Protective airbag restraints for use in passenger automobile applications have become standard equipment on almost all new vehicles sold in the United States and are common equipment on vehicles manufactured and sold throughout the world. In recent years, side or frontal airbags have been employed to further protect occupants in frontal and side vehicular impact events.
An important and difficult area to protect is the area of the A-pillar vehicle body structure which is the narrow sheet metal body structure positioned between the front door window glass and the windshield. In vehicular frontal or angular impacts, it is advantageous for occupant safety to provide a cushion or airbag to reduce hard impact of an occupant with this rigid body structure.
Early airbags positioned in the door or instrument panel areas were rigidly attached to the sheet metal body structure and were deployed either through intentional thin areas or seams molded into the trim panels, or the panels were provided with hinge-like attachments where on inflation of the airbag, the trim panel or portions thereof pivoted out of the way of the expanding airbag. This required special features to be molded into the trim panels and additional assembly steps as the airbag system needed to first be installed to the sheet metal on the vehicle main assembly line, then carefully covered by an interior trim panel to conceal the airbag and provide an aesthetically pleasing surface for the occupant.
These efforts were only partially successful and added much complexity to the design, manufacture and assembly of the airbag system in the vehicle. These prior airbag systems, particularly in the A-pillar area also suffered disadvantages in completely covering or providing a cushioning surface all along the A-pillar, most particularly in the lower portion of the A-pillar where the trim panel meets the door or instrument panel. This area is particularly difficult to protect smaller occupants, for example individuals in the lower 5 percent of the general population in size.
It would be advantageous to provide an airbag apparatus and method of manufacture that improved on these deficiencies of prior airbag systems. It would be further advantageous to provide an airbag system that was integrated with the trim panel for ease of manufacturing and assembly and that provided additional coverage and protection of the occupant.