Patent ID: 7549671

Claim:
A knee-protecting airbag apparatus comprising an airbag folded and housed in a lower side of a column cover covering a steering column and an inflator for supplying inflation gas to the airbag, when fed with inflation gas from the inflator, the airbag projecting from a housing disposed in the lower side of the column cover and developing and inflating such that it covers the lower side of column cover for protecting knees of a driver, the inflator being housed inside the airbag at a position to be a generally middle position in the longitudinal direction of the airbag when the airbag is completely inflated, the airbag including a column cover side wall deployed toward the column cover and a driver's side wall deployed toward a driver's seat, respectively upon airbag deployment, and is attached to the housing at the side of the column cover side wall using the inflator, and in the airbag folded up to reduce the longitudinal width of the airbag, a front region of the airbag to be deployed forward of the inflator at a complete inflation of airbag is folded in such a manner as to insert a front end of the front region which front end corresponds to a boundary region of the driver's side wall and column cover side wall in between the inflator and the driver's side wall, thereby providing an inserted portion, the front region being inserted to an inside of the airbag between the inflator and the driver's side wall so as to turn the front end of the front region inside out and rearward in the airbag folded up.