There are many safety features built into cars these days, for example:
Air Bags, Anti Lock Brakes, Built-in Child Seats, Head Restraints, Safety Belts, and many more. Cars are now, more than ever the ideal way to travel from one place to the other�and automotive manufacturers, and because of their extreme usage there�s been a need to make them safer.
One neat safety feature being tested in cars today is �Crash-Absorbing Foam�. The door panels of a car are filled with a Urethane or Polystyrene based foam, a rigid shock absorbing foam. This has proven well tested, and helps to maintain a car�s structure after a serious impact.
In the auto industry �plastic� is beginning to replace the age-old car building material �metal�. Plastics are being used to make parts such as, bumpers, chassis�, dashboards, drive shafts, brake pads, and even built in child seats. Some plastics are proven to hold up better in a car crash than many metals. For example, the �drive shaft� usually made of metal, can now be made of a single piece of high density plastic. In the case of a head on collision, drive shafts running the length of the car can behave as a structural beam. Plastics are proving to be a very essential material needed in the building of automobiles now, and surly in the future.
Air bags have been around ever since the 1970�s when the first air bag was invented. In 1980 airbags began showing up in commercial automobiles. Then in 1998 it was mandatory to have them installed in every car made in Canada and the U.S. Below is a diagram which shows exactly how a typical airbag works.
Here�s how it works: When a sensor in the car detects a frontal collision, it sends a message to a wire, which heats up. This wire is located in the �Inflator�, a charge in the inflator is ignited by the hot wire, causing the air bag to expand.
Auto companies world wide are now, more than ever faced with an ever changing world in-which cars need to be faster, more economic, but above all �SAFE�. With the help of skilled engineers, designers, and mechanics thousands of lives have been saved. With new advances happening everyday, the future seems very bright, for both the driver and the life of the vehicle.
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