As we enter the next chapter of occupant restraints – which focuses more on individual safety for different occupants or crash configurations – Matthew Beecham talked with senior executives of TRW Automotive about what we can expect to see on tomorrow’s car. Legislation and various NCAP organisations are also playing a key role as vehicle manufacturers selling into Europe and North America and parts of the Asia-Pacific region are looking to achieve top safety results.
How is the market for airbags integrated into seatbelts shaping-up?
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TRW started to explore this technology several years ago as a means of enhancing protection of rear seat passengers. Although our development work revealed some interesting results, market demand is still fairly limited today.
There has been some concern over the years about placing rear-facing child seats in front of an airbag. But is there any risk associated with rear side airbags?
Side airbags are quite small in volume and size compared to a passenger airbag. A proper mounted rear facing child seat on the rear seat will give enough space to the side airbag to deploy without any significant interaction with the child seat.
Could you tell us more about your new adaptive side airbag system?
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By GlobalDataTRW’s latest generation of adaptive side airbags can adjust restraint performance according to parameters such as the speed and force of the crash. It is one of our more advanced airbag technologies and is designed to enhance the protection of occupants in common side impact crashes. With TRW’s new side airbag system, a tether mechanism inside the airbag can close the vent during a more severe crash where the intrusion level on the side of the vehicle is typically greater. This helps to maintain pressure in the airbag for longer and thus absorb more energy during a high severity impact. It also helps to reduce the probability of ‘bottoming out’ between the door trim and the occupant.
The Euro NCAP ratings in 2015 bring with it a focus on rear seat safety. Technology-wise, could you tell us how TRW has responded to this?
Euro NCAP is planning to introduce a new ratings scheme in 2015 that focuses more stringently on rear seat safety for a wider range of occupant sizes. Tests could focus on smaller and lighter adults (HIII 5% dummies), as well as older and larger children who use booster seats (Q6 and Q10 child dummies).
TRW has developed a range of advanced Occupant Safety System (OSS) technologies that can support vehicle manufacturers in fitting the right technology – be it in front or rear seating positions.
TRW offers a range of load limiting solutions to help manage occupant energy during a crash including its self adaptive load limiting, which can adapt belt load to different occupant sizes by measuring the webbing pull-out. Furthermore, the ‘Dynamic Locking Tongue’ (DLT) seat belt innovation can also help to reduce loads on the occupant’s chest by clamping the webbing. Such systems could help to meet future NCAP requirements for rear seats.
In terms of electric vehicles, to what extent are passive safety features being fitted?
For mainstream electric vehicles we see them receiving a similar level of occupant restraint features as traditional powertrain vehicles. The challenge is more about properly tuning these restraints to the types of crash pulses these vehicles exhibit as the use of a large battery pack and its placement in the vehicle will change the kinematics and physics involved. Thus the passive safety systems must be tuned with these factors in mind in order to help protect the occupants.
Rinspeed attracted a lot of attention at this year’s Geneva show for its so-called microMax commuter electric vehicle concept which is designed to travel short distances in urban environments. Among its innovations, the microMax features four unconventional upright seats with a novel seat belt ‘web catcher’ which enables semi-automatic buckling and unbuckling. Could you explain this innovation and your vision of its future?
TRW has worked in collaboration with Rinspeed to develop the new seat belt concept. The webbing catcher replaces the conventional buckle and tongue which is very convenient when travelling short distances. The concept is based on TRW’s proven seat belt restraint functionality, and we believe that the semi-automatic buckling offers convenience and ease of entering and exiting for such vehicles, as well as helping to increase belt usage rates over short distances.
In terms of occupant restraint systems, what will tomorrow’s car feature?
The remainder of this interview is available on just-auto’s QUBE research service
