CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

For years, the trusty seat belt provided the sole form of passive restraint in our cars. There
were debated about their safety, especially relating to children. But over time, mush of the
country adopted mandatory seat-belt laws. Statistics have shown that the use of seat belts has
saved thousands of lives that might have been lost in collisions.

Air Bags have been under development for many years. The attraction of a soft pillow
to land against in a crash must be very strong – the first patent on an inflatable crash-landing
device for airplanes was filed during World War II. In the 1980’s the first commercial air
bags appeared in automobiles.

Since 1988, all new cars have been required to have air bags on both driver and
passenger sides (Light Trucks came under the rule in 1999). To date, Statistics show that air
bags reduce the risk of dying in a direct frontal crash by 30 percent. Newer than steering
Wheel mounted or Dashboard-mounted bags, but not so widely used, are seat-mounted and
door mounted side air-bags. Some experts say that within the next few years, our cars will go
from having dual air bags top having six or even eight air bags. Having evoked some of the
controversy that surrounded seat-belt use in its early years, air bags are the subject of serious
government and industry research and tests.

An airbag is a vehicle occupant restraint system using a bag designed to inflate extremely
rapidly then quickly deflate during a collision. It consists of the airbag cushion, a flexible
fabric bag, inflation module and impact sensor. The purpose of the airbag is to provide the
occupants a soft cushioning and restraint during a crash event. It can reduce injuries between
the flailing occupant and the interior of the vehicle.

The airbag provides an energy absorbing surface between the vehicle's occupants and a
steering wheel, instrument panel, as well as the body pillars, headliner, and windshield.
Modern vehicles may contain multiple airbag modules in various configurations including,
driver, passenger, side curtain, seat-mounted side impact, knee bolster, inflatable seat-belt,
front right and left side sensors and pedestrian airbag modules.

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 CHAPTER-2

THE BASICS OF AIR BAGS

Before looking at specifics, let’s review our knowledge of the laws of the motion. First, we
know that moving objects have momentum (the product of the mass and velocity of an object.
Unless an outside force acts on an object, the object will continue to move its present speed
and direction. Cars consist of several objects, including the vehicle itself, Loose objects in
the car and, of course, passengers. If these objects are not restrained, they will continue
moving at whatever speed the car is traveling at, even if the car is stopped by a collision.

Stopping an object’s momentum requires force acting over a period of time. When a
car crashes, the force required to stop an object is very great because the car’s momentum has
changed instantly while the passengers’ has not much time to work with. The goal of any
supplemental restraint system is to help stop the passenger while doing as little damage to
him or her as possible.

What an air bag wants to do is to slow the passengers’ speed to zero with little or no
damage. The constraints that it has to work within are huge. The air bag has the space
between the passenger and the steering wheel or dashboard and a fraction of a second to work
with. Even that tiny amount of space and time is valuable, however, if the system can slow
the passenger evenly rather than forcing an abrupt halt to his or her motion.

Fig. 1.1 Block Diagram of Air Bag System

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 CHAPTER-3

DEVELOPMENT OF AIR BAGS

The idea of using a rapidly inflating cushion to prevent crash injuries has a long history. The
first patent on an inflatable crash-landing device for airplanes was filed during World War II.
Early efforts to adapt the air bag for use in cars bumped up against prohibitive prices and
technical hurdles involving the storage and release of compressed gas.

 If there was enough room in a car for a gas canister.

 Whether the gas would remain contained at high pressure for the life of the car.
 How the bag could be made to expand quickly and reliably at a variety of operating
temperatures and without emitting an ear-splitting bang.

They needed a way to set off a chemical reaction that would produce the nitrogen that would
inflate the bag. Small solid-propellant inflators came to rescue in the 1970’s.
In the early days of auto air bags, experts cautioned that the new device was to be used in
tandem with the seat belt. Seat belts were still completely necessary because airbags worked
only in front-end collisions occurring at more than 6 Kmph. Only Seat belts could help in
side swipes and crashes (Although side-mounted air bags are becoming more common now),
rear end collisions and secondary impacts. Even as the technology advances, air bags still are
only effective when used with a lap/Shoulder seat belt.

German and American inventors applied patents for airbag-like mechanisms for automobiles
in 1951 and 1953 respectively, although the invention of the first official 'electromechanical
automotive airbag system' is credited to Allen Breed, an American inventor who developed
his system in 1968.

The first automotive company to produce research on the design of the airbag was Mercedes-
Benz, who began to develop their airbag technology in 1966. However, due to the numerous
obstacles faced by engineers at Mercedes-Benz at the time of the airbag's conception, the
technology would not become commonplace in automotive vehicles until 1980.

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 CHAPTER-4

MAIN PARTS OF AIR BAG

There are three parts to an air bag that help to accomplish this feat:

1. Bag
2. Sensor
3. Inflation system

4.1 BAG
The bag itself is made of a thin, nylon fabric, which is folded into the steering wheel or
dashboard or, more recently, the seat or door. The powdery substance released from their sir
bag, by the way, is regular cornstarch or talcum powder, which is used by the air bag
manufacturers to keep the bags pliable and lubricated while they’re in storage.

4.2 SENSOR
The sensor is the device that tells the bag to inflate. It works with the control module to
discriminate between crash and non-crash events. These sensors measure the severity of the
impact. Inflation happens when there is a collision force equal to running into a brick wall at
16 to 24 Km per hour. They are setup so that sudden negative acceleration will cause the
contacts to close, telling the control module that a crash before airbag deployment.

4.3 INFLATION SYSTEM

The air bag’s inflation system reacts sodium azide(NaN3) with potassium nitrate (KNO3) to
produce large volume of nitrogen gas. Hot Blasts of the nitrogen inflate the air bag from its
storage site up to 322Kmph. A Second later, the gas quickly dissipates through a tiny holes
in the bag, thus deflating the bag so you can move.

4.4 CONSTRUCTION OF AIR BAGS

Airbag are assemblies consisting of the airbag (made of Nylon), inflator modules and sensor
housing, electrical connectors (Clock spring), airbag retainer and the cover. The driver’s side
bag is mounted in the center of the steering wheel as shown in fig. 1.

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 Fig. 4.1 Driver’s side bag

4.5 Driver Side Air Bag

A typical air bag system consists of an air bag module (containing an inflator or gas generator
and an air bag), crash sensors, a diagnostic monitoring unit, a steering wheel connecting coil,
and an indicator lamp. These components are all interconnected by a wiring harness and
powered by the vehicle's battery. Air bag systems hold a reserve charge after the ignition has
been turned off or after the battery has been disconnected. Depending on the model, the
backup power supply lasts between one second and ten minutes. Since components vital to
the system's operation might sit dormant for years, the air bag circuitry performs an internal
"self-test" during each startup, usually indicated by a light on the instrument panel that glows
briefly at each startup.

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 CHAPTER-5
SENSOR TYPES
5.1 Ball and Magnet Type Sensor

Fig. 5.1 Ball and Magnet Type Sensor

An impact sensor is normally fitted to the front of the vehicle as this is where a collision is
likely to occur. The sensor is positioned inside the engine and a similar safety sensor is
located inside the passenger zone to the vehicle. This safety sensor is required to measure the
intensity of the collision to determine whether the impact is over a certain threshold to justify
release of an airbag. Both types of sensors (termed inertia sensors) work on the principle of
detecting a decrease in acceleration of a moving vehicle and generate an electrical impulse.
During a collision with another moving vehicle, the sensing mass is forced forward into the
gold-plated contacts as a result of change in the state of motion. Following movement of this
metal ball into the contacts, this metal mass makes contact with electrical terminals at either
side of the metal ball which alerts the central unit to a collision (i.e., the electrical contact
completes the circuit).

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5.2 Spring and Roller type

Fig. 5.2 Spring and Roller type

The roller-type sensor involves a weight connected to a coil spring component. Like the
mass-type sensor, during impact with an oncoming vehicle, the metal weight is forced
forward which alters the tension on the coil spring to manipulate the electrical circuit that
closes off the sensor contact. It is important to note that the impact and safety sensors must
activate and close off at the same time to allow for deployment of the airbag

By function, there are 2 types- Impact sensors and safing sensors. The Forward sensors are
located in various locations forward of the passenger compartment. Some are located inside
the fenders, some are on the cowl, and some are attached to the core support in front of the
radiator.

Rear Sensors are also known as safing sensors as their functions is to determine that a
crash has occurred. Rear safing sensors are located in various locations in the passenger
compartment depending on the manufacturer. Some are integrated with the
control/Diagnostic Module.

The Rear safing sensor must close before the forward sensors to avoid airbag
deployment in cases where the impact is not severe enough to cause deployment. When the
vehicle is parked with ignition off deployment is very unlikely because there is no power to
the circuits for deployment this means that someone can hit your car and sound the alarm but
not deploy the airbags.

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5.3 Inflator Assembly
This is a diagram of a typical inflator assembly behind the steering wheel.

Fig. 5.3 Inflator assembly

When the control Module activates the airbag assembly, an electric current is sent to
the detonator, which ignites the sodium azide pellets. When it burns, it releases nitrogen gas
very quickly and in large quantities. This is what inflates the airbag.

5.4 Sodium Azide

Sodium Azide is Rocket fuel. Sodium azide is a solid propellant with a very high gas
generation ratio. It is very stable in this application.

When Sodium azide burns, its major product is nitrogen gas, which makes up around 78% of
the Earth’s atmosphere. One of the other by-products is sodium hydroxide. This is
commonly known as Lye, which is a caustic compound. The quantities produced are very
small and present a very small risk of burns. The white powder residue seen after inflation is
common cornstarch, used as lubricant for expansion of the airbag. Testing is underway with
inflators that release argon gas.

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 CHAPTER-6

WORKING OF AIR BAGS

Air Bags are designed to inflate in frontal or frontal-angle impacts in which the car strikes an
immovable object at more than about 16 Kilometers per hour or another car at twice that
speed. After a collision, sensors sense an electric current to an igniter system or, in some
cases, to the computerized control unit. This unit evaluates the situation and then sends an
electrical impulse to the igniter system. The electric current heats a filament (wire), which
then ignites a capsule. The Ignited capsule supplies the heat to ignite gas-generating pellets.
In most systems, the pellets are made of sodium azide and produce nitrogen gas when they
burn. In other systems, pressurized argon gas is used instead. The gas then expands quickly
and inflates the airbag, which then breaks through a plastic cover in the steering wheel or, the
dashboard on the passenger side. The whole process takes about 0.1 second from the exact
moment the crash is detected. The air bag starts to deflate immediately, venting the harmless
gas through holes in the back of the bag of the through the fabric itself.

Fig. 6.1

The goal of an airbag is to slow the passenger's forward motion as evenly as possible in a
fraction of a second. There are three parts to an airbag that help to accomplish this feat:

1. The bag itself is made of a thin, nylon fabric, which is folded into the steering wheel or
dashboard or, more recently, the seat or door.
2. The sensor is the device that tells the bag to inflate. Inflation happens when there is a
collision force equal to running into a brick wall at 10 to 15 miles per hour (16 to 24 km
per hour). A mechanical switch is flipped when there is a mass shift that closes an
electrical contact, telling the sensors that a crash has occurred. The sensors receive
information from an accelerometer built into a microchip.

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 CHAPTER-7

MODERN TYPES OF AIR BAGS

7.1 Curtain Airbags

Curtain airbags are airbags that inflate in front of vehicle windows to provide passengers
better head and neck protection. The curtain airbags are part of new rollover protection
system. Most equipped cars will have vertically inflating curtain airbags in the headliner trim
just above the windows, while some will have them inflate horizontally from the side pillar
between the doors. In some cases, curtain airbags will deploy in a fraction of a second.

Sensors in the side pillar will measure the force of side-impact Collisions. If the sensors
measure a strong impact, then the curtain airbags will deploy in a fraction of a second. The
curtain airbag will drop straight down over the windows to keep the occupants’ heads from
striking the window or the intruding nose of another vehicle.

Fig. 7.1 Inflatable curtain

The system will use sensors that measure tipping rather than impact. These sensors
send information to a central module, which will determine if the vehicle is beginning to roll
over. If the vehicle is tipping into a roll, the sensors will deploy the curtain airbag. Stored in
the headliner above the doors, the cells of the inflatable curtains are inflated in less than 25

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thousands of a second in a triggering accident. To avoid stitches from sewing the bag, its cells
are woven on the loom directly from the yarn using Autoliv’s one piece-weaving technology.
Therefore the bag can remain inflated for several seconds, which is imperative in roll-over
accidents. Cool gas will keep it inflated for up to six seconds.

Laboratory tests have shown that the so-called Head Injury Criterion (HIC) can be
reduced by approximately 80%. The Inflatable Curtain was developed in cooperation with
Mercedes and Volvo.

Car manufacturers selling car with these as standard equipment are Alfa Romeo, Audi,
BMW and Volvo.

7.2 Head-Thorax Bag

Fig.7.2 Head-Thorax Bag

The Head-Thorax Side-Impact Airbag has an extension from the regular Thorax Bag that
protects the head. It was introduced in 1998 and developed in cooperation with Ford and
Renault.

7.3 Inflatable Tubular Structure (ITS)

The Inflatable Tubular Structure (ITS), the world’s first airbag for head protection, was
introduced on BMW cars. It consists of a unique nylon tube, installed in the head-liner above
the frontal doors that inflates to a diameter of about 15 centimeters (5 inches).

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 CHAPTER-8

FUTURE OF AIR BAGS

8.1 Smart Systems

The smart airbag of the future is not just the airbag, but also a redesign of the components in
the current airbag system. Features include:

8.2 Weight Sensors

This is a new sensor for the passenger seat to classify the weight and to determine what type
of occupant is in the seat, i.e. adult or child.

8.3 Infrared Occupant detection

This system will use infrared beams (just like in your TV remote control) to detect the
distance the passenger is from the airbag and adapt the force of deployment accordingly.

8.4 Capacitive Reflective Occupant Sensing

These sensors will be located in the seat backs and in the dash to identify the distance you
and or your passengers are from the dashboard. These sensors will be able to discriminate
between a human occupant and inanimate objects like your groceries. This alone will save
thousands of dollars in the cases where the driver is the only occupant in the front seat.

8.5 Updated sensors

The updated sensors will have the capabilities of deploying the seatbelt pretensioners faster,
so in a crash situation you will be in the best position to benefit from the airbag deployment.

8.6 Centralized electronic Control Unit

The new control units will be able to use all the input from the new sensor technology and
through new software deploys what you need when you need it.

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8.7 Prototype of a Smart Air bag

Fig. 8.1 Smart Air Bag

The Prototype smart air bag creates a weak electric field. Antennae located under fabric or in
the seat cushion measure the field and instantly update the airbag controller about the size
and position of the occupant.

When you are involved in a frontal collision somewhere in the neighborhood of at

least 20 kmph, a number of things happen very quickly. The sudden deceleration of you
vehicle causes 2 sensors to send an electrical signal; to the diagnostic module. The diagnostic
module self tests to confirm that a crash event is taking place, and then it allows the signal to
trigger the airbag deployment.

Smart airbags make use of a variety of additional sensors to determine whether or not
the system should deploy. The most basic form of smart airbag simply has an embedded
weight sensor in the front passenger seat. If the passenger is below a certain threshold, the
airbag system will shut off. This is sometimes referred to as a seat occupancy detector, and
the same type of system can also be used to trip a seat belt warning indicator or alarm.

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 Airbag Deployment

Fig. 8.2 Airbag Deployment

Above is an illustration of a driver side airbag deployment. The first image is the airbag
inflation, the second depicts your contact with the airbag, and the third is your coming to rest
in the seat and the deflation of the airbag. This all takes place in about 30 milliseconds.

In fact the entire inflation/deflation cycle takes less than ½ second. The speed of the airbag
inflating is around 320 kmph. The vehicle hasn’t come to a stop at this point, nor hopefully
have you lost control of it.

1988 is the first model for depowered bags. Unfortunately these are not standard equipment
on all cars.

8.8 Driver’s Side Airbag

The image below shows the parts of the airbag module in the steering wheel. From top to
bottom we have the cover, the airbag assembly, the retainer attached to the steering wheel,
the steering wheel and the clock spring.

The Clock spring allows the steering wheel to move while maintaining the electrical
connection to the airbag module.

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 Fig. 8.3 Driver’s side air bag

8.9 Passenger Airbag

The Passenger bag is mounted in the top of the dash on the passenger side of the vehicle.

8.10 Airbag Checks

When you get in your vehicle and turn the key, look at the dash to find your airbag or SRS
light.

It should come on for 7-10 seconds and then go out. This tells you all is well with the airbag
system.

 If the light does not come on, have it checked. After all, it could just be a burnt out
Light bulb
 If the light does not go off after this period (usually 7-10 seconds) there is a problem
 If the Light comes on while you are driving, it also needs attention.

In addition to the front airbags, the car companies are putting airbags in the doors for side
impacts that are not covered by the primary airbags.

They are putting them in the seats for the drivers and rear passengers as well. This
increases the cost6 as well as the complexity of the systems.

Since 1990 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is responsible for
the Vehicle safety rules and statistics relating to vehicles, found that of 19 drivers killed by
airbags, only five of them were wearing seat belts and two of them were determined to be
unconscious before the airbag deployed.

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8.11 Depowered Airbags

Starting with the 1997 model year some automobiles will be available with depowered
Airbag modules.

8.12 Inflators

Inflators are undergoing redesign toward a hybrid design using argon gas and non-adized
initiators

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 CHAPTER-9

DISARMING THE AIRBAG

Steps in disarming

 Disconnect the battery

 Wait 30 seconds. The air Bag is equipped with a capacitor and it’s important to make
sure that it is completely discharges before continuing. Change the oil while waiting
 Remove the airbag fuse. The fuse Box is below the driver’s left knee; it folds down by
squeezing on a couple of tabs near the top of the box. Fuse also checks the diagram on
the fuse box lid before pulling the wrong one.
 Drop the sound insulator panel. This is a plastic panel underneath the steering column. It
goes: steering column; interior colored panel; black colored panel. The black panel is the
one to remove. There are two screws along the top and two finger-wing nuts along the
back (one near the accelerator and one behind the emergency brake.)
 Fastened to the sound insulator panel is a yellow circuit. This is the airbag circuit. To
disconnect the circuit, you’ll first have to remove a green connector Positive Assurance
lock which is for safety catch. Both the green catch and the yellow connector are had to
pull apart, but hey eventually will give.
 Thus the bag is disarmed. The only problems is, now the airbag light will be on all the
time. The airbag is fastened to the steering wheel with four Torx screws (T-30),
accessible from the behind the wheel. They won’t come all the way out they’re retained.
Once you have them all loose, the airbag will try to fall out. The airbag is till connected
by one or two wires. The yellow one is the airbag circuit again; it is unplugged the same
way as before, except this time the safety catch is blue.
 Do not store it anyplace, which gets hotter than 130 degrees; do not heat it or apply
electricity (even static).

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 CONCLUSION

The air bags are of greater importance in today’s vehicles since safety of human life is of
prior importance. Since the count of automobiles is increasing tremendously on our roads,
the probability of accidents is also more. So far a safe riding and for saving the precious life
the safety bags must be implemented. Today it is the prevail age of the high class people
who own high priced cars. Let’s hope every automobile manufacturer implement the same
since safety for life is inevitable.

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 REFERENCES
 Leonard Evans, “Airbag benefits, airbag costs”, journal of

 V.E.WEZEL - Airbags Systems - Actual Status and Outlook for the Future Safety
 The Vehicle and The Road Vol.2, FISITA 92 FISITA No. 925217, page no. 1
 T.D. McMaster Airbags a Survival Strategy International Conference on world-class
 Manufacturing technologies, Des. 1993, Session 3, page No.l
 Auto India ( Magazine, July, 1991)
 Joseph C. Marsh - Supplement Airbag Restraint Systems, Consumer Education and
 Experience'. Frontal impact protection seat belts and airbags, 1993, SAE - SP - 947
 Page No. 95
 David C.Viano - Effectiveness of Safety Belts and Airbags in preventing Fatal Injury,
 Frontal Crash Technologies of 90 's Feb 1991 SAE SP 852 page no 159
 H.A. Lupker and W.E.M.Bruijis - Gas jet Model for Airbag inflator's Frontal impact
 Protection Seat and airbag's March 1993 SAE SP 947, SAE 930645, Page No. 85.

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