Most of us know ZF as an automatic gearbox supplier who supplies to pretty much every carmaker on this planet; in fact, Zahnradfabrik literally translates to “Gear Factory” in German. However, the company is also into many other things including active and passive safety systems.
Their latest innovation is this pre-crash external side airbag system which they claim to be the world’s first. The “pre-crash” prefix means that after recognizing an unavoidable collision, the system has approximately 150 milliseconds to make the decision to deploy the airbag and fill it – roughly the same time it takes a person to blink.
First, the sensors have to figure out a potential impact quickly and accurately with the help of connected cameras, radar and lidar systems. Then it’s the job of software algorithms to decide whether or not a collision is unavoidable and the deployment of the airbag is both possible and beneficial. If these decisions are all affirmative, the system ignites the inflators to fill the airbag. The airbag, which has a capacity of between 280 and 400 liters (5 to 8 times the volume of a driver airbag) depending on the vehicle, then expands upwards from the side sill to form an additional crumple zone in the door area between the A and C pillars.
The predictive information about an unavoidable collision also helps to further improve the effectiveness of established standard safety technology. For example, the ACR8 Active Control Retractor can warn the occupants or help secure them in a safe position in the critical fractions of a second before the collision.
ZF claims that the pre-crash safety system can reduce the penetration of the intruding vehicle by up to 30 percent, helping to significantly reduce the occupants’ risk of injury.
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