Completely new concept for inflating airbags

Autoliv has announced it has developed a completely new concept for inflating airbags that is more environmentally friendly and more cost efficient than traditional inflator technologies. In addition, it reduces the inflator’s weight by 20 per cent compared to most inflators for the intended application.
March 22, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
4171 Autoliv has announced it has developed a completely new concept for inflating airbags that is more environmentally friendly and more cost efficient than traditional inflator technologies. In addition, it reduces the inflator’s weight by 20 per cent compared to most inflators for the intended application.

The new inflator went into production earlier this year, in a passenger-side airbag for a European manufacturer of premium-brand vehicles. It uses hydrogen and oxygen with inert gas to inflate the airbag, instead of pyro­technic substances. As a result, there are no waste particles at all from the combustion and no effluent gases, not even carbon dioxide. The only side product is regular vapour which, when cooled off, becomes just a few drops of pure water, making the inflator extremely environmentally friendly.

In addition, the mixing of the hydrogen and the oxygen takes place in the textile cushion of the airbag, instead of in a steel vessel as in traditional airbag inflators, which allows for a thinner and lighter steel container and reduces weight and costs.

Autoliv says the weight reduction depends on the original inflator but is approximately 20% compared to most traditional inflators for airbags on the front passenger side. If only a quarter of company’s own needs for such passenger airbag inflators were converted to the new hydrogen/oxygen technology, Autoliv says it would save 1,000 tons of steel every year. Additionally, the vehicles with the new inflator would reduce their fuel consumption by more than eight million litres over the expected life time of the vehicles.

The new APG hydrogen/oxygen inflator will primarily be used in frontal airbags for the front-passenger side where higher gas quantities are required than for other airbags in a vehicle. The next step for this technology is to develop a dual-stage version of the inflator to be able to adjust the gas flow to the severity of the crash and to other parameters. Autoliv says this will be done using two independent ignitors and varying the time lapse a few milliseconds between the ignitions.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Mild hybrid 48V vehicles 2017-2027
    April 13, 2017
    Vehicle emissions regulations for 2025 and 2030 are unlikely to be met by conventional vehicle technology as applied to most vehicles beyond small cars, according to IDTechX researchers. Going to strong hybrid and pure electric powertrains involves considerable expense and delay and often totally new platforms. However, an intermediate technology has reached a stage where it can incrementally improve traditional powertrains by replacing the alternator with a reversible 48 V electric machine and adding a
    Read More
  • Scania delivers hybrid buses to Madrid
    May 13, 2016
    As part of its measures to reduce pollution in the city, the City of Madrid is to take delivery of 51 hybridised Scania Citywide buses in June. These feature cost-saving and emission-reducing hybrid technology that meets the EU suburban and short distance Class II regulations. Madrid recently enforced tough temporary measures to tackle pollution, including limiting speed limits and banning passenger car access to the city centre if nitrogen oxide levels exceed acceptable levels. In parallel, the Madrid t
    Read More
  • Lidar: the consolidation conundrum
    March 12, 2024
    There has been a great deal of flux and restructuring over the last few years in the Lidar market – what drives this and where will it end? Only one way to find out: Adam Hill asks the experts
    Read More
  • Electric vehicles in construction are the future, say researchers
    December 20, 2016
    The industrial and commercial sector is the largest part of the electric vehicle value market and that will continue to be the case according to analysis in the IDTechEx report, Industrial and Commercial Electric Vehicles 2017-2027. Buses are the largest part of that and they are mainly made in China for China, where typical orders are ten times the size of orders elsewhere. Less dramatically, construction, mining and agriculture do not see 70 per cent grants for EV versions yet they are steadily becomin
    Read More

Highlighted Content