Necessities and Possibilities of Improving the Protective Effect of Three-Point Seat Belts

Heinrich Hontschik; Egbert Müller; Gert Rüter

doi:10.4271/770933

1977-02-01

Necessities and Possibilities of Improving the Protective Effect of Three-Point Seat Belts 770933

In the first phase of a research program covering more than 100 catapult-simulated frontal collisions at an impact speed of 50 km/h, the necessary improvements on safety belts were systematically ascertained:

The belt geometry must be adaptable to different body sizes and seating positions by adequate positioning of the seat belt anchorage points. The efficiency of the safety belt has to be improved by reducing the response time, i.e. the belt slack, on the one hand, and by adjusting its energy absorption to the survival space, the kinetic energy of the occupant and his threshold level on the other.

Now the second phase of work is covering an investigation of the following possibilities of improving the protective effect of the safety belt:

Integrated seat-belt system

Pyrotechnic pre-load device

Hydraulic load-limiting elements

The first experimental results have shown that these specific improvements can lead to a marked increase and thus to an optimization of the protective effect of safety belts. The investigations have also shown that optimum belt design can be achieved not only for persons of average size and weight, but also for persons of particularly small size and low weight as well as for tall and heavy persons.

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Necessities and Possibilities of Improving the Protective Effect of Three-Point Seat Belts 770933

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