With the increasing focus on reducing road fatalities, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers are continuously developing safety systems to improve the occupant protection. Currently airbags are standard equipment in most of the vehicles and it's widely accepted that has helped to prevent serious injuries and saving thousands of lives over the last decades. Nevertheless, recent market trends are showing an increased demand for improved appearance, functionally, flexibility and ergonomics. Therefore, new airbag technologies are needed to provide the designers more freedom according to future vehicle interior styling. As a first step, a new knee airbag technology has already been implemented on current production vehicles. In contrast with traditional concepts, it is implemented on a lowered instrument panel position, being invisible for the occupant. Following with the new interior design approach, an innovative passenger roof airbag location is under development, replacing the conventional instrument panel airbag installation and therefore proving interior and cockpit designers more freedom and room for creativity. The 'bag in roof' airbag concept deploys from the sun visor area, parallel to the windscreen and it is positioned in front of the occupant. Once deployed the function and performance is equivalent to those provided by current instrument panel-integrated passenger airbags. By removing the passenger airbag module from its conventional location, the instrument panel may now have more room for further features such as multimedia electronics or additional storage room. In addition, development timing and efforts can be improved. As the roof airbag is independent on the IP, there is no need to engineer a complex IP door to be opened during the airbag function, enhancing the usage of innovative materials and therefore, simplifying its final validation. Finally, according to future cockpit and steering wheel design trends, also the driver side implementation of the bag in roof airbag concept is evaluated to allow simplified and more standardized steering wheel designs.
Opportunities of future airbag systems to enable advanced interior styling and end - consumer benefits
2012
10 Seiten, 11 Bilder, 6 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Opportunities of future airbag systems to enable advanced interior styling and end-consumer benefits
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