Car Air Bag - Assignment Example

?Car Air Bag: Ever since the automobile industry has been active, a constant need has been felt for providing safety to the passengers. The need was felt more as the digits on the speedometer increased and subsequent threats to human safety propped up at the same. For this purpose steps were taken to make driving safer. Many steps of different kinds were taken in this regard. While on some occasions the safety has been provided in terms of the exterior design, in others it has been related to the seat belts. A major breakthrough towards the road safety was achieved when air bag systems were introduced in the cars. Often dubbed as the life savers. They have done so over period of time. In the land transport, air bag invention came about in form of a reaction to an accident. When on a routine day a veteran industrial engineer met with an accident and he decided to find the solution to it and make the road driving more secure. Prior to this, fighter jets had used similar form of material in World War 2(Toedt, Koza et al, 2005). In pursuit of his safety concerns, he came up with the idea of air bags for the passengers’ safety in case of any accident. This was year 1953 when the concept was introduced (Hutchinson, p136, 2009). Although the commercial usage and implementation was couple of years away but this was the foundation step towards the ever dependable part of almost all vehicles in years to come. Over period of time various changes have taken place in form of improvements in the structure, working and performance of the air bags. The modern air bags are more effective and reliable. In pursuit of safety for drivers and passengers, various measures were taken into consideration and the possibility of air bag was also given a thought. After its implementation, over years of research has shown that the air bags reduce the chances of serious mishap, damage to critical body parts and subsequent death by nearly 30 percent (Congress, 1997). Working The positioning of air bags have taken different places, at one time they were part of the side doors, with time improvement in its designs have also taken place and nowadays they are hidden inside the front body and appear only in times of severe jolt suffered by the car in cases of accidents. The bag pops up between the passenger and the steering of the car. It brings about the inertia in to control and either nullifies or minimizes the movement of the driver in order to reduce the impact to almost minimum and at the same time providing a soft punch to the passenger. Components The air bag consists of number of components, namely the bag itself which is constituent of nylon; it is accompanied by the most important part, the sensor or the trigger. The sensor creates a trigger like effect and it is based on the principle of determining the stress exerted and then it pushes the bag outside to bring it ahead of the steering. Source: (Ozzie, 2012) The triggering effect is created by the chemical components like potassium nitrate and others which inject energy in to the punch bag and subject to the external pressure, bursts right into the face. It also contains nitrogen gas that is sufficiently powerful enough to create an impact when needed. The response time needed by air bags need to be highly accurate and they must respond within milliseconds. Triggering can be either electrical or mechanical in nature. The modern bags are mostly electrical in nature that are equipped and established through electric circuitry. The circuit breaking results in explosion of the air bag. While the mechanical trigger rely on the inertia and minimizing of movement and impact. In the mechanical case, the bag does not rely on the circuitry. The mechanical form of triggering is equally efficient to the electrical triggering. The good thing about its architectural design is the presence of diagnosis kit. Which self checks the performance and proper functioning of the bag and its components. Different types of Airbags The air bags come fitted in different forms. Some are placed inside the steering body, others are sideways. The purpose is same, and that is to provide protection. The former provides protection against front impact and jolt, the later provides protection against any sideways force that might be experienced in form of accident. The side bags may be fitted in the doors; others are mounted in the roof tops. All are positioned to protect different parts of the body, the neck and head, the ribs and side posterior or the chest in case of steering adjusted airbags (Hillier & Coombes, 2004). On the commercial scale, the first air bag was introduced in the year 1981. At that time, the car manufacturing giants, Mercedes were the pioneers to initiate the air bags in combination with the seat belts. It comes in form of a cushion like covering filled with air that provides protection against the possible damages faced in form of accidents which could be life threatening. By the end of the century, it became a custom and safety practices for car manufacturers to develop air bags equipped cars. While in the beginning the air bags were limited to the driver seat, considering the human life value and safety, they were later on added to the front seat non driving passenger seat as well. The earlier forms were not so effective and were rare and as well as expensive. With time as they became more commercial and many more investors invested in this field, competition surged in to it and the products became more improved. The use of nitrogen gas was considered as a pinnacle point in this field and resulted in rapid growth in the field of air bags developments. The application of air bags is not just limited to sedan form of cars, rather heavy jeeps, and mini trucks are also seen to be equipped with air bags. Air bags have been used in nearly equal proportion to the seat belts. While seat belts save lives in many cases, air bags serve nearly the same purpose In modern times, almost all vehicles are equipped with the air bag and they save hundreds of lives every year across the world in the accidents that incur on the roads. The sensitivity level of the air bags has also increased. They include the infra red detectors, biometric sensors that detect the irregular movement and pre empts any jerk and shock and goes out exploding right into the face and hence saving a life. These systems do not work in isolation, and various other components, if aligned to proper working complement their working. The tires pressure is one of them. It is determined through the tire pressure monitoring system (Plunkett, 2006) which tells about the balance and imbalance that might occur due to the low or high pressure in the tires. Considerations involved (Social) While it is a known and accepted fact that air bags predominately serve as life savers, they do result in minor injuries in various cases. Though such minor injuries are welcomed all the times. They range from minor bruises to shake of body to arms breaking. Their impact is often severe and is occasionally debated over its impact over women and young ones who may not be strong enough to resist and bear this amount of sudden stress. The proper working of air bags puts a direct duty on the manufactures since human life and its safety is associated with it. Companies ensure the state of the art air bags with high reliability and maximum security and safety to it. Their implications on the normal vehicles users are that of trust, reliability and safety. Without this factor many would feel insecure driving on high ways at speed of hundred plus kilometers per hour. For making the air bags safer, smart air bags are being aimed at establishment. They will result in lesser injuries and fewer chances of bruises and other minor incidents which may be dangerous for the children and women. The seat belts so worn can help reduce the impact of air bags blowing right in the face. Few cases have been seen in past where recalls have taken place by the companies due to the failure of explosion of the air bags in time. The use of chemicals is at times also being subjected to debate but that is often over shadowed by the amount of safety it provides and number of lives it saves every year across the world. Conclusion Air bags have become an integral part of nearly every vehicle and though it comes built it in nearly all the vehicles, still there are parts of the world where negligence is seen in practice. Hence the mere white balloon like structure that we see is a constituent of chemical materials (mainly nitrogen), electric circuitry, and sensors that serves the purpose of saving human life. References: Congress, 1997. Air Bag Safety. s.l.:DIANE Publishing. Hillier, V. & Coombes, P., 2004. Fundamentals of Motor Vehicle Technology. s.l.:Nelson Thornes. Hutchinson, A., 2009. Big Ideas: 100 Modern Inventions That Have Transformed Our World. s.l.:Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. Ozzie, 2012. In the Driver's Seat with Ozzie. [Online] Available at: http://inthedriversseatwithozzie.com/2012/05/dallas-fort-worth-cars-do-you-know-how-your-airbag-really-works/ [Accessed 3rd Sep 2012]. Plunkett, J. W., 2006. Plunkett's Automobile Industry Almanac 2007 (E-Book). s.l.:Plunkett Research, Ltd. TOEDT, J., KOZA, D., & CLEEF-TOEDT, K. V. (2005). Chemical composition of everyday products. Westport, Conn, Greenwood Press. Read More