Vehicle airbag production

To produce finished vehicle airbags for delivery, for steering wheel fitting, two layers of woven piece goods (1,7) of the same width are overlaid in the same direction, where the upper layer is the filter fabric and the lower layer the airbag material layer. Protective material (3) is applied to the upper layer, displaced from each other laterally and longitudinally, and holes (13) are cut through the protective (3) and upper layer (1) materials for subsequent connection to a gas generator. The tightly packed layers are fed to a cutting table (15), where circular sections (5) are cut out by a laser cutter, and the edges of the overlaid circles are loosely brought together to form the airbag body, and are carried by a suction and conveyor system to a turntable, to pass them through a sewing station where the edges are stitched together. The airbag quality is controlled, and then they are passed to a folder for packaging into the required shape for insertion into a steer ing wheel. Also claimed is a folder with two grip clamps for the first folding stage, where they grip the outer sides of the flat airbag body at a gap for the dia. of the airbag. The grips are fitted to a shaft to give the first folding movement, to give them their rotation and counter movements. Further flat clamps, across the first grip clamps, give the second folding movement by grasping the ends after the first fold, with a gap between them matching the length of the airbag after the first fold. The grips are each on a shaft to give the rotation and counter movements to form the second fold of the package. Preferably all the prodn. stages take the same time, up to folding, and the stages are then in steps. An adhesive is applied locally to the upper fabric, to bond the protective section (3) of flame protection material under pressure. The protective sections (3) are stitched into place. The filter layer (1) is passed over a table (11), where a hole (13) is stamped through each protective section (3) on the upper material (1), or the hole (13) is cut by a laser. The dia. of the cut circles (5) is greater than half the width of the fabrics (1,17), so that their centres (7) lie on theoretical straight lines (6) pitched at an angle ( beta ) to the fabric edges of at least 60 deg . The circles (5) are offset longitudinally and laterally so that they virtually touch across the fabric width. After the edges of the airbag body have been stitched, a limit tape is passed through the hole (13) an