MUSCAT Ford Motor Company is bringing to market the world’s first automotive inflatable seat belts, combining attributes of traditional seat belts and air bags to provide an added level of crash safety protection for rear seat occupants, according to a press release.
These seatbelts are designed to deploy over a vehicle occupant’s torso and shoulder in 40 milliseconds in the event of a crash. It will help reduce head, neck and chest injuries for rear seat passengers, often children and older passengers who can be more vulnerable to such injuries.
In the event of a frontal or side crash, the inflatable belt’s increased diameter more effectively holds the occupant in the appropriate seating position, helping to reduce the risk of injury.
Vehicle safety sensors determine the severity of the collision in the blink of an eye and deploy the inflatable belts’ air bags. Each belt’s tubular air bag inflates with cold compressed gas, which flows through a specially designed buckle from a cylinder housed below the seat.
The inflatable belt’s accordion-folded bag breaks through the belt fabric as it fills with air, expanding sideways across the occupant’s body in about the same amount of time it takes a car travelling at highway speed to cover a yard of distance.
The use of cold compressed gas instead of a heat-generating chemical reaction – which is typical of traditional air bag systems – means the inflated belts feel no warmer on the wearer’s body than the ambient temperature. The inflatable belts also fill at a lower pressure and a slower rate than traditional air bags, because the device does not need to close a gap between the belt and the occupant.
“It’s a very simple and logical system, but it required extensive trial and error and testing over several years to prove out the technology and ensure precise reliable performance in a crash situation,” said Srini Sundararajan, safety technical leader for Ford research and advance engineering. The inflated belt helps distribute crash force energy across five times more of the occupant’s torso than a traditional belt, which expands its range of protection and reduces injury by diffusing crash pressure over a larger area, while providing additional support to the head and neck. After deployment, the belt remains inflated for several seconds before dispersing its air through the pores of the air bag.
In everyday use, the inflatable belts operate like conventional seat belts and are safe and compatible with infant and children safety car and booster seats. In Ford’s research, more than 90 per cent of those who tested the inflatable seat belts found them to be similar to or more comfortable than a conventional belt because they feel padded and softer. That comfort factor could help improve the 61 per cent rear belt usage rate in the US, which compares to 82 per cent usage by front seat passengers, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. Ford was the first automaker to introduce seat belts in 1955 and led the way in making driver and front-passenger air bags standard in most vehicles by 1993.
Ford is known worldwide for its innovations and manufacturing vehicles with unique styling, exceptional safety, luxury and technological superiority. Ford ploughs in millions of dollars into R&D each year to ensure that every Ford offers maximum safety and motoring pleasure for its customers.
In Oman, the Ford vehicles are brought to you by Arabian Car Marketing, a part of the renowned Saud Bahwan Group. It comes with six years unlimited mileage protection, service and parts network that stretches across the Sultanate, over 98 per cent parts availability - and Ford Privilege Card – which provides 24-hours on-road assistance from AAA, Oman’s premier On-road Assistance Service Providers and exclusive discounts from several premium establishments across the country and UAE.
Oman Tribune
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