Knowing the Market

Not many people know that airbags are not a recent idea, and some may be amazed to know the design has been in existence for over sixty years. The first patent on an airbag for airplanes was filed during World War Two. In the 80s, the very first commercial airbags were present in automobiles.

Up to the present day, stats indicate that airbags reduce the possibility of death in a straight anterior crash by about 30%. These days we also have door mounted side and seat-mounted air bags. In point of fact, some automobiles go far further than just having two airbags, and instead have 6 to 8 airbags.

The job of an air bag is to ease the passenger/driver’s advanced movement as smoothly as possible in only a fraction of a second. There are three parts to an airbag that help accomplish this job:

• The airbag is composed of a slim, nylon fabric, which is folded inside the dashboard or steering wheel and, these days, the door or seat
• The sensor is the device that instructs the bag to balloon. Expansion takes place when there is a crash force equating to driving into a brick wall at around 15 miles per hour. A switch is flicked when there is a mass movement that closes an electrical contact, notifying the detectors that a smash has happened. The detectors get information from an accelerometer built into a microchip
• The bag’s inflation system mixes sodium azide (NaN3) with potassium nitrate to produce nitrogen gas. Hot gusts of the nitrogen gas inflate the airbag

Due to the superfast deployment of an airbag, it’s crucial the passenger and driver sit in an upright position allowing a safe distance between the steering wheel / dashboard and their face - this provides time for the airbag to inflate while the driver/passenger are being thrust forwards by the affect of the crash.