[LMB] Airbags OT:

[anmar mirza]

On 11/11/07, Cheryl Howie <agentmtl at yahoo.com> wrote:
>On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 21:50:56 -0900 Peter Newman <pnewman at gci.net> wrote:

>> Why can't airbags have a weight sensor? The more the
>> person sitting in the seat weighs, than the faster and
> harder they deploy?

>My 2006 Mazda5 does have a weight sensor in the front
>passenger seat.  It's not as complex as what you describe,
>though; it just turns the airbag off if the passenger
>weighs less than a certain amount.  It

It also is not a trivial problem, accurately sensing weight
from a seated person who may be in various states
of recumbancy and who will be alternately be using pedals
and steering wheel makes sensing problematic.

That's not the hard part though, airbags are deployed by
a high explosive, sodium azide I believe, which generates
the gas to fill the bag.  This is pretty much the only
technology that will allow rapid enough deployment to
be effective while not having a larger amount of
bulk needed for compressed gas systems.  This means
that to have multiple levels of deployment requires multiple
sized charges.  You can have off, one, or two charges
pretty easily, but the more variable you make it the
more complicated it is.

Automotive engineers aren't stupid, if the consumer is
willing to pay for it the industry will build damn near
anything if they can make a profit on it.  Variable airbags
are one of those up-front costs that the average consumer
won't consider when purchasing a vehicle.






-- 
Anmar Mirza EMT, N9ISY, Central Region NCRC Coordinator, Owner Lost Creek
Packs, blog.myspace.com/anmarmirza)