US 7025379

Patent Overview — US 7,025,379 B2 ("Side impact sensor systems")

Bibliographic data (from supplied excerpt): US 7,025,379 B2; application US 10/963,390, filed 2004-10-12; granted 2006-04-11; priority date listed as 1993-09-16 (claiming US 08/101,017). Inventors: David S. Breed, Vittorio Castelli, Anthony S. Pruszenski, Jr. Original assignee: Automotive Technologies International Inc.; current assignee listed as American Vehicular Sciences LLC. Status: Expired – Fee Related; anticipated expiration 2013-09-16. Classifications include B60R21/0132, B60R21/21 (side panels/doors), B60R2021/0006 (lateral collision). Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7025379/en

Purpose. The invention "relates to side impact crash sensors for vehicles and side impact airbag systems." The text states the invention is "primarily concerned with a novel self-contained airbag system for protecting occupants in side impacts," and secondarily with applying features of that system to prior mechanical airbag systems.

Plain-language scope. Per the excerpt, a self-contained system packages a sensor with a movable sensing mass, means to sense the mass's position to determine whether the airbag should deploy, a sealed housing, a gas generator ("inflator"), an airbag, and mounting hardware. Sensors may be electronic, electro-mechanical, or mechanical, all having a movable mass sensed electronically or mechanically. In one embodiment, a side airbag system includes an airbag arranged to deploy on impact into a vehicle side, a side impact crash sensor, and an inflator. Stated advantages: eliminating wiring, diagnostic and backup power supply in mechanical implementations, and better reliability since side-impact wires run inside the door.

Not established by this excerpt. No claims, detailed description, drawings, or full reference list are included. The excerpt omits the relationship to U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,253 beyond a bare mention, specific sensor structure, and deployment logic. The excerpt does not establish litigation, reassignment, or validity conclusions; the assignee/status lines are expressly noted by the source as assumptions. No independent verification of priority or dates is possible from the supplied text alone.