Patent ID: 6848707

Claim:
An automotive interior trim piece for covering a stored air bag device located at a particular location in a passenger compartment of an automotive vehicle, said trim piece comprising an instrument panel including a structural substrate member having an air bag deployment opening formed therein located over said particular location of said air bag device, one or more generally rectangular deployment door panels at least partially closing said opening and each of said one or more door panels held on one side to allow each of said one or more door panels to be swung open, and a plastic outer covering layer extending smoothly and uninterruptibly over said one or more deployment door panels at said particular location of said air bag device so as to completely conceal all sides of said one or more deployment door panels, said one or more deployment door panels thereby able to be swung open by the pressure exerted by the inflating of said air bag device to form a deployment opening in said covering layer lying over said deployment opening in said substrate member a preweakening cut extending into the inside of said covering layer, said preweakening cut extending over at least a portion of a perimeter of said one or more deployment door panels said preweakening cut substantially continuously varying in depth along at least a segment of said preweakening cut, whereby inflation of said air bag device will cause severing of said covering layer along said cut to enable deployment of said air bag device into said passenger compartment by forced opening of said one or more deployment door panels resulting in the formation of said deployment opening in said covering layer.