Why Airbags Are Critical to Motorcar Safety
Thursday, February 11th, 2010Not many people know that the concept of airbags - a soft shock absorber to land against in a crash - has been around for decades. The very first patent on an inflatable crash-landing device for aeroplanes was submitted during World War II. In the 1980s, the first commercial airbags were a safety feature in automobiles.
Up to now, stats reveal that airbags reduce the risk of dying in a straight frontal crash by as much as thirty percent. These days there are also seat-mounted and door-mounted side airbags. Actually, some automobiles go far beyond simply having two air bags, and instead have 6 to 8 air bags.
The purpose of an airbag is to slow down the passenger’s advanced motion as evenly as possible in only a fraction of a second. There are 3 parts to an airbag that help achieve this feat:
- The airbag is made of a slim, nylon fabric that’s packed into the steering wheel or dashboard and, nowadays, the seat or door
- The sensor is the gadget that orders the airbag to inflate. Inflation happens when there’s a collision force equating to driving into a wall at around 24 km per hour. A mechanical switch is flicked when there is a weight movement that cuts off an electric contact, telling the detectors that a crash has happened. The detectors get data from an accelerometer built into a microprocessor chip
- The airbag’s ballooning facility melds sodium azide with potassium nitrate (KNO3) to produce nitrogen gas. Hot gusts of the nitrogen expand the airbag
Because of the superfast inflation of an airbag, it’s a safety requirement that the passenger and driver sit in an upright position allowing a safe distance between their face and the steering wheel / dashboard - this sets aside time for the airbag to balloon while the passenger/driver are being forced forwards by the shock of the smash.
