ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,330,580, issued on June 17, was assigned to Ford Global Technologies LLC (Dearborn, Mich.).
"Airbag size based on seat recline" was invented by Zhibing Deng (Northville, Mich.), Deepak Patel (Canton, Mich.) and Joseph E. Abramczyk (Farmington Hills, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system includes a seat moveable between an upright position and a reclined position, and an airbag module mounted to the seat. The airbag module includes an airbag inflator, an airbag, and a panel attached to a folded portion of the airbag. A tether is coupled to the folded portion via the panel, the tether being retracted relative to the airbag module w...