What Is A AIrbag In The Car, How It Will Work, Benefits Of Using

Hello guys, welcome back to our blog. Here in this article, we will discuss what is an airbag in the car, how an airbag will work, the benefits of using it, and the different types of airbags used in cars.

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What Is A AIrbag In The Car

Airbags are like inflatable cushions. It is a kind of cushion built into a vehicle that protects occupants from hitting the vehicle interior or objects outside the vehicle during any type of collision. The instant at which any kind of crash begins, the sensor in the airbags starts measuring the severity of impact. It is basically a type of occupant-restraint system.

It works by using the bag which is designed in such a way that it inflates extremely quickly and also it deflates during a collision. The Airbag present in a car consists of a cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation molecule, and an impact sensor. The main purpose of the Airbag is to provide a vehicle occupant with restraint and soft cushioning during any kind of collision.

An airbag is also known as a supplementary restraint system (SRS) or supplementary inflatable restraint (SIR). The word “supplementary” present in the Supplementary restraint system refers to the airbag which is designed to help the seatbelts protect people rather than replace them. One should never rely on an airbag to protect oneself without fastening his/her seatbelt. Because it would be extremely dangerous.

The core idea behind the working of the airbag in the car is that It inflates as soon as the car starts to slow down in an accident and deflates as a person’s head presses against it. That’s important: if the bag didn’t deflate, a person’s head would just bounce back off it. It is a safety measure that’s routinely found in modern vehicles. The main purpose of using the airbag is that they are intended to provide protection, in addition to the seatbelt, in the event of an accident. The airbags are generally made up of stretchable fabrics.

They are tightly compressed into various locations around the vehicle. Some of the well-known such places are the steering wheel, dashboard, side doors, etc. For the safety system of the vehicle, the airbag is one of the most important components. The working principle of the Airbag is that when there is an accident, airbags fill up with air very quickly to provide a cushioning system for the people in the car. Proper airbag deployment is a lot important factor for survival and protection from injury during a crash. Airbags are really saving lives.

How do airbags work in a car?

During any kind of accident in which the vehicle hits another vehicle or object, or is hit by another vehicle then the airbag sensor which is also known as the airbag ECU will signal the airbag to open. Airbag sensors are basically small pieces of electronics. They are specially designed to tell when the vehicle has been damaged in an accident. These sensors present in the airbag respond to several different sets of stimuli, including sudden stopping, increased pressure as pieces of the car are moved due to the force of the collision, and more.

Impact sensors present in the airbags are used to measure the direction and intensity of an impact in the front, rear, and sides of the vehicle. Seat sensors of the airbags have used the determination of the fact that if someone is sitting there as well as how much they weigh, to prevent an airbag from going off when no one is in a particular seat and or deploying with too much force for a smaller person. Sensors are also present for the measurement of the wheel speed brake pressure and impact.

The rest of the vehicle status indicators are monitored by the airbag control unit. It is generally located in the front portion of the cabin. The sensors present in the Airbags of the car relay signals to the airbag control unit. Then the Airbag Control Unit analyzes the data and invokes safety features like seat belt locks, automatic door locks, as well as airbag deployment. When the control unit of the Airbags determines there is an accident, it quickly sends a signal to the inflator system of the Airbag.

The inflator present in the airbag sets off a chemical charge, and produces an explosion of nitrogen gas, filling up the airbag. As soon as the airbag present in the car fills up, it bursts through the paneling that contains it and enters the space of the car in order to protect the person present in the car from the Accident. All these steps of protection by the Airbags happen instantly generally within 25 or 50 milliseconds. That airbag translates to almost 200 miles per hour.

After all these steps the airbag will deflate itself on its own once it deploys. When a person starts the engine of the car, then he/she will briefly see the SRS dash light come on and then turn off. This is known as the process of the system self-test. If the SRS light remains illuminated, then this refers to the fact that the system has detected a problem that could affect the proper deployment of the airbags present in the car. If the above-stated process happens, then one should get into state street auto repair as soon as he/she can to have the fault diagnosed and repaired.

What are the various types of Airbags?

Airbags are just a supplemental protection unit and are designed to work best in combination with seat belts. The topmost goal of an airbag is to slow the driver or passengers’ forward motion in the event of a crash. Airbags reduce the chance that a person’s upper body and head will collide with the interior of the car during a crash.

Earlier there were just a few types of airbags just 10 years ago, modern cars sometimes include more than a dozen. The various types of Airbags present in the car are as follows: FRONTAL AIRBAGS: Frontal airbags are a kind of standard equipment present in all passenger cars since the model year 1998 and in all SUVs, pickups, and vans since the model year 1999. SIDE AIRBAGS (SABS): SABs are generally offered on many new passenger vehicles. Side airbags protect passengers in case of any kind of side impact.

There are two main types of Side Airbags: a side torso airbag and a curtain airbag. KNEE AIRBAGS: Knee Airbags are present since the time of the 2000s, many vehicle manufacturers now include knee airbags, which are usually mounted under the steering wheel and deployed from under the dashboard, stopping front seat occupants’ knees from hitting the hard surface.

This can prevent kneecaps from shattering, which is a common injury in high-speed frontal collisions. INFLATABLE SEAT BELTS: The inflatable seat belt is only available in select models. While it gets categorized as an airbag, the inflatable seat belt really isn’t really an airbag, it merely functions like one by deploying in an accident. Most airbags cushion passengers, but the inflatable seat belt instead helps spread an accident is a force over a wider area on a person’s body. The result is that the accident doesn’t feel as severe, since the force isn’t as highly concentrated.

This was about “What Is A AIrbag In The Car“. I hope this article may help you all a lot. Thank you for reading.

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Chetan Shidling

Automotive | Technical Blogger | Engineer | Content Creator

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