42 Basildon Extra, Spring 2012
The airbag explained W
Eall know that the airbag is agreat safety featureinour cars and, used in conjunc- tion with aseat belt, can often save seri-
ous injury.What most of us don't know is what it's like when one goes off. GEM Motoring Assist member,Matt Day,recent-
ly wrote to the organisation to describe his first experience of an airbag doing its job admirably when he and his wife wereinvolved in acrash that was not his fault. "Wewerethankful for the extremely fast deploy-
ment of the airbags," said Matt. "They seem to have deflated again beforeIrealised they had inflated. What's morethe seatbelts did their job and we didn't get thrown forward." Matt explained that when the airbags inflated his
car filled with smoke from the mini explosion, which was necessary to deploy them. "I could sense the car filling rapidly with smoke and my ini- tial reaction was to get out. Iscreamed at my wife to get out too." He said the crash made him think that thereshould be moreinformation as to what exactly happens when an airbag comes into use. So how do airbags actually work? Extremely quickly is the short answer.When one goes off, there's an explosion no louder than the sound of a paper bag being burst which propels the nylon
bag towards your face. Since it's not completely gas tight, it will automatically deflate again within a split second so as not to impair your vision or hamper your escape from the car. It doesn't hurt –volunteers describe it like being
hit with apillow –and since an airbag distributes the force of impact so evenly,it's unlikely to shatter your glasses. Typically,anairbag will be fully inflat- ed within 30 milliseconds (0.03 secs) after the point of impact. Athreshold deceleration has to be reached beforethe sensors activate inflation. In Europe, this can be anything from 12-20mph. They'remanufactured to military equipment stan-
dards, hermetically sealed and designed to last at least ten years. Providing that the triggering mech- anism is working properly,malfunctions arealmost unheardof. Manufacturers do warnhowever, against exposing them to excessive heat (such as would be generated by ablowtorch or welding equipment), ill-advised tampering by DIY enthusi- asts (don't) and excessive bashing of the module in the centreofthe steering wheel. Most parents now know they must ensurethat
rear-facing child safety seats arenot placed in the front, should the car be fitted with apassenger side airbag. Simulations with full-sized American airbags have shown that children can be harmed in this way.
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