Patent ID: 7798523

Claim:
A side impact airbag apparatus adapted to be mounted on a seat of vehicle comprising: an inflator; and an airbag that is folded up and secured to the seat by a rear end thereof for deployment forward between a lateral side of vehicle and an occupant when fed with inflation gas from the inflator, the airbag including an occupant-side wall deployable toward the occupant and a vehicle-side wall deployable facing the vehicle, the walls having generally identical contours and being connected together by outer peripheral edges thereof to form the airbag, the airbag being folded up into a compact configuration from a state where the occupant-side wall and the vehicle-side wall are lapped and flattened, through a vertical contracting step and a horizontal contracting step, the airbag including a tucked portion that is formed in the vertical contracting step by tucking part of each of the occupant-side wall and the vehicle-side wall inside the airbag on a crease extending generally horizontally, the tucked portion including a main portion that is stored inside the airbag and a projecting region that extends vertically from the main portion in an exposed manner and is folded back toward the vehicle-side wall so as to be located on an outer surface of the main portion, wherein the airbag is configured to protect a thorax section and a pelvis section of the occupant seated in the seat; wherein the tucked portion is formed at the bottom of the airbag; wherein the airbag is constructed to inflate into a generally vertically long, trapezoidal plate shape, in which an upper part of the airbag is relatively short and a lower part of the airbag is relatively long, in a front-to-back direction of the vehicle, and such that, when inflated, a front end of the airbag is inclined so that the lower part is longer than the upper part, in the front-to-back direction of the vehicle; and wherein the crease, which separates the tucked portion from the remainder of the airbag is located above an area of the airbag that has a maximum length in the front-to-back direction of the vehicle.