1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle passenger safety modules that use pressurized gas from an inflator to deploy an airbag between passengers and the occupant enclosure interior of a vehicle in the event of a collision or rollover. More particularly, the present invention pertains to curtain airbags that inflate at the sides of the passenger compartment between an occupant and the occupant enclosure of the vehicle.
2. Background
A typical airbag for a vehicle passenger safety module captures pressurized gas from an associated inflator, thereby becoming a gas-filled cushion interposed between a vehicle occupant and the interior vehicle surfaces of the occupant enclosure that surround that occupant. Typically, the inflator is ignited electrically in response to a momentum monitor carried in the vehicle.
The driver/passenger safety cushion of a curtain airbag deploys downwardly from the ceiling trim at the side of the passenger compartment by filling with pressurizes gas from an associated inflator, typically assuming the form of a thin, elongated generally planar barrier between occupants and the side windows of the vehicle.
A deployed curtain airbag safety cushion is accordingly stably secured at the top thereof to the occupant enclosure. The bottom of the safety cushion is by contrast relatively less restrained. Consequently, the safety cushion below the top thereof may engage in undesirable outboard motion that can expose an occupant to injury.