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Many people have probably thought of surrounding the outside of vehicles in a pillow to prevent injury and damage during collisions. Though it may seem like a crazy thought, one German Company has come close to making it a reality, but instead of pillows airbags are used.
German based ZF is developing an external airbag that will deploy before a collision happens. Radars are used to monitor potential collision threats. Once a threat is detected, the airbag is launched in fractions of a second if needed. The primary focus of this airbag will be to limit vehicle penetration on side impacts, reducing damage and personal injury. The bag inflates with 5-8 times the amount of air that a normal steering wheel airbag would, and covers the lower half of the side of the vehicle.
A system such as this has excellent potential for minimizing personal injury in a side impact. However, the effects on collision repair are yet to be fully determined. Though the physical damaged to the vehicle structure should be lessened because of the airbag’s protection making a more repairable vehicle. There would be additional steps to replace the airbags and the potential of required steps of calibrating system sensors after a deployment. Check out more information on this new system by going to Repairer Driven News.