Conceptual Development of a Standardized Curtain Airbag Interface - With regards to safety, ergonomic assembly and compatibility across vehicle models

Abstract

Curtain airbags are currently assembled manually onto the car body above the side windows, placing them in an ergonomic red zone for operators. Despite the use of specially designed fixations to facilitate the assembly process, there is no standardized design across Volvo Cars’ vehicle range. Consequently, the attachment points on the curtain airbags and the corresponding hole patterns on the car body vary between models, which is both time and resource inefficient. Therefore, a new curtain airbag fixation design is developed in this thesis, featuring an interface that is optimized for adaptability across a wide range of vehicle models. The development process included benchmarking existing solutions, gathering input from stakeholders and developing conceptual designs and initial prototypes. Key findings from the gathered data indicated that using a screw in the fixation is the most suitable option from a Volvo Cars perspective. Critical requirements that were considered were the need for low push-in forces, traceability and durability during deployment. The proposed solution is a plastic snap-fit ring that fits around the screw. The ring snaps into a hole in the car body and a specially designed weld nut, milled wider at its base, gives space for the ring to secure itself. The final concept achieves the goal of standardization because it can fit various car models due to its simple footprint, which consists solely of a round hole.