Active Seatbelt Systems
- Basic Description
-
Active seatbelt systems automatically tighten the seatbelts around vehicle occupants during a collision. Most of these systems use a pyrotechnic actuator that generates a small explosion in order to quickly pull any slack out of a fastened seatbelt when a collision has been sensed. Autoliv has introduced a seatbelt pretensioner that employs a high-speed electric motor. An advantage of the motor-driven system is that can be reset and re-used. This enables the system to tighten seatbelts as a precaution before a collisions occurs.
- Sensors
- Accelerometers, wheel speed sensors, brake pressure sensors, seat occupancy sensor
- Actuators
- Pyrotechnic actuator or high-speed motor
- Data Communications
-
- Serial Data link to the vehicle data bus
- Control unit communication: CAN bus
- Manufacturers
-
Autoliv, Bosch,
Delphi,
Denso,
Continental, Mitsubishi,
Tokai Rika,
Takata,
TRW
- For More Information
- [1] Questions and Answers about Air Bag Safety, National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) website.
- [2]
Car Airbags - Explained, YouTube, April 2008.
- [3]
Airbag Deployment in Slow Motion, YouTube, Sep. 2008.
- [4] Advanced Air Bags,
The Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals, CARSP/ACPSER.
- [5] The History of Airbags, Mary Bellis, About.com.
- [6] History of Airbags, Motorvista.
- [7] How Airbags Work, Marshall Brain, HowStuffWorks.com, Apr. 1, 2000.
- [8] Airbag, Wikipedia.
- [9] Vehicle Safety Airbag Control System, U.S. Patent No. 6,273,461, Aug. 14, 2001.
- [10] Volkswagen Golf IV Crash Test, YouTube, 2009. (in German)
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