Mercedes New Airbag Technology

[alliereyaz]

German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a myriad of new safety features, and among them is an advanced application of airbag technology that is used to help slow vehicles in the event of an imminent frontal collision.

According to a report by Boston Globe correspondent Keith Griffin, Mercedes-Benz unveiled a handful of new advanced safety technologies including an advanced external airbag deployment system to a handful of reporters at the automaker’s U.S. headquarters in Montvale, New Jersey.
One of the most intriguing concepts unveiled was that of an undercarriage airbag system that deploys 80 to 100 milliseconds before an imminent collision in an effort to reduce the force of the impact. The airbag works by accomplishing three things. First, it launches a unique airbag with a rubber and steel undercoating that makes contact with the ground and acts like a fifth tire to add stopping friction to the road. Second, the airbag forces the vehicle upward by three inches – a change that results in greater stopping power by increasing effective weight. Third, the raised height of the vehicle optimizes the vehicle’s impact zone to better distribute the force of an impact.
Mercedes-Benz senior staff engineer, David Selke, told the Boston Globe that the undercarriage airbag effectively adds six to eight inches of virtual crumple zone by aligning the crumple zone and reducing speed. Selke added that the system also results in more effective interior restraint systems by moving the seats toward the occupants by approximately one inch – resulting in a firmer hold by the seatbelts.
Griffin clarified to Leftlane that the system is intended only to deploy in the event of an unavoidable accident, and is not capable of being re-used without being serviced. Mercedes also revealed testing of gas-fired metal guardrails in the side doors, an innovative child safety seat that has an open back, interior airbags to keep passengers from landing on each other during a rollover and a shoulder-strap belt bag for passengers in the rear-seats.

Source: Mercedes developing undercarriage airbag system

[jaggi]

nyce

[Storm]

the brakebag is so simple in it's design that when i first saw it i was like " why didn't anyone think of that sooner?".

this is a major reason why MB has always been then pioneer in safety,.. their mechs and designers think "outside the box".

[MominHaq]

That child seat is baller!

[salman_m5]

can anyone plz post a testing video of it?

[alliereyaz]

There are several advantages to this unusual auxiliary brake:

- The rate of deceleration is briefly increased to over 20 m/sec/sec. This scrubs additional energy beyond the potentials of a wheel brake, thereby reducing accident severity.

• Because the car is raised upwards by up to eight centimetres within a short time, the dive effect that occurs with conventional brakes is substantially compensated. This improves geometrical compatibility with the other party in an accident.

• This vertical movement also improves the effects of the restraint systems: the seats move towards the occupants by around three centimetres, which enables the belt tensioners to take up more slack. The high deceleration rate before the impact has a "pretensioning" effect on the occupants, so to speak.

• Downward support for the vehicle during the crash reduces the typical diving motion during a collision.

[alliereyaz]

Energy is not only reducible by braking the road wheels: jet fighters and dragsters use braking parachutes, for example. And as early as 1952, Mercedes-Benz was already experimenting with an air-brake at the Le Mans race: when decelerating, the driver was able to move a metal panel on the roof of his racing SL to a vertical position. Even earlier, coachmen used special wheel chocks. These were placed in front of one of both rear wheels on long downhill gradients, and their iron-clad base helped to brake the vehicle during the descent.

This is an old idea that Mercedes safety researchers have revitalised on a similar principle with the Braking Bag, an airbag installed between the front axle carrier and the underbody panelling. If the sensor system concludes that an impact is inevitable, the PRE-SAFE® system not only initiates automatic emergency braking. At the same time the Braking Bag is deployed just before the crash, supporting the car against the road surface by means of a friction coating. The vehicle's vertical acceleration increases the friction and has an additional braking effect before the impact. The Braking Bag uses the PRE-CRASH sensors in Mercedes-Benz cars, which are already able to initiate preventive occupant protection measures in critical driving situations.

[alliereyaz]

All in all, the braking airbag has the effect of an additional crumple zone. Mercedes engineers have calculated that even at a low 50 km/h, the additional deceleration has the same effect as lengthening the front end by 180 mm. Initial driving tests in a C-Class have already shown the effectiveness of this new auxiliary brake – though it will still be some time before the Braking Bag becomes another component of the PRE-SAFE® system.

[alliereyaz]

All in all, the braking airbag has the effect of an additional crumple zone. Mercedes engineers have calculated that even at a low 50 km/h, the additional deceleration has the same effect as lengthening the front end by 180 mm. Initial driving tests in a C-Class have already shown the effectiveness of this new auxiliary brake – though it will still be some time before the Braking Bag becomes another component of the PRE-SAFE® system.

[CoOkiie]

great to see this

[alliereyaz]

[qwertypoiu]

REPOST any one

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