Abstract: A heating or air conditioning system for a passenger compartment of a motor vehicle has a heat exchanger which is arranged in a cooling water circuit of an internal combustion engine and through which an air stream passes. A supplementary electric heater through which the same air stream can flow is also provided. In order to design the heating or air conditioning system in such a way that a separate installation space is not necessary for the installation of the supplementary electric heater, the supplementary electric heater is physically integrated into the heat exchanger. The supplementary electric heater includes a plurality of electric heating rod assemblies arranged between water ducts of the heat exchanger which extend parallel with one another along the air passage surface of the heat exchanger.

Abstract: A device for use in vehicles with electric or hybrid drive for monitoring the air conditioning of a vehicle based on health and energy consumption readings. The device monitors the operation of the air conditioning to determine when differentials between outside and inside temperature are excessive, and/or inside atmospheric humidity is too low and/or air quality is poor. An occurrence of any of these conditions results in the system suggesting to the driver that he should interrupt travel to the desired destination. In addition, if necessary, the device performs a vehicle range estimate as a function of the selected air conditioning operation.

Abstract: In a center console area for a passenger motor vehicle, the compensating wedge is disposed by a bearing arrangement on the assigned holding section of the center console crossmember. Thereby, the compensating wedge can be changed in a forcibly guided manner from a mounting position into an operative position which compensates tolerances between the center console crossmember and the support columns. A stop fixes the compensating wedge in its mounting position, and, in particular, form-lockingly acting fixing devices are assigned to the compensating wedge for securing the compensating wedge in its operative position.

Abstract: The invention relates to a collision-protection system for passengers of motor vehicles. In a manner which is known in principle, an airbag is automatically inflated in the event of an accident. In order to control the direction and speed of expansion, the airbag is wholly or partially encased by a tough, plastically deformable film, which is overstretched and torn open as the airbag is inflated.

Abstract: An instrument panel for a motor vehicle extends over the width of a passenger compartment in front of a driver's seat and of a passenger seat, and exhibits an outer skin provided with a multiplicity of small through-passages which are distributed at least over a passenger-side region. The outer skin is produced from a temperature-independently dimensionally stable plastic material, and an instrument-panel reinforcement provided beneath the outer skin exhibits a through-passage opening for a passenger airbag in the region of the passenger seat. The through-passages are arranged as perforations which permit the outer skin to be torn open in the region of the through-passage opening, the perforations distributed over the instrument panel being in a pattern adapted to the contours of the through-passage opening such that the potential outlet region of this airbag cannot be detected.

Abstract: The instrument panel in a motor vehicle exhibits an interior, rigid reinforcement panel, a foamed-plastic layer located thereabove and an outer skin which covers said layer. A cover which likewise exhibits this construction is integrated into the instrument panel in front of an airbag unit, which cover, in the event of a crash, can move away and releases an opening through which an airbag can unfold out of its receiving container behind the instrument panel. The reinforcement portion of the cover is a separated-off part of the adjoining reinforcement-panel surface. The process for producing an instrument panel of this type is carried out such that, before or after foaming of the entire reinforcement panel, the opening cover is separated from said panel.

Abstract: An air-induction gasbag-collision-protection system for a motor car is disclosed which has a receiving housing into which a gasbag casing which is fastened to the receiving housing and is open towards the housing is folded. A gas source is provided in the receiving housing for the filling of the gasbag casing and for its unfolding in the expanded state. The receiving housing exhibits apertures in a housing wall of the receiving housing, by which apertures an intake of air surrounding the receiving housing into the receiving housing and the gasbag casing is made possible. The cross-sections of the apertures are covered by intake flaps, which can be opened by the underpressure generated in the unfolding of the gasbag casing and by virtue of which an escape of internal gases from the receiving housing through the apertures is prevented.

Abstract: A cover panel is provided for an airbag which is folded into a housing and, in a cover position, covers the housing opening. The panel is connected to a surrounding surface via at least one web. An unfolding opening is cleared as a result of the web breaking off during unfolding of the airbag. Each web projects in a tongue shape into the surrounding surface. A predetermined break point of the web is provided outside the opening edge of the unfolding opening in the region of the surrounding surface.

Abstract: The invention relates to a restraining system for occupants of a motor vehicle. The occupant is safeguarded by a safety belt and an airbag. So that the inflation pressure of the airbag can be controlled according to whether the occupant is strapped in or not, the gas generator of the airbag possesses a heater which switches on when the belt is not fastened and which is intended for increasing the inflation pressure which can be generated.

Abstract: The invention relates to an occupant restraint system having an air bag which is automatically inflated by means of a gas generator in the event of an accident and, during this process, emerges from a housing or the like whilst opening a padded flap which normally closes the housing or the like. In this case, an intended tearing point arranged at the edge of the flap remote from the pivot axis is undone, which intended tearing point is shielded by a thick pad swelling from contact by the occupant to be protected.

Abstract: Impact protection devices, arranged in steering wheels or dashboards of motor vehicles, for vehicle occupants are provided with covers which open in the event of an accident in order to release an inflating air bag of the protection device. The cover, which consists of at least one cover flap, is injection molded onto a carrier part by a tough elastic plastic. The plastic surround has along an edge, intended as pivot axis, of the cover flap a cross-sectional tapering which serves as a hinge. At the other edges, the plastic surround is constructed towards the corresponding edges of the carrier part as a groove which, in the event of pressure on the cover flap in the opening direction, easily releases the carrier part edge.

Abstract: A protective device for motor vehicle airbag systems to protect the vehicle occupants utilizes a vessel whose wall piece, which can break out, is configured as part of the wall of a hollow valve block provided with the outflow orifice. The wall piece is equipped with an extension projecting into the interior of a valve block. The piston rod is guided displaceably, transversely relative to the extension in the valve block, and moved by a pyrotechnic propellent charge. The rod serves to break out the wall part and is provided with a collar which, in the event of ignition, strikes against the extension and thus leads not to a violent breaking-out, but to a pivoting of the wall piece before the final breaking-out.

Abstract: In an impact protection cushion which can be accommodated in the steering wheel region for protection of the vehicle driver, a tearing seam is provided which joins the cushion upper part, which moves forward upon inflation, to the cushion lower part fastened to a fixed vehicle part. This arrangement prevents any radiating forward movement of parts of the cushion upper part, in particular, of a central region laying opposite the gas inflow opening in the cushion lower part without restraining straps.

Abstract: A gas cushion system such as an airbag system has an essentially vat-shaped, elongated housing with an open longitudinal side, and a tubular housing disposed within the housing in a longitudinal direction thereof between its end faces, for a cartridge-shaped gas generator. The generator functions to inflate a gasbag disposed on the open longitudinal side of the vat-shaped housing. The vat-shaped and tubular housings form a prefabricatable unit, into which the gas generator can be directly inserted without any separate housing.

Abstract: The application relates to a mount of a front seat passenger airbag unit in the upper area of a dashboard of a motor vehicle. The mount uses a holder which consists of flat material and on the one hand can be attached to the housing of the airbag unit and on the other hand can be attached securely to the vehicle. In order to ensure a certain degree of resilience of the airbag unit during the unfolding of the bag, the holder, which is made of a flat material, is guided along below the floor area of the housing and is connected there to the latter. The holder projects beyond the housing, on both sides and is attachable securely to the vehicle at a spacing from said housing in such a way that between the lateral ends of the housing and the mounting points of the holder fixed to the vehicle at a distance from the housing. The holder forms a deformable bridge area which serves to absorb energy and during loading permits the holder to rotate in both directions about its longitudinal axis.

Abstract: A pressure vessel for storing a gas for use in airbag protection systems in passenger transport has an outflow valve connected to the housing of the pressure vessel at a predetermined breaking zone and contains a piston which extends to a pyrotechnic system arranged in the vessel interior. Influencing the outflow characteristic of the gas flowing out of a pressure vessel into an airbag in a controlled manner during the opening movement of the outflow valve is attained because the outflow valve contains a control body which adjoins the predetermined breaking zone and extends in the direction of the pyrotechnic system and the cross-section of which changes in the axial direction of the outflow valve.

Abstract: A pressure vessel for storing a highly pressurized pressure medium for use with motor vehicle air bags and the like has an elongated, pressure-tightly closable hollow body as well as at least one opening for the flowing-out of the pressure medium. The vessel can be made small and light by surrounding the circumference of the hollow body with a fiber composite winding.

Abstract: An inflatable airbag to protect the occupants of a vehicle from an impact on parts in the vehicle passenger compartment is constructed such that a joining seam of two fabric ends of the airbag is provided in the vicinity of an opening made in the bag fabric. The fabric ends are overlapped to such a degree that together they form the complete edge region around the opening and the opening itself.

Abstract: The application is concerned with a cover of an airbag unit in a motor vehicle which is equipped with a tear-open line and has a foam-backed foil and the process for making the cover. The process includes:a) heating a foil in the region of the intended tear-open line;b) forming a channel in the foil which is drawn-in in relation to the adjoining face of the foil in the region of the tear-open line;c) creating a reduction in wall thickness of the foil at the tear-open line, located at a channel bottom, by high-frequency embossing;d) introducing the foil into a mold and foam backing the foil;e) producing a smaller wall thickness in the foam backing in the region of the tear-open line.

Abstract: A receptacle arrangement for an air bag which protects a vehicle occupant from an impact onto parts of the vehicle interior, has a covering which is fixed to a base plate and covers an air bag container. The covering folds out along a hinge axis of a hinge in the edge region of the air bag container during the unfolding of the air bag, after which it exposes a container aperture for the passage of the bag fabric into an inflated position in front of the vehicle occupant. The covering has, in addition to the first hinge, two further hinges which bound the first hinge on both sides, are approximately perpendicular thereto and have a clearance from the lateral edges of the covering. Thereby, two lateral covering flaps are formed which subdivide the swivellable covering.