Patent ID: 9156422
Filing Date: 2015-10-13
Classification: B60R

Abstract:
1. An active bolster for protecting a passenger in a seating area of an automotive vehicle during a crash event, comprising: an interior trim panel of the vehicle, wherein the trim panel has a front surface facing the seating area and a back surface including a plurality of closed bonding tracks spaced laterally across the panel; a plurality of bladder walls, each having an outer flange bonded to a respective bonding track, a plurality of pleats disposed annularly adjacent the respective outer flange and defining a respective extension length, and central mounting towers attaching the respective bladder wall to a fixed reaction structure; a plurality of micro gas generators, each mounted to a respective bladder wall for supplying inflation gas to inflate the respective bladder wall during the crash event; wherein inflation of each bladder wall causes unfolding of the respective pleats while the trim panel deploys away from the fixed reaction structure by a non-uniform distance resulting from at least one bladder wall having a pleat extension length not equal to the pleat extension length of another laterally-spaced bladder wall.