Patent ID: 8267427

Claim:
A knee airbag device for a front passenger seat, the knee airbag device comprising: a knee airbag that is stored in a housing in a folded state when not deployed, the knee airbag including a central region in a vehicle width direction and end portion regions positioned at either side of the central region in the vehicle width direction and at a vehicle front of knee regions of an occupant seated in the front passenger seat, the knee airbag, after being folded in a vehicle vertical direction, being folded from both sides in the vehicle width direction to a center in the vehicle width direction and folded portions in the vehicle width direction being folded back again to the outer sides in the vehicle width direction within a range of end portion regions and being disposed at the end portion regions, and the knee airbag receiving a supply of gas at a time of a frontal collision of the vehicle and being configured so as to be capable of being expanded and deployed towards a side of the knee regions; and a deployment control cloth including a general portion configured to be narrower in the vehicle width direction than the knee airbag in a folded state, the general portion disposed so as to extend over the central region of the knee airbag in the vehicle vertical direction from a vehicle rear side and disposed so as to cover a part of the folded portions in the vehicle width direction from the vehicle rear side, the deployment control cloth suppressing expansion and deployment of the central region at a time of initial expansion and deployment of the knee airbag and initializing expansion and deployment of the end portion regions towards outer sides in the vehicle width direction before expansion and deployment of the central region, wherein one end portion of the deployment control cloth in the vehicle vertical direction is held in place between the housing and the knee airbag, and the other end portion of the deployment control cloth in the vehicle vertical direction is disposed between at least the knee airbag and a vertical wall portion of the housing and, at the time of initial expansion and deployment of the knee airbag, the other end portion is fixed and held between the vertical wall portion and the knee airbag device by expansion pressure, and breaking away from between the vertical wall portion and the knee airbag with progression of expansion and deployment of the knee airbag.