Side Impact Airbags

During the past century, automobile accidents have killed and injured several million people. In the United States, motor-vehicle accidents are the number one cause of death for persons between the ages of 1 and 35 years. Such statistics have made safety a primary consideration among car buyers. Moreover, they have also led to the development of various vehicular safety devices. Seat belts and shoulder harnesses protect vehicle occupants during the course of an accident. However, because a large proportion of drivers and passengers do not wear seat belts, automobile manufacturers have designed passive-restraint safety systems. These devices automatically protect vehicle occupants. One such passive-restraint system consists of the airbag. Upon impact, airbags inflate immediately to absorb riders' energy. According to the United States' Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 208, all passenger cars and light trucks must eventually have airbags for both outboard front-seat occupants. Such systems, however, do little to protect riders from side-impact accidents. While side-impact crashes may only involve a quarter of the energy of two cars hitting head-on, the relatively thin skin of the auto body--as compared to the bumper--may result in more severe consequences. Indeed, side impacts kill over 8,000 and seriously injure approximately 24,000 Americans each year. Such devastating effects might be prevented by side-impact airbags. While suc

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a lever counterbalanced by a bias spring. During impact, the ball's movement rotates a D-shaped shaft that restrains a firing pin. Release of the firing pin ultimately ignites a percussion cap detonator. A second mechanical sensor employs the Hall effect to detect deceleration. The system involves two permanent magnets placed in a stainless steel tube. The repulsive force between the magnets' two like poles subsequently causes them to move to the opposite ends of the tube. When an impact occurs, one of the magnets moves towards the tube's center. This movement may then be converted into an analog signal and used to detonate an airbag (Meister & Womble, 1993, pp. 11-13). A third approach to single point sensing involves micromachined accelerometers (Meister & Womble, 1993, pp. 11-13). These devices typically contain a cantilever beam or plate which has been chemically etched from a single quartz or silicon substrate. The sensor is "basically a tiny mass (seismic mass) suspended from a spring in a frame" (Ashley, 1994, pp. 61-64). Any acceleration along the plate's input axis causes it to rotate about its flexure point. The resulting deflection causes proportional variation of the capacitances between the plate and ele

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