Posted by Airbags, there to save your life with, ironically, an explosion.
I thought I’d give a little insight into these amazing pieces of technology, and also a few warnings relating to them.
What is an airbag and what do they do?
An airbag is a very high tech system of sensors and gas-inflated cushions that protect you in the event of a sudden impact. They use a crash sensor to trigger a rapid expansion of the airbag to protect you from the impact of a crash. The most basic systems are found in the steering wheel of a car, but they can be fitted in dashboards, seats, doors, the roof, and now Volvo are the first to fit them to the exterior of vehicles, just below the wipers, to protect pedestrians from impacts with the windscreen.
The first ideas:
Like many things that are ahead of their time, the first airbags were suggested as far back as 1951 by two guys named Walter Linderer, a German and American John Hedrik. Linderer’s idea involved either a bumper mechanism or a driver operated one. Unfortunately, his idea was based on compressed air and in the 60s, this was found not to be capable of blowing the bags up fast enough. Linderer did, however, get granted a German patent. Hedrik was granted a US patent in 1953 for what was described as a “safety cushion assembly for automotive vehicles.” The real breakthrough came in 1968 when Allen Breed patented his “sensor and safety system”, an electromechanical airbag system.
When airbags became mainstream:
The Ford car company were the first to build an experimental airbag fleet in 1971. Two years later in 1973 General Motors tested airbags on the Chevrolet, but this was only sold for government use. The Oldsmobile Toronado was the first car with a passenger airbag for sale to the general public. Later cars fitted with airbags came from General Motors and Oldsmobile although some early airbag systems had design issues resulting in fatalities caused solely by the airbags. This was because some early airbags were activated with an unstable explosive that could deteriorate over time and then when it was triggered, exploded with such force that it blew metal fragments at great force into the passenger cabin. Millions of cars globally from some of the biggest manufacturers were affected and they were recalled to fix the issue. Chrysler was the first manufacturer to make airbags standard equipment. In 1994 TRW began production of the first gas inflated airbags. Since 1998 these are mandatory.
Types of airbag:
There are two types of airbags; frontal and side-impact airbags. Advanced frontal airbag systems automatically determine if and with what level of power the driver and passenger airbag will inflate. The appropriate level of power is based upon sensor inputs that can typically detect: occupant size, seat position, seatbelt use of the occupant, and the force of the crash.
Side-impact airbags (SABs) are inflatable devices that are designed to help protect your head and/or chest in the event of a serious crash involving the side of your vehicle. There are three main types of SABs: torso, head and head/chest combination ones. As I mentioned earlier, Volvo has also introduced pedestrian protection, and I’m sure that many other manufacturers will follow suit.
Precautions:
Firstly, if like me, you work on your own cars, you should exercise extreme caution when doing repairs or work on the inside of your car. Not only because you might accidentally interfere with the explosive charge, or airbag itself, but because there is a lot of airbag wiring routed around your vehicle. This can be under seats, in seats, inside door pillars and head linings and of course in the steering wheel and dashboard. Things that used to be simple need good knowledge and forethought.
Secondly, some airbags can be well hidden. I learned this when investigating seat covers for my car. I found that the manufacturer doesn’t even sell them, and this is because they can interfere with the airbags hidden in the seatbacks and head restraint. You’ll also find that this is why you often can’t remove the front head restraints anymore, as the wiring runs through the metal tubes holding it.
Thirdly, I was recently told by a friend of someone who had clipped a kerb, presumably with some force, however, the side airbags deployed because the system obviously registered enough of a bump to deploy them. Strangely, it didn’t render the vehicle unusable. It put the car into “Limp” mode, that severely limits speed, although after stopping and starting several times this reset itself. So, be careful with sloppy driving, it might well cost you a significant amount of money to have the airbags replaced.
Finally, don’t forget that the front passenger airbag can be switched off. I can’t think of anyone I know who regularly switches it on or off, but if you have a child seat in the front of your car you absolutely must deactivate the airbag. For all the rules on children in cars, look here.