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29/09/2011
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Manufacturers are now creating new models so quickly that suppliers sometimes can have less than 15 months to implement the multiple airbag modules . TRW Automotive has met this challenge with its development of scalable kits of standard parts that enable safety engineers to develop airbag modules that deliver the same levels of design flexibility, performance and reliability as the largely 'bespoke' systems they are replacing.
 It is widely accepted that, to date, airbags have saved more than 25,000 lives around the world and prevented serious injuries to many times that number of people.
In the past, airbag modules have been largely manually 'bespoke' developments, generally designed around the inflator. However, changing market conditions – including the boom of automotive industries in developing markets caused a change of thinking at TRW Automotive. Airbag modules are now built from scalable construction kits of standard parts and component concepts.
Dirk Schultz, global engineering director for inflatable restraints at TRW said: "Among the enormous difficulties of designing occupant safety products for a global market is the massive diversity in both legislative and customer-driven requirements around the world.
"So the challenge facing TRW was to come up with a set of baseline products for passenger-side airbags, side impact airbags, curtain airbags, and knee protection airbags that could be scaled and adjusted to meet all global standards, along with the aspirations of the major car manufacturers, across all their models."
Typically, a passenger airbag module comprises five major components – an inflator, the cushion (airbag), a housing, fixing elements and a gas deflector or diffuser. Work on the scalable kit of parts began some five years ago.
A new generation of disc-type inflators, the DI10 series, has been developed to the same design philosophy. It was a major innovation.
These new inflators are designed to be assembled from kits of components with between 50 and 70 percent of parts common to all types. The range now includes single and dual stage inflators suited to cushion volumes of between 45 and 130 liters.
If the DI10 inflator was one major breakthrough, then another was the development of parametric components, particularly the novel "3D Square-Shape-Bag" cushion for passenger airbag modules.
Using parametric equations, CAE (computer aided engineering) software is able to link dimensions and variables to geometry in such a way that when the values change, the part changes as well. In this manner, design modifications and the creation of families of parts can be performed very quickly compared with the high levels of redrawing required by traditional CAD. This results in spectacular savings in time, testing and validation along with big manufacturing efficiencies.
Schultz concluded: "Airbag modules have advanced massively during the last few years, keeping pace with the speed of new car development while meeting the demands of safety legislators, car manufacturers and consumer pressure groups alike."
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Author
TRW Automotive
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