Not many individuals know that the concept of airbags - a soft shock absorber to land against in a smash - has been in existence for over 60 years. The first patent on an airbag for aeroplanes was registered during World War 2. During the 1980s, the very first commercial airbags were a safety feature in cars.
Up to the present day, stats indicate that airbags cut the risk of death in a direct head-on smash by around thirty percent. Now there are also door mounted side and seat-mounted airbags. Actually, some automobiles go far further than just having twin air bags, and instead have 6 to 8 air bags.
The goal of an air bag is to decelerate the passenger/driver’s progressive motion as smoothly as possible in just a fraction of a second. There are three components to an airbag that help execute this goal:
- The bag is made of a slim, nylon fabric, which is compressed into the dashboard or steering wheel and, nowadays, the seat or door
- The sensor is the gadget that orders the bag to expand. Ballooning happens when there is a collision force equal to running into a wall at around 24 km per hour. A mechanical switch is thrown when there is a mass movement that closes an electric contact, telling the sensors that a smash has taken place. The detectors obtain information from an accelerometer that’s part of a micro chip
- The bag’s ballooning facility mixes sodium azide with potassium nitrate (KNO3) to develop nitrogen gas. Hot gusts of the nitrogen blow up the airbag
Due to the superfast inflation of an air bag, it’s a safety requirement that the driver and passenger sit in the seat with a straight back allowing a reasonable distance between their face and the dashboard / steering wheel - this provides time for the airbag to expand while they are being pushed forwards by the impact of the crash.
