JPH042538A - Shock absorbing bag and its manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate folding an impact absorbing bag consisting of tapes of fiber filaments disposed linearly to be parallel to each other wound in the form of a bag by specifying a ration of the surface to be coated with elastomer. CONSTITUTION:Five yarns are put together to be a tow, which is repeatedly drawn through rollers 2, 3, a gear 4 having sharp tips and a gear 5 having round tips to be curled, it is drawn through rollers 6 - 9 to obtain a tape-like opened yarn, and the opened yarn is wound around a disc-like mandrel 12 through a delivery eye 10 which reciprocates parallel to a rotary shaft 11 of the mandrel 12 uniformly at a predetermined winding angle leaving no gaps. The metal mandrel 12 is then immersed in rubber solution immersing device 13, so a predetermined rubber solution 14 is applied to coat 80 - 99% the whole surface of a bag body, thereby a predetermined impact absorbing bag is obtained.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is normally housed in a ring holder at the center of the steering wheel of a vehicle, and when a vehicle collides, it senses the impact and instantly inflates and deploys to assist the driver. The present invention relates to a shock-absorbing hang (so-called airbag) for ensuring safety, and a manufacturing method thereof.

[Conventional technology]

Airbags are designed to instantly send gas into the hang by exploding gunpowder, so they must be able to withstand the impact.

The conventionally provided airbags are:
After forming a polymer coating on one side of a flat woven fabric, the two coated woven fabrics are stacked so that the coated sides face each other, and the periphery is sewn to form a hang.

For example, in the prior art section of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 51-4742 (invention related to a bag for an airbag device and a method for manufacturing the same), it is stated that ``a circular piece of cloth is cut out from two square pieces of cloth and the periphery is sewn together. "Manufacturing a flat airbag" is disclosed. (Hereinafter referred to as Prior Art I) In addition, when the airbag senses the impact and inflates and deploys during a vehicle collision, due to the intense inflation pressure, the airbag, which is supposed to protect the occupants, may cause secondary damage. Accidents may occur. The following devices are known to prevent this secondary accident.

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 51-35719 discloses an idea (
Hereinafter referred to as prior art ■) was disclosed,
Publication No. 4239 also discloses a device for a fabric for a cushioning bag with a check valve made of a fabric having ventilation holes (hereinafter referred to as prior art (2)), and furthermore, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1442348
The publication discloses an idea (hereinafter referred to as prior art (2)) regarding an air bang bag body made of a woven fabric in which a reinforcing fabric having holes corresponding to the vent holes is provided around the vent holes.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, the method of manufacturing airbags by sewing, as in the prior art (■), involves many manual steps and is difficult to automate, making it difficult to manufacture economically, and there is a risk that the strength of the sewing parts may be lower than other methods. .

Furthermore, in the prior art techniques (1) to (4), the number of steps required to form the vent holes or vent holes increases. Furthermore, since the sewing method has problems in terms of strength, it is necessary to reinforce the area around the vent hole, which is subjected to a high load, as in the prior art (2).

As a result, the airbag becomes bulky, making it difficult to store it.

That is, there is basically a problem in that sufficient reliability cannot be established for the sewing itself.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technology, and its purpose is to provide a system that is homogeneous, has high reliability, is easy to manufacture, can be stored compactly, and has a structure that can be used as a secondary material during expansion and deployment. An object of the present invention is to provide a shock absorbing bag and a method for manufacturing the same that will not cause any accident.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the gist of the present invention is to provide a shock-absorbing bag in which a tape-like material in which fiber filaments are arranged in a substantially linear and parallel state is wound up into a bag shape. The first invention is a shock absorbing bag characterized in that 80 to 99% of the bag is coated with an elastomer, and in the first invention, the surface area of the elastomer coating in the part that comes into contact with the human body is in contact with the human body! The second invention is a shock-absorbing bag characterized by having a surface area larger than the surface area of the elastomer coating on the non-contact parts, and a tape-like bag in which fiber filaments are arranged in a substantially straight and parallel state is obtained. A bag is obtained by wrapping a tape-like material around a mandrel having a predetermined size and shape.
A third invention is a method for producing a shock absorbing hang, characterized in that the elastomer is coated with 9% elastomer, and in the third invention, the elastomer is a rubber composition, and the bag body coated with the elastomer is A fourth invention is a method for manufacturing a shock absorbing bag characterized by subjecting it to a vulcanization treatment.

In the specification of this application, "tape-like material" refers to "a sheet-like product in which one or several yarns (multifilament threads) are arranged so that the monofilaments are maintained in a substantially straight and parallel state. say.

The fibers of the present invention typically include braided fibers, polyvinyl alcohol fibers, aliphatic and aromatic polyamide fibers,
Examples include polyester fibers, carbon fibers, glass fibers, etc., but they are not particularly limited, and include all fibers conventionally used for bonding with rubber.

There is no particular restriction on the fineness of the above yarn, but it is generally 3.
A range of 0 to 30,000 D is suitable. of course,
These do not necessarily need to be supplied as a single thread; rather, it is easier to spread laterally if a plurality of threads are supplied at the same time. The thinner the monofilament fineness is, the easier it is to spread, and a range of, for example, 0.8 to 10D is generally preferred.

Methods for opening these yarns include electrical methods, mechanical methods, and methods using air flow, but any method may be used as long as the purpose can be achieved.
Any method such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3-69626 may be used.

Note that the tape-like material obtained by the opening must be extremely uniform (with little variation in thickness). In addition, the monofilaments must be completely separated from each other, and their spacing must be close enough that the average spacing is less than the average filament diameter.

In the present invention, methods for wrapping a tape-like material around a mandrel having a predetermined size and shape can be mechanically divided into a 1-Lahas method, a rotating arm method, and other methods in which the arm or mandrel has a special rotational movement. Any special type of winding can be applied.

Divided by shape, there are three methods: a method for wrapping closed shapes such as a cocoon, a sphere, and a cone, a method for wrapping a shape such as a cylinder or a disk, and a method for wrapping an irregular shape such as a prism or pyramid. But it can be applied.

Although there are various winding patterns, a predetermined strength can be imparted by broadly classifying them into parallel winding, helical winding, longitudinal winding, or a combination thereof. In cases where pressure is generated inside the bag, such as in an air bag, by forming the bag with a laminated structure of at least two or more layers with different winding directions, the pressure can be applied evenly.

When molding into a removable shape, use a deformable hollow mandrel, such as a metal mandrel (which can be disassembled if necessary) or a rubber mandrel, and mold it into a closed shape. If so, use a consumable mandrel made of gypsum, rock salt, easily fused metal, etc. In order to easily remove the mandrel after molding, it is desirable to apply a mold release agent to the mandrel in advance.

The elastomer used in the present invention preferably has flexibility and appropriate elasticity.

The elastomer may be a mixture of natural rubber or synthetic rubber such as acrylic, urethane, polybutadiene, styrene-butadiene, or ethylene-propylene, reinforcing agents, flame retardants, vulcanizing agents, etc. A composition containing the following is preferred. If higher heat resistance than the above elastomer is required, use a heat-resistant elastomer consisting of synthetic rubbers such as chloroprene butyl rubber, halogenated butyl rubber, silicone rubber, and fluorine rubber, either singly or in combination, and use a reinforcing agent as well. A composition containing necessary ingredients such as , flame retardant, and vulcanizing agent is preferred.

As a method for coating the bag with the elastomer, a spray gun method or a dip coating method can be adopted, but the viscosity of the elastomer is preferably 10,000 to 200,000 cP (25 ° C.) for the reasons described later. 30,000~
Particularly preferred is 70,000 cP (25"C).

The filling rate of the elastomer between the monofilaments is approximately 60% or more of the voids between the monofilaments, especially 70% or more of the voids between the monofilaments.
Preferably, it is 90% or more filled with elastomer.

Vulcanization of an elastomer made of a rubber composition is performed for the purpose of fusion-welding the filaments that are adjacent to each other in an intersecting or parallel state with the elastomer to maintain the shape after demolding and to protect the filaments. , is an important step in the present invention. The temperature conditions are preferably a temperature at which the elastomer covering the filament exhibits a predetermined adhesive force, that is, 120 to 190°C, and in consideration of thermal decomposition of the elastomer, the heating temperature is 200°C or more and the heating time is 20 minutes or more. Harsh conditions should be avoided.

(Function) This is a method of obtaining a hang by coating a tape-shaped spread thread around a mantel and coating it with an elastomer, so there is no need for sewing, and the elastomer is used to adhere the filament. Moreover, since the coating is applied only to the appropriate area, the resulting bag is flexible and can be folded freely, and when it is inflated and expanded, a predetermined amount of gas flows out of the hanger from the parts that are not coated with elastomer. , to effectively protect the human body by effectively mitigating the impact of a collision.

However, bags with an elastomer coating area of less than 80% have too few restraint areas, resulting in insufficient inflation and deployment, and as a result, they do not have a shock absorbing function. On the other hand, if the coating area exceeds 99%, the amount of gas flowing out of the bag during inflation and deployment will be small, so the impact of hanging the bag on the human body will be strong, and a secondary accident may occur.

Therefore, it is preferred that 80 to 99% of the total surface area of the shock absorbing hang be coated with nylastomer.

In addition, the surface area of the elastomer coating in a shock absorbing bag must be larger in the area that comes into contact with the human body than in the area that does not come into contact with the human body, in order to perform its basic impact absorption function.

If the viscosity of the rubber solution is less than 10,000 cP, the elastomer permeates every corner of the filament due to capillary action during coating, making it impossible to control the coating area of the elastomer. On the other hand, if the viscosity of the rubber solution exceeds 200,000 cP, it will take time to dry, making it impossible to obtain a uniform elastomer layer.

Therefore, the viscosity of the rubber solution is preferably 10,000 to 200,000 cP, and in order to obtain a more uniform elastomer layer, the viscosity is 3 to 7 cP.
10,000 cP is particularly preferred.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily obtain a shock-absorbing bag that has a one-piece structure and is extremely flexible at a low cost.

〔Example〕

Examples 1 and 2 of the present invention will be described below.

(Example 1) In FIG. 1, 1 is 1500D of polyparaphenylene/3.4 diphenyl ether/terephthalamide;
Five 1000 F yarns are tied together to form a tow. - Mechanical means used for boat fishing, i.e., a roller rotating in the direction of travel of yarn 1 (in the direction of the arrow) 2.3, the gear 4 with sharp tooth tips and the gear 5 with round tooth tips are pulled out many times in the advancing direction, and the resulting curled material is transferred to rollers 6.7 and 8.9. A tape-shaped spread yarn is obtained by stretching the fiber between the two, and this tape-shaped spread yarn is reciprocated in a direction parallel to the rotating shaft 11 of the disc-shaped mandrel 12.
It was wound uniformly at a predetermined winding angle on a decomposable metal disk-shaped mandrel 12 coated with a mold release agent in advance through an eye 10 so as to eliminate any gaps.

After this, a metal disc-shaped mandrel 12 wrapped with a tape-shaped spread thread is placed in a rubber solution impregnating device 13 (see Fig. 2).
90% of the total surface area of the bag, i.e. all of the bag on one side of the mandrel (50% of the total surface area) and 40% of the total surface area on the other side of the mandrel. A rubber solution 14 prepared by dissolving a rubber composition shown in Table 1 on page 1 in toluene was coated. Then, the adhesion amount was controlled to an appropriate amount using a doctor knife. Note that the viscosity of the rubber solution was 50,000 cP.

Thereafter, the monofilaments were vulcanized under heat and pressure conditions of 180"C10.5kg/cm2 to firmly bond the monofilaments with rubber.Then, the disc-shaped mandrel 12 was disassembled and the shock absorbing material formed on the mandrel was I took out the hanger.

Table 1 (Example 2) As a mandrel, a disk-shaped mandrel 1 shown in FIG.
2 instead of diameter 5 made of butyl rubber as shown in Figure 3.
The structure is the same as in Example 1 except that a hollow spherical mandrel 15 with a diameter of 0.00 mm is used.

In FIG. 3, 16 is a valve for injecting air, 17 is an air supply pipe, and 18 is a small hole bored in the air supply pipe. The diameter of the end plate 19 installed on the air supply pipe 17 was 50 mm.

The state shown in the figure shows the state in which the valve 16 is opened and air is blown into the spherical mandrel 15 through the small hole 18 of the air supply pipe 17, and the internal pressure of the spherical mandrel 15 is set to 0.3 kg/cm2. .

After applying a mold release agent for rubber molds to the spherical mandrel 15 using a spray gun, the tape-shaped spread yarn is wound onto the spherical mandrel 15 through the delivery eye 10 at a predetermined angle. Wrap it evenly until there are no gaps. Thereafter, 90% of the total surface area of the bag was coated with a rubber solution having the same composition as in Example 1 using a spray gun in the same manner as in Example 1. Then, the adhesion amount was controlled to an appropriate amount using a doctor knife.

Next, air is further injected into the spherical mandrel 15 through the valve 16 to reduce the internal pressure of the spherical mandrel 15 to 0.5 kg.
/cm", and the mandrel was left in a 180°C oven (not shown) for 10 minutes to complete vulcanization, and the monofilaments were firmly bonded with rubber. After this, the mandrel was removed from the oven. After taking it out and cooling it at room temperature for 30 minutes, open the valve 16 to remove the air inside the mandrel, and insert the butyl rubber mandrel into the air supply pipe 17.
By pulling it out at the same time, a spherical shock absorbing hang 20 as shown in FIG. 4 was obtained. The weight of this hang was 270g.

(Comparative Example 1) As Comparative Example 1, a plain woven fabric having a warp density and a weft density of 24 threads/thon was produced using 840 denier yarn. Next, a rubber solution prepared by dissolving a rubber composition shown in Table 1 in toluene was applied to one side of this plain woven fabric. The coating amount was 65 g/mZ in terms of solid content. Then, two woven fabrics were obtained by vulcanizing at 150° C. for 14 minutes and coated with a rubber solution on one side, and a spherical bag having the same external shape as in Example 2 was made from the two woven fabrics by sewing. The weight of this spherical bag was 360 g.

(Comparative Example 2) As Comparative Example 2, a shock absorbing hang of the same size was produced in the same manner as in Comparative Example 1, and a diameter of 301 gI was attached to the portion of the shock absorbing bag corresponding to the handle side of the vehicle body.
Two vent holes 21 of n were bored. (See FIG. 5) A reinforcing cloth 22 was sewn around the vent 21.

(Performance Comparison Test) Next, a comparative test was conducted on the spherical hang according to Example 2 and the spherical hang according to Comparative Example 1.2 in terms of pressure resistance, storability, and expandability according to the following method.

■Pressure resistance 100 for each of Examples and Comparative Examples
No bags were made, and an internal pressure of 2 kg/cm'' was applied to each hang, and the number of hangs that did not burst was counted.

■Storability The height when the bags were folded into a 20 cm square and stacked was measured and expressed as an index with the height of Comparative Example 1 as 100. The lower this index is, the more flexible and excellent the storage property is.

■Deployability When an internal pressure of 2 kg/cm" was applied to the bag, the time required for the tip of the bag to reach the fully expanded position was measured and expressed as an index with the time of Comparative Example 1 set as 100. .The lower this index is, the faster and more excellent the developability is.

The above test results are shown in Table 2 below.

Table 2 From Table 2 above, the following points are clear.

■As is clear from Table 2, the bag according to this example is 2
In the pressure test of 1,000 kg/cm'', none of the 1,000 pieces burst, and the storability and expandability are also significantly superior to Comparative Example 1.2.

■The product according to Comparative Example 1 ruptured at 9@, and the rupture location was the sewn part.

(2) Since the product according to Comparative Example 2 has a vent, the pressure resistance is improved over Comparative Example 1, but since a reinforcing cloth is sewn around the vent, storage performance is poor.

(Effects of the invention) ■The shock absorbing bag of the present invention has a structure in which tape-like filament is wound into a bag shape, and the filament is bonded with an elastomer, and only an appropriate area is coated with the elastomer. As a result, the resulting bag is flexible and can be folded freely, causing no secondary accidents to the human body when inflated and deployed, and effectively protecting the human body by moderately mitigating the impact of a collision. be able to.

■Since the present invention allows a strong hang of any shape to be integrally molded, the shock absorbing hang according to the present invention is particularly suitable for use in automobiles, which have an exhaust port, a mounting port, etc., and require high strength. Ideal for airbags. In addition, by changing the ratio of filament and elastomer using the technology of the present invention, hot air balloons, atto balloons,
Balloons such as airships, shock-absorbing bags for collisions with high-speed moving objects, gas bags to block blasts caused by mine explosions, flexible containers for powder, fuel tanks, water storage tanks, etc. for liquids, etc. It can also be applied to heat-resistant insulation materials for civil engineering construction work.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a side view of each process showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a side sectional view of a rubber solution impregnating device, Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a spherical mandrel and an air supply vibrator, and Fig. 4 is a shock absorbing device. FIG. 5 is a plan view of a shock absorbing bag with vents. 12... Disc-shaped mandrel, 15... Spherical mandrel,
20... Shock absorption bag Figure 1 Figure 2 Ndrel

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) In a shock absorbing bag made by winding up a tape-like material in which fiber filaments are arranged in a substantially linear and parallel state, 80 to 99% of the total surface area is 2) A shock absorbing bag characterized in that it is coated with an elastomer. 2) The elastomer coating surface area of the part that comes into contact with the human body is larger than the elastomer coating surface area of the part that does not come into contact with the human body. Shock-absorbing bag 3) Obtain a tape-like product in which the fiber filaments are arranged in a substantially straight and parallel state, and wrap this tape-like material around a mandrel having a predetermined size and shape. to obtain a bag body, and 80% of the total surface area of this bag body
4) A method for producing a shock absorbing bag characterized in that ~99% of the bag is coated with an elastomer 4) A claim characterized in that the elastomer is a rubber composition, and the bag coated with the elastomer is subjected to a vulcanization treatment. Method for manufacturing a shock absorbing bag according to item 3