A Closer Look at How Airbags Help save Lives
Few people know that the concept of air bags – a soft buffer to land against in a crash – has been around for over 60 years. The first patent on an airbag for airplanes was registered during World War Two. In the 80s, the very first commercial airbags were a safety feature in cars.
To date, statistics reveal that air bags cut back the chance of death in a straight anterior smash by about 30 percent. Now we also have seat mounted and door-mounted side airbags. Actually, some motorcars go way further than only having dual airbags, and instead have 6 to 8 airbags.
The purpose of an airbag is to slow the driver’s advanced motion as smoothly as possible in just a split second. An airbag can accomplish this task in three steps:
- The bag is made of a slim, nylon fabric that’s compressed into the steering wheel or dashboard and, these days, the seat or door
- The sensor is the device that orders the airbag to balloon. Ballooning occurs when there is a crash force equal to motoring into a brick wall at around 15 miles per hour. A switch is flipped when there is a mass movement that cuts off an electrical contact, telling the sensors that a smash has happened. The detectors receive data from an accelerometer that’s part of a silicon chip
- The airbag’s inflation system reacts sodium azide (NaN3) with potassium nitrate to make nitrogen gas. Hot gusts of the nitrogen blow up the airbag
Because of the superfast expansion of an airbag, it’s crucial the driver and passenger sit in the seat with a straight back giving a reasonable distance between the steering wheel / dashboard and their face – this sets aside time for the airbag to deploy while the passenger/driver are being pushed forwards by the affect of the accident.
