The Mother of inventions: Safety Device-Airbags

Hi friends,

             Todays hot topic of discussion is about the airbags...a life saving device...

Airbag is a large fabric bag used as a safety device in almost all vehicles. These airbags inflate and deploy during crashes and help save human lives.

Design of airbags:

From the above figure; we can see that airbags has three main components,

·         1.Crash sensors

·         2.Control unit

·         3.Inflator

Due to frontal crash force is generated and so the crash sensors are activated. They measure deceleration. Actually there is a wrong perception that the airbags are activated due to sudden braking which is incorrect. They are activated due to deceleration generated due to severest braking. When this crash sensors are activated signal is sent to control unit which further delivers signal to inflator to deploy the airbags.

Working:-

When there is a frontal crash a signal is sent to the inflator. An igniter is present near the inflator which starts the chemical reaction. Due to this chemical reaction gas is filled inside the airbag, making the airbag to deploy from the cover. A pallet of Sodium Azide (NaN₃) is ignited due to which a rapid chemical reaction occurs and nitrogen gas is filled inside the bag.

The invention of Airbags has saved many human lives. Researchers have revealed that when Air bags were made mandatory in U.S.A. over 15,000 lives were saved. The drivers don’t have to do anything during collisions the airbags inflate themselves. During one crash, the entire inflation and deployment process occurs which is faster than the blink of an eye. In case of severe crashes Airbags deploy within 0.015 seconds and 0.025 seconds for low speed crashes. This was the best technological invention - fully automatic. Usually in the research it is seen that passengers in cars fitted with airbags have 30 % less chances of dying that with the cars not fitted with airbags. Once the airbag is used it has to be replaced which costs approximately Rs. 45,000 in India. I think so, spending 45,000 is worth then compromising with your life.