Air Bags

intended for sale to public. General

The Basics
Motors followed with a fleet of 1,000
™ Cars consist of several objects, experimental vehicles in 1973, and these
including the vehicle itself, loose objects Chevrolet cars equipped with dual
in the car and, of course, passengers. If airbags were sold to the public through
these objects are not restrained, they will GM dealers two years later.
continue moving at whatever speed the
car is traveling at, even if the car is
stopped by a collision.

An Automobile Airbag

™ Stopping an object's momentum

requires force acting over a period of
time.
™ The goal of any supplemental
Ad of Ford for ‘First Vehicle with Airbag’
restraint system (i.e. An Airbag System) is
to help to stop the passenger with as Air Bag Components
little damage to him/her as possible. The
The 3 most important components of an
airbag has the space between the
Airbag are:
passenger and the steering wheel/dash
board & a fraction of a second to work
with
History of Airbags
• The airbag as known today was
invented by John W. Hetrick in 1952 and
he patented the device the following
year. Hetrick came up with the idea to
help protect his own family using
expertise from his naval engineering • The Bag Itself
days.
• Inflator
• The device was briefly available in
the United States in the mid-1970. Ford • Crash Sensor
built an experimental fleet of cars with
airbags in 1971. in 1973 Oldsmobile
Tornado was the first car with airbag
Working of an Airbag
• The bag itself is made of a thin, nylon
fabric, which is folded into the steering
wheel or dashboard or, more recently,
the door or seat
• The sensor is the device that tells the
bag to inflate. Inflation happens when
there is a collision force equal to running
into a brick wall at 10 to 15 miles per
hour (16 to 24 km per hour). A
mechanical switch is flipped when there
is a mass shift that closes an electrical
contact, telling the sensors that a crash
has occurred. The sensors receive
information from an accelerometer built
into a microchip.
• In the airbag's inflation system,
Sodium-Azide (NaN3) reacts with
Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) to produce
nitrogen gas. Hot blasts of the nitrogen
inflate the air bag. the air bag and
inflation system stored in the steering
wheel.
• The inflation system is not unlike a
solid rocket booster. The air bag system
ignites a solid propellant, which burns
extremely rapidly to create a large
volume of gas to inflate the bag. The
bag then literally bursts from its storage
site at up to 200 mph (322 kph) -- faster
than the blink of an eye! A second later,
the gas quickly dissipates through tiny
holes in the bag, thus deflating the bag
so you can move.
• Even though the whole process
happens in only one-twenty-fifth of a
second, the additional time is enough to
help prevent serious injury. The powdery
substance released from the air bag, by
the way, is regular cornstarch or talcum
powder, which is used by the air bag
manufacturers to keep the bags pliable
and lubricated while they're in storage.
Testing Of Air Bags
The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) conducts two
types of crash tests as part of the New
Car Assessment Program.
• 35-mph frontal impact - At 35 mph
(56 kph), the car runs straight into a solid
concrete barrier. This is equivalent to a
car moving at 35 mph hitting another
car of comparable weight moving at 35
mph.
• 35-mph side impact - A 3,015-pound
(1,368-kg) sled with a deformable
"bumper" runs into the side of the test
vehicle. The sled's tires are angled. The
test simulates a car that is crossing an
intersection being sideswiped by a car
running a red light.
Airbag Safety Concerns
• The force of an airbag can hurt
those who are too close to it.
Researchers have determined that the
risk zone for driver airbags is the first 2 to
3 inches (5 to 8 cm) of inflation. So,
placing yourself 10 inches (25 cm) from
your driver airbag gives you a clear
margin of safety.
• An airbag can seriously injure or
even kill an unbuckled child who is sitting
too close or it is thrown toward the dash
during emergency braking.
• Children 12 and under should ride
buckled up in a properly installed, age-
appropriate car seat in the rear seat.
• Infants in rear-facing child seats
(under one year old and weighing less
than 20 pounds / 10 kg) should never
ride in the front seat of a car that has a
passenger-side airbag.
• If a child over one year old must ride
in the front seat with a passenger-side
airbag, he or she should be in a front-
facing child safety seat, a booster seat RECARO Seat with Side Airbag incorporated

or a properly fitting lap/shoulder belt,

and the seat should be moved as far
back as possible.
Future Safety Improvements

• It seems like air bags are sprouting

from just about everywhere inside cars.
And if they help keep your body from
hitting hard objects during a collision,
they're doing their job. But in the future,
the emphasis on safety equipment will
be to make it "smarter."
• Eventually, we will see smart airbags
that can deploy with different speeds Upcoming airbags for passenger vehicle
and pressures, depending on the weight
All of this makes it pretty clear that the
and seating position of the occupant,
science of airbags is still new and under
and also on the intensity of the crash.
rapid development. You can expect
We'll see seatbelts that will also sense the
many advances in this field as designers
weight and position of occupants and
come up with new ideas and learn from
adjust the tension and maximum force
real-world crash data.
accordingly.
• Technology is enabling carmakers to
design and manufacture safer, smarter
vehicles, and consumers clearly endorse
this trend as reflected in buying patterns.
• One of the leading Car seat
manufacturers ‘RECARO’ has now come
up with the side airbags in seats.
Future of Airbags
• Side Airbags
• Head Airbag