5 shows an enlarged cross section of the main part of the airbag door structure. That is, the skin material 20 shown in FIG. 5 has the half-cut portion 23 formed at a position that defines the tear line T of the airbag door.

The half-cut portion 23 is provided with a notch that does not reach the surface 20S of the skin material on the back surface side of the generally thick surface of the skin material 20 to form a fragile portion that easily tears and the tip thereof. The inflation pressure of the airbag is concentrated on the portion 23T. Tip part 2 of this half cut part
Due to stress concentration on 3T, the skin material 20 can be cleaved extremely smoothly even when the remaining margin 25 of the skin material in the half-cut portion is a little large (it varies slightly depending on the material, 0.3 mm to 0.6 mm). You can

On the other hand, the half-cut portion 23 is normally pushed from both sides by the elasticity of the skin material 20 into a linear state and is buried in the general thick surface, so that the half-cut portion 23 has the same thermal durability as the general thick surface. Have sex.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, if the half-cut portion 23 is covered with a protective tape 30 from the back surface side of the skin material, the amine which is an erosion effect on the skin material by the urethane component in the synthetic resin foam layer 50. Attacks can also be prevented.

Here, the skin material 20 has a half-cut portion 23.
An example of a method of forming the is shown. This half cut part 23
The molding die 60 used for forming the mold is provided with a lower mold 61 having a mold surface 65 on which the skin material 20 is placed, and a trim blade 66 for forming the half cut portion 23 at a predetermined position of the skin material 20. The upper mold 62 is provided. The lower mold 61 is provided with suction holes 68 for fixing the skin material 20 to the mold surface 65. Further, the lower mold 61 and the upper mold 62
On the parting surface of, the concave portions 63, 63 and the convex portions 64, 64 for alignment are provided, respectively.

First, the mounting position of the trim blade 66 on the upper die 62 is adjusted so that the trim blade 6 is closed when the molding die 60 is closed.
An appropriate gap is formed between the tip of 6 and the lower mold surface 65. This gap may have the same length as the desired remaining margin 25 of the skin material in the half cut portion.

Next, the skin material 20 is placed on the mold surface 65 of the lower mold 61, and the skin material 20 is fixed on the lower mold surface 65 by suction of the suction holes 68. Then, the protrusion 64 of the upper mold 62
Is inserted into the recess 63 of the lower mold 61 and is aligned and closed, and the tip of the trim blade 67 provided on the upper mold 62 is positioned at a predetermined position of the skin material 20 fixed to the lower mold 61. The cut is provided to form the half-cut portion 23.

[0018]

As shown and described above, according to the present invention, since the airbag door is formed integrally with the vehicle interior side member, the airbag door is separated from the vehicle interior side member as in the prior art. Since there is no need to mold and therefore no assembly is required at all, the manufacturing process of this kind of airbag door can be made highly efficient. At the same time, the half-cut part is provided on the back side of the skin material, and since it does not reach the front side of the skin material, there are no unsightly steps or gaps at the boundary between the airbag door and the passenger compartment member. It is possible to provide an airbag door structure with a beautiful appearance. Furthermore, since the half-cut portion is normally pushed by the elasticity of the skin material to be in a linear state and is buried in the general thick portion, it is also excellent in thermal durability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an example of an instrument panel provided with an airbag door structure of the present invention.

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

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion indicated by an arrow 3 in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the airbag when deployed.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part showing an example of the airbag door structure of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a half cut portion is formed on a skin material.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 surface material 20S surface material surface 23 half cut part 50 synthetic resin foam layer I instrument panel D airbag door part T tear line

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An air bag door portion integrally formed with a vehicle interior side member having a skin material on an upper surface of a synthetic resin foam layer, the air bag door portion being a rear surface side of a general thick surface of the skin material. The structure of the airbag door portion of the vehicle interior side member, wherein the door opening is defined by a half cut portion that does not reach the surface of the skin material. 2. The structure of the airbag door portion of the vehicle compartment side member according to claim 1, wherein the remaining margin of the skin material in the half cut portion is 0.3 mm to 0.6 mm. 3. The structure of the airbag door portion of the vehicle compartment side member according to claim 1, wherein a half-cut portion formed on the back surface side of the skin material is covered with a protective tape.