A

SEMINAR REPORT
ON

Safety air bags in car

Submitted by
Mr. Vikrant D. Shende
Second Year
(Mechanical Engineering)

Mr. Nitin B. Ingole Second Year

(Mechanical Engineering)

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

DR. N. P. HIRANI INSTITUTE OF POLYTECHNIC

PUSAD (M.S.) -2015

Content
Introduction
Air Bag System
Air Bag System Wiring Diagram
How Air Bags Works
Air Bag Deployment
Raw Materials
The Manufacturing Of Air Bag
Propellant

 Air Bag
Final Assembly Of Air Bag Module
Other Components
Crash Testing
Reference

Introduction to air bag

An air bag is an inflatable cushion designed to protect automobile occupants from serious injury
in the case of a collision.
The air bag is also known as an air cushion restraint system (ACRS) or an air bag supplemental
restraint system (SRS).
This is because the air bag is designed to supplement the protection offered by seat belts.

Air bag system

Air bags are designed to keep your head, neck and cheats from slamming into the dash
board, steering wheel or wind shield in the event of a collision. Due to collision, the car is stopped,
but the passengers inside will continue to move forward unless their momentum is destroyed
immediately.
To aid in smooth release, the air bag is coated with corn starch or talcum powder which is
released from the air bags as a powdery substances in case of collision.
Air bags are most effective in protecting vehicle occupants who are properly belted. In must
be noted that they only supplement safety belt they do not replace them. However compare to a
safety belt alone, there is a larger surface area to restrain forward moment of the occupants, riding
compression of the cheats. They have been instrumental in saving many lives in front-end collision.
In the U.S.A., with effect from 1998, on new passengers cars are required to have driver-and
passengers air bags and safety belts, where as all new light trucks must have these with effect from
1999.

How Airbags Work

The bag itself, which is made of nylon fabric. It is folded into the steering wheel or dash board
or more recently, the or the door.
The sensor is the device that triggers the inflation of the bag. The sensor receives information
from an accelerometer built into a microchip. When the collision occurs with a force equivalent to

running into a concrete wall at about 20kph, an electrical contact is closed which flips a mechanical
switch to fire the propellant.
The inflation system uses a solid propellant and a igniter. The propellant unit contains sodium
azide (NaN3)
And potassium nitrate (KNO3). When fired by the sensor, these react to produce nitrogen gas, which
inflects the air bag quickly. The time taken is of the order millisecond. When fully inflated, the
pressure in the air bags is about 80MPa and the propellant unit heats up to about 160c. a second
later, the gas quickly dissipates through tiny holes in the bags, thus deflating the bags.

Air bag deployment

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 1970s.
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, airbags still are only effective when used with
a lap/Shoulder seat belt.

Raw Materials
The air bag:-a woven nylon fabric
Air bag coating:- silicone and urethane
The inflator canister or body:-stamped stainless steel or cast aluminum
The propellant:-Sodium Azide (NaN3)combined with an oxidizer

The Manufacturing of air bag

 The propellant :-

The propellant consists of sodium azide mixed together with an oxidizer, a substance that
helps the sodium azide to burn when ignited.
From storage, the sodium azide and the oxidizer are then carefully blended under sophisticated
computerized process control in isolated bunkers.
After blending, the propellant mixture is sent to storage. Presses are then used to compress the
propellant mixture into disk or pellet form.
Air bag The woven nylon air bag fabric is inspected for any material defects.
The air bag fabric is then die cut to the proper shapes and sewn, internally and externally, to
properly join the two sides.
After the air bag is sewn, it is inflated and checked for any seam imperfections.

Final assembly of air bag module :The air bag is then mounted to the tested inflator assembly.
Next, the air bag is folded, and the breakaway plastic horn pad cover is installed.
Finally, the completed module assembly is inspected, tested and packaged.

Other components: -

 The remaining components of the air bag system the crash sensors, the diagnostic monitoring
unit, the steering wheel connecting coil, and the indicator lamp are combined with the air bag
module during vehicle assembly.
All the components are connected and communicate through a wiring harness.

Crash testing
The airbag systems are crash tested under various temperatures with and without loadings on the
bag.
The results of the test are then fed to the computers where the results are analysed

Conclusion
The air bags are of greater importance in todays 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. Lets
hope every automobile manufacturer implement the same since safety for life is inevitable.
.

References

Crouse W. H. and Anglin D. L, Automotive Mechanics, Tata McGraw - Hill Education (2006).
Kirpal Singh, Automobile Engineering, Standard Publishers (2011).
http://www.madehow.com
http://auto.howstuffworks.com